Merry Christmas

Hi all,

My digital camera hasn't been working, so no new photos in the past couple months. I have finished knitting a triangular lace shawl (haven't tucked the ends in yet!), tatted a necklace, designed a tatted snowflake, and tatted many Christmas ornaments.

I wish you all a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Glow in the Dark Thread

This week I have been having a blast tatting snowflakes with NiteLite and NiteLite ExtraGlow glow-in-the-dark thread. This is 40 and 30 wt polyester thread. The NiteLite glows the best, but is finer than a size 100 cordonnet thread. The ExtraGlow is thicker and is about the size of 100. It tats up nicely and is SO MUCH FUN to look at in the dark! Below are 2 pictures (larger than actual size) with Rozella Linden's snowflake 2006 pattern. The flake on the left is NiteLite ExtraGlow (about 1.75" across) and the one of the right is NiteLite (about 1.50" across).

Razzle Dazzle Tatting Fun

Hi all,

I've been having fun tatting with Razzle Dazzle--a sparkly polyester thread from Superior Threads. The thread is multi-stranded that separates easily, so you need to tie a knot in the end to keep it from unraveling. Scratchy to the touch and a bit troublesome to work with--probably comparable to a size 20 cordonnette thread. When tatting, rings close well, but you need to watch out when you join or untat to get all the strands at the same time. Crocheting works okay, you just crochet a little slower to make sure you have all the strands.

With that said, tatting and crochet projects look stunning due to the sparkly nature of the thread and it is perfect for holiday items such as snowflakes! The finished projects are well worth the minor frustration of working with this thread.

Pictures show a flying minor Norwegian dragon, tatted with color 275, a nice sparkly dark green. Pattern is by Anne Bruvold and can be found here: http://nuperelle.net/drager/monstre/MinidragerEng.pdf The next picture shows Celtic Snowflake 2006, pattern by Rozella Linden tatted with color 270--a sparkly pink and light blue thread. Rozella's pattern is in the yahoo group Celtic Tatting in the file section http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CelticTatting/

Triangular Shawl

This is the yarn from the triangular lace shawl kit designed by Galina. I do have a skein winder and yarn swift on order but I couldn't wait for those to arrive, so got the first color wound by hand and the left edge on the needles. The yarn is merino/silk blend and I am using size 0 needles for this.

IOLI goodies

While I was at IOLI (International Old Lacers Inc.) annual lace convention, I bought some goodies. My main purchases were yarn from Skaska Designs (think Russian Orenburg lace). At Skaska, I bought 2 skeins of Heaven (55% merino wool, 45% tencel)--125 grams and 3280 yards per skein. Very fine yarn. I got a lovely purple skein as well as a deep greenish-blue one. I also got a lovely skein of white Merino Lace--100 grams, 1375 yards. No picture of these. I then got an interesting ball of Graceful Lace Yarn--a wool variegate that goes from rusty orange to green to blue. I am fascinated to see how this works up. I also splurged and got a triangular lace shawl kit, designed by Galina herself. I've already got this one started on the needles.

From Duchesse, I bought several incredible pieces of sterling silver jewelry from Brussels. Shown is a delicate butterfly pendant The Duchesse jewelry is inspired by Brussels lace.

And I almost forgot. I got this lovely carved wooden box from Skaska. This is the lid of the box. The sides are also carved as well as the interior of the lid.

Finished!

This is the finished piece showing both the front and the back. After I had the back leather glued to the front and the beaded edge about half done, I decided I needed a little more pizzazz at the bottom. I ended up adding another cone flower and really like the results. This is one of those pieces I look at and go "Wow! Did I do that?"

Butterflies Added

I got some lovely 6mm Swarovski crystal butterflies on Monday. I added a crystal AB and a fuchsia one to the piece. You can see thread tails sticking out on the sides. The next step will be to glue a leather backing onto the piece and sew the edges together while adding beads.

Tatting and Beads Added

Well, I added the tatted curlyques to the piece and then sewed on some bead embellishments. Am waiting for a fuchsia swarovski crystal 6mm butterfly from Fire Mountain Gems to see if that would work well with the piece.

Dichroic Cabochon Pendant

In June, I took a class from Karen Miner at the PNW Lace Conference. I learned the fun of creating stunning works of jewelry using a focal point, tatting and bead embellishments. This is what I am working on next--a dichroic cabochon attached to leather. A tatted chain encompassing it with beads. I have then played with lots of options for tatting to go with this and these curlyques are what I have liked the best. Thread is Flora size 20 in black; Valdani 35 wt sewing cotton color V3 Fuchsia Love, King Tut 40 wt quilting cotton colors 924 Lime Stone and 927 De Nile and DMC 80 color #917. Seed Beads are size 15 Miyuki and size 11 Delicas.

The dichroic cabochon is from Donna Cason and is a true work of art. Her website is http://www.designercabs.biz/ and her service is incredible. The cabochon I am working with is about 3/4" long and the leather piece is 1 3/4". Picture is enlarged to show the details.