Hand dyed "Snowflake" is back

Hand dyed thread "Snowflake"

Just a coincidence that the weather around here brought the first snowfall the same week that I listed a batch of hand dyed thread "Snowflake" in my Etsy shop. (By the way, more "Poinsettia" will be the next batch.)

The snow covered the last of my late autumn flowers. This picture of purple "Sweet Alyssum" reminds me of the colors of spring crocus in the snow, so I will look forward to spring! (No worries in Wisconsin climate about Alyssum becoming invasive, as our cold winter freezes it out.)

I ran across this photo of my pattern of "Gear Earrings" and I decided to continue work on the pattern. I'm in the process of designing a variation with a tatted "gear" center in place of the metal one. This will make the pattern do-able for tatters who don't have access to, or don't want to use the metal gear finding. Hoping to finish this pattern before the end of 2022, otherwise it will be ready to list on Etsy in early 2023!

Single Shuttle Split Ring in a Dimpled Ring

 Just sharing this little reminder photo that I made for myself, hoping it may help someone else! 

The story behind this is: I knew that I had used Single Shuttle Split Ring (SSSR) at the bottom of the Layered Ring Christmas Tree pattern before, but it had been a long time since I made one. So I had forgotten how I'd done it and started the loop tatted part before tatting the dimpled part of the ring, and found out the hard way that the ring absolutely couldn't close! 

Pardon my dust, but this is not a tutorial on how to do a SSSR. Just a quickie note about how NOT to do it with a dimpled ring! (Also not a tutorial on how to do a dimpled ring.) ☺

The trick that I'm trying to show is to wait until after tatting the dimpled part of the ring before beginning the loop tatted section of the SSSR. In the photo above, you see the tail (yellow) where I stopped tatting over the ball thread tail, continued the dimpled part normally, and then started the loop tatting for the SSSR (white thread going to shuttle and the loop showing red and green).

I tossed my failed attempt into my sample box and started all over, finally managing to finish tatting a pair of sweet Christmas Tree earrings. 

Dye batch "Poinsettia"

 

My goal with "Poinsettia" was to come up with something a bit Christmas-y but more colorful than the standard red+white+green commonly available commercially. My inspiration was the Poinsettia plants themselves, which come in varying shades of red, pink, white, and... purple? Well, I have seen photos online of purple Poinsettias but I suspect those might be artificially colored with dye, ha! 

Well, purple is often used in Advent season (the weeks leading up to Christmas) so there it is. Oh, and the golden yellow is the actual flowers in the center of the colorful "bracts" which are really modified leaves - who knew?

This hand dyed thread has just been listed in my Etsy Shop.

"Autumn Glow" pendant

 

The mixed media pendant that I had started last week is done! I'm really pleased with this one, so much so that I've started another, though of course each one is always different. Some years back I posted a quick demo on YouTube showing my basic process in making these. I really should do another tutorial showing more detail of the tatting techniques I'm using in these, including hiding the tail ends without sewing. Would anyone be interested?

The silk ribbon that I like to include with these pendants is hand dyed by Quintess. She has a stunningly beautiful selection of ribbons, and scarves, too.

Started an Autumn Pendant

 

From my stash of hand dyed thread, I chose warm autumn colors of red, gold, and shaded greens in a mix of 10 and 20 (but that dark red seems a bit finer, so I'm not sure). Having completed the tatting of josephine rings and encapsulated chains, I'm in the process of wire wrapping it onto the frame. 

I found a pretty orange topaz colored glass briolette focal bead purchased from BastetsBeads on Etsy, planning to suspend it in the center, although that depends on if there's still room for it when I get that far! I don't plan ahead much, I just trust the process. 

Spooky and more dyes

 

A new batch of "Spooky" hand dyed thread has just been listed in my Etsy shop. 

I noticed that some of the dyes in my stash were running low, so placed an order to restock. I only use fiber reactive dyes for cotton to dye my hand dyed thread. Here's some of the vendors that I buy dye from:

• PRO Chemical & Dye
• Dharma Trading Co.
• Halcyon Yarn

Just posting free advertising for them here because they are good vendors with quality supplies that I've purchased from for many years. 

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Weather here is beginning to get very cold at night, close to freezing, but not yet. Here's some pictures of fall blooming flowers from my own garden.

Autumn blooming crocus "Colchicum Autumnale"

Phlox "Blue Boy" (mine isn't blue because of the soil PH but I like the color it is!)

Entwined

A new pattern has been added to my Etsy shop! 

It's really a very simple pattern, but needed explaining with photos, and then some folks asked about the sliding knot closure option so I added that, and the pattern grew to 10 pages! 

If you can tat split rings this should be an easy one for you. I used size 10 Lizbeth thread for the demo photos, and also did one bracelet in size 20 (the narrower blue-green one). Adding beads to the center of the open split rings is an optional variation.

Also new in my Etsy shop is a batch of "Sugar Maple" hand dyed thread.

Kicking around a new bracelet idea

Began on Wednesday with a completely different idea for a stackable, not too fancy, 2 color bracelet design and somehow the result in the photo above happened. I am not sure if it's ugly, or if it's cool and interesting. Well, I'll try the next one with purples, maybe some tweaks of the design, and we'll see how that looks. ☺

Hand dyed thread batch is in progress but won't be ready until early next week. The batch will be "Peace" inspired by the Peace rose.

Speaking of roses, I simply must post this photo of one of my other roses that really posed beautifully for its photo: "Charles Darwin", one of the English roses.

Last week I added a pair of Small Maple Leaf earrings to my Etsy shop. I used red for the center of the leaf, and hand dyed thread from the "Nectarine" batch for the outside edge.

Nectarine and wire projects

 

New this week in my Etsy shop is a fresh batch of "Nectarine" hand dyed thread. Of course, the nectarine in the photo was promptly eaten after the photo was taken! I only use Procion MX fiber reactive chemical dyes for my hand dyed thread. (^◡^ )

Tatted earrings, my own Celtic triangle design, with handmade wire-wrapped niobium ear wires and glass teardrop beads. The pattern varies slightly from the Celtic triangle taught in my Next Steps In Shuttle Tatting class on Craftsy, but it's made using the same techniques. The thread used was size 20, 3 colors of hand dyed, one of which is from the "Stardate" batch.

Earlier this month I finished another wire-wrapped pendant with tatting:

The thread used was sizes 10 and 20 of "Stardate" along with a light blue. The teardrop is an Amazonite stone, purchased from TerraFinds. The wire is non-tarnish Parawire in "Titanium" color, 18 gauge for the frame, 28 gauge for the weaving. The half drilled stone was wrapped in 24 gauge.

I'm really pleased with how well the hand dyed silk ribbon purchased from Quintess looks with the pendant!

Mixed media jewelry with tatting

 

What I usually do is pick the colors first! 

The hand dyed thread I chose for the tatted "flowers" is from the Misty Morning batch, along with some from Blue Skies, both size 10, as well as some size 20 Lizbeth in a solid light blue. 

The teardrop focal bead is Czech glass from BastetsBeads. 

The bronze colored non-tarnish wire is from Bello Modo. I used 16 gauge for the frame, 20 gauge for wrapping the focal bead, and 28 gauge for wrapping the tatting onto the frame. When wire wrapping tatting, I always wrap over the tatted double stitches, avoiding placing wire over a single thread, in order to keep the result as durable as possible. 

The tatting is a random arrangement of Josephine rings and chains of encapsulation technique, with the extra threads carried inside the chains until needed.

While wrapping the tatting onto the frame, tiny beads can be added where desired by stringing the beads onto the wrapping wire.

For macramé I like to use nylon cord in 0.5mm diameter. I appreciate the convenience that the many tails left over from macramé can be cut and melted with a lighter to secure them. The tatting knot can be done in macramé, too!

Wire wrapped touches can look very nice added to tatted lace earrings, too. This design is a variation on my simpler "Giddy" pattern which is published in the book Tatted Jewelry. 

(By the way, I no longer receive any royalties from that book, but I'm still pleased that my name is on the cover.)

"Misty Morning" hand dyed batch

 

New batch of hand dyed thread "Misty Morning" is now listed in my Etsy Shop. Shaded blues going into purple with a touch of straw yellow are in this, and I'm really pleased with the result. 

The flower pictures are of the same rose, showing it partially open after a late afternoon rain shower and then fully open in morning sunshine. It's a "Charles Darwin" rose, one of the David Austin hybrids. Planted on June 26, it's a very young plant, so I was thrilled to see it bloom so quickly! This season I also planted another David Austin hybrid called "Heritage" and a new "Peace" rose which has several buds on it. More color inspirations!

The "Flutterby Heart" pattern and video

"Flutterby Heart"

Using my new smartphone camera (which I'm not yet used to, hence some focusing issues) I made a quick video demo of tatting my free, original pattern "Flutterby Heart".

Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/JI5hxX3leRk 

Link to written pattern: https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/8248626/flutterby-heart-pdf-411k?da=y 

The video is in vertical format because I also edited a 1 minute version for Instagram and TikTok from it, and I didn't want to have to video everything in both orientations. But, no worries, I plan to do more YouTube videos in horizontal (landscape) format, since that works better for YouTube.

I've noticed that YouTube viewers tend to prefer short videos of a specific technique, rather than a whole project. so moving forward that's what I'll plan for YouTube. 

On the other hand, both Instagram and TikTok viewers seem to enjoy being "dazzled" by speed edited 1 minute videos showing quick in-progress clips finishing with a completed project at the end. That's how it seems to me, at any rate. 
 

New pattern listed: "Loopy"

Got it done! "Loopy" pattern is now listed in my Etsy shop.

Techniques used include chain, bead placed over a picot, lock join, shoelace trick, ring, using a Celtic shuttle to weave through a tatted motif.

Here's some pictures of color combos I've used this design for:

"Loopy" pattern writing is underway

 

A funny thing happened on my way to tatting a pointed collar. 

Some folks made it known that what they really, really wanted was the pattern written up for my "Loopy" set, which is difficult to explain and tricky to tat, requiring a narrow Celtic shuttle. (Needle tatters could probably easily work it but I can only write it up from the shuttle tatting perspective.)

So, I'll be finishing the pattern up maybe this week. The plan is to list it as a PDF in my Etsy shop.

Starting this collar with pearl tatting

Pearl tatting, aka double sided chain

The plan is to tat the top portion only of my fanciest necklace, and write up the pattern just for that much. Only the pointy collar top! Only that much!

Original design combining tatting and beading

Only the collar part (in dark purple in this photo) at the top, not the fancy beaded stone in the center or the rest of it. Although, the flower shapes on either side are a pattern that is already published in Marilee's Beaded Tatting Finery book as "Celtic Hexad".

So far, I've learned that when working with multiple threads, a convenient place to hide the tails is needed, and that place doesn't exist when there are core beads in the final ring!

Attempting to hide the tails ☺

So, although I love the elegant look of the beaded ring, I'll plan to go with a plain ring in the final version. If it gets that far!

Me, wearing my fanciest tatted necklace!