31st of October

We are a bit late carving our pumpkins this year!

Here is the first one on our doorstep last night.

I thought I would put together all the autumn motifs I tatted recently for a festive Halloween post.

Starting at the top is Martha Ess's Pumpkin Teapot, Mark Myers's Apple as a pumpkin, a couple of tiny pumpkins of my own design, Mark Myers's Tatbat, his autumn pumpkin (on the left), Sherry Matthews's pumpkin, and Heidi Sunday's pumpkin vine edging. 

Here is one more photo where you can see the relative size of all the pumpkins.

Hope you all have a fun 31st of October

with friends and families!

Best wishes,

D*i*a*mond Earrings & Sweetheart

No, not that kind of diamond... but still pretty?  I wanted a pair of red earrings to go with something so just quickly tatted these last night, and wore them today.

I added Snowflake Obsidian semi-precious beads as I like that bit of extra weight to the earrings.  They look slightly asymmetrical but it's just the angle they were on when I took the photo.

I like how they've turned out and will probably make a couple more pairs in different colours.

I also used Jess's Messy Jess-y again to make Birgit Phelps's Sweetheart.  This is a great little pattern but if I was to make it again I maybe would try it without the two uppermost rings to give it more curve at the top... and maybe shorten the side chains just a little?  Oh, but I'm fussing.  It's a lovely heart.

Best wishes,

Cherries

I thought it was time for a change from the pumpkins... did you?  A short while ago I received a new Messy Jess-y! HDT from Jess at Tat-ilicious and I'd been wondering what to make with it.  Decided to use it for this cherry pattern by Nancy Tracy at Be-Stitched.  Maybe a darker red would be better but I think this looks nice too.

I like the bit of blue mixed in with the red in this thread.  I shall have to find something else pretty to make with it.  The leaf is made in "Leafy Greens" by Lizbeth.

Best wishes,

Encore Une Citrouille!

Another simple pumpkin design but also another interesting treatment for the leaves.  This one is "Needle Tatted Pumpkin" by Sherry Matthews.

Best wishes,

Yet Another

Have you had enough of pumpkins yet?  Here is another one, this time by Mark Myers and it's called "Autumn Pumpkin".  I started this once and wasn't sure I liked it but then decided to have another go.  In the spirit of autumn and Halloween, I just had to complete it to add to my collection.  Mark Myers (aka Tat-man) does a lot of his designs with one shuttle only and this pumpkin is no exception.

This is quite different to the kind of stuff I normally tat but it was interesting to make.  Unlike the previous pumpkin, this is not a quick tat though.  There are many separate elements composing the design.   I did find it a little difficult to produce the kind of tatting I like with the half rings that he uses for the pumpkin:  because they are incompletely closed rings, it's really hard to get them all looking the same.  So I have to accept the more "free" aspect of this kind of tatting.  On the other hand I like the little green braids which are made on the same principle.  It's also quite nice to tat with just one shuttle for a change.

I would have preferred brown for the tail but I still don't have any.  I was supposed to get some with my last order but they were out.  The orange is "Harvest Orange" by Lizbeth.

Anyone else has got more pumpkins they can suggest for me to try?

Best wishes,

More Pumpkins?

I did receive the two orange colours I'd ordered (Bright Orange and Harvest Orange) as well as "Falling Leaves" which has orange, red and yellow in it.  But in the end, I used Autumn Spice again.  The colour changes in Falling Leaves are too strong, Bright Orange is too bright though I like Harvest Orange and will give that a try next.

So here is another pumpkin pattern I tried.

It is Pumpkin Vine Edging by Heidi Sunday.

My pumpkins aren't perfect on this but I felt, in this case, that it added interest that they were slightly uneven... more like real pumpkins!  (that's my excuse anyway...)   Unless they are tight against each other, it's surprisingly difficult to get the rings and chains of onion rings to look really even and symmetrical.  I also tried different joins on the pumpkins so they are not all the same there either.

I also played around with where I switched shuttles.  In the original pattern, she has all the little rings in the pumpkin colour but I think they are better as leaves so you see I have mine in different colours.  If I was to carry on I would use the Autumn Spice thread where it falls in the browns and greens but otherwise use the green thread shuttle for all the vine and little rings.

Maybe an autumn pumpkin necklace would look nice?

I do find those colours very appealing together.

Autumn Spice and Jungle Greens.

Best wishes,

Small Pumpkin

I was looking for a small pumpkin pattern.  Doodled for a while thinking I'd come up with my own... then I happened upon Mark Myers' Apple pattern... and thought it might look good as a pumpkin!

What do you think?

I'm waiting for some plain orange colours.

I placed an order today so hope to get

the new threads in a day or two.

So this is Autumn Spice again.

Another of my favourite Lizbeth colour ways.

This nice pattern is quick to tat, just what I was looking for.  I particularly like the way he made the leaf.  It has interesting curves in it, using the small ring inside to pull the curves in.

I'm also knitting away and have now started on the second pattern repeat.

Best wishes,

Tea Pot and Knitting

I finally got around to purchasing Martha Ess's Tea is for Tatting book.  I had seen many examples of her pretty teapots on various blogs and kept telling myself I'd get her book some day.  Well the day is now!

Here is the first one I've tried:

The thread is Karey Solomon's Upper Atmosphere.

Cool weather is upon us.  This means it's time to get the knitting out.  Last winter I only got so far as casting on and knitting just a few rows of my next knitting project which is something I had wanted to knit for a loooooooong time.  It is Alice Starmore's Flora jacket.  Every time I saw a photo of this jacket, I thought I wanted to knit it someday.  Last year, I finally treated myself and bought the wools.  

Now I shall be torn between tatting and knitting!  But aren't the colours looking amazing?  I just had to show you.

And for some reason, the search bar tool on my blog wasn't working anymore... every time I tried to search for something (I know should be there!), it came up with "no results found".  Very frustrating. So I searched on the web, and replaced the widget with a html/javascript code.  It works.  So if you tried searching my blog before and got no results, it should work now.

Best wishes,

Pumpkin

It's October.  Time for harvest, colourful leaves, Halloween and... pumpkins!  I love pumpkins.  I like the way they look and I like the way they taste!

Here is one very pretty teapot pumpkin conceived by Martha Ess and which she generously shares on her blog.

My only contribution to this great pattern was to add a couple of tendrils.

I imagine this pattern was meant to lie flat.  I have to admit that mine cupped a lot.  I debated whether to press it flat but then opted against it.  So this is a lovely three-dimensional pumpkin.  In fact my young son thought I should tat another half and make it completely round.  I had no brown so used black for the tail and the beautiful Autumn Spice by Lizbeth for the pumpkin itself.  The spout and handle are done in Lizbeth Evergreen Dark.

Ooh, it will soon be time to carve some.  The children (and I!) love doing that.

Best wishes,

Beanile Tatting Anyone?

I don't know how I ended up on that page... not an unusual occurrence when surfing the web but I found Nina Libin's website.  I had heard her name before, probably in connection with Tat Days but had never really seen her work.  I would say it's more beading than tatting, in the sense that you see mostly the beads rather than the tatting, but it's very interesting.  And of course, I had to give it a try!

This is one of her free patterns which sadly doesn't have a name... just a number.  You can find it on her website.

I don't have that many seed beads (size 11) so I worked with what I have and this is the result.  I think the shape is lovely and I will be tatting it again.  The first one (the blue) went a bit wrong and the outside chains were a bit too tight.  I added a couple of stitches when I made the green.  I'm not sure what is the size of the thread she recommends (metallic embroidery thread).  The blue is tatted with DMC cotton perle 12 and the green is tatted with Lizbeth 40.  I think the Lizbeth works out better.

Surprisingly, there are about 150 beads in only the one earring.  I'm not a huge fan of working with beads (mostly because I find it slow-going, from having to string the beads to having to stop when you tat to wind and unwind the shuttles to slide the beads) but I find Nina's designs very ingenious.  I need to get more seed beads!

And then I tatted the little necklace of the previous post for myself and I'm wearing it today.  I used Lizbeth Wedgwood Dark with some black pearls and I like how it turned out.

Best wishes,