I'll be teaching at Finger Lakes 2025

 

The "Burst of Joy" necklace that I'll be teaching

Yes! I'll be there, live and in person, along with many other excited tatting people at the Finger Lakes 25th Anniversary Gathering, April 4-6, 2025.

Picture from Finger Lakes 2018. I'm standing on the right.

Hope to see you there!

A pretty good year

2 necklaces from the "Duchess" pattern in my "Boutique Tatting" book. The green is the original from 2008 in a size 10 thread of a brand I can no longer get. The black is Lizbeth size 10 tatted in 2024. I've learned the difference!

Bobbin lace Dragon designed by GaliciaBee. In 2024 I made progress in learning bobbin lace, which I had been curious about since the 1970s!

Peace symbol in tatting and wire wrapping. We always have hope! 

In 2024 I finally wrote up the pattern for this tatted belt, which I experimented with since 2014.

In 2024 I heard a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City! 

Someone asked for a Menorah tatting pattern, so I designed this one, inspired by the branched candlestick by Elgiva Nicholls.

My watermelon pattern came next, either a symbol of summer picnics or support for Palestine.

My largest project in 2024 is the "Leaves of Lace Garland". Currently in round 1 of the jurying process for an exhibition. I'm hoping it gets in!

Brought out my pattern for a "Dissent Collar" again. Yes, I'm a liberal, as most artists are.

I love this bobbin lace pattern by GaliciaBee for which I used thread purchased from her Etsy shop!

Wishing you all a very happy, safe, and creative 2025!

 

Just popping by

Knitting in progress, and Marilee modeling the finished hat.

I knit a hat! The pattern is from the book "Knitting from the Center Out" by Daniel Yuhas. I borrowed the book from the local public library. 

Beaded center and tatted earrings are something I'm currently having fun with. They remind me of mint candies! 

This simple square pattern was inspired by a vintage pattern, I think the same one I used for my "Victory" necklace pattern. I have not written up the pattern for the earrings, though.

The latest new hand dyed thread colorway I call "Angelonia", after the flower. 

By the way, I'm on Bluesky now too, at @yarnplayer.bsky.social 

My original patterns are not AI

 

"Ripple" tatted necklace Marilee Rockley 2012

Some of you may have heard about the miserable thieves who are using Artificial Intelligence technology to "make" books to sell. Really horrible, fake books loaded with wrong information (lies) and stolen photos. They're so bad it would be laughable except they hurt a lot of innocent people who are looking to learn a new-to-them craft. 

I refer you to Karen Bovard-Sayre's YouTube video about AI Generated Scam Tatting Books https://youtu.be/Plh6jnrC0Ho?si=3C4YQMu4hf3gm0AD 

In case you didn't know, I have a free patterns page (2nd tab at the top of this blog) also here's the link: https://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/p/my-free-patterns.html

All the patterns there were designed by me, and these took many, many hours of experimentation, trial and error, and re-tatting to get the final results. I offer these for free because I sincerely care about tatting and want to encourage people to enjoy tatting and feel the fulfillment of creativity. 

Thanks for your support of designers that are real human beings.

Re-sharing my Dissent Collar pattern

 

The only techniques used in this pattern are ring, chain, reverse work, picot, join, and lock join. 

Tat the top row across first, shown in gray on the diagram. Then continue tatting down and up for each narrow section. The picots between the narrow sections need to be gradually larger to enable the sections to fan out nicely.

I made mine using size 10 thread, but since this collar is worn like a necklace, the size doesn't really matter.

Top row and first section in progress

Beads can be added inside the top rings.

I'm using 6mm beads with size 10 thread in the photo above.

My tatting pattern was inspired by seeing a picture of RBG's dissent collar. ♥

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Leaves of Lace Garland is finished

 

"Leaves of Lace Garland" by Marilee Rockley 2024

My leaf project is done! 

I'm quite happy with the results, and since I'm already a subscriber to Fiber Art Now magazine I've gone so far as to sign up for a CaFÉ account so that I can enter my fiber art into exhibitions. Maybe this will give me incentive to do more larger "art" pieces.☺ Of course, we know that all tatting is an art (not lost!) 

Details: There are a total of 32 tatted leaves in this garland. I started with a vintage leaf pattern and modified it to make leaves of varying sizes, adding an edge to the branch end of each leaf so that they could be joined together later. All of the leaves are in size 20 thread, using Lizbeth, Flora, and my own hand dyed to get a variety of colors.

To join the leaves together I chose a dark charcoal gray thread, and tatted 2 rows of chains only, the first row to connect the leaves, and the 2nd row to stabilize the arrangement. The leaves are still free to "flutter". No stiffening was added to them, but my lace is quite firm as I naturally tat tightly.

I made a clasp of polymer clay in a branch and leaf shape to finish the garland.