The "Night Wind" blows where it will - some of the skeins turned out with a lighter shade of purple than others, even though they were all painted at the same time with the same dye. The blues are the same, just the purple is paler on some. So, I separated them out in my Etsy shop listings. The size 40, 50, and 80 all have the paler purple. I did my best to photograph the colors as they appear.
It's the flier of class listings offered at the spring retreat for the Loose Bead Society...and that's my tatting on the cover! Such an honor :-)
My first time as a guest instructor at Georgia's Online Tatting Class on Monday, December 14. I'll be talking about making the "Ruffled Orbit" earrings.
event (who also runs the gift shop) said she would contact me about scheduling tatting classes at Discovery World! I'll post more about this when I get more info.
I'm tatting jewelry items like mad for the Holiday Artisan Market 2009, held at Milwaukee's Discovery World Museum on December 5 and 6. From past experience, I anticipate that the tatted jewelry will sell quite well. Hand dyed thread skeins don't go over so much in a general market. But the organizers have me on the vendor's list as selling both, so I'll bring along a few skeins anyway. 
Here's a photo of the way my booth looked last year.
A tatted ring - actually! 
The large bracelet is tatted in size 10, the small in size 20.
Hand dyed thread, so special for tatting and other lace work, begins as plain white thread (of high quality) and messy dye (I use Fiber-Reactive dye).
The wet dye color looks much darker than the finished color will look on the thread.
If I'm dyeing a yarn with a wool content, I add some vinegar to the dye, since wool fiber needs an low pH, as opposed to the high pH required by cotton. Then I give the plastic-wrapped wool a "steambath" for 45 minutes.
Here's a photo of the page with my tatting featured in Belle Armoire magazine. Recognize those tatted pendants on the bottom right?
The prize is a copy of the magazine, plus 2 skeins of my hand dyed thread. One skein each of "Pizazz" and "A Leaf Falls", both size 20.
Here is a photo of me hand painting thread with dye. The next picture shows the finished result, a lovely batch of "Garden Afternoon" hand dyed thread.
Obviously, this design could be varied endlessly by using different charms, findings, beads, thread colors, etc. It's quite simple. There are no split rings - but does require the use of 2 shuttles, and they are "switched". In other words, shuttle 1 trades places with shuttle 2 where indicated in the pattern, which is available as a pdf in my Etsy shop. BTW, there are many Etsy sellers who offer interesting charms and findings for sale. Of course, if you really want the same tiny keys I used, they are available at Bello Modo.
This is the first time I decorated a cap for the Chemo Cap Project. 
made a mistake, so... just kept going and made up a different flower. The center bead is surrounded by a self closing mock ring, and the motif just sort of grew out of that, using one shuttle and a ball thread.
For something that was intended to be a simple design, it sure seemed like a complicated thing to write up - golly!
So, is it the "Ruffled Orbit" tatted earrings? Or the simple "Lacy Treasure" pendant? Or, could it be the "Wondrous Window" pendant? We get to find out in November!
These vintage jewelry pieces and fashions are on display at Mount Mary College. I am gathering ideas from these classics, that I may use in my tatted jewelry designs.
"Snowflake" in very pale pastels. seems to evoke a cool feeling.
"A Leaf Falls" was just a small experiment with some of the same colors I used in my "Sugar Maple" batch, without the red. I thought it would be nice to add variety to the leaf colors, like nature does. I may need to make more of this!
It bothers me when a design doesn't look like it is going to work, while the tatting is still in progress. I've had this happen on patterns from books, as well as when I'm working out my own.
A very old tatting book showed a pretty motif with 5 "petals", and seeing it inspired me to design this black pendant. I may tweak the center a bit before writing up the pattern.
The earrings were also inspired by a vintage pattern. I like how they turned out, but I am thinking of variations that may improve on the design.
Here is another pendant started in HDT (same design as the first).
My weaving project has gotten to the actual weaving stage, yay! I decided to put some Brooks Bouquet (the part with the "holes") on either side of the patterned area. I think I will leave the center part of the cloth plain, with bands of patterning at the ends. So far I'm very happy with it! Yep, I'm thinking this table runner will be way too lovely to ever part with - but hey, I think I put on enough warp for two! 
