Merry Christmas tatting

It is again time for Christmas tatting for most of us. Luckily I was able to do mine in November so there were 25-30 pieces to give to workmates and friends who "deserved" a little something, ;-)
I tried doing Anne B's heart but it did not work as supposed to so I did a small variation and I think it works just fine. Thank you Anne for the free pattern.

I hope all who follows my blog and writes here will have a Merry Christmas filled with lots of warmth and fullfilled wishes. For the second year in a row - which is a record really - it will be a white Christmas here in my country. It is sooo freezing cold and lots of snow so far and more to come tonight so I am glad I do not have to travel for Christmas. I only have to go to work tomorrow, roflol.
"Glædelig jul" from

Ingas doily

I am still around - at least a little bit - despite the silence for more than a month.
Below is a doily I did some weeks ago. Thread is a combination of Aida and a Lizbeth, both in size 20. Not the best colours I have chosen though, the original was done in a green and a blue and looks better than this. But that can happen when you choose colours, sometimes they work and sometimes they don't but you really don't know till the work is done.


It is designed by Inga Madsen whom I visited for some days in September.
She is such a great designer and a great person too. She shared some other stuff which will appear here as time permits. She even gave me a copy of her book "Fairytales in Tatting".

A search have ended - I think

A very long time ago - at least a year - I stumbled over a picture of a doily on the web and I fell in love with that design. Unfortunately there was no pattern and I myself and others asked around but noone seemed to know where the pattern was from. So I was not able to purchase the pattern but I did have the picture and because the design was a bit familiar to me I have tried to make my own. I think I have managed to make a good doily out of it.
Thread is Lizbeth size 40 and diameter is around 19 cm. Two of the rounds on this reminds me so much of the bookmarks I have done several times - maybe that is why it was not so hard to reconstruct the patern, lol.
If someone knows where the original pattern can be found for this doily I would still love to know so I would also be able to credit the designer. But for now my search have ended - at least for this design ;-D

Two tatters touring, part 3

When we went to Zealand we of course also had to be tourists in the capital where we spent an entire day and among other things took a boatride to be able to see as much as possible.

The first picture is a statue of the warrior-bishop Absalon who more than 800 years ago founded the city. The next picture is the pretty area called Nyhavn with all the colourfull houses earlier owned by sailors. Third picture is the spire of the church belonging to the navy.
Next row is the stock exchange from 1640, the marble bridge to the parliament which is the 3rd castle there and this previous was royal and to the far right the new opera donated by a very wealthy business man.
Third row is the town hall, the royal palace where the Queen lives in winter and to the far right the Rosenborg Casle where the crown juwels are guarded by the royal guardsmen.
Bottom row is the old royal library, part of the naval quarters at the old fortress and finally the entrance to the brewery called Carlsberg.
When you visit Copenhagen you can not leave out a visit to the Tivoli. The pictures here show the main entrance and the Pantomime Theatre. The rest of the pictures are just from around the Tivoli by day or when all the lights has been turned on.
It really is an amusement park and I believe it is one of the eldest in the world (if not the oldest) and it is situated right in the center of town, actually almost next to the Town Hall.
It is a must-see for all Danes, at least one visit, and also very famous worldwide.
After a long day in Copenhagen we jumped on the train and were back at my place almost 4 hours later. I was very tired I have to admit, lol. But I hope Liyarra got an impression of the place, actually we had taken so many pictures of all the places we saw that it was hard to choose which ones to show. I hope you do not think there are too many here.
I didn't get much tatting done during Liyarra's visit but afterwards I have been able to tat quite a bit. Above is a small doily I have done in Lizbeth threads, the pattern is from AnneB's website.

Right from the shuttle

It is coming right from the shuttles because it was finished last night, lol, so the ends have not been hidden yet or anything.
Pattern is from a Danish magazine some years back, the thread is Lizbeth size 20 both the white and the variegated called Springtime.

Two tatters touring, part 2

A few days after the trip to Skagen Liyarra and I went east to Zeeland where we were staying for a few days. One of the places we visited were the town of Roskilde where we visited both the Cathedral and the Viking Ships.
First picture shows some houses from the area close to the cathedral. It is an old town founded more than 1000 years ago and it's got a lot of old houses from within the last 3-400 years.
There are a couple of older churches in Roskilde but the big cathedral dominates the center of the town. It can be seen on 3 of the pictures to the left.
The building started around 1170 AD and it is the only Danish cathedral build in the genuine English style really. It really is both big and beautiful, and it is a very significant landmark in our national history.
The pictures to the right shows some of the inside of the church. Since 1536 all Danish monarchs have been buried in this church and all in all 2/3 of all the known kings in this country are buried here in seperate chapels with paintings and ornaments by artists.
The last picture shows a little brown squirrel which almost ran me over while was sitting on a bench and I was so lucky to be able to catch it with my camera, lol.
In Roskilde is also the museum with the 5 viking ships that was discovered in the fiord 50 years ago. In the picture above you see first a reconstruction of one of the ships that a couple of years ago sailed all the way to Dublin and back the next summer and some work in progress.
The museum is also the national center for reconstructions of ships and therefore have a sort of a harbour and a ship yard where they make the vessels with the tools from that time (the middle pictures). At the bottom pictures of the original 5 ships in the exhibition hall.
And finally a picture of some tatting. It is the the bookmark pattern that I never seem to get tired of doing. These 2 are done in some new Lizbeths size 40 and size 20.

Two tatters touring, part 1

I want to share a little about the things Liyarra and I went to see while she was here. First I want to tell about our trip to Skagen which is located at the top of the peninsula called Jutland and 2-3 hours away from where I live.
We had hired a car and Liyarra was courageous enough to be our driver. The picture below show 4 things we saw there.
From around 1880 and some 25 years on the small town of Skagen was a place where some famous Danish painters went for the summer and they have done some incredible expensive paintings from the area that today is a part of our heritage. The first picture is taken from outside the museum which we had to visit so Liyarra could see some of the paintings she had become familiar with.
The second picture shows the northern tip of Jutland where two seas meet - the Kattegat and the Skagerak - and it is a custom to go there and stand with one feet in each sea. So we of course had to do that too and we were so lucky that the weather was so sunny and a bit warm, so it was a nice experience.

The third picture shows a typical house from Skagen. In the center of the old town almost all the small houses are painted in a specific yellow colour and have red roofs. The streets are so narrow that 2 cars can hardly drive by each other.
Skagen is definitely a fishing town. There used to be more than 200 fishingboats in this small town but today there's 35 left. The boats of our time are of course bigger and there are also a lot of boats from foreign countries loading their cargo of fish in that town. The picture with the red houses shows where the fish is brought on auction and some have been turned into restaurants today.
Skagen is a very lovely little town to visit and the light up there is so special because it is surrounded by water on 3 sides. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the neighbourhood. And I can assure you that the fish taste very good.

Pattern designed by Lene Bjoern and done in one of my new Lizbeth threads size 40.

Tatting time after a lovely visit

Liyarra have gone home after almost 3 weeks at my place. It is so weird here now without her, :-( Thank you very much for coming and I hope you'll come back some other time if you're able to.

I think we had a lovely time together and we certainly were busy running around to see some of the sights here, so for me personally there was not a lot time for tatting and unfortunately not enough for learning all the stuff I had hoped to, so I will have to manage tatting with the knowledge that I have.

This first week on my own I have manged to do some stuff and 2 of the items are shown below. The square is from a Workbasket magazine and the other one is a Stawasz design - the purple one on Liyarra's blog actually. The white one is DMC size 20 and the coloured one is a combination of a variegated Lizbeth and a white DMC, both size 40.

There's a couple of more things to show, both tatting and some lovely gifts and purchases. There's also some things to tell and show about from the 3 weeks my guest was here, so I hope I will be able to blog here a little more than I have done for the past many months. As time permits I will share some of the memories and the things at this place. So stay tuned and I will try and be back very soon.

Where tatting can take you

It's been 4 months since I have written here and some might think I have given up my blog. But I haven't, it is just that I have not tatted much for months due to health issues and some other stuff. But there's something I want to say and it has to be today or it will be "old news".
I discovered tatting online 8 years ago and it has had an impact on my tatting skills and mostly been a huge source of inspiration which I needed so badly. What I did not know then was all the friends I would get worldwide because we all make small knots with fine threads.
Right now Liyarra is sitting in a plane 10-11 km above the surface of the earth somewhere between Singapore and London and in about 19 hours she will arrive here where I live. Lots of things have happened but after all it was possible to make the trip.
I know it is a hard and very long way coming here from Australia but I hope she will think it is worth every minute it takes because it is my plan that we are going to have 19 wonderful days together. We will be tourists here, we will tat, we are going to a tat-day to meet a lot of Danish tatters and most of all we will spend time together as very close friends. I am so looking forward to her arrival, I have had a billion butterflies in my stomach these last 2-3 days because it is getting so close now.
I do not hope you who might read this think it's been boring or a weird thing to write about. I am sure there will be tatting to write about and show these next 3 weeks. But you see tatting can take us anywhere and in more than one way.
The picture is just a small motif I have done, nothing special though. There's also a doily to post here but Liyarra have to see it first because there's some symbolism in the way I have done it.
Now it is back to handling all those butterflies and some final preparations to do. See you.

WIP is finished now

Now I have been able to finish the WIP I mentioned in the earlier message.

The thread is a combination of the Sage Rose and a DMC size 30. The diameter is around 18.5 cm.
The pattern is one AnneB have reconstructed and which she kindly shared with me after I had seen her doily at the meeting in the capital last month.
Anne, thank you for letting me do this one, I have really enjoyed it a lot and I think my outcome is OK even though I perhaps should have comebined the colours differently. The thread was also a joy to work with, a little rough perhaps but not a problem once you're used to it.

To use up the Sage Rose thread I did a Frauberger snowflake. I was afraid there wouldn't be enough of it for the entire snowflake so I also combined that with the white DMC 30. It is not excactly identical to Frauberger's pattern, I did a mistake but did it on all 4 sides so I think it now can be called a variation, lol. And her designs are such a joy to do.
I still have a small bit of thread left from the Sage Rose skien and I do think it would have been sufficient for the last round of the snowflake anyhow.

An 'old' one and a WIP

It has been a very productive tatting time these last couple of weeks - at least for me.

I had started a doily before the meeting in the capital that I brought with me on the trip and was able to finish it when I returned back home.
It is wellknown pattern for me, it is the Lund doily that I have done several times in different variations.
This time I have used one of the HDT's from Tatskool and combined it with some white DMC. It is a lovely thread to tat with, size 20.
I am also testing the Sage Rose that I mentioned in the previous post and also combined that with a white DMC in size 30.

The Bre-Aly thread felt very strong - very important for a tight tatter like me - and was very nice to tat with that is for sure.
I just had to get used to it not being as smooth as those I have used before. It was as if it had very small bumps but nothing major that affected the closing of the rings. It is just a matter of what I am used to I think.

It is still a work in progress because there's the last round to do, and I hope I will be able to finish it within a week or so.

News from a lucky tatter

I have promised to tell about my meeting with AnneB and Sulu in the capital last Saturday. We had a lovely time in my opinion, it was easy to chat even though we have never met in real life before. After visiting a yarnshop with no threads for tatting I think we spent 3 hours in a coffeeshop talking about and looking at tatting that we had brought with us. Later after dinner Anne and I were even able to go to her hotel room and tat together for almost an hour before I was exhausted from a long day.

Thanks Anne and Sulu for taking time for a meeting and for some great hours together. I simply forgot to take pictures, sorry.

Anne had even brought some new threads for us all the way from Norway. Aren't the colours very spring-like. I look forward to trying them out as soon as possible.

My very good friend from downunder have also gifted me with some awesome new threads to test.

To the left are Yarntopias Treasures and the purple is from KLMATTOX and they arrived just in time for Easter. Next ones are Sage Rose and Dream from Bre-Aly and finally to the right is Tourmaline, and these were awaiting me when I returned home Sunday evening. Aren't they just awesome too?
Thanks Liyarra for being so generous, I really look forward to test these too. I am so amazed by all those colourful HDT threads that are turning up these days.
Thank you very much my friends for some very happy moments these last couple of weeks. Now there really are no excuses for getting the doily in progress done quickly so I can play with my new threads.
Oh I feel so rich now and I am definitely a lucky tatter.

A week with lots of tatting

This week is really one with a lot of tatting on my part. First of all there was the first Tat and Chat with Liyarra the other day. It was so nice to be able to do it after a very long break where we had not been able to find the right moment to do one. It is always a lot of fun doing them and if you want to see what we tatted then go here to take a look: http://liyarrastattingnook.blogspot.com/
Recently I also bought myself some new HDT's to tat with - not sure what I will use them for yet though.
I love the colours and thanks Tatskool for the lovely threads and the extra free sample.
Finally there's a small tatting get together I am attending. Saturday morning I am taking the train to the capital to meet with AnneB from Norway and with Sulu who lives there. I really look forward to meeting those 2 girls, it will most likely be a lot of fun. We will be talking and looking at tatting and perhaps have a little time to sit and tat together.
I will return home on Sunday and I will most likely come back to this subject after the weekend.
So this is definitely a good week filled with tatting on some days off from work. And itsn't that what matters for us?

Eggs for Easter

I have started to tat a little again and hope I will do a bit in the weeks to come, but I wont overdo it.
Did a couple of eggs for Easter, which seems appropriate right now. I got inspired when I saw on Sulu's blog what she had done. I could not make an advanced flower so this is my solution.They are done in Aida size 20.
To inspire myself I have also bought some lovely HDT's from Tatskool in Ireland. I hope to be able to tat something with them in the near future.
It feels very nice to do some tatting again.

Still around but knitting

I am still around and have not forgotten my blog, no way, even though it's been very quiet here.
I have not really tatted for more than 3 months but I hope to try again around Easter, hopefully. But I have not been lazy, I have been able to knit some socks (again!!! - yes I know). I have a picture of the ones for myself but have done others too that are going to be a gift and because the reciever reads this blog I can not show them untill next winter. ;-)

Tatting is still very much on my mind and I miss it terribly. That is why I have been shopping some HDT from Ireland, an encouragement for starting again. And I am also working on a small tatting meeting the weekend after Easter - more to come later.
I hope you like my socks - they have been very useful this winter which have been so cold and with lots of snow for almost the last 3 months. But finally spring seems to be on it's way. Yahoo.
I will be back soon.

The Danish Guild

There's been some questions about the Danish Tatting Guild (Dansk Orkisforening) online these last couple of days. Their website is mostly in Danish and that is why I am writing this in English - I am just a happy member of the Guild but not a member of the board or anything and I just want to help out with the information.
The Guild was founded more than 10 years ago and they publish a magazine 3 times a year for members only with stories almost only written in Danish and a number of patterns. Usually the patterns are diagrammed in very good drawings where no knowledge of Danish is required. The designs are both done by members but also by some tatters who have published their work in books and leaflets that are available outside Denmark too. I can not share my patterns because of copyrights.
They do not sell single patterns (as far as I know) because it is meant for members. For international members membership is 200,00 Danish kroner (DKK) for one year.
If anyone wants to join you forward the fee to this bank:
Danske Bank, Copenhagen - SWIFT DABADKKK - IBAN NO. DK11 30003215224945
If you want to see their website and perhaps email the chairman then go here:
http://www.danskorkis.dk/medlem.htm
Please allow some time for Inga Madsen to answer if you email her. Noone gets paid for their time spent on work for the guild, and it may take some time to write a reply in English - it is not all up here that are used to communicating in English on a daily basis or they might lack some courage to do it. And sometimes there's a holiday to consider too but I am sure anyone will get an answer eventually. :-D
Happy tatting from Denmark.