Sunday, May 27, 2018

Tools of the trade

I was going to show you a little pictorial of how I make the adjustable closure for the wheat bracelet, but then I realised that most of my photos were fuzzy and not even worth trying to sharpen. Hmm, another reason for my husband and friends to try and convince me to change my phone. A 360 view of the bracelet, now that's an idea!

I will instead talk a bit about the various tools that are basic for me and also some that I really can't work with.


Shuttles

I love my bobbin shuttles. I have four of them (I don't feel I need any more) and each came with two bobbins. I cut off the crochet hook because it was too big for my usual thread and decorated them with tissue paper.

The one on the left has a traditional Romanian motif on it.
I have recently bought a pair of post shuttles but I simply can't work with them. The tips needed to be coerced to stay together (that is actually a design flaw) and the point is too thick to poke through my VSPs (very small picots heh). I am also not used to not being able to adjust the thread position and length quickly. Even if I do find better quality post shuttles, I'm pretty sure I won't get any... they're not for me. Maybe a flat shuttle at most.

Trying to join that picot... Where is the crochet hook?

Crochet hooks

Since I neutered my shuttles, the only way to join would be using a crochet hook. My first one is actually a lot older than me and was used by my grandmother. It looks like the wooden handle was once broken, then attached to an empty pen case with a heat shrink tube. Pretty ingenious, and it also has a cap that way! I feel honoured to use a tool that has produced a lot of lovely items.

The old crochet hook is being put to good use again.
I have since bought myself another crochet hook in a larger size, to work with thicker yarn.


Good even needles

Back when I was needle tatting, I accumulated a real collection of even needles with narrow eyes. I don't use them all anymore, but I keep two sets of short darners in my working "basket" (it is actually a bag) for hiding ends. Having good needles really helps not distort the tatting too much. Here in Romania, Milward is the best brand I could find.


Pliers

You might wonder what I need pliers for while tatting. I got into the habit of using them ever since my needle tatting days. Sometimes, my knots would be so tight on the needle, that they wouldn't slide past the eye anymore, so I would hold onto the needle with the pliers to get a good grip on it while sliding the knots. Before that, I was the bride with the most worn fingers, but that is a story for another time.

Now I use the pliers when hiding ends (I use the whip stitch method). My tatting is quite tight, so I grab the needle with the pliers to pull it through the little knot caps when it gets stuck.

A real finger saver.

The big eye needle

I use a lot of seed beads for making tatted jewellery and the big eye needle is invaluable for stringing beads. You open it, secure the thread end to one tip and rummage in the bead bag with the other end, letting beads catch on the pointy end. The principle is the same as for a needle threader.

It is 10cm long. Lots of beads can fit on that.

I won't even mention the pair of scissors (actually nail scissors, with very narrow and sharp tips), measuring tape and other doodads that are really quite common. If I haven't bored you already, next time I hope to share my limited experience with a few types of thread.

PS. I do a lot of my tatting at home on top of my laptop keyboard, so that is why you see so much of it. It is useful for keeping the tatting dog hair free but it's no fun when seed beads fall between the keys!

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Broken butterfly wing

A few days ago, Muskaan (who is an awesome tatter whom I have learned a lot from) created a little butterfly pattern and asked us to decorate it however we wanted to.

I tried a couple of ideas, including Victorian sets and adjusting the stitch counts, but I had a lot of bad starts and eventually gave up.

I promised her I would try again and on my latest outing to the forest, I decided to use up a shuttle full of silk thread. I added some blue seed beads and only a couple of extra stitches in the chains to balance out the beads in the rings.

It was going very well and I was at the last ring when I realised the wings were not symmetric. I checked the pattern again and, sure enough, I had taken a wrong turn after the first ring, so instead of the top rings facing away from each other, they both faced the same way. I didn't take any pictures but I think you can imagine it.

I blame it all on my lack of skill with applied spacial perception (I also get lost easily in places I have been before, but coming from a different road). I was following the diagram but the upside down image played tricks on my eyes.

I was ready to cut it up, recover my beads and make another try. I laughed about my lapse in concentration with my husband and a friend and showed them the crooked butterfly. When I told them I was going to perform major surgery and recover the pieces of my Frankenstein monster, our friend said he would like to try to fix it. He would just need needle, thread and a pair of scissors. I told him it would come apart if he tried to cut the join, but he insisted that I would have nothing to lose so I gave him the tools.

He cut the join, then split the thread in 6 and connected the two rings in the correct place with a 6th of the thread. I guess my tatting was tight enough to withstand the cut and maybe the beads helped too, but it stayed together.


You can see the broken thread in the top left ring.

I will keep it and try to hold it together with glue and will probably use it as a decoration. I will most definitely make another butterfly, but will learn from my mistakes and do it properly this time. I also encourage you to try the pattern out and bring your own artistic touch to the butterfly.

Sunday, May 6, 2018

Tatting picnic. The wheat circle earrings

My husband and his friends play airsoft and we all go to the forest games every Sunday. I don't play (it's really not my thing), but I am the driver.

If it is cold, I stay in the car, but as soon as the weather warms up enough, I throw a blanket on the ground or over a fallen tree trunk and have a tatting picnic. It is really lovely, with fresh air and birds chirping and the occasional car or shooting noise. I made almost all my snowflakes for the winter coat like this, last year.

The atmosphere is very inspiring and I often try out new ideas or techniques, sometimes by accident. I don't even mind if I have to retat anything, merely tatting outside in the forest is enjoyable enough.

Today I accidentally made a new pair of earrings. I was going to make another wheat bracelet to see if pearl cotton would be strong enough, but I forgot to start the first opposing ring and continued in a row.

Half a bracelet? Nah, earrings!

Since it curved inwards, I went around in a circle and there it is, the wheat circle earring:

I also took the opportunity to take some pretty pictures with a natural background.

 

I will however have to buy crochet cotton for the bracelet (and choker and earrings set, if the lady who wanted it still wants to wait for me), because the pearl cotton is too soft and pliant and I want the bracelet to withstand the adjustable closure and the earrings to keep their shape without much wood glue.

If you would like to make a pair and are ready to try a barely-tested pattern, here it is:

1 shuttle
Use 72 beads for 12 petals (rings)
A * is a bead

r1 2-7***2-7
***
r2 2+(j to p2 of r1)7***2-7
***
Repeat r2 and *** until 12 rings; join the 12th ring to the p1 of r1, then add *** and connect to the base of r1.

I used size 8 pearl cotton thread called Puppets from Coats and 2mm seed beads. I don't own any specialised tatting thread, so I can't estimate the size equivalent, but I assume it will work with size 15 (or 20) crochet cotton. Feel free to adjust the number of "petals" if needed.