Tatting lesson 3

I worked on lesson 3 last night, and I am quite pleased with my progress, even though you can see from the picture that I am not (yet) a perfect tatter. Combining rings (the purple parts) and chains (the green parts) is the step I had never taken before now. Hurray for me!



At my last visit to JoAnn's, I found this size 20 thread, and I think it is perfect for a beginner like me. I love the colors, and the size is very manageble. Thank you Carol for recommending it.

As you can see, there are several mistakes in this swatch, and this is my second try. One of the rings has 4 picots instead of 3, and the join is with the wrong picot from the ring before. I will have to learn to read my tatting better since I find it almost impossible to undo a mistake once the ring is closed. I understand there is a way to do it, but I have not managed that yet. I'm used to crochet, where you can just pull on the thread to undo your mistakes. I am finding it difficult to keep track of where I am in a pattern, mostly because you have to pinch your work to make the stitches. I have to remember to undo the pinch and look at my progress to keep from making mistakes.

Over the weekend, I think I will try to make the heart from my lesson book. The swatch about is about 1/2 of the tatting I will need to complete it, so we shall see how it goes.

Gina, you are right, the pattern I want to be able to make, eventually, is the mignonette pattern. Thank you for that information, I was able to find a how-to on line.

My pictures were taken outside on the front porch at 6:45 AM this morning, since we didn't have any electricity at that time. I had to correct the color quite a bit (I think I got close) because the sun wasn't quite all the way up yet. I'm already finding it very discouraging how dark it is in the morning, and how early it is getting dark at night. That's one of the reasons the thought of spending winters in Arizona is so appealing. I heard the electricity came back on a couple of minutes after I left for work.

I also want to wish DD2 a happy birthday (again). (Blank) number of years ago, on this date, we received the gift of a beautiful baby girl, and we are still grateful for that gift.



Here are DDs 1 & 2 wearing their brand new dresses mommy made for them.



This is with her dad on her wedding day. This one makes me teary. Love you, sweetheart!

Nothing to see here

I've been busy, but nothing exciting to look at. I made a Christmas ornament for my guild's Christmas Ornament sale at our show in October.



I am making mari, little ones for the ornaments, big ones for my regular stitching, and middle sized ones for the classes I will be teaching this fall. The green one is for my Queen Anne's Lace temari that I will make when I'm done with all these chores. The 1/2 knee highs in the corner are what I stuff with rice hulls for the centers.



These are the middle sized ones ready for class. I'm about 1/2 way for the 2 classes I will be teaching this fall.



I'm running out of white and off-white thread for the wrapping, so I'm using goofy colors for the centers.

_

The kittens get very intrigued when I am winding maris, and think I am creating a kitty toy just for them. It does tend to slow down the process somewhat.

Tatted lace for Hankies

I think I am getting ahead of myself. Now that I've learned to do a little bit of tatting, I went looking for my hankies from my grandma D. I found 4 tatted ones (and 2 hairpin lace ones, and a handful of crochet ones, but I didn't count those). I hadn't looked at these in so long that they were kind of sad, and a little discolored. I washed them last night, and ironed them, and they came out as crisp as if they were new.

The top one is the simple edging that I've been able to make for years. The second and the fourth ones are a variation on the "hens and chicks" pattern that I should be able to make; I learned the techniques in lesson 2. I really like the variegated thread of number 2!



Number 3 is also worked with variegated thread, and is actually in the worst shape. It has a 3-inch section where the lace is gone, but what is left is very pretty. It is a ring and chain pattern that I haven't attempted yet.

However, none of these is the pattern I was looking for. Then I remembered my album with all my grandma's samples and swatches in it, and there it was, about 1 inch wide, but enough to tell what the pattern would be. It is 3 rows of small rings with long unworked threads between them (almost in a netting pattern) and a row of chain around the outside. It always seemed so delicate to me. I'll try to get a picture of the sample tomorrow.