Glaedelig orkis jul

It is Danish and means "Merry Tatting Christmas" and that is what I want to wish those visiting here. I know most of you will probably celebrate on the 25th but here it all starts with dinner on the 24th.
Below is this years Christmas tatting done by me, I think I did 10-12 of them for mostly workmates (done before my arm got crazy but not the reason for the problem though).


In Danish they are called "Nisser" (pixies, elves etc. in English) and they are part of old Scandinavian folklore. There are good ones and bad ones, ones that belongs on farms and in houses in general and even on ships (all over really). They are small creatures and not always that visible, sometimes all you see is their red hats. They mostly live in the attic it is said and they can get several centuries old. Rice porridge with a spoonfull of butter and cinnamon sugar is what they like.
So from a snowwhite DK I wish you'll all have a wonderful Christmas with lots of tatting presents.

First French Doily

Sorry for the long break where I have not posted anything here. But I have a problem with my neck and shoulder in the left side so I have not been sitting much at the computer and not been tatting for 4 weeks at all.
But more than a month ago I was able to finish the first doily from that French book I was given, this time I didn't use any variegated thread and not even a white, roflol.
I am not really sure about that French book, all the designs look lovely that is for sure, but I am a bit worried about how well the designs work when you tat them.

This round doily is the first one that have worked for me, I did start a very nice oval one from the book and used some lovely Lizbeth thread but I think that doily have been the worst one I have done when it comes to lying flat. It bowled like noone else I have done, maybe you've seen my cry for help at Intatters some time back, and mine is never going to lie flat at all, not even if I iron it a lot.
This one looks OK in the picture but in real life it really would like to bowl a little bit if I hadn't used the iron. The thread is Aida size 20 and the diameter is around 15 centimeters.
Hopefully I will be able to tat a little bit soon but it might have to wait till the new year. But I do have something for my Christmas posting here, I will post it in a week or so. See you then.

Lizbeth tatting

Like so many others I have also bought some Lizbeth thread size 20 and I really like this thread and all the colours - especially the variegateds which you know I am crazy about.
Here is one of the first doilies - just called "Tatted Doily" - I have done with a Lizbeth thread.

I really look forward to the day where Roseground gets size 40, that day I will go shopping there again, lol.
Not much more to say tonight, I am a bit tired after a long day so I will say bye for now.

It's been a while

Sorry it's been a while since I wrote here the last time. Sometimes life gets in the way of blogging and even tatting. And work has taken a lot of my time and energy this last month. But I am back now.

The square doily above is from an older Italian magazine - one of those Lavoro magazines. I think it is from number 2.
The thread is the gift shown in my previous post, the Milford thread. And size 20.
It looks very nice when you've tatted something with it. But I warn you - if you're going to try it someday - it tangles and twists like nothing I have ever tried before. I was about to give it up more than once but I wanted to finish it. And I did, yes I made it, lol. But it really got my temper out in the open, roflol.
Pity because it looks so nice and feels like a very nice thread.

A Spoiled Tatter

I hope my readers do not mind a little bragging. But I have been so spoiled at my birthday recently and I want to share the tatting treats. Let's see what the mailman brought me.

First a lovely Namaste bag from Australia, now isn't that a pretty one. Tatters are usually not only crazy about books, shuttles and threads. We are also users of various bags for our portable craft. A big thank you to Maureen for gifting me with this.
Another mailman brought me yet another gift and that also happens to come from Australia. Look carefully and see all those lovely colourful rings, the hair clips, the clover shuttle and those things for winding threads on - and these are made of plastic and not cardboard which are the only ones I can get here. Oh what a treat this is, I hardly have words to explain how pleased I am. A big "tusind tak" to Jenni, my mate downunder.
But hey there's more, a lovely ball of variegated thread. Yahoo, and I do cherish those threads. It is a Milford thread, which is a new one to me, and what a treat it will be to try that out.
And the thread have been put into something. Can you guess what it is? It is a container that once held some of the stuff that you use for making a Pavlova (I hope it is the right name) which I think is the national dessert of Australia. Isn't it awesome and just perfect for transporting my tatting too. I look forward to using it, so another big thank you very much to Jenni.
Do you know what wandering threads are? I have to admit that untill recently I didn't, but honestly it is the right name
for the thread to the right. Yes you are right if you recognize it as some of Yarnplayer's incredible beautiful HDT's. But because of horrible customs and fees etc. it didn't go directly from the US to me but went via Australia on the way, so it has travelled more than half the way around the globe, from the north to the south and then back north, roflol. That is why I think it is a wandering thread - or maybe a globetrotter thread. It was a treat I gave myself sometime ago and it only turned into a success because of Yarnplayers kindness. And one skien stayed with Liyarra as a thank you for the help.
Don't you agree that I am a spoiled tatter - I feel so loved not just because of the gifts but also because of the efforts those 3 fellow tatters have put into making my day. Thank you.

Flowery cards

The monster seems to have gone on a long break. Not really tatting a lot right now. First of all I am trying to keep up with Sharon's design course on Yahoo and secondly because I don't have an idea what to do next. Thirdly becuase I am awaiting new threads coming from the UK, some of those awesome variegated Lizbeth threads that everyone seems to talk about these days and love using. Soon it will be my turn to try them out. :-)Some friends are having birthdays soon and in stead of just buying a card I wanted to make some myself. So I found some flowers in the Stawasz book and for the flower pot I used the bottom of a Christmas tree that I turned upside down, roflol. It was fun to do them but also a bit fiddly not twisting them and having to work with glue etc. But that is what friends are for I think.
I think the white and yellow ones reminds me of daisies, lol.

The mother of one of my friends have a big birthday in September, I hope she will enjoy the bookmark at the bottom that I am putting into one of these flowery cards.

See you.

So far so good

If anyone is interested in the progress this is the monster doily so far. It has worked very good untill now.
But my challenge partner is behind me and think she might to have to start over again, so I am taking a break with this till I know how she will be doing.
But I wont sit around with empty hands, so we will see what I will come up with next.
I have also joined Sharon's design course and might have to spend some time on that.

I have been challenged

Liyarra have challenged me to do another long distance tatting. She knows that doilies larger than something like 25 cm is not my favourite size to do. I have done several doilies where I have not tatted all the rounds - not that there's anything wrong with that mostly. But now she wants me to tat a huge doily - and ALL of it. I reckon this will be a monster doily so that is what I call it - the monster.

In the picture here I have reached 25 cm in diameter. Unfortunately there's another round left with I think it is 24 motifs - yes it is true twentyfour motifs on the outer round. Gee I wonder if I will survive that, roflol.

The design is from the Jan Stawasz book, the thread is Flora size 20 variegated yellow, solid white and a variegated very light green. I had to choose something I had plenty of so I do not run out of thread when I am on the last round. If that happened I would give it up.

If you do not hear from me for the next many moons you'll know why - I will be engulfed in my monster (or perhaps by my monster, lol).

Same and yet so different

Last month when I wrote here about the big doily I had finished I said I would show a picture of the version that Liyarra in Australia have tatted and that we started together during one of our online sessions. I have been given permission to show her doily here next to mine so here they are.

Notice how different they are. It is the same design and I think it might be the same size thread too but yet they are completely different. It is so amazing what difference the choise of colour have etc.

Of course I like mine (:-D ) but I also like the one with the metallic center and the green and red very much.

Jenni, thank you for letting me show it here, you've done a great job with it even though that red round were almost driving you crazy at some point of time - that almost happened for me too, lol.

Thanks for the fun of doing it as one of our tat-sessions.

Cheering up

I needed some cheering up so I did another doily while I await starting the huge monster-doily. I have used white Coats size 40 and Rainbow thread from Tatskool in the same size. The diameter is 15 cm.

I think this design was my Aunt's favourite, at least I saw her tat it over and over for years, and I have more than one copy of the pattern. I have always had a hard time getting it to lie flat but this time it seems to work fine. Actually I think it is one of the very best I have done from this pattern.
Hhhmmm, I wonder why.

One of the mysteries of tatting is, that our tension and everything else changes almost all the time which means, that things that didn't work all of a sudden becomes a success. And the opposite is also possible of course. The pattern I only know from an old but still copyrighted Danish book.

Jon's "Magic Moment"

In the tatting community online there are a lot of generous tatters making their own designs available for free, one of those are Jon and she has just done a snowflake/small doily called "Magic Moment". You can see the pretty original here:
http://tatsaway.blogspot.com/
Now I have also done it, lol.

Isn't it just a little beautie! I really like it and I have the feeling it reminds me of another pattern but can not find out which one right now.
Thread is Altin Basak and the diameter is almost 9 cm.
Thanks Jon for making it available for me to do this.

Wrong combination of colours and a new try almost

I have recieved many nice comments about my tatting and have been told that the colours I have chosen for my work looked very good. I do know that I like to combine various solids and variegateds - often combined with a solid white.
But I want to show you below, that I am not always lucky when I choose colours. Another Stawasz design and these two colours do not look good together. I did it a couple of weeks ago and I don't like them.
The thread is Cebelia size 30, the colours are a green combined with a greyish-green. I will do the pattern credit and do it again soon and choose some nicer colours.

As you can see to the right just above I have done a larger variation now and I like this one better. I had decided ahead that variegateds were going to play an important role together with solid white. I almost succeeded.

Thread is Altin Basak and diameter is 25 cm. It has taken me something like almost 2 weeks to do it because some of the rounds are very slow to do = a lot of stitches to do. I suppose it is good training before doing the huge monster doily, lol.

Ta-da - now it is done

The big doily is done and it took me around 10-12 nights of tatting to do it. Diameter is 32 cm, the thread is Flora size 20 in different colours combined with the white. Pattern is from my Guild magazine. Here it is.

I do not do a lot of those big ones and while tatting this I recalled why I do not fancy doing them. When you reach something like 20 cm they get big and it is hard to sit and tat on them because either the doily or a thread is easily mingled and it twists so much. At least that is what happens to me.
My Aussie mate is doing the same design in different colours and I hope when she is done that I may be allowed to post a picture of it next to mine. I know the choise of colours means so much for the final result so it would be great to see them side by side.

My first pair of earrings

I know I said I was working on something bigger (and it is true, lol) yet the stuff I am showing off here is very small. I have done my first pair of earrings ever, lol.
I wanted to do a pair from that Russian site ( http://free-tatting.com/ ) but it got so fiddly and therefore I failed. Either because the beads were too large or the thread was too thin - or maybe both.
Anyhow it turned out to be a mess so I ended up doing these - I guess you could call them my design because I just did from my imagination. But they are so simple that someone must have done them earlier on and I apologize for not being able to give credit to someone then.
They are for a girl at work who goes on vacation next week and who has fallen in love with tatted jewellry after I showed her some of the stuff on the blogs I visit.When she returns I will have left that workplace for good unfortunately so it will be a goodbye-gift tomorrow.
I have never done earrings before partly because I do not use that stuff myself. But the circumstances taken into consideration I think they will do - don't you?
Tonight it is back to the big item I am working on, I can not wait to see it being done, lol.

The third Russian doily

It is very nice to discover a new site that shares patterns and especially those for doilies. I have done the third doily from one of those sites who have free patterns, it happens to be Russian and is called Free Tatting Patterns. (the center part below is a variegated pale pink and not a solid white which the pic perhaps shows)
When I was done tatting it - and it was a good one to do - I discovered that there are both a diamond and a square here. I wonder what it would look like if you put a number of them together. Hhhmmm.
I wish I was that good that I would use up my old threads before I buy some new ones. That is not so, unfortunately. If I had to wait to buy some new ones till I have used all my Flora, the Altin Basak, the Aida, the DMC, the Coats etc. then I would never be able to try the new Lisbeth threads. :-D
But I will get some when I have made up my mind what colours to choose. I think it is the time where I need a treat.
I now want to go and tat on the new thing I have started. It is something bigger and will take some time to do, and maybe I will take smaller breaks and do some other stuff too. And unfortunately there is some work to take care of too ;-) , roflol.

Two more doilies

I have said earlier, that I am into tatting doilies right now, roflol. So here are two more. Both are done in Altin Basak threads, I am trying to use some of the threads that I want to get rid of so I can get some new ones - those Lizbeth threads have some awesome variegated ones and I am tempted in deed now that I can get some of them in the UK.

Designs are from that Russian site that was one of the subjects discussed last time I went to Online Tatting Classes. (free-tatting.com)
The yellow one was the nicest one to do, the green square was very fiddly and the sides do not look straight and turns it into a weird square.
Think I just started the next doily last night, lol. And the onion bookmark from the latest Frauberger tat-session is also ready for showing soon. I have a feeling that a new session is in the oven, yahoo.

Guild doily

I think it is the first time I have posted twice here on the same day, lol.
I am in a doily mood right now, and even though I have been sick an entire week with a very nasty cold, I was able to tat a bit now and then - it is possible to tat in bed if you elevate the head part of the bed, roflol.
The pattern for this comes from my Guild magazine and was designed by one of the members. I am so fortunate to have that national Guild sending out magazines 3 times a year, it is the only domestic tatting contacts I have got and I always look forward to recieving the magazine in the mail.
The next projet have already been started - it is a doily from that Russian site that was discussed in Online Classes this week. A day or two more and it will be done too.

Bookmark exchange

Like so many others I have also taken part in the bookmark exchange at Intatters. Beverly in the US was my partner and sent me no less than 2 bookmarks. The third one is one I sent her.

I also got 2 postcards from New Mexico, it looks so different from where I am.

Thank you very much for the cards and the lovely bookmarks, you've done a great job and I will cherish them.

Beverly, I hope it is OK I used your pictures here!

Here it is

I said I would be back soon ;-D - so this is the finished doily.
Threads are variegated blues in Flora size 20 and the white is Aida size 20. Not the best combination, it is like there's a slight difference in the size between the 2 brands.
Not the best colour combinations I have chosen either, but I hope the friend I am sending it to will like it anyhow. Her name is Lisbeth but she do not have any connection at all with the tatting thread by that name, lol.
Took me around 3 nights to do it, so it was a quick one and not a hard one to do really.
Hhhhmmmm, now the big problem is what to do next, lol.

Long time no see

I am still a member of blogland even though it's been a while since my last posting. Somehow life got in the way, getting rid of a cold and work etc. have taken a lot of my time. But I have been reading blogs though.

But I have been tatting a little bit now and then and last night I started this.

It is another doily that I found the pattern for yesterday when I was looking through my tatting folder on the computer and one that I have not done so far. While I tat this white round I am trying to figure out if the last round should be done with the blue in the center or I should choose another variegated blue thread.
I have done a little tatting while I have been away like the Frauberger sessions we have had at Messenger but nothing is ready for showing yet.

And I also entered an exchange at Intatters and did a bookmark that I mailed to my partner the other day, but untill it has reached it's destination I wont show it online.

So long for now, and I will be back soon I promise.

Time for some eggs

There is a good reason for me being quiet here at my blog lately. You see I have been tatting, lol. Some of the stuff I can post about here now because I have been tatting eggs for Easter.

The celtic eggs above are for my workmates and they will get them this week. The pattern is from my Guild magazine, unfortunately it is not my own design.

Now to figure out what to do next.

First doily after a break

Yahoo, my first doily tatted after the break, must be around 6 months since the last one. It is another Frauberger design, from the reproduction of the awesome old book. It was not hard to tat at all and it is one I have had on my mind for some time to do.My guess is that it has taken me at least 10 hours but not more than 14 hours to tat it.Most of it was done during 2 online tatting sessions me and my Aussie mate have had on Messenger and that is why I have an idea how long it has taken me to do it. I think we must be tatting addicts, who else would get up at 7 in the morning to tat with someone on the opposite side of the globe, ROFLOL. But they are a lot of fun and I would get out of bed no matter what time of day to have one of them.

Time for butterflies to fly away

I think I am back at tatting again, yahoo. My Aussie tatting mate and I had another online tatting session at MSN today working on a Frauberger design and my hand didn't mind the tatting at all - not yet at least. It was a great time and a good way to spend a day at home. Thank you very much, mate.
I do not have any picture yet because we didn't get to finish the piece so here is another picture.
It is a lot of butterflies that I have done over a long time with the leftover threads on shuttles that need to be emptied for other purposes. My Guild are collecting these so they have something to give away when they go to demonstrations and exhibitions.
They also accept owls, fish and angels but I have mostly done butterflies over the years. Soon these will go into an envelope and be mailed to guild so they fly away and maybe inspire one or two to learn to tat - and if that happens it will be lovely.
Now that I have started tatting again I hope nothing will stop me again in the near future so I hope I can return to blogging on regular basis too. As time permits after work of course. I have also ordered some more HDT and will keep an eye on the postman next week, maybe I am lucky and he will have some love threads in his bag for me.

Winter over soon I hope

We just had a little snow but now it has stopped. I wish spring was around the corner but I don't think so, unfortunately. As I have told I have been knitting some socks this winter and I have been asked if I would show them somehow, so here is a picture.I got carried away because of these new yarns where the colour changes and makes some sort of patterns. On 3 of them I combined with a solid colour simply because I think the patterns would look strange on the heal of the sock - that is just the way I am, lol. And it is probably also because that is the way my mother used to do it too.
The purple-pink one is partially a yarn with bamboo and the first time I have uesd that, it was very nice to knit with.
In a little while I want to try get back to do some tatting I just got my Guild magazine today and there are a couple of smaller things in it that I might give a try and see if it works at last. So I hope in the near future to have some tatting again here at my blog.

Winter Crafting III

One of my first postings more than a year ago was about a knitted sweater that I was doing but I had run out of threads and could not get anymore in the shop. A week ago I took it out again and I now managed to do a small neck with the little yarn I had left and I was able to use the mitten thread for sewing on the arms. So here it is, yahoo.
The sweater do fullfill all my expectations. It is so soft and warm and I feel good wearing it. I am so happy I finally got it done. It's been a while since I last knitted myself a sweater - more than 10 years I think - and I had almost forgotten how nice it is. This really was a pleasure to do. I think tatting have been taking over for years. I hope that there will perhaps be room for both in the future.
The worst thing about finishing a work in progress is that you have to find out what to do next. And I really do not have a lot of unfinished work left so I have absolutely no idea what to do this time.

Winter Crafting II

In my last posting I wrote that I had been lazy. It might not be the absolute truth - at least not for the Christmas holidays. The scar on the hand didn't like my usual gloves and a friend of mine suggested that I knitted some mittens!!! Hhhmmm, I wondered if that was an option.........

I started out knitting for only 15 minutes a day the first days and gradually I was able to increase the amount of time. So yes I was able to knit some mittens as it can be seen in the picture to the right.

Of course they are done on needles size 4 but they turned out fine and can keep my hands warm in the cold mornings when I am waiting for the bus.

I am not sure why knitting seems to be easier than tatting for the time being -actually I have not touched a shuttle for 2 weeks now, maybe I should try it out and see if has changed.

But I still have one more knitted item to show in my next message. Stay tuned - I think that is how you say it in English - LOL.

Winter Crafting I

Sorry I have been so quiet lately, actually not having posted here this year yet. It is caused by a mix of being lazy and tired because I have had more workhours than before the holidays. And being winter it calls for some special crafting. For me it means I have been doing a bit of knitting during the Christmas holidays and the first weeks of January - I will write about that in a later posting.

Might be a little late but I did also tat a snowflake in the month of December. It is the one in the picture and the design belongs to Nancy at Be-Stitched.com who has some free patterns. I also think Jeff over at Bridge City Tatting have done it - sorry I have absolutely no idea how to make links here on the blog so you'll have to go and find them yourself.

The thread is Altin Basak variegated light blue and white - I suppose it is appropriate for snowflakes.

I think it looks pretty good - :-) - and I can say that it is a very nice design to tat.