seasonal orange

A winter fruit...

Ciao,
Ninetta

a tiny project

Even a tiny project must have and idea behind, needs a little research, drawings (with pencil or an app) and asks for some prototypes. Last Tuesday, during the Online Tatting Designers Class, we were asked to start a new project, maybe this is too little and only a week it's a short time but it's helped me to understand where I need to improve.

The rough idea: use up some tiny superduo I love, I want a new pair of earrings!

They are Czech glass beads, "Miniduo 2x4 mm - Opaque Champagne Luster", like the superduo but smaller in size, in fact superduo are 2,5x5mm. I bought them last October at the craft fair in Rome. I've already used superduo with tatting, back in 2014, there's also a tutorial for a small square: http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2014/06/little-superduo-squared-motif-with.html (the link is also in the page "Tutorials in this blog" from the menu bar).

The research: I found many awesome beading projects with superduo, but nothing combined with tatting. Let me know if any of you found something like that, I'd like to see it. I found (via Pinterest) an awesome blog, full of beautiful projects: craftyinspirationbylinda.blogspot.com , but it's all about beads and beading. I've added a new link list at the left sidebar, "Inspirations", that is a list of non-tatting sites that I like.

The sketch: I usually mess up drawings and technical solutions, there's a lot of confusion there but a least one corner in the page of the notebook contains my best possibility. I should learn how to better organise my drawings, I've improved passing from loose papers to a notebook, but I've kept the bad way to scribble all over pages.

The prototype: usually 2 or 3, a good prototype is a good start for the final pattern. At this point I learn if there's the need of more or less joins, more or less beads, or the thread (type or colour) must be changed. That metallic gold  thread helped me to understand if it can work as an earring. Have you a magnifying glass handy? I forgot to write down all stitches' counts!

Ciao,
Ninetta

far far away

I'm far away from a little shawl's size, that one yellow in the pic it is a square (it's folded in half) about 70x70 cm, my triangle today has its long side about 30cm.

Prediction? it's another long run project, like the Sardinian Filet, that I started in October and hope it will be ready in one year. Which one is going to be finished first? the shawl or the filet?

I visualise the pattern like a series of triangles, it grows a triangle at a time, then the size doubles when you pass from a triangular shape to the next triangular shape.

Ciao,
Ninetta

dirty, already!

White and silk it's not a wise choice, it's already dirty, despite I always wash my hands before picking it up.
I like it and the pattern it's demanding but very addictive, I haven't tatted anything else in 5 days.

The dotted line is the growing direction for the pattern, it grows one triangle at a time, but at the end of every triangle I should decide what to do: the next triangle will double the size (and the time to tat it!). I'm lucky, very few mistakes till now.

Do you imagine that with some layered flowers? And a fringe with little shining beads? They can be added later, there's a ton of tatting to do before I reach a little shawl's size!

The idea of layered flowers come to me from a lace that I absolutely love, the Venetian needle lace, but I can't do it. When we went to Venezia, last summer, we didn't go to Burano (it's an hour from Venezia) for lack of time but I bought a booklet with a bit of that lace history and many pictures. I visited  Burano in 1995, at least I managed to go there once! I've had some opportunities to see the lace in person, for example last year in Zagarolo (I talked about it here in the blog: http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2015/05/trapped-in-repetitions.html). I remember there is a piece also in Modena (north Italy) at the "Palazzo dei Musei" (a building from XVII c. that is itself a piece of art). I also bought a catalog there, many years ago (I found a review of that: http://www.annatextiles.ch/book_rev/rev2003/r2003gand/r2003gan.htm). In fact in Modena there's a unique collection with many cut pieces of handmade lace and fabric, collected during the second half of 1800, when the industry started to compete with artisans in patterns and techniques. Many fragments are clearly cut by scissors because industry owners used to exchange samples. If I remeber well, and I should check again into the catalog, just to be sure, there is no one piece of tatting.

I'm so sorry that the picture of the back cover of the booklet it's not as clear as I hoped!

Ciao,
Ninetta

doable

I'm trying to use up the silk I've got (hope I don't waste it), I'd love tatting something similar to a beautiful shawl I saw here:  http://www.georgiaseitz.com/younkin/younkin.html. Maybe, a cotton thread would have been more collaborative, but it's working, it's "doable". I can't keep that silk for ages, after all, waiting for the right project. What else all that silk would be for?

That silk was bought at the beginning of 2014 (http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2014/03/got-into-mess.html) and I tried it single thread and also doubled. Actually the first time I didn't liked it single thread, too thin, but after having tatted a size 100, I think it's comparable (well, I can hardly see ds, I confess!).

In that pic it is near the Priscilla's border in size 100 DMC cotton, tatted last summer.

I haven't followed the pattern given for the shawl, because rings were way too little with my thread. I'm tatting rings 9-9 and chains are 6-6-6 (and short chains are 6ds), I'm trying to follow the flow of rings and chains, not so easy and I help myself folding in half what I already tatted and guessing what I should tat next, that works for me!

The big difference between the cotton and the silk, sigh, it's the smoothness: like me and me speaking in English! In this blog post I needed some of the lively and colourful words that Fox used about the Lizbeth size 80 (a teasing thread for me too, sometimes); English words that I can't recall in this moment, but that's due to my silly brain that doesn't collaborate, it insists thinking in Italian!

The silk easily frays and retrotatting is a mess (reopening a ring already closed is a mission impossible). I forgot to join at a certain point but I chose to tie a knot instead of cutting an hour of tatting.

I'm confident that it will have an end, or as a shawl for a Barbie doll or for only one shoulder of mine, but it will be done!

Ciao,
Ninetta

tatting... what?

There's a purse with my UFOs somewhere in the home that seems to appear from time to time, then you spell the famous phrase "I put it here so I can easily find it" and the bag disappears, magically.

The last time, it gave back 4 squares already tatted and two balls of thread, one of these revealed itself the wrong colour's number, but very very similar (that's the risk with UFOs, you forget to remember yourself your ideas, if ever you had one). I should remember to write me something like a "delivery note", that can be really useful.

Luckily, I wrote a post (http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2014/12/so-far-so-good.html) with stitches' count and the rough pattern is jotted on my notebook, too. It is "quad_23" in the album "granny's squares" in Flickr (the link to the album is in the page "Tutorials and sets in Flickr" from the menu bar).

Did you spot the missed join? It's Harold Finch's fault (watching "Person of interest", a TV series).

These little motifs are the tatted daisy by Mrs. Odum but I changed the stitches' count, they will go inside transparent key-holders. Thread is Lizbeth size 80.

What tatting next? If, by any chance, I find again the UFOs' bag, there's an edging and the xmas' doily started in December. Then I found a shawl tatted with the magic square pattern, used for a bride, it's spectacular (see it here: http://www.georgiaseitz.com/younkin/younkin.html). I should buy the thread first or maybe I can use that silk that I bought two years ago... Then there's the rings' pillow that I wish to tat for my second son (at page 8, fig.23 of  Priscilla Tatting book #1). Then ... who knows?

Do I need tatting patterns? I've just had a look on google! And you?

I love exploring tools in internet and (well - OK - I'm a bit late) I've just discovered Google Trends, a site that everybody can use to explore how much and where in the world a topic/subject is searched on Google. I've entered "tatting lace", of course, and found that the general interest is decreasing in time (from 2004) and the most frequent query is for tatting patterns. What is your feeling? I think that in general that's positive because there's many who wants to tat something new or wants to learn to.  Another thing I noted is that tatting is listed as a possible "subject" while crocheting or knitting are "hobby" for Google Trends. Someone should tell them.

So I started my query with "tatting lace patterns". I had 438.000 results in 0.28 seconds! A diligent tatting computer indeed! The first in the list of results it is the tatting page at Allcraft: http://allcrafts.net/tatting.htm .  I love that page, I've already tatted something from there, for example the Christmas Berry Wreath (http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2013/12/surprising-softness.html).

Anyway, no matter what the to-do list contains, tatting is or should be always done with enthusiasm and joy, that's the better way to face any tatting plan for 2016! At least that's my excuse to have failed to tat 10 bookmarks in 2015! I have only one real challenge in my life for the end of this year: to reach the Level 16 in the "Online game to end hunger" (follow the link in the upper right sidebar)!!! My best is only the 8th!

Ciao,
Ninetta

UPDATE: link for the shawl by Jean Younkin: https://web.archive.org/web/20010305213435/http://www.georgiaseitz.com/younkin/younkin.html

a curled inside ring

Hope you all had wonderful holidays! Here in Italy today is called the day of the "Befana", an old woman that gives gift to good children and coal to naughty ones! Are you enjoying your Epiphany?

These are all floating rings 8ds, picot, 8ds; picots are normal length, the difference between the second and the third it's in the way they have been curled. The second is a normal curled ring, as explained by Muskaan (curled over on a chain, option 2, http://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2015/05/tatting-tutorial-curled-ring-options.html ). The third is another possibility that I found by chance, while I was tatting something else, but I like that effect.

Start with a normal floating ring, then add that curled effect inserting the hook inside the ring and inside the picot from the back to the front (you would see the picot turned upside down), I found that it is better if I take the crochet hook facing up. Take a loop from the ball thread and pass the core shuttle as a normal join, positioning the join at the base of the ring. Continue with the chain normally.

We had relaxing holidays, the most part spent inside home or by relatives' home. We visited friends in L'Aquila, the city is still recovering from the earthquake in 2009:

We lived there 15 years, the most beautiful years of my life. Now we live near Rome, there are many advantages living close to such a wonderful city, but (truth be told) we don't often go there for a walk, only one or two times per year. Actually, this year already one time! The New Year's Day my dear husband and Iwent to a theatre in Rome, very close to San Pietro, there was a show by a famous quick-change artist, maybe someone out there has heard of Arturo Brachetti (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arturo_Brachetti), we enjoyed so much the whole time there, it's incredible that he can be that fast to completely change dress while he turns around himself!

A seagull: it isn't uncommon to see them in Rome, even in winter!

Ciao,
Ninetta