Errors

I have been working on the yard this week and last.  Not a lot of piecing, quilting or hand work was done except for tatting.  Even then I felt like I was doing more un-tatting then tatting.  

This picture is one of many errors that I did.  I had finished working in the garden for the morning and was sitting on the deck listening to the birds and tatting.  On the right I had twisted the group of three rings.  (I should have changed my jeans before the picture.  Took the pic with my phone.)  I was so frustrated with myself.  It was un-tatted. 

This is from last night.  See that loop at the tip of my shuttle?  I just didn't snug up the thread as it must have been twisted and then it popped loose.  Again, I un-tatted.  It takes longer to un-tat than to tat.  I worked on this for one and a half hours.  I could have just cut the thread, fussed to rejoin and move on.  But I do like the challenge.  Really??  Only when it is a quick un-tat.  This one drove me nuts.

It also drove Ziva nuts.  She wanted my chair as it was past her bedtime.  She did take a couple of swipes at the shuttle which she usually ignores.

Error was fixed, tatting was put aside, and I went to bed.  So did Ziva.  The minute I put the blanket on my chair she moved in.  

I will be outside in an hour.  Have another weeding job scheduled to do this morning.  We had rain yesterday, so no weeding or clean-up was done.

Until then I will try to finish off this row of tatting.  I have two motifs to finish.  I hope for no un-tatting on this last bit.  This row has been a trial.  Not hard to remember the pattern.  That is probably why the errors.  My mind wanders.

Linking up to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.  Enjoy your threads.

 

Tatting

In 1973 I was an RN in Rochester, NY.  A good friend that I worked with had a Grandmother who tatted.  I asked if she would be willing to teach me how to tat.  She was and taught me how to make the Double Stitch and turn it into a ring.  (I still have the shuttle she used to teach me.  One of my treasured possessions.)  She told me that was all there was to it, the Double Stitch.  I made lots of rings, but I knew there was more.  

In the early 2000s I was thinking, what will I do with my hands when I retire?  Would quilting, knitting, embroidery be too expensive when I retired.  What would I do to keep my mind and hands working.  I re-found tatting.  Watching the internet helped but I found a great intro book:  Learn to Tat with interactive DVD by Janette Baker.  The Double Stitch is still mainly all there is to tatting but it is what you do with it that makes it amazing to me.

Renata Niemczyk (Renulek) has a tatting Blog: Frywolitki,Tatting,Chiacchierino.  Every spring she offers a doiley pattern in rounds, rows, on her blog.  Ziva is on the 2018 doiley that sits on the back of my chair as an antimacassar.  I had put the doiley there to look at it and Ziva hopped up.  It remains there to this day.

Antimacassar: a small cloth placed over the back of a chair or sofa.  A washable, decorative fabric blotter.  They were used to protect the chair sofa material from the hair oil that was used by men in the Edwardian and Victorian times.  I just love that word.

 The 2018 doiley was made with a Size 20 Lizbeth 6-cord cordonnet thread.

I like this pattern a lot and decided that I would tat it again but in a Size 40 thread, finer in weight.  I started it October 2022 and then after 6 rounds there was a pause.  (Darn squirrels.  I don't even know which one it was.)  Renata has put out her 2023 Spring Doiley pattern and I decided I wanted to tat it.  Well, I cannot until this one is finished.  So, I will finish. 

Here is my tatting box.

The doiley and shuttles at the beginning of round 8. 

The inside of my tatting box: tiny crochet hooks, little scissors, picot gauges, and filled bobbins to go into the shuttles.  Also, orange stick, red material circles, thimble and small finger pin cushion.  Hmmm, why are they there?  Let you know next week.

Enjoy your threads.  I hope to link up with Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.