Gifts

In general I just tat what I want to tat. This results in a long backlog of patterns that I am doing because I fell in love with them visually, not because I have anything constructive to do with them. I think this is pretty normal for lace makers. But I've recently started trying to do something that is also pretty normal for lace makers, at least for all the tatters I've found blogging: tat things to be given as gifts. So I'm starting with these simple little bracelets.



It's just a row of split rings with a square of block tatting to be drawn through the last ring to fasten the bracelet. I came up with this pattern years ago while learning split rings and reading Judith Connor's Tatting with Beads, but it's so simple that it doesn't really count as my own design. Anyway, these are just the right size to be included in a card, so I plan to send a lot of them to my girl friends as birthday presents or just because presents. I've been having fun picking just the right color for each girl. These also work well with variations, like adding picots, or alternating a ring with a square throughout the bracelet. I prefer the non-picot version, though -- most of the time what I look for in jewelry is a streamlined, simple, and classy design. I've seen a lot of tatted jewelry in books that I hate, so it took me a long time to believe that good tatted jewelry was possible. But nowadays I see more and more beautiful pieces every day, and I have quite reformed my position.

An Imperfect Post

This blog has been turning over in my head like an insomniac at night for weeks now, but I keep putting off starting it because I cannot think of a perfect idea for a first post. I have decided this is ridiculous. If I don't start I will never start. So here is an imperfect post for you all.



This upside down picture is of a little doodle to use up the thread on this shuttle which I bought on ebay. I am quite pleased with this shuttle and the two others from the same lot. They are all plastic post shuttles, old enough that I have no idea of the brand, and they are actually the first shuttles I have used in ten years of tatting that are not bobbins. I started out quite spoiled, with metal bobbin shuttles with a built-in hook. I know that some people would hate that type of shuttle, but I love them. I love them so much, in fact, that I was afraid that I would hate post shuttles for the lack of a hook. Fortunately I have adjusted pretty well to using a needle to make joins, and in fact this method is much better for tiny threads which the large hook on my bobbin shuttles necessarily distorts. From now on I shall use the post shuttles for smaller threads, and save my bobbin shuttles for 20s and 10s.