MIdnight Oil and Elegance earrings

 Dark red shading to black is my Midnight Oil colorway in hand dyed thread. I've been advised that I should do a similar effect using dark blue, so I'll think about that. Meanwhile, I played with a sample of size 20, using a pattern that I hadn't tatted for years, the Elegance earrings from my Boutique Tatting book. Actually, many of my own patterns I haven't tatted in years, so...perhaps I've designed too many patterns? ;-)

Well, the "bread and butter" side of the business, hand dyed thread, keeps me very busy with dyeing, rinsing, and labeling, so there isn't much time left to tat. Probably a good thing.

I used a Swarovski 8mm round for the earring center, and a 9x6mm faceted teardrop for the bottom dangle. The dark gray are metal beads that I found at a local bead shop, Eclectica's. The pattern doesn't say how much thread is needed (I wasn't so detailed back in 2008) but just 1 yard on each shuttle is plenty for this pattern. It's tricky, but doesn't take long to do once you figure it out.