2 New Christmas Books

The reason for the display of Christmas tatting (previous posting) was that some new Danish books with Christmas ornaments have been privately published in these last couple of years.
At the library I mentioned a particular new book and was asked if I wanted to display my tatting done over the last 25 years or so. A couple of my workmates did not know what tatting was but most of them knew because over the years I have been giving away some bookmarks to those who "deserved" one somehow, ;-) .

 

The two books above are by Inga Madsen and they are called "Tatted Christmas Ornaments" and "Christmas Ornaments in Tatting with Buttons and Beads". All in all I think there are 6-7 tatting books with Christmas stuff published here over the last 20-25 years.
But a few of the things in the display cases are also designs published online.

A few words and a lot of tatting

It has been ages since I posted here last time. I have never really skipped this but chose to use my limited time to do a little tatting now and then. But now I will see if I can get back here occasionally.

 

The pictures show the display case at my library with most of my Christmas tatting done over the last 25 years.
The books are the published Danish books with Christmas stuff.

Small item but how significant
I want to share a story, one that my Guild is involved in. 

For the last 5 years members of the Danish Tatting Guild have tatted these pink bows to support the Danish Cancer Foundation which have a campaign "Support the Breasts" supporting breast cancer research. Guildmembers have tatted them for free and then they are sold for 20 DKR (3 USD). All the money goes to the Cancer Foundation.
4 months ago the Guild had sold those bows and collected more than 60.000 DKR (8925 USD) and now we are aiming at 100.000 DKR (14819 USD).
To the left is a picture of Inga Madsen handing over the first huge check to the Cancer Foundation.
So no matter how small the tatted item is, it can still have a huge impact.
And now I have joined with my first 2 tatted bows - I lost my own mother to breastcancer 15 years ago so I guess it was about time to do it.

Just another big doily

Here is the doily mentioned in my previous posting, just another big doily.

Pattern is from my Guild magazine, threads are various Lizbeths size 20 and the diameter is 35 cm.

The Oval and Shuttles

Now the oval doily is finished. It took a bit longer than I had planned for various reasons.

The diameter is around 37 cm.

The threads are Lizbeth size 20 - the variegated is Scottish Thisle.

It is a bit fiddly to tat because of all those small motifs and they also makes it sort of loose which again requires quite some blocking so it will be flat. I managed to do it but because of those reasons I will not do it again.

On Facebook turned a transparnt shuttle up which was made in Japan. Transparent shuttles are rare I guess and someone started a petition there for Clover to put it into production.
Meanwhile the Japanese maker of the shuttle made it available for purchase and I was able to get a transparent one and a milk white one from them. The first time ever I have purchased anything from Japan and in their currency. They arrived here in only 4 days which is very quickly. And all thanks to the Internet.

I have just finished another doily and is hiding ends so it will turn up here in a day or two. And then it is back to finishing the Renulek 2015 Spring Doily.

A New Challenge
Some time back I gave up the Coats challenge. I then started the Renulek doily but put it on hold because the pattern was changed midways and I have not figured out what to do with it yet. I then worked on another big doily but still have the last round to do because something else have turned up.

Liyarra and I have agreed to do another challenge here during the month of May.
The doily pattern is from the Danish Guilds magazine (an Inga Madsen pattern) and is very much like the Siobhan doily we did years ago, but this one is a big oval one.
I have started mine last week and here is what I had done when I started it. Now I am looking forward to see what Liyarra have chosen to do - her work always look so lovely.

It is fun to be back doing a specific pattern with a good friend. We used to do that a couple of times earlier on when our lives permitted us to do this and it was a lot of fun and inspiration. I am so happy she have joined this challenge and look forward to seeing her doily.

The picture at the bottom is how far I have come today. The thread is Lizbeth size 20.

From a Guild meeting

Both last year and this year I have been lucky to attend my Guilds annual meeting. It is always such a treat to meet with friends sharing the love for tatting that you have not seen for a while.

We always have fun and some good laughs, getting inspired from talking about tatting, attending a workshop and having the chance to get some new materials like threads and shuttles. And the time just flies away and we end the day with coffee and cake and a raffle.

Usually there's also room for displaying members tatting at a table. This year I completely forgot t take pictures but last year I took pictures and forgot writing about the day here. So I have combined last years pictures with the description from this year. This year around 40-50 tatters turned up and what a lovely day with Inga Madsen, Lis, Lene Bjørn, Kirsten Wind and all the others.
I hope to come back next year.