Revamping My Earlier Design

Some folks familiar with my Tatted Jewelry book published in 2011 by Annie's Attic may see similar design elements to the "Newcastle" necklace in those pages. Well, 10 years have gone by, and I think I can do better. ☺ So, this week I came up with what you see here.

I like it as a high collar or choker necklace, but it's too wide to wear lower on the neck. I'm thinking that with some more changes a smaller variation could be made for a pendant style necklace. If that is successful, then I'd write up both versions to put into one pattern.

Not sure what to call the new pattern, but probably something to do with wings or flight.

Blue hand painted shuttle by Rita Richmond of Shuttle by Design
looking good with blue thread!

A Way To Sew Tail Ends In Tatting

 

In response to inquiries about sewing ends into tatting, I made this video. This method isn't my invention, but simply my demonstration of the process.

I'm happy that the new Craftsy website has now put both of my tatting classes into the "jewelry" category. I think that's a much better fit than the previous "crochet" category. After all, tatting is a very different technique than crochet.

I'm having fun making some basic tatting lesson videos on TikTok. Quite the challenge since each "lesson" has to be one minute or less. My goal is simply to show people enough to get them interested. With that, they'll have the motivation to search online for more information on tatting. From the responses I've been getting, it's apparent that many people had either never heard of tatting, or didn't realize there was loads of tatting info and patterns online.

Tatting is on TikTok

There are several tatters already posting on the smartphone app "TikTok" and I've been on it about 5 weeks now. What it's all about is short videos, 60 seconds or less. The format is vertical, which is a bit of a challenge since tatting movements are mostly horizontal, but it works. The 27 seconds video I posted on January 15 went "viral" - by tatting standards, anyway. ♥☺ At the time of this writing it has received over 11 thousand views, 2400 likes, and over 200 comments. 

The comments are of the same kind we've all heard before: "So beautiful", "My grandmother tatted", "How long does that take?", "I thought that was crochet", "What magic is this?" "That's a lost art", etc. Also much interest in learning how to tat. So, a new audience eager to learn tatting.

The project I demonstrated in the video is my remake of a vintage pattern 
found in the book "The Tatter's Treasure Chest".

I found the original pattern rather hard to decipher, so I tatted a practice piece first, to see how it all fit together. Following that, I decided where to adjust the stitch count, where I wanted to place beads and eliminated some decorative picots that might get messy by wearing as a necklace. I had some trouble with the large bead inside a tatted ring, so that got turned that into an "opening a closed ring" demo.

Such fun!

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.