My 2020 Tatting (and Weaving and Micro Macramé and Wire Wrapping)

In spite of the relentless chaos of the past year, joy was found in staying creative. Some of my favorite projects of 2020:

My design "Flutterby Heart"

My design "Petal Portal"

Zipper pull gifts

Handwoven towels all from the same warp

From a tutorial by Macramé Tita

From a tutorial by Macramé Tita

From a tutorial by Macramé Tita

My design "Flat Carnation"

My design Double Flower Celtic

Same vintage pattern tatted 40 years apart

Designing the "Daylily Dance" pattern in progress

My design, "Daylily Dance"

My jacket with tatting, still a work in progress

My design "Dissent" collar, inspired by a collar worn by Ruth Bader Ginsburg

An example of wire wrapping combined with tatting

My last tatted project of 2020

Colors of the Peace Rose

 

The Peace rose is one of my favorite flowers, and the colors inspired my dye batch by the same name. I've listed some of the thread on Etsy.

It's been about a year since I posted my free tatting pattern "Star Capella" so here's the link to the PDF pattern and the link to my YouTube video. The mirror reversed, aka left handed video is here.

While I was doing the Peace batch, I made a short video showing how I dye thread and posted it on my Facebook page and the smartphone app TikTok. I'm @marileerockley on TikTok, which is all short videos (less than 60 seconds) in vertical format. The still photos below show painting the dye on the thread, and the rinse bath after the dye has set. These are of the Peace batch I just made. So you can see that the dye colors are much darker when being applied than how they look on the finished dry thread. 

Every Time I Look in the Stash

I find something interesting such as a gear (still being made!) that works with my unpublished gear earring pattern. If I still can figure out a tatted "gear" substitute for the center (for those who don't or can't buy the gears) I may publish it - or not, I don't know. What do you think?

I found a lovely Jasper stone cabochon that I'd been hoarding for years, so I turned it into a wire wrapped pendant with a spray of tiny tatted "flowers".

Like many other crafters who enjoy the sparkle of crystal beads, I'm totally miffed that Swarovski will be abandoning the craft market so my attitude is "don't let the door hit you on the way out" (I'm being nice since this is a family friendly blog). I made these blue earrings using crystal beads from their competitor Preciosa and they sparkle just as beautifully, so there.

Not much time for dyeing this week so only one size in this test batch, which I called "Fizzy Bubbles" since I couldn't think what else to call it - and it sounds so happy!

Tricked myself into wire wrapping another spray of tatted "flowers" onto a "Champagne" colored frame by putting all the supplies into a kit that was easy to grab while watching television.

Looked into my design folder on the computer and found a completely forgotten, partially written pattern from 2014. Well, I've started tatting it and have begun thinking of ways to repurpose the object with improvements.

So, it looks like I've been busy but I haven't posted here for several weeks. Just filling the time.

More Wire and Tatting Pendants

 

Vintaj® natural brass colored ParaWire, with floral style tatting of my own hand dyed thread. 

A burst of creativity resulted in 5 new necklaces added to my Etsy shop. I've decided that non-tarnish coated wire is the best choice for combining my tatting with wire-wrapping. It comes in a variety of permanent colors (obviously I love colors!) and no worries about tarnishing. Even Argentium silver eventually does tarnish and of course the silver is more expensive, so I won't likely be using it anymore. 

Bronze colored wire with hand dyed thread and nylon micro-macramé

Micro-macramé, or even a simple braided cord makes a nice color-coordinating finish for these projects and the sliding knot enables the necklace to be adjustable to any length. I like that the nylon cord is shiny and smooth, and tail ends can be melted with a lighter. 

Recently I've learned to be very careful with the lighter, as I had to re-do one neck cord because I accidently burned the wrong part. Didn't set myself on fire, though! ^_^

Titanium colored non-tarnish coated wire with hand dyed, white thread, and seed pearls.

2 colors of wire and 2 colors of cord

Tiny beads added during the wire wrapping. On the large focal bead I used a filigree bead cap from a "goodies bag" acquired at a long ago Tollway Tatters meeting. 

Free Tatting Pattern for a Dissent Collar

 

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.

This is the quickest I have ever designed a tatting pattern - only 4 days from just a vague feeling I should design a pattern based on RBG's dissent collar, to a finished collar, to a sharable diagram.

Top row and a section in progress

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Wearing My Jacket Embellished With Tatting

 Epic fabric art? A try anyway, and fun to do. The designs are my own, except the top round motif on back. That pattern is from Priscilla Tatting Book No. 3.

The bottom motif is from my new pattern "Daylily Dance". I sewed all the tatting on by hand using sewing thread to match the jacket color.

I also have an olive green cotton jacket that needs embellishing! That one will need a different color scheme. Plenty of uses for tatting, putting more creative beauty into the world, one knot at a time.

New Original Tatting Pattern: Daylily Dance

 

My new original pattern is done! 

I've listed the PDF in my Etsy shop. 

It's actually triangular motifs, each inspired by colorful daylily flowers such as this. 

There's a good measure of "cut and tie" as each motif is made in 3 rounds. The triangles can be joined together along with the narrow filler motif to create larger projects. I joined 6 of them to make the doily featured.

In size 20 Lizbeth each triangle motif measures about 3 and 3/4 inches (9.5 cm). 

In size 10 Lizbeth each triangle motif measures 5 inches (12.7 cm). 

The doily shown is in size 20 Lizbeth thread and measures 7 and 1/2 inches (19 cm) across. 

The tatting techniques used: ring, chain, picot, floating ring, join, lock join, lock stitch. I've written the pattern from my shuttle tatting perspective, but I think needle tatters will enjoy it too. The pattern has diagrams also.

The color combination possibilities are endless!

Hand dyed "Knitty Gritty"

 

The autumn leaves on the left side of the photo montage were seen during a recent visit to the Boerner Botanical Garden in Milwaukee County Parks. Immediately the thought occurred to me, "Those are 'Knitty Gritty' colors!" So, a fresh batch has been added to my Etsy shop.

Another project that I've been working on the last few weeks will become a new original doily pattern. Well, actually it's a motif pattern that can be repeated and arranged to become a doily or a larger item. For now, just a teaser photo of the work in progress. The pattern will be a bit challenging, however rest assured there are no split rings or Catherine Wheel joins in it! I've already begun the diagramming, so probably it'll be ready within a few weeks.