Okay... A *little* progress...

So. With some *very* helpful hints from Judy over at Intatters & StephanieGrace here on Blogger, I decided to give it another go. And this was the result. I did it while Untatter was napping today, so it took me about 2 hours or so. I'm really quite proud of it. It does look somewhat "padded", & it is quite floppy, but I'm altogether positive that that is a result of my lack of practice. A smaller needle & some practice would probably help alot. I do like the fact that my end join wouldn't twist if I'd asked it to. LoL.
Now, working with the needle, I made a couple of observations. Feel free to correct me if you feel like I'm incorrect.
1. It seems to me that while shuttle tatting is a bit more compact, it would be easier to needle tat on the move. Say at the doctor's office, because when you lay your needle down, it doesn't leave a loop of thread hanging to pull & become tangled. I *hate* laying down a ring in progress because it never fails - something always gets tangled up in it, & when I go to untangle the mess, it pulls my ring close enough together to make a mess when I try to loosen it back up. I'd have to be more practiced at it so it didn't take me a year & a half to reverse my work & tie the knot, but it's something I'm thinking about. It also requires (slightly) fewer tools. I might need a needle, & scissors, but with my shuttle, I carry several tools & use them. Hmm..
2. It seems like it'd take alot more practice to be good at. I know alot of you say you learned to needle tat because you couldn't get the flip. But for me, it's SO hard to get the stitches off the needle without twisting them up in a knot! Then I have to tie the knot at the end, which for me is an ongoing challenge of how to turn it the right direction so my next chain doesn't twist. Bleh.
3. I totally see why some people think it's faster, but I don't. A practiced shuttle tatter (even myself) can tat & pull the rings closed with at least the same speed. It just takes practice I suppose. Not that I'm a pro, or awesome, or super fast (actually quite the opposite)
4. I do like the way the chains close up better. Once they're "closed", or off the needle, they're done. No fiddly sliding the stitches back & forth to keep them where you want them.
5. Maybe with more practice I'll change my mind, but all the tying knots at the end of every element seems fiddly to me. Maybe I should practice more.
6. And finally - while I do believe it is useful to know both techniques, I AM a shuttle tatter. For now anyway. Not that I'm permanently putting up the needle, or that I'm looking down my nose... Just that the shuttle is my preferred method. For now.

It's tatting, I can't deny that. And when the needle isn't stuck up in my finger, it's actually enjoyable. I plan on more practice, and I do hope I haven't offended anyone. It is truly (to me) just as complex as using a shuttle. I look at a needle just as you look at a shuttle :)
Off to haul hay for the winter :)

Why I'm a shuttle tatter!

On occasion, I'm inspired to try something different to what I normally do. This happened the other night while doing my normal reading over at Intatters. There was a post asking if anyone else is into Cro Tatting. There are links to both the post & Youtube here and here.

At the moment, I can't afford to purchase the set of CroTat hooks they sell at Handy Hands for right at $34, especially on something I"m not sure I'll even enjoy. So, I searched through all my crochet hooks & couldn't find anything that would work. I tried. So... At this point, I thought "well, at least I can brush up on my needle tatting skills until I can find a hook that'll work"....Right....

This is my needle tatting. After 3 hours of trying, this is all I got. That cute little ring on the bottom there? That's supposed to be a chain. What I didn't take a photo of was the miles of thread bits & the first joint of my index finger that looks like a pin cushion. Bleh.Maybe it isn't worth it to me because I can use my shuttles instead... Eh...
Methinks I'll just shuttle tat rings & bare thread, then crochet over it if I want them both together. I've already picked out a picture of a rings only doily I plan to try this out on. Shuttles are wound, all is right in the world again.... :) Hats off to you people who can use the needle!!!
Enjoy your day!

For once....

All my dishes are done, all the bills are paid for the week. My floors are mopped, & my bathroom is clean. All my laundry is even washed, folded, AND put away....Untatter is watching "Word World", so she doesn't have any interest in Mommy - unless I choose to bring out my tatting bag.

So I can't do that, despite having nothing else to keep my hands busy. So. I'm talking to you about the things I've been doing.

This is the beginnings of my new carry around tatting bag. It's not sewn together yet, just laid up there. It's scraps from a pair of jeans that finally gave up the ghost when I put my foot in the stirrup to get on my horse the other day... Yeah, my drawers were showing. Fortunately, I was at home & no one saw! The light part is where I made my pocket. I wanted the outside of the denim showing inside the pocket.

 This is the crochet "outside" of my bag. I'm not a good sewer, or a great crocheter, but I can muddle my way through a few basic stitches, one being the double crochet. That's what this is done in. I had this yarn laying around the house. Found it under the bed a month or so ago when I was looking for something else & have been pondering what to do with it. I honestly thought I'd either used up or given away all my yarn, but I have a bag of this stuff - it amounts to about 4 skeins! Eek! I like it though... It's a nice, soft, denimy color of blue & white, & it seems pretty strong. Survived the Untatter tug of war last night.... When I get the last piece made to cover up the inside pocket, I have a swatch made that I'm going to sew to the back outside to put maybe a pattern in. I'm thinking it needs a pretty button or something on the outside, aren't you?? :)

 This is my tatting project in the works.  Yep, it's blue too. I'm alot like Lace Lovin Librarian in that I love blue. I always have. Can't control myself, sometimes it just shows up. I'm not sure if this will be a table cloths, a runner, or just a big square doily.

 It works up in individual motifs, & since I don't know split rings or chains, I have to cut & tie them each. But I don't mind. I actually kind of enjoy finishing each one & checking it out before I move on to the next. It was meant to be worked as four of the motifs, & be around 5"x5".... But I did the four & decided I wanted to do more. The plan originally was to work until I got tired of it or until I finished that ball of thread, then decide what I wanted to do with it. It's Lizbeth, so I figure I'll be able to get more. It was a break from the Rose Garden doily, & from the snowflakes & angels. I get bored easily nowdays. I think it's this time of year - I'd rather be outside, but sometimes it's just too hot to have Untatter outside for long periods of time.

This is the pattern. It's by Cherie Wheeler, if your screen won't show that up. I've had it for ages & never even tried it. I'm glad I finally looked at it & thought "oh this will be easy enough for me" :) If anybody wants it, I can send you a link. The web address shows up on my printout. It was a free pattern. Thank goodness for those generous people who design & post!!
I've also been riding every chance I get. I'm hoping by January (when the new NBHA season starts) I'll be ready enough to join again & start racing. I've missed it so much! It's been almost 5 years since I turned a can in competition & I never really realized how much a part of me it was until I got on another good horse. I've had horses in that time - one mare I'll have until she goes to heaven; I just can't really ride her anymore, & a less than great one I'm glad is gone... Even if I did lose money when I sold her, it was worth it - but none that truly touched my heart like Chico has done. No, I didn't name him. It's a part of the registered name he had when Daddy decided we matched. My father has this way of doing things so you don't realize it until it's already done... He asked me to ride this horse as a favor to him.  A month later, the papers were transfered & he was mine - or I was his, depending on who you ask! I'd have never taken a horse from him for nothing. Haven't done that since Melody (I've had her 15 years), the mare I'll always keep.  Much less one of the quality... Well now I'm bragging. Let's just leave it at I don't deserve it, but I have a wonderful father that still looks after me even though I'm almost 26 & have a small family of my own. He is truly a blessing that I thank God for every single day. Enough mushy stuff.
I've also been searching thread online. They've discontinued my favorite (Flora), and so I've been kind of searching here & there for something else nice. I use Lizbeth, but it's kind of hit or miss in the quality I've been able to find. Even when I order from Handy Hands, some of it is just.... not right. It could very well be just my taste in thread, but I just don't care for it. I love the colors, but I just don't care for the thread. So now, I'm asking if any of you have any suggestions. What kind of thread do you favor??? :)
Enjoy your day!

Totally Tatting Unrelated

But I had to share it anyway! Last night, I took the Horse to a practice jackpot barrel race... Nothing major, not a big prize or alot of people there. But he did FANTASTIC!! I didn't enter the jackpot, I just practiced beforehand... He isn't quite speedy enough for the whole "fast" thing yet, but he does have another gear under there.... Right now I'd say we're in about... Ohhhh 4th... Now 5th will be a whole nother level that I don't think I'm quite up to yet. But ohhhh it was wonderful... People complimenting his style of turning, how easy he went through, his tempermant, & (I swear he understood because his head got bigger & he was all perky) yes, his looks. I've always thought he was gorgeous, but everybody else says he's just plain... Which is true of his color, he's bay all over (brown for you unhorsey people). One little tiny white strip around his hoof on the right front.  That's it. But ohhh I'm so happy!! They have this jackpot on 1st & 3rd Friday nights around here, & next time we go, I'm pretty sure he'll have all his gears ready to go... Woohoo!!

What I've been up to...

I haven't had much tatting time the last few days. I've been outside - it's been less than 90 degrees here for the last 3 days!!! Much as I love it, I'm afraid it means fall is coming, which is followed by.... oh.... winter... ohhh the pain... :( But. I did get a few little things done, & I'm about to start on something pretty big I think. For me anyway.

 This is the start of my Christmas stuff.... Ornaments & so on. Last year I waited until October to get started & almost didn't. I finished my last ornament on the 24th of December! So this year I thought I'd move it up a notch. None of these are blocked or starched... They're actually how I layed them as I finished them the other night when I was tatting. The star is from a scan of an old Workbasket Magazine that I don't have. See how that top angel looks a little wonky? I wonder if I can fix that with starch & pinning??

 This... Well I'm not sure what to call it, but it started out because I saw... I believe it was Gina's post about rings off of picots on another ring. I didn't do mine exactly like the video (I kind of did a lock join on both sides of the ring...), but I kind of like it. I did it in white thread because that's what I had on the shuttle in my bag at the moment, & it kind of looks like a random snowflake... I don't know that I'll make a bunch of them for CHristmas, but I'm pretty sure I'll use it for something, someday...

This... OH.... I'm not sure why, but I just absolutely adore this angel! Both of my angels in this post are from the book "15 Tiny Tatted Angels". Funny to me how mine look so different than the book. But I just love this one particular angel. I plan on tatting them all, between now & Christmas, as each one only takes me about 20 minutes to make. But isn't she just darling?
In other news - after all these years of searching for those plastic pins to use as stitch keepers, I found them. I was so excited I posted about them. And yet, the FIRST time I go to actually USE one, the stupid thing BROKE! Went to clasp it and it BROKE. As you can imagine, I am disappointed. Very. I grabbed another one from the pack & it didn't break, but at this point, I'm sure glad I didn't get rid of all my coil-less safety pins! At the rate I'm going there won't be any left. That one was broken when I went to the living room to clear up my tatting mess before Untatter got up this morning. *sigh* Live & learn...
I'm also planning on taking the Horse to a jackpot race this weekend. Finally, I know!!! I'm very excited. We may not actually run in the jackpot, but we're going down early & paying so I can ride & practice in the arena beforehand. Depending on how well he behaves, we may run, may not. For those of you that don't know, he's only left home once since he came to live at my Daddy's when he was 6 months old. He's now 4 years, 5 months old. In my defense, a horse has to be 2 before you can ride them without causing some kind of damage to their joints, ligaments, tendons, & bones. After that is another solid month of riding, then (at my house) back out to pasture to grow & mature until they're 3. Now, in Chico's case, he belonged to Daddy when he came here. Daddy rode him about 5 times & turned him back out. He's alot better than I am with horses. On his 3rd Birthday, Daddy got him out & rode him twice over the span of a month. Then one night he says "why don't you ride him, Randa?".... Being dumb & forgetting he'd only been ridden 7 times, I did it. I like "broke" horses, folks, I'm not ashamed to say it. But it was magic.... He couldn't neck rein or back or sidepass, but it was pure magic. I was in love and haven't looked back since. Yes, he's the same horse that gave me the (still somewhat) numb hand, but it was an accident & that kind of crap happens when you ride any horse... But now... Now he's a product of my abilities & I'm VERY proud of him. Barrel racing is a hard thing to learn correctly, if you don't want a horse that "blows up"... Or looses his ever lovin' mind in lamen's terms. I like to think I've done a good enough job on his foundation. Not to mention he's just a great little horse. Anyway, I know you're bored to tears at this point, so I'll just say WOOHOOO GO ME! There, I tooted my own horn :)
Enjoy your day!

Five Things.

   First. I'm going to get the angry part out of my post. Every day I read through my "follow" list, normally to no ill effect. Normally I'm in as good a mood (if not better) when I'm finished as I was when I started. Not so tonight. Tonight, I read Michelle's post. As I sit here typing this, there are literally tears in my eyes. I didn't know the man in her post, and I've never met Michelle in person. But it infuriates me that so many lives have been cut short for something so... I don't know what to call it. I'm not anti war. I'm not anti military. It just... Hurts. For him, for his family, for Michelle, and for the literally THOUSANDS of other people who have been injured - emotionally, physically, directly, & indirectly - by the goings on all those thousands of miles away. I saw a movie once, or read a book... I don't remember.... Anyway, in the "whatever", someone said "Young men fight battles that old men started, while the old men sit at home, warm in their beds, thinking they've done the world some great favor"... And it's true. An old man (or several old men in this case) started something that may never finish. How many lives is enough? I don't know what else to say. I just needed to get that off my chest. I'm sorry to those I offend, but I can't help how I feel any more than you can.

     Second. Now that I've said my piece on that. On to what I now call "Stupid Butterfly". I started trying to make this butterfly from Big Book of Tatting (yes, still on that book) as a distraction while I make the Rose Garden piece. All I can say is this is where I quit, and one of us has to be stupid, so it's the butterfly. Really, did you think I'd call myself stupid? I wish my camera would pick up the colors... It's altin basak & it's all kinds of shades of pinks & oranges & yellows... with white...

   Third. Yesterday, after my trip to the doctor (just a normal thing, nothing wrong), I went to Hobby Lobby. It's normally a 40 minute trip one way, so I don't get to go that often. I found my plastic pins! Some of you are members at Intatters, & may have seen the post by CarolIvy about her strivers, where.... I wish I could remember who was talking about her plastic pins. She wasn't the first person I'd seen that used those instead of regular or unrolled safety pins for blocks, patterns starting with chains, etc., but I'd never seen any in any store. I googled, searched, asked... Never found any. But I literally knocked them off the hook in the needlework aisle at Hobby Lobby yesterday. I also got all this stuff for right at $10!!! Not alot of people tat in my area apparently, & I got that pack of Clover Shuttles for $1.99. They didn't have a sticker, & if you're familiar with HL, you know that's how they ring things up. Every time I go they have ONE pack. I always get it, even though it's usually a different price every time. They guess. I explained on more than one occasion that I usually give around $3.50 for them, but they always mark them less. So I don't feel bad. Would you? :) I got the Aunt Lydia's to try out for my Christmas snowflakes... It was like $2 a roll, so I won't feel bad if I hate it, or if I mess up the tatting trying out sparkles - which I plan on doing this year. Also, the charms were 50% off.... So I grabbed a few to stick inside my snowflakes, or crosses, or whatever I decide.

 

   Fourth. I thought I was the ONLY person in the WORLD that was particular about my scissors!!!!Fox recently acquired a new set, and while reading the comments section, I noticed that Margaret said,..... "I hope you enjoy your sissors, mine are lovely and would not be without them, woo be tide anyone using them for anything other than thread." I get made fun of by my family & people who try to "borrow" my scissors all the time, so it makes me feel a little better to know I'm not the only one. Mine aren't Gingher, but I love them all the same.

   Fifth. This is where I am on it.... And so far, working it like an assembly line (flower center, flower, vines) seems to be the most efficient way of doing things; but I *am* getting bored. I'm also working on an edging for another shirt for Untatter. Pics of that when it's on the shirt...Someday. When this is done, I'm planning on starting up my Christmas ornaments & things of that nature for the year. I hate that I'll be starting in August, but last year I ran out of time! So wish me luck there....

Pictures....

So today I'm posting pictures. I kinda feel bad I haven't posted any in so long :) I haven't been working on much except that evil needle case that I'm temprorarily shelving until more research is completed.... Ugh...
Anyway -

 This isn't really anything big, but believe it or not I've gotten more compliments on it than anything I've ever done - I got this shirt on clearance for Untatter ($2.50) right before her birthday, & decided it was just too plain.... Had the motif laying around in the "what to do with it" box. If anybody can tell me how to rotate a darn picture, I'd love a comment about that - sometimes I just have to rotate my camera! Urgh...

 The motif.... I sewed it down on only the chains, leaving the picots loose, & used the actual motif thread to sew it down. It works pretty well that way.. .Thanks, whoever told me to do that! It's Lizbeth #20, don't remember the number, but I really like the color - teal, turquoise, or something :)

 This is three motifs in the Rose Garden Doily, from Big Book of Tatting... I think I maybe showed you one motif before, & I've since completed 2 more motifs; but you get the idea.

And this, just because I'm pretty sure I didn't post about it before, is my Pop-a-Bobbin... Cherry wood. Like alot of people over at Intatters, I had some trouble with the length of the hook, but I learned to use it. I showed it to my Daddy one day, & he said he could fix it & he so did! He didn't change the hook, he just shortened it & made the groove a little deeper & smoother with something like a dremel tool... Now I absolutely adore this shuttle.... To the point I'm considering getting another one, when Husband goes back to work. He's worked 3 days in the last 3 weeks, & I don't work out of the home. Can ya'll imagine how broke we are?? :)