More shuttle testing

Dave and I took down and put away most of our Christmas decorations today. Of course I needed to take frequent breaks, so I spent quite a bit of time testing out the shuttles Denise lent me.

This black walnut fish shuttle is super smooth!

I'm very happy with all three fish shuttles that I tried.

I like the style of this longer shuttle, but it's a little too big for my hands. I'd like it better if it was half the size.

This is Denise's favorite shuttle, and I think it's very pretty. However, I would prefer thinner slits to allow for dropping the shuttle to let the thread untwist. I'd also like this one to be a little smaller.

I had a great time testing these shuttles!

Shuttle testing for Imoshen

Lucky me! I was chosen to test one of Imoshen's new shuttles!

The blue one never arrived, so Imoshen very kindly sent me another in white. When I opened the package, I gasped with joy! You know I love bling, and this little beauty is filled with bling. The camera just doesn't do it justice!

As you can see, it's not very big... 1 3/4" x 3/4". Imoshen also sent a sample of size 80 DMC thread, which I wound on to the shuttle immediately. I tatted my favorite one shuttle pattern, Leaf Braid from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. It was great to tat with size 80 thread again.

The shuttle has a beautiful raised pattern that is difficult to see in the photo. That raised pattern makes it very easy to grip the shuttle, but it also means that you have to adjust your tatting style so that the thread doesn't catch on the raised bit... not a problem for me, because I own several shuttles like this. I simply tilt the shuttle sideways as I'm tatting.

My next step... keep my eyes open for them to go on sale. After all, one can never own too many shuttles! ;-)