Personal tatting challenge no. 3

I've completed my third personal tatting challenge! This is "Beatrice" from Tatted Doilies by Iris Niebach. I am fascinated by Iris's designs. I love that a complex piece can be completed in one round. Even if I do reach a level of expertise where I feel like I can design, I doubt that I would be able to envision patterns the way Iris does! The thread is Altin Basak #3004, size 50. I used a SewMate shuttle, which I really like. However, when it comes to plastic shuttles, the Clovers are still my favorite.

Oh, dear! I just thought of something... now I'll have to choose a new project!

Tatting collection gone wild!

I recently upgraded the operating system on my Mac laptop to Leopard. Are there any other Mac users out there? Any way... Mom suggested I try Bento, database software developed for Macs running Leopard. I downloaded the trial version on Saturday, and I'm in love with it! I've already inventoried my tatting books... at least the ones that are in order on the shelf! I'm going to add pictures (a wonderful option in Bento). The plan is to catalog all my books, tatting and otherwise, and at the same time sort through to see which ones I don't want any more and in the process tame my collections. I haven't decided to eliminate anything so far!

As I was inventorying my books, I realized that I haven't tatted any patterns from many of these books. Besides my collection of tatting books, I have quite a collection of shuttles and thread. So, I'm setting a challenge for myself... tat one pattern from each book, using a shuttle and thread that haven't been used before. I figure, if I leave a little thread on each shuttle, I will know that I have used it.

My first entry: "Basic Cross" from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Lyn Morton; shuttle by Diana Andra (available through Lacemaker); thread by Yarnplayer (Marilee Rockley) - "Golden Glow", size 20.