A Tragic End

I could hardly believe my eyes… as I got closer to the last repeat of the Butterfly Doily - the one that's been more than 2½ years in the making! - I realised, with horror, that it wouldn't fit!  Although everything was fine all the way through,  there must have been some discrepancy somewhere as the last butterfly wouldn't fit.  I could have cried.  Now, normally I would undo and fix but NOT THIS TIME!  This has not been my favourite tat by a long way but I just had to complete it once I got far enough into it.  The circumference on the last round is about 96 inches!!  That's a lot of tatting, and I had to refill my shuttles frequently.  I have no idea where I might have missed something along the way so that the last round wouldn't work out.  I knew though, that if I had to un-do and re-do anything on this particular piece, it would probably never get completed again.  I've just not enjoyed it enough.

So I made it fit.

Actually I could fit the last butterfly but what I was short of was a ring below to attach the second half of it.  I'm afraid in this case, I improvised and changed the bottom part slightly to make it fit in what I hope is a not-too-obvious manner.  If you examine the whole edge closely, you'll see it but I think at a glance, it's not glaringly obvious.  Phew!

Ok, enough of an introduction, here it is:

and here with a shuttle

for size reference

I couldn't remember how many balls of Lizbeth I used…

so I weighed my doily:  88 grams

(not much weight for all that work!)

so that 3½ balls of Lizbeth Mocha Light.

I'm certainly pleased I finally got to the end (even if not perfectly)

If just for that reason, I'm going to celebrate.

I even widened the columns of my blog for this post

so I could have one larger image of the completed piece.

It does look rather nice on this last photo.

Yes, you're right, my title was a tad over the top (I was just having a laugh and being a bit of drama queen!), obviously, it's not that tragic and I have a large piece of lace to show for but I wouldn't recommend this particular design for anyone else to tat.  After the second round of butterflies, I wasn't really enjoying myself and all those long chains kept misbehaving and needed a lot of coaxing into place.  I debated when I got to the last round whether I needed to change the stitch count slightly to try to get it to frill less.  In the end I went with what was written but in spite of all my efforts, it still doesn't lie flat properly, which is a shame… and then to get to the last butterfly and find that I couldn't attach that last chain…

Anyway, enough about it.  Thank you so much for cheering me along.  Your words of encouragement always mean a lot to me.  At last, it's done.  Dusted.  Time to move on.  Definitely happy about that.  :-)

Best wishes,
Frivole

Snowflake Love & Friends from Overseas

Oh yes, I just love snowflakes!  Tatted snowflakes?  Wonderful.  Snowflake earrings and a brooch?  Yes, please (you've seen all those recently on my blog).  I'm thinking of the next blanket I'd like to make… and then I saw… a snowflake blanket!  Not ready to start on that yet, but I had to give the motif a go, just to see…

I rather like it.

This might very well be my next big crochet project.

And on the crochet front again, I recently received a nice surprise in the post from a friend:  not only did she send me some Fa-brick to try (I'll report on that soon) but also enclosed some yarns for me to play with.  One of them was this Euroflax which is 100% linen.  It's quite unusual and I must admit feels a bit like thin rope (or twine) to work with but I'm told this yarn will soften a lot by being washed and dried in the machine.  I'm hoping I'll have enough for a short scarf/cowl and can't wait to report back after I've washed it to see what it turns out like.  I really like the shade of muted mauve and it will go very well with a cardigan I'm wearing today.  I love getting surprises in the post and I'm so appreciative of friends I have made through tatting.  Thank you very much M.!

Thank you also to all of you for your wonderful words of encouragement on the last post.  I'm working at it and am really very nearly there on the huge doily.  Can't wait to show you!

Best wishes,

Frivole

My First Project of 2015...

has got to be to finish this doily!!!  Over two years in the making is just too long (started in April 2012 so I'm getting dangerously close to three years even!).  Come on, I need one last push to get it completed.  Send me some encouraging vibes please so I can finally finish it and move on to something else.  I'm already feeling excited about what the next large piece is going to be...

The bit of plastic on the ribbon is

my picot gauge.

So, has everyone made a good start to their tatting in 2015? - or other projects of course.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Happy New Year!

Just enjoying the last few days of chilling out with the family.  Everything starts again on Monday… school, work…

It's also the last evening with our festive Christmas decor.  I've lit up the candles one last time and I do enjoy seeing the sparkly decorations and the twinkling lights on the tree.  Tomorrow it's time to put everything away ready for a fresh new year start on Monday.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Where better to put pretty candles…

than on some nice tatting.

Bonne Année

à toutes et tous!

I hope 2015 is kind to everyone and that it's another year filled with ideas and creativity.  Peace and good health to all.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Running Late, Running Late … and Merry Christmas!

Oh yes, I feel like I'm running at the moment!  Trying to enjoy Christmassey (is that a word?) things but still rushing a bit too much trying to finish things.

As a result, I'd forgotten I was out Friday night and was very busy yesterday and didn't have time/forgot to do the draw!!

There were 50 comments in all but two were replies and Fox didn't want to be entered so that made 47 to draw from.  Here is the result, drawn with the "True Random Generator":

And number 16 is…. Michelle!  Who's "messed Italy" comment made me laugh (thank you auto-correct).  The Santa shuttle will be on its way to you in Monday's post.  Congratulations!

This will be my last post of 2014 I think.  Thank you to everyone for all your comments throughout the year and for sharing the joy of tatting, and creativity in general with me.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas:  joy, peace, happiness, and love with all your friends and families.

I managed to finish the mini polar bear… but not his coat yet so he had to borrow's his friend's.  I shall have to knit the red coat during the holiday.  I'm getting better at making the face and this one is much better than the first I think.  And I found the gorgeous sparkly snowflake brooch in a local shop yesterday and just had to treat myself - I love snowflakes!  So today I'm wearing my tatted snowflake earrings and my snowflake brooch.

And just a little bit of our Christmas tree.

Though you can only see one,

there are many tatted snowflakes on it

and I add new ones every year.

And finally here's our angel

(her wings are not that wonky really,

I didn't place them right for the photo)

I made her out of a magazine many many years ago.

But I'm still pleased every time I unwrap her again

at Christmas time.

My very best wishes to everyone!

Joyeux Noël!

x

Frivole

'Tis the Season to...

be wearing snowflake earrings!  I just had to take a short moment to make myself a pair.  This is Elizabeth Zipay's pattern and they are very quick to make.

I have now stiffened them and added a few sparkles too… and they look really nice on… really "snowflakey!  :-)

If anyone knows of a product that would make fabric (or thread) completely hard, I'd love to hear about it.  I used PVA glue but that still leaves them bendable.  Is there anything that goes really hard?

Best wishes,
Frivole

I failed...

Sorry guys, I wanted to provide you with a new snowflake pattern for this Christmas and I just ran out of time!  I was full of good intentions but just had too many things on my "to-do" list.  Including many handmade presents that are taking up my time… very enjoyably I might add but then there are only so many hours in a day… aren't there?  I'm sure I'm not the only one wishing there were more than 24 hours in each day!

I got close with my remake of Minuet but I've still not properly written the update.  So, it is with sadness that I abandon the idea and will hopefully publish the pattern in the new year instead.

I will make a few of Minuet 2014 for my family but I also decided to tat my Criss-Cross Snowflake which I had not tatted since I wrote the pattern in 2011.

I'm not overly keen on the bead arrangement on this one

so will have to tat another and show the criss-cross effect instead…

though I do like a few sparkly beads on snowflakes.

AND…

Here is my Christmas gift to you:  I'm having a draw for one of my Christmas shuttles.  It's Santa climbing chimneys to make his deliveries while his reindeer wait for him on the snowy rooftops.

Notice I didn't put it in the title of this blogpost that I'm having a draw so that my faithful visitors will get more of a chance of winning because not everybody will know that this blogpost contains a draw!  Sneaky, eh?  But it is open to everyone!  Anyone can win and I will ship to wherever the winner is from.

Please leave a comment to be included and I will make the draw on Friday which does mean that you probably won't receive your gift in time for Christmas but as with many other things at this time of year…  I'm just running behind!!

Best wishes,

Frivole