Tatting clunies on a snow day

 Around here we don't enjoy snow in mid-March. The Greater Milwaukee Tatting Guild meeting that was scheduled for today was cancelled.

 So, there is time to tat clunies! I'm working out the details for an earring design I came up with a while back, but could never quite figure out how to do it again or explain what I did. I am determined to finish writing up the pattern! Fair warning, there will be a lot of technical details besides the challenge of the clunies!

"Unchained Beast" necklace

 "Unchained" because there are no tatted chains in it. "Beast" because it is a beast to make. It looks simple but it's hard, because there's no normal tatting in it. To get the alternating colors, I used Double Core Single Shuttle Split Rings, following the beautifully illustrated instructions from Jane Eborall's website. The diamond shapes are clunies, and I found Karen Cabrera's video helpful with learning these. I find her way of just letting the loop hang, instead of hooking it on little finger, to be easier for me.

The thread is size 3 Lizbeth, and the beads size 6 seed beads. I ran out of thread partway through, which is often going to happen when using big size 3 thread. Not much will fit on a shuttle, and I used my larger shuttles, too, so that's another way this project was a "beast". But, good practice and now I have a necklace to wear with my red t-shirt.

Blue Streak and first cluny tatting

This batch has the "bluest" blues that I've dyed so far. The actual blue shades are difficult to capture in a photo. It varies from light to medium dark, cool to warm blue.

Something else that I've been working on these last few days, is learning to tat clunies, aka tallies.  I've known OF cluny tatting for many years, but never got around to learning how to do it. I just figured I didn't need cluny leaves. But, in case somebody asks me to teach them, I guess I'd better learn. To me, learning to tat a cluny feels like battling the final "boss" in a video game. If I get through this, I win! LOL ;-)

Not that it's the last technique I need to learn, heavens, no. There are a lot of tatting things I've never done yet. But, nothing seemed as intimidating to me as a cluny, therefore, with joy I'm showing off my very first cluny project. It's from a pattern by Stephanie Peters. So, off to practice some more, and maybe come up with a cluny design of my own in the new year.