Late Winter Snowflake

I finished Robin's "Late Winter Snowflake" last night, and gave it a shot of steam this morning. It looks like I should really pin it down properly before sending it off to Mom.

This is a snowflake I will definitely tat again! If I had only looked at a picture of it, I think I would have made it more complicated than it is. The snowflake is tatted in one round... my favorite type of design!

Yesterday's mail brought a new tatting book! I have way more tatting books than any single person could ever use in a lifetime, but I can't help myself. It must be the librarian in me!

There are some beautiful designs in this book. The author, Tomoko Morimoto, is the daughter of the fabulous Teiko Fujito. The pictures are fantastic, and thread yardage is given for each design. The shuttles used are the pastel Clover, which I happen to love using. There is a fabulous silk shawl that I'm tempted to tat. I'll have to do the math to figure out how much silk thread I'll have to buy. I dread doing math!

There was one aspect of the book that surprised me. Tomoko Morimoto doesn't hide her thread ends! She ties a knot, snips the threads close to the knot, and glues the thread down. I've done that in an emergency, but it is not my preferred method of hiding thread ends. If I decide to make the silk shawl, I may have to use a dab of glue to keep the thread from sliding out, but I think I will still sew in my ends for a bit.

There are some interesting threads introduced in this book, ones I'd not heard of before. I didn't do an intense study, but it appears that all of the threads used in the book are available at either Handy Hands or Lacis.

I also managed to start the next round of Renulek's Letnia. I do love Arctic Waters!

A little time to tat

This is my husband's busiest week of the year, and I help him out a little bit by totaling invoices. I'm not a math person, so I find it very boring. It is nice, though, to know that I'm helping him in some small way.

Despite helping to total invoices, I did manage to find a little tatting time. It seems I can almost always find time for tatting!

As I was working on the third round of Renulek's newest doily, I noticed that I made a mistake in round two. The stand-alone ring is tatted incorrectly. It didn't seem to matter, so I decided to leave the mistake rather than fix it. I want to see if it will cause me problems later on. If it does, I'll probably just start over.

Robin's "Late Winter Snowflake" is coming along nicely. I hope to have time to finish it tonight.

If I don't dawdle, it looks like I'll have a little time to tat before leaving for school this morning!

Back and forth

I love the shades of blue in Arctic Waters, and I'm really enjoying the way the colors flow in Renulek's Letnia.

I finished another spoke of Robin's "Late Winter Snowflake."

I wish I could focus on one project at a time, but I just can't seem to do it!

Joining the fun

I've long admired Renulek's beautiful doilies, so I decided to join in and tat Letnia.

I know I didn't get very far, but we all have to start somewhere! I'm using size 20 Lizbeth, #185, Arctic Waters.

I'm also working on another snowflake designed by Robin of Tatting by the Bay. This one is Late Winter Snowflake, again in Victorian Red. I hope Mom likes all of these red goodies I'm tatting for her!

Woodland Medallion

Here's another pretty motif designed by Robin of Tatting by the Bay. I happened to have the same finding in my stash, although it's a different color than the one Robin used. I think the red is really striking with the gold tone finding. This was a fun and easy tat. Wouldn't it be pretty as a Christmas star?

Solstice

Have you visited Robin's blog, Tatting by the Bay? She has been creating some fabulous designs using her iPad, and since I would love to learn how to design some day, I've been following her adventures!

Robin has some wonderful patterns that she shares on her blog. This is the first one I've tatted, named Solstice. It's tatted in two continuous rounds. Robin gives instructions for climbing out of the first round with a split ring, but since my split rings sometimes leave a lot to be desired, I decided to tat it in two rounds. I'm very happy with the result!

Have you seen?

There's a new shuttle on the block!

Here's a picture of my new Birdseye Maple Slider Shuttle from Elite Creations. It arrived today, and I like it very much! Yes, I am using both shuttles for my newest tatting project, and you can see that it's slightly smaller than the Moonlit shuttle, another favorite of mine.

What's the tatting project? I'll let you know later!