soft chainmail

...That's only a line of interlocking split rings.

Thread dmc and Lizbeth, size 80.

Ciao,
Ninetta

measured beauty

Only few words today. I've had a fever for two days and what a better occasion for using a new English word just learned this month: I feel "lousy"!

I took some photos to show the gauge I've used between rings. It's very difficult to keep the distance by sight, so even I rarely use a gauge, that's one of those situations.

1/4"

1/8"

1/8"

Ciao
Ninetta

tatting with Anne

... Orr. Yes, Bernice was the first that guessed right, I'm tatting the so called "large centerpiece" that is on the cover of a Dover pubblication (1989). How large I can't wait to see, slowly emerging from the coloured thread dmc size 80...

The pattern calls for a size 40 thread and it's only written instructions.

If you like reading about the history of Anne Orr, there's a page in the site: "The ShuttleSmith Tatting" (by Karen Bovard).
Among a lot of great tatting resources, you can find there the history of the split ring technique and you discover that originated in a tatting booklet published in 1918 by Anne Orr.

https://sites.google.com/site/theshuttlesmithinomaha/

Ciao,
Ninetta

UPDATE: Article at Bella Online: "The Split Ring in 1901??"

easy quiz

I'm tatting a very famous old doily, the designer is ...? Well, I know who she is, the doily is from a book I've in front of me, but what about you? How much are you perceptive?

A clue is that's very easy to guess right!

The photo was edited to add the watermark, then edited again with an android app called "pixlr-o-matic" to add the vintage effect. That's all done with the smartphone! Impressive!

Talking about apps, I found another intriguing one that's called "kaleidoscope lime". It could be interesting to try out in this doily one of the random palettes.

Technology is impressive indeed. I've been reading about security and pics. Have you heard about the "fingerprint passwords"? Very cool and easy. But someone discovered how to hack those pws with only a photo of a finger. And tatters have so many pics of their fingers!!! An headache about photos, but not even our fingerprints are completely secure!

Anyway, back to the old doily: the book is still under copyright, so I won't put the pattern here. There's no need of password for that, only good sense.

Ciao,
Ninetta

slackening

One bookmark per month is too little, but I know how to shorten my stride. First, I'm tatting the bookmark again, to change something. I had simply added mock rings in the middle as I went on but I don't like the result. So I started again with a line of split rings and then climbed to tat around. I've not yet finished. Maybe I would tat one more but in different colours.

Between a split ring and another, I thought I had to add something else. A doily? Why not? A traditional, large doily. Actually I have ever had one in my wish-list, one that really asks you to slow down and concentrate on, in its eighties (or more) this year. So, here is the start of the fuddy-duddy. Who wants to guess?

Dmc thread, size 80.

Ciao,
Ninetta

if on a winter's night a tatter

Sometimes I read books, it happens on weekends or within a very short time, because when I start a book, I simply can't stop myself. One of my favourite books is by Italo Calvino, " If on a winter's night a traveler". I love reading it, I've read it at least 3 times. It comes out to be 10 novels, well, not exactly. Actually you're going to read only the first chapter, that interrupts you when you start being captured by the plot.

It remembered me that I guiltily tatted/designed 25 tatted squares but I drew only patterns for less than the half... My designer's attitude is like a writer who breaks off books with the first chapter...

I though I absolutely needed 10 bookmarks for my book.

(thank you Fox, for the wonderful coloured thread! for what would tatting be without friends?)

That's the project: I'll tat 10 bookmarks, one each month this year.

I need also a to-do-list for 2015: I started writing down a list, I would have written it into my notebook, but I didn't. I lost the list. I'm untidy. Anyway, I've the 2014 todolist, I may reuse that...

I' m pretty sure that's not all I wanted to say, because I tatted also a pair of earrings, I changed the stitches' count but the original pattern is by Stephanie Wilson. I can't remember now what I tatted else, maybe I didn't tat a lot during the last weeks. Apart the cone, the invisiballs and the tattingram...

Ciao,
Ninetta

happy new year

In the italian version of "Stille nacht" there's a prayer I love:

"give light to minds,

instil peace in hearts"

I wish you that light and peace. Happy 2015.

The cone is in polyester thread, 3 strands, dmc.
There are more than 600 tiny miyuki beads.

Ciao,
Ninetta