Christmas Decorations

I do love Christmas decorations and twinkling lights!  This year, I wanted to incorporate tatted lace in my decorations (of course!) - I always have many tatted snowflakes on my tree, as I'm sure most of you do too, and decided to also trace some of them onto our windows.  I used Snowdrop on the left and a variation of Aeris on the right and traced them with a chalk marker and then added several more little flakes around them.

I also decided to make a new wreath for our door and thought a little crochet robin was a must!

The pattern is from Stella's Yarn Universe.

He turned out pretty cute I think!

I then had fun making the wreath with my daughter, with a few purchased items

and gathered foliage, leaves, berries, etc. found on my walks.

How about you, what's your favourite Christmas decoration?

Maybe something new you made this year?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Mimosa Earrings

I hadn't made these in a while and I enjoyed choosing bead colours to match threads and making a few pairs.

I particularly like this combination of olive green thread

with bronze pearls and cream beads.

It made me think it's time for a new earring pattern.  I love tatted earrings, to wear and to gift.  I hope I can get my little grey cells working on that soon.  But maybe it will have to be a New Year project as December always ends up being so busy!

Is your house already all decorated?  Mine isn't but it's planned for next week.

From the last post:  Tatterjil and "Anonymous" if you could please contact me with your email, I can send you the pattern!

Happy tatting all!

Best wishes,

Frivole

... and the Random Generator Says?...

5, 1, 13, 8 and 4!  There were only 14 comments in the end so chances of winning were high for everyone! Tatterjil, Angie K., Lelia, Pam and Anonymous are the winners!  If there is an email linked to your comment, I will send the pattern there, but if there is not, please contact me to let me know where to send the pattern (especially the anonymous comment!).

Here is another variation of Alba I made today.  For fun I decided to add lots of picots!  I stretched it a bit when blocking it too and I rather like how it turned out.  So there you go, you can have fun with it and make the version you like the best.

Happy tatting!

Best wishes,
Frivole

Alba Pattern Draw!

First of all I would like to thank my test-tatters, I always appreciate people taking the time and energy to try patterns and give feedback, their work is essential in getting a pattern ready - Thank you so much!

I hope some of you will be interested in tatting Alba so I am having a draw for 5 copies of the pattern.  All you have to do is leave a comment on this blogpost and I will draw 5 names at random from the comments.

I'll make the draw on the 1st of December.

Good luck!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Alba Variation

I realise no doubt not every tatter is comfortable with using split rings, split chains and self-closing mock rings!  So I'm thinking of also offering a "simpler" variation of Alba which would look like this (and also because someone told me they liked a version with picots better!).  

In this variation, I have removed all the self-closing mock rings, 1SSCMR and self-closing Josephine Knots!  There is still one split ring to move from round 1 to round 2 but you can always cut and tie if you do not wish to use a split ring.

If it makes this design accessible to more tatters, I'm happy to add the variation to the pattern.  And here they are side by side.

I prefer the sharp angles and general look of the 1st which is more "snowflake-like" to me and closer to the photo of the real snowflake but the 2nd version is simpler to tat.

What about you?  Do you have a preference?

Best wishes,

Frivole

and P.S.  Sadly I had to re-instate comment moderation as I was getting too much spam again! Grrrrrr!  So I'm sorry you have to go through extra steps to post your comments (so I appreciate them even more!), I wish it wasn't necessary.

Alba - New Snowflake 2024

Yes. I think I'm stopping here for this one.  I'm going to call it "Alba" which comes from the latin "Albus" and means white.

It unusually has no decorative picots but I think this brings it closer in look and shape to the original image of the real snowflake which inspired the design (see below).  It also just makes a change!

Real Snowflake photo by Wilson Bentley

For now I have put the other option I was working on to the side, firstly because I felt the first one was more interesting/original and - and this is the big one - I couldn't find a way to make it in one pass.  I also wasn't happy with the shape of the tips yet so it needed more work altogether.

Discarded Option

Below I'm showing a small photo of Alba and the snowflake photo side by side

because I think when viewed small, or from a distance, or with squinting your eyes,

you better see the similarities or differences in shape.

So it's not as close as some of my other designs

but I still feel the snowflakes, real and lace, share some resemblance.

I hope you think so too?

Regardless, the snowflake photo provided me with inspiration

and a good starting point for this new design.

I hope you like it!

Now on to writing the pattern!  And if anyone reading this likes the look of this one and fancies trying it for me, I always appreciate assistance in this department.  I plan on getting the pattern done during the course of this week. This pattern makes use of my 1SSCMR to make the points on the chains, a technique for which I have made a video which can be viewed here should you be interested.  It also uses one split ring for moving from round 1 to round 2.

Best wishes,

Frivole

New Snowflake for 2024?

Oh no!  It's already November and I'm only just getting around to thinking about and working on a new snowflake for 2024!  I had my daughter flick through the pages of my favourite book of snowflake photographs and make a pre-selection for me and from those I decided to work on the one below.

This is where I'm at so far.  It's not that close to the original but it gave me a good starting point.  Let's say that my snowflake this year is "loosely" (rather than closely) inspired by a real snowflake.  I've said before how it can be difficult to closely mimic a snowflake with tatting as real snowflakes are all straight lines and angles whereas tatting is all curves! I'm still testing things and working on samples. I'm particularly frustrated because at the moment I can't seem to find a way of making this design in one pass!  I'll keep trying!

In the meantime, any feedback welcome!

Best wishes,

Frivole