Practice, practice, practice….

I’ve been practicing my chains and lock joins. I’m not sure how this will turn out…..

progress on chains and lock joins

I’ve also been practicing my hymns…sort of. Need to get back at the keyboard today.

in search of....a name???

It was great fun at the demo time yesterday. My dragon was well received. Lots of petting, new students inspired, but no name……..

Perhaps a name will be presented soon. Any ideas out there?

Dragon tales

I had a surprise visit yesterday….a minor dragon came to roost:

Flying Minor Norwegian Dragon by Anne Bruvold

It was fun tatting him up. I hope he enjoys the demo time tomorrow. I think he will like all the cooing and petting. Perhaps he will inspire another student.

I’ve completed another simple motif. I’m guessing again at the colors that will compliment what the other teachers will be working with.

just a fun looking motif

and in Carribean Lizbeth thread

If the design works well for the class, I’ll adapt it for a snowflake look. As always, if someone else claims this as their design that I haven’t come across, please let me know and I’ll be happy to credit their work and ask permission to use it etc, etc.

current Bookmark

Well, the pollen count is up….and it’s grey but not rainy. Sniff, snuffle, ahhhchoooo.

And I’m not that much affected by what’s in the air….

The good news about the time change has been I’m awake more often before sunrise again. There have been some spectacular ones with the cloud cover lately. That always starts my day out better.

I’ve been honing my skill at Inkscape and graphic diagrams of tatting patterns the last couple of days. I need a lot more practice….a lot more! I wanted to work up a bookmark design for the class that had rings, chains, maybe beads (but not necessary) and tat samples for the Open House wall in summer colors. So, here’s what I have:

I'm calling this Chicks with Beads



the thread is called Carribean. Very summery!

We’ll see what is chosen and what folks sign up for.

Got shuttle...or needle????

Well, it’s been a busy few days. I got to help demonstrate tatting on Saturday. Then later that day, I was able to help a group host an organ crawl. I’m such a geek about the organ…..it’s just a way cool technology that’s been around for hundreds of years! More on that when I get the pictures back and the article for the newsletter is published.

First a question:  How did the opinion that tatting is a lost art get started????

It always amazes me how many people will say “oh, that’s a lost art” as I sit and demonstrate tatting. I’ve begun impishly saying “I’m not lost!” or “I found it!” or words that I hope folk hear as good humor. I don't like being grumpy. It’s just that it happens so often. I always figured a skill was lost when no one knew how to preform it and all documentation as to how to perform it was no longer available. That’s not the case here. There is a huge amount of information freely available on the Internet, there’s people teaching all over the world, there’s even a great deal of readily available books published on tatting. So, how is that a lost art???? Is it that people have wished to learn and found it too difficult? It’s not that difficult…..compared to learning to type on a QWERTY keyboard; or learning to make a good omelet. Is it that fewer people tat now than did in olden days? You often hear of Victorian pieces of tatting…..but when you read descriptions of domestic activity during that period of history, tatting isn’t mentioned that often. A lost art???????

Well, someone somewhere decided it was “lost” and I think they just had too many people listening to them for our own good. Not that they were a bully, but I can’t imagine that it’s the only skill we’ve “lost” that this person treasured. Maybe they didn’t smile much and felt smiling was “lost” along with maybe the “proper” way of greeting a good friend? Mmmmm. Well, I’m not lost and I will continue to tat and teach others to tat. Got shuttle or needle?

another bookmark experiement

I’ve been mulling over a pattern found in an old Workbasket magazine. These publications are always interesting to flip through. I feel a bit like an archeologist as the pages turn. A pattern for a flag caught my eye several years ago. I feel it’s time now to update the pattern. The first puzzle for me is the join between rows; just a bit counterintuitive for this tatter. But, I was able to persevere and figure it out:

tatted American flag sample

Now I need to figure out exactly how many rings and chains to do in each row to make the proportions correct. And then there's the stars to dream about.

I think this sample will go to my chaplain friend for her stash of bookmarks to give out.