put to good use

Now, this little doodle is with my mum, I'm sure she already put it to good use. I could tat it again, even though, next time, I think I'd change something, in fact I was trying to get the effect of hearts over hearts, it looks like I got a rose, instead...

It's tatted with 2 shuttles, no cuts from start to end, metallic thread is Finca gold and DMC red.

I've another little project started, but I'm at a point where I don't know what to do,  it's a mignonette doily pattern, with rings that have also treble tatting stitches:

I had to cut out all the last round, it happens! It wasn't for stitches' miscount, but simply because I didn't like it. That is what a design in progress looks like, at times!

In between a rose and a doily,  I'm preparing 4 or 5 tiny purses, those will be surprise gifts for friends, so.... Shh!!!

Pattern for the mignonette purse is by Sandra Hameed, but I put bugle beads till the last round. 

I found the pattern at this link: 

http://www.georgiaseitz.com/mignon/mignonreview.html

Have you spotted the grey and pink bag in the last picture? It is the "large handcrafted tatting bag", made by Tamie and sold in etsy:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/tattingbagsandmore

Actually, she sells them at a very reasonable price, if it wasn't for the high shipping costs from USA to Italy! But the sweet Tamie found a way to send a padded pack, to reduce costs, and the bag arrived safe here in two weeks! For once, I splurged!

Ciao,

Ninetta 

treble tatting in hearts

For the sequence of steps for tatting a tds, please refer to this post: treble tatting - ideas or watch this video in YouTube: https://youtu.be/ra0NnlqR0oA

What you see (if, by any chance 🙀) inside the tatting, it is an ice drop, a clear rounded glass, diameter is 2cm. It's transparent, it can be hardly seen in the pics (sorry, also the gold thread isn't easy to photograph).

In next collage I put together two pics, the front side and the back. The ice drop is clearly visible from the back.

The ice drop, also known as cabochon, was already nice, even without the outer round with hearts. Actually, those curled rings shaped little hearts around it.
In next pic I'm sorry it's not so clear, but there are two different parts: one flower, only rings, one shuttle, for the rounded front side,

... and another part, a star with 8 points, curled rings and chains, for the back side:

Rings are all 5ds between each picot, and curled rings are 8ds, very small picot, 8ds. Chains are 5ds, picot, 2ds, picot, 5ds, and are connected each other in their picots.

The two parts, flower and star, are connected while tatting the back side, with those curled rings wrapped around the top beads in the flower. The cabochon was inserted before tatting the last chain.
#######
UPDATE: link to a post by Muskaan, her tatting and variations:
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2019/02/due-credit.html
#######

But there weren't treble stitches around my cabochon... 🤔😄

Of course you already know that I'm in the "tatting treble mode", Lol!

I thought the ice drop would have been even nicer with another round, then the heart with treble stitches it's something I've been thinking about for a while...

That is only a first idea, I think that it's something that I would love playing with again. Can you imagine how many tatting combos there are, with ds and tds together in tatted dimpled rings?

Thread is Finca metallic gold colour 0006 n.2/C, doubled (that is, shuttles are wound with 2 strands of Finca thread, it is almost like a size 20 thread), beads are rocaille miyuki 15/0 galvanized dark mauve (4213).

🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
An update about the embroidered netting lace, that is a pic with the rectangular doily finished, now I have to fill the remaining space, so the precious handmade net won't be wasted.

Ciao,
Ninetta

Muskaan's heart

It's lovely when a person's smile inspires us, even if he/she is someone who we've never met and don't have an idea of what their face looks like. Maybe some of you know that I've been calling Muskaan "the Smiling Lady", so here it is a link to understand the reason why (click on the "Listen" button):

https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT#hi/en/मुसकान

That is a little heart designed by Muskaan, that really inspires me smile:

Thread is DMC size 80. Link to her pattern is here: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/02/heart-square-pattern.html

I made some adaptation for I used a different thread's size. I started hiding the second colour thread inside the first stitches of the ring for the heart. I changed a little the dimple, in fact, after the third picot, I tatted 3ds, then took a loop of thread, then 3ds more and joined to the previous picot. That is like in picture 4. in this post of mine: http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2014/02/hearts-cant-hurt.html
Then in the surrounding tatting, I started from the chain, hiding the tail of the first colour thread left at the beginning, 8ds and then the second clover and tatted her first clover in the end. Also, I tatted 9ds instead of 8 in the last chain.

I haven't tatted a lot during the last weeks. Actually, I've been knotting and embroidering, but the finished piece it's going to take a little part in a local exhibition of lace, so I can't show it till after the end of the event. Sorry dears.

I also hopefully will finish a doily. I had tatted the first 6 rounds because I thought it would have fit the dollhouse's table, but then I discovered that it 's bigger. I can't do anything else that continue it and use it in my "real-size" home 😍 . Pattern is from "Il lavoro Chiacchierino" by Mani di Fata and that is the doily on the cover of issue 13. Thread is white Anchor Artiste Mercer Crochet, size 100.

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related posts

a little heart 

quite a story

dollhouse miniature doily

a little heart

Today only a little heart, but so pretty! Thank you Muskaan!

I've used DMC size 80 thread. I'm not fully satisfied, I should tat a second one!
She wrote about it here: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/02/heart-square-pattern.html

Sorry Muskaan, I've tatted the "dimple" with 6 ds instead of 7.

Ciao,
Ninetta

heartfelt design

Late Valentine's design, but evidence that I didn't forget that day! Happy late Valentine's Day!

Thanks to the online tatting designers' class, I've resurrected my Pinterest account creating a board with visual bookmarks to sites about the design process. I've read, re-read, read again. I've found many useful schematic, I'll try to use them. In all that impersonal analysis you get the basic, the core, of the matter. Then you must put your heart in. That's where all that reading took me to.

I started looking at others' hearts, then doodled all over my notebook's page, then went to the CAT. Just to let you know, CAT is my Computer Aided Tatting, I don't come back always to the same tool, I've a set and use them all. So, I had a beautiful symmetrical heart, then I started tatting prototypes. It took a little before I got a good shaped heart, but I had almost what I wanted.
I needed a break then.

That's the break: the most heartfelt design of a heart that you can ever find. My favourite tatted heart. Susan Fuller's design, there's her whole heart inside it, isn't it, the visual pattern is by Frivole here.

Thread is Lizbeth size 80, col. 154 "Wildflower Garden".

I came back to my design and tried to add "the heart", the emotional appeal, by adding picots, a little curled ring (it looks like another heart!), giving to chains the movement they didn't have in the CAT drawing. I feel it is more "mine" now, I don't know if you like it but I know that I put my heart in designing it.

There's a big dimpled ring though (60ds)! But for the faint of heart there's a tutorial here, I hope that it can help!

Ciao,
Ninetta

P.S. For many of you that are using Picasa, Google has "decided to retire Picasa over the coming months in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos". Read more here: http://googlephotos.blogspot.com/2016/02/moving-on-from-picasa.html
 

sea...aside

Motif inspired by the mystery doily. It recalls a pattern I've used here:

Pattern: Both rings and chains are groups of 5ds separated by picots, but dimpled rings are 5+12+10-5/5+10-12-5.
Thread is dmc 80, light grey.

I love walking along the seaside, letting the water touch my feet, picking up little shells washed up on the beach.

Those in the upper left of the photo are Donax Trunculus, called "tellina" in Italian, lovely shaped and good enough to be eaten with spaghetti. If you look carefully, you can see those little holes made by predatory sea snails. Do you think those holes could have a chance with tatting?

(The shell on the right could be the Nassarius Mutabilis, used as a food too, but I've never eaten that.)

Here you are another "postcard" from the sea:

Ciao,
Ninetta 

UPDATE:

 

hearts can't hurt

Update(Nov2018):  the method of dropping a loop for dimpled rings, also called dimpled yorkie, it is a technique developed by Sue Hanson in 2008. Here it is a link to a video: http://ladyshuttlemaker.blogspot.com/2008/05/dimpled-yorkie.html

In some cases hearts can hurt, but, please, it shouldn't be the case in tatting! I've learned dimpled rings from Jane Eborall and Karen Cabrera (lesson 86), they both have wonderful tatting lessons and you should absolutely want to have a look there. Jane's great tip is "to pull through more thread for around the hand", that really helps because what makes you fail in closing your heart is the twist accumulated in core thread while pulling back and forth.
Troubles can come when hearts are bigger more than 50ds. I've learned two ways to obtain acceptable hearts, I've numbered pictures and hope it could help some of you. First way (pictures from 1. to 9.): start as a normal ring, then make a loop in the center but follow Jane's hint, pulling plenty of thread and wrap it around the little finger as though you are tatting a chain.
Second method is tatting the heart with the mocking ring techique (picture from a. to f.) so start pulling a loop for the mock ring, then tat half heart and pull the second loop. Before closing the SCMR, put the shuttle (or a loop from the shuttle) through the first loop, then pull the dimple loop to close the first loop, then pull the core thread to close the dimple, after then close the SCMR.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

 

9.

 E' possibile soffrire di mal di cuore, ma mai, per favore, se si tratta di chiacchierino! Ho imparato a fare i cuoricini guardando le spiegazioni di Jane Eborall e il video 86 di Karen Cabrera. Jane ha un ottimo suggerimento, ovvero tirare abbondante filo sopra la mano, e infatti questo aiuta tantissimo, perchè quello che ci fa ammattire è sempre l'attorcigliamento del filo che si accumula scorrendo avanti e indietro il filo portante. Grossi problemi ci danno soprattutto i cuoricino con più di 50 nodi. Ho imparato due modi per avere cuori accettabili, ho numerato le foto e spero che posso essere di aiuto per qualcuno. Il primo modo (foto da 1. a 9.) consiste nel cominciare come un normale anello, raggiungere la metà e fare il loop centrale ma seguire il consiglio di Jane, cioè tirare un bel po' di filo da dentro l'anello e attorcigliarlo al mignolino come si fa con gli archi. Secondo metodo (figure da a. a f.) : iniziare come un  falso anello, fare metà cuore e poi tirare un secondo loop per il centro del cuore. Prima di chiudere il falso anello, passare la navetta (o un cappietto di filo della navetta) dentro il primo loop, tirare il loop centrale per chiudere il primo loop, poi tirare il filo portante per chiudere il loop centrale e infine chiudere il falso anello.  

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

f.

Ciao,
Ninetta