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Friday, September 19, 2014

Snowflakes

I am finished making crosses for now and have moved on to making snowflakes. I love tatting snowflakes.  There are many beautiful patterns and the lacy, delicate look of tatting mimics a snowflake well.

This snowflake is a Jan Stawasz pattern done in Altin Basik 50 metallic gold.

I was a little disappointed in the final product.  It seems a little dense, not enough negative space for a stand alone snowflake.  It is a motif from a larger doily pattern from the book Tatted Treasures.

This next one is a design by Robin Perfetti called First Snowfall.  You can find this and all her other free patterns here.

I really love this pattern and will tat it again in a larger thread.  This one is done in Finca Perle Cotton # 12 in color #8728 which is a silvery/gray color.


Another beautiful pattern by Robin Perfetti is called "Design Tutorial Snowflake" and can be found from the above link.  I think this is my favorite of her snowflakes.

The pattern is written to do the snowflake in two rounds, which is perfect if you want to do each round in a different color.  I chose to do the snowflake in one color, so I was able to skip from round one to round two by using split rings.  I started the first round on the third ring of an inner trefoil so that I would end on the larger middle ring, which I make a split ring of 3+3-3-3/3+3-3-3-3.  Then the first small ring of the second round was made 6/6 with a small mock picot between the two rings.  This is how it looks after the two split rings.
I then continued on with the chain, jk, and next ring when I notice that I had joined the second ring in the wrong spot.  But ignore that boo-boo and concentrate on my fancy-schmancy split rings to jump to round two.  Great pattern, quick to tat and looks beautiful in Lizbeth Ice Blue size 40.

And finally, we come to the last snowflake for today (but not for the season).

This pattern is by Renulek and is found here.  The onion rings in the center were a little tricky because I thought that the inner-most rings were thrown rings off the chain but they are not.  All of the inner rings are tatted with shuttle one as the working shuttle.  After a little fiddling, here's what I figured out.  Start with one of the inner most rings, then turn that ring upside down and tat the outer ring (the one inside the onion skin) next.  Then reverse work and tat the onion skin, joining at the intersection of the two rings.  Do not reverse work and tat the little chain going to the next ring.  Once I figured out that I don't need to switch shuttles, it was a piece of cake.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Tatting as Meditation

I have heard other tatters mention that tatting is very relaxing.  It is relaxing for me, too.  I have a theory as to why tatting is more relaxing than other pastimes.  Tatting has a lot in common with meditation.  Meditation, at it's heart, is a process of focusing your mind on a simple element, say a syllable or chant or a breathing exercise.  By focusing your mind on something simple, you quiet the stream of consciousness that worries about money, or your kids, or tomorrow's plans.  And quieting that internal voice allows all the stress to melt away so you can relax.

Tatting focuses your mind on each knot as you count it:  One...two...three...picot...one...two...three...picot.  Your mind can't think about tomorrow's plans or how to get your kids to eat vegetables because it's focused on a simple element, counting stitches.  If you start daydreaming or worrying while you are tatting, this is how you end up counting:  one...two...three...picot...one...two...oops, that was supposed to be a join, not a picot.  Un-tat two, un-tat one...join...one...two...three...picot...etc.

Here is my Zen tatting for this week:

  Yet another Mary Konior Small cross, this time done in DMC size 80 in black and white.  It is very small and delicate.  All these crosses I'm making are to be sold our church Harvest Festival coming up in September.

This cross is from Jan Stawasz's Tatted Treasures.  Not one of my favorite cross patterns, but I was getting tired of the Mary Konior pattern and wanted to mix it up a little.  This is done in Altin Basik #50 in gold metallic thread.  When I finished it, it looked more like a Christmas ornament than a bookmark, so I put a hanger on it instead of a bookmark tail.

I'm done with crosses for now and have moved on to snowflakes, but I'll save those for another post. Wishing you all relaxation as you tat.