detail

It was a pleasure and an honour for me, testing and even writing a short foreword for the new book by Edda Guastalla. Many thanks to her for giving me this opportunity!

That one is a detail of my pochette, all tatted following one of her patterns. Sorry I cannot share other pictures of my tatting, that are all in the book.

I will buy a "paper" copy of the book as a self gift for Christmas! I love "real books", but I  know that in the near future it could be available also in pdf format. It is in Italian (actually I don't know if they are working for a translation too) but there are many clear drawings that are very easy to follow. It is a book for tatters at any level. It's a "big" book, 128 pages, it contains 15 patterns and instructions for tatting many variations. Also, there are diagrams for how using the method of the "magic square" to adapt it also for edgings and different shapes that only squares. That's something that you can't find elsewhere in the Tatternet!

The book is available here:

https://corradotedeschieditore.com/it/home/662-il-mio-libro-dei-quadrati-magici-a-chiacchierino.html

Ciao,

Ninetta

Pizzo - that is lace

From the Italian tatting meeting, I came back home with many gifts, many of those are from Edda Guastalla, she's been very generous. I received her threads, one of her tatted angels, her instructions for ice drops used in her class and also a pattern from her shop.

I've already started it, using the yellow anchor thread, size 80, leftover after the swirling butterflies doily. There are flaws, my fault, I forget to join some picots, I joined to the wrong place a couple times, there is a ring with the wrong number of picots. But I  love it very much, it's a beautiful pattern and I'll finish it, in any case. I don't even know if I have sufficient thread for a complete round, so let's say that this will be just my first sample.

She called her edging "Pizzo Lazzaroni" (Lazzaroni is a surname and she has a nice private story behind that name's choice). It can be found in her etsy shop, here:  

https://www.etsy.com/listing/549340820/pizzo-maria-lazzaroni

... in Italian we have the word "merletto", that is lace, then "pizzo" that is... lace, and also "trina" that is... lace, again! Actually there are differences, but it's a challenge for me, now, telling you why and when using one or the other word... Mainly Italian geographical and historical differences but also subtle meaning's differences. For example, you can often found "pizzo chiacchierino", but never "trina chiacchierino", the etymology for the word trina is the Latin triple and it is often used for the most refined and sheer kind of laces, made with the finest thread.

Ciao,

Ninetta
P.S. good news! I found the two doilies that I had started, they're safe at home, I'll show you in next posts!