Never, Ever Sneeze!

A friend in my Nimble Thimble group brought in an old hankie with tatted edging to show me. I was very impressed with the work as it had a great deal of bare thread space and I rarely see that in modern patterns. I told her it was very special and made her promise she would never sneeze into it. She giggled and offered to let me keep it for a while. I politely declined and took a photo instead because I want to show it off to all of you, but don't want to be held responsible should anything untoward happen to it.

So, here it is, I think it's pretty cool:

Another woman in the group blessed me with a bag of thread she found in her stash. Mostly DMC 5 and 8 from what I can tell. Wheee!

The Lost Art and My Gratitude

I participated in my first market on Friday.

Most commonly heard remarks at market were:

"My grandmother/grandfather/mother/aunt (or insert other deceased relative here) used to tat."

"That is a lost art."

I had a really great time at the market. Not so much for the selling, because there was precious little of that, but for the conversations I had with people. Most just wanted to share their experience, reminisce about family. One said he fell asleep while his mother sat in his room tatting each night. Some expressed regret that they didn't learn, others said they had tried and failed. A few said that they had learned but let it go. A few more said they would like to learn.

For the better part of the six hours, I was sitting at my table tatting one thing or another. I would spy someone across the aisle, whispering to a friend, "That's tatting." I always did my best to catch their eye and grin at them. I let them know that I appreciated the fact that they recognized what I was doing. It usually started a nice conversation.

Quite a few people stopped and stared. I grinned at them as well. I invited them to watch, really, I don't mind. I made silly faces when a stitch failed to flip, I grimaced dramatically as I struggled with knots. I told one group that my friends (that would be you, gentle readers) and I were intent on dragging tatting kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. I tried to make it accessible, not quite so mysterious. People seemed to take to it.

In all, I will take it as a success. My name and work are out there. I have already signed up for the next market in March. One positive note is that since things didn't sell, I have stock on hand. I also have the ability to plan better for my next outing.

I continue to be thankful for my friends and family and their support of my hobby gone crazy. They have been so encouraging about something they don't always understand.

I am also very thankful, to you, gentle readers, for your support. You understand what goes into it and your comments carry more weight because of it.

Busy fingers, 25 Tatted!

I have been doing quite a bit of tatting ahead of Friday's market. I've gotten most of my pieces tatted and only need findings for them to be complete. Somewhere along the line I stopped using a picot gauge, so if things look a little rough around the edges...well, practice, practice, practice...

In no particular order, for your consideration, I give you:

An assortment of variations on Dianna Stevens' Simple Bookmark in size 10 ecru, pink, white, and size 20 cream.


This one I messed up the chains (uniformly throughout); it looks a bit different from its companions. Size 10 white.

Another Janette Baker bookmark in size 10 white.

A bunch of flowers (there are actually about 30 of them) ready to be made into hair pins. Some are Leila's pattern, others are from Lindsay Rogers' book Tatting Collages. All tatted in size 10. I intend to layer them.

 

A few variations on the Kersti's Stumpy Bookmark in size 10 pink and white.

 



And lastly the heart I made for Aunt Maryann. It is Birgit's Celtic Heart in Southmaid variegated pink and Coats ecru, both size 10. (I messed up on the chain at the top, but I think I'll just stick with it.)

If I don't count the flowers, this puts me at 25 again!!!!

Oops Turned into Ooooh!

I was happily tatting away at my local while nursing a glass of strawberry lambic and finished this:

Kersti's Stumpy bookmark (sans tail) in Southmaid, a variegated pink, size 10.

I loaded my shuttles with Aunt Lydia's size 10 in white and was a quarter of the way through another when I realized I had added a picot that shouldn't have been. Since I didn't want to untat and it was my second project of the night, I decided to hang it up, enjoy my drink and a snack and go home.

I worked on it again today and decided to make the same mistake throughout for uniformity. As I got around the other side of the piece, I realized that I had also added an extra 5 ds to the ring with the extra picot. Now that throws the whole thing off! I thought I might cut and run, but I didn't like leaving a piece that was so close to done.

Time to get creative... I started tatting chains and joining stuff and put in a small ring and came up with something else.

It's working title is Dadratted Heart (or Criminy!).