Another Doodad Double Dare Entry

Monica finished her Doodad Double Dare, and her finished pieces are gorgeous! Please hop on over, take a peek, and leave a comment!

Today I spent time tatting a cross for my friend Chris's mother-in-law, whose husband passed away this past week, a mere six weeks after going through open heart surgery. Chris chose yellow for her mother-in-law.

This is some Lily thread that I've had for quite some time... the price sticker says 60 cents! There's no size on the label. I'm guessing it's size 70 or 80. The pattern is "Christina" from Tatted Bookmarks ~ Cross-Shaped by Lene Bjorn.

Imagine my delight when I opened my mail today! My friend Carol sent me some doodads! Thank you, Carol!

Sue found some wonderful little doodads at her local Hobby Lobby and shared some with us at our last Tollway Tatters meeting. If you go to her blog, you can see some of the beautiful snowflakes she has tatted with them. Anyway, I went to my Hobby Lobby in search of them... no luck!

Carol decided to go hunting, and she hit pay dirt. Her Hobby Lobby just started carrying these jewelry components... yippee!

Now I need to go back to Sue's blog and look at those snowflake patterns again! Thanks for sharing your patterns, Sue!

Speaking of Tollway Tatters... we're meeting next Saturday, November 17. If you'd like to join us, please shoot me an email and I'll give you the details.

Doodad Double Dare #18!

Martha posted her Doodad Double Dare today, and she's sharing her pattern! Hop on over to her blog and leave a comment. I think you'll like what you see!

This Doodad Double Dare has been so much fun. I really have no idea how many doodads I shared, but I'm glad I did. It's been so much fun seeing all the fabulous ideas!

I managed to finish another snowflake in Victorian Red today. I really like this color!

Doodad Double Dare #17!

Well, sort of...

Irma Luna tatted a beautiful snowflake and sent me the link to her blog today. I love the color she chose! The doodad that she used in the middle is very pretty... just not one of mine! I'll have to do a search to see if I can find one for it. It's just calling to me... snowflake! snowflake! snowflake!

Blue Ice ~ Doodad Snowflake #2

I meant to start this set of six in Blue Ice with Doodad Snowflake #1, but I added the wrong size jump ring, and I didn't want to start all over. So, I'll be tatting this set out of order. Does it really matter? No! I'm letting it go. It's difficult, but I'm letting it go. I am not going to obsess over tatting my snowflakes in a specific order.

Tomorrow I'll start Snowflake #1. The next day I'll start Snowflake #3, then #4, #5, #6... but I will not obsess!

And the doodads keep on coming!

Doodad Double Dare #4 was from Michelle, and she has finished tatting another gorgeous bookmark with her second doodad. I'm very flattered... she chose to tat my revised version of Toshti by Jon... the one where I joined in the wrong places! Please pop on over and leave a comment about her beautiful tatting!

In the meantime, I worked on another doodad snowflake...

Each of my doodad snowflakes has just been doodling with shuttles and thread. I haven't looked at any snowflake patterns, although I have tons of them. I guess I wanted to see what I could accomplish on my own. I started this one before re-tatting my first six snowflakes without doodads. When I picked it up to work on it again, I realized something very interesting...

It's almost the first round of Norma Benporath's Lace Mat that Jon is using for her tat-along! Honest... this was just a doodle! Still, I'm considering it to be my Norma Benporath inspired snowflake!

Here it is, beautiful little decorative hook included, ready for fund-raising! With that pretty hook, I think I should call them Santaflakes!

Snowflake #6 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

Now that I've completed my six snowflakes both with and without doodads, I can state with confidence that I much prefer the ones with the doodads. Those little metal links add just enough weight to the snowflakes to let them hang nicely. I also think that the findings help the snowflakes hold their shapes better.

So, pattern #6...

size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116

2 shuttles wound CTM

Pewter Flower from Fire Mountain Gems, stock #H20-9117FY

*Ring: 4 - 4 + 4 - 4 (if tatting without doodad, make the join a picot); do not reverse work; switch shuttles

Chain 8; reverse work

Ring: 4 - 4 - 4 - 4

Ring: 4 + 4 - 2 - 2 - 4 - 4 

Ring: 4 + 4 - 4 - 4; reverse work

Chain 8; do not reverse work; switch shuttles

Repeat from * 5 times.

Remember that on the last center ring, the final picot should be a join to the first picot of the first ring.

Doodad Double Dare #16!

Monica has adapted Frivole's Square Elegance for her Doodad Double Dare. She used a gorgeous shade of thread that nicely compliments the antique color of her doodad. Monica is looking for suggestions, so please pop over to her blog and leave a comment.

I've been having so much fun with this Doodad Double Dare, that I'm tempted to order more doodads to share! I'm tempted, but I won't be doing it right now. ;-)

Snowflake #5 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

This one took me forever to tat the second time. I kept getting distracted by other patterns!

size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116
2 shuttles wound CTM
Pewter flower link from Fire Mountain Gems, stock #H20-9117FY

*Ring: 4 - 4 + 4 - 4 (if not using metal finding, make join a picot); reverse work

Chain 8; switch shuttles

Ring: 4 - 4 - 4 - 4

Ring: 4 + 4 - 2 - 2 - 4 - 4

Ring: 4 + 4 - 4 - 4; switch shuttles

Chain 8; reverse work

Repeat from *.

Remember, on the last center ring, the last picot is a join to the first picot of the first ring.

Enjoy!

Doodad Double Dare #15!

Marie at West Pine Creations finished her Doodad Double Dare... a pair of gorgeous earrings! Go take a look, and please leave a comment!

Doodad Double Dare #14!

Crazy Mom finished tatting with her doodads! Wait 'til you see what she's made with some of Karey's HDT and some adorable charms!

Last night I finished the first round of Jon's Tat-Along for the second time, this time in Lizbeth Denim Blue Lt. #650. That's right... the second time. I started it in size 40 Berry Burst, but I can't find where I put it. I know it's attached to two shuttles, so it can't have gone far!

Doodad Double Dare #13!

Allison finished her Doodad Double Dare, which was doubly challenging for her... she received the tiniest of doodads, and since they were so small, I sent her four!

Lucky me...

Allison sent me one of the snowflakes she tatted for the Double Dare! Thank you Allison!

Frivole's Square Elegance

I love this pattern!

My goal is to someday tat it as beautifully as Frivole does!

Oops! Forgot details... size 20 Lizbeth #650, Denim Blue Lt.

Doodad Double Dare #12!

Margaret has finished her Doodad Double Dare! She did a beautiful job with two different patterns. One is an Anna pattern in Scottish Thistle, a favorite color of mine. The other is Fox's Athalia in Summer Fun.

No pics in this post... you'll just have to pop over to Margaret's blog to see what she's done! 

Snowflake #4 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

I decided to go back to taking pictures with my laptop as the background. I think the scans do a great job of showing the tatting, but the colors just don't look as vibrant. Maybe I'll learn how to scan beautiful pictures some day... or maybe I'll just tat. :-)

Would you like the pattern for this one?

size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116
two shuttles wound CTM
Pewter Flower from Fire Mountain Gems, stock #H20-9117FY

*Ring: 4 -- 4 + 4 -- 4 (if tatting without the doodad/finding, replace join with a picot); do not reverse work, switch shuttles

Chain 8; reverse work

Ring: 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 (5 picots separated by 2 ds); reverse work

Chain 8; do not reverse work, switch shuttles

Repeat from * 5 times. Remember that on the last center ring, there is no final picot... join to first picot of first ring.

As always, if you find a mistake in the pattern, please let me know so that I can correct it. Enjoy!

Snowflake #3 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

I found some lovely hand-crafted ornament hooks online today at Wirestorm Creations. I think the 1 1/4" size would be perfect with these snowflakes!

Are you ready for another pattern?

size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116
Pewter flower finding from Fire Mountain Gems #H20-9117FY
2 shuttles wound CTM

*Ring: 4 -- 4 + 4 -- 4 (if not using the doodad/finding, picot instead of join); reverse work

Chain 4; switch shuttles

Josephine knot: 10 (I use the second half of the double stitch); switch shuttles

Chain 4; switch shuttles

Ring: 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 (6 picots divided by 2 ds); switch shuttles;

Chain 4; switch shuttles

Josephine knot: 10; switch shuttles

Chain 4; reverse work

Repeat from * five times. On last center ring, instead of third picot, join to first picot of first ring.

Cut, tie, hide ends.

Doodad Double Dare #9, #10, and #11!

Marty posted her progress with the Doodad Double Dare. I love the thread she chose. I also love that she calls them Duded Doodads! Check out her blog to see what a domed doodad looks like.

Stephanie spent time at Tat Days working with her doodads, with beautiful results! She sent me the sweetest email...

HI Diane!

Of all the crazy things - I was at Tat Days over the weekend, and instead of playing around with my 'projects' from the classes, there I was, playing with those 2 little doodads.  Now I'm home, and finishing my Tat Days class projects.  Funny how I do things so backwards sometimes.  Had a great time, though, and hope you can come to Tat Days next year so we can meet in person.

I was sort of thinking 'earrings' when I did these, but since this is my first attempt at both tatting around a metal thingie AND coming up with a 'design' of sorts, they may end up being re-done at some vague future 'time.'  Still....it WORKED!   ;-)

Don't have a web page, so I've attached a scan.  Haven't decided yet if I'm going to make a small ring as a 'hanger' or just hide the ends and thread the ear wire through one of the center picots on one of the chains.  Either way would work.

Have a wonderful week!  Thanks again for sending the metal thingies.  It was fun to participate.

Big hug!

Stephanie

Frivole also finished her first doodad, calling it Square Elegance... oh, how I wish I had her flare for design!

The greatest part of this Double Dare is seeing what each person has decided to create! Each creation gives me reason to smile, although I do smile a lot already! ;-)

Snowflake #1 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

I was interested to see how my snowflakes would look without the doodads, so here's #1 with and without. I like them both, but I really like the extra weight the doodad adds.

In case you want to give this a try, I'll give you my pattern...

These snowflakes are tatted in size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116. The doodad is from Fire Mountain Gems, H20-9117FY. A pack of 50 is under $5.

Use two shuttles, wind CTM.

**Center Ring: 4 -- 4 + 4 -- 4 (join is to hole in doodad, picot if not using doodad); reverse work

*Chain 4; switch shuttles

Josephine ring: 14 (I use the second half of the double stitch); repeat from * two times

Chain 4; reverse work**

Repeat from ** to ** five times. On the sixth center ring, make sure you join the last picot to the first picot of the first ring.

Cut, tie, and hide ends.

Christmas Delight ~ Doodad Snowflake #6

This is the way I intended the last snowflake to look!

Now that I see them side-by-side, I'm not sure that I really prefer one over the other. What do you think?

Christmas Delight ~ Doodad Snowflake #5

I meant to have concave chains on this one, but I reversed my work when I shouldn't have giving me convex chains. I guess I'll just have to try again!

Christmas Delight ~ Doodad Snowflake #4

I think this one is my favorite so far!