Pretty Start...

Hi everyone.  I've been away for a couple of weeks.  Just got back and straight away started on this lovely design which was at the top of my list.  I was hoping to find time to tat while I was away but in the end, it was busy busy all the time so I didn't.

This is just the centre.  Will post again very soon with the rest of it.

It does cup a little but it will be fine once the design is completed.  I just thought it looked rather pretty curled up... flower-like...

Best wishes,
Frivole

Little Tatted Box

At last, I have finally completed the little box I started telling you about a few posts ago!  Here it is:

A few weeks back, I attended a Tatting Day and a lady I met recently was doing a workshop on this little box.  The original pattern and idea is by Judith Connors who gave permission for Linda to teach the class but this particular design was modified by Linda.  What was clever is that Linda had moulds fabricated to shape the boxes.  I think they are made of some kind of vinyl? 

So you make the lid and press it onto the mould before coating the tatting with fabric stiffener.  You then remove and leave to dry and repeat the process for the base, using the narrower part of the mould.  Great, isn't it?

Linda (and Judith) like to decorate their boxes with a flower on top.  So I put one on top of mine, for the photo.

Of course, you could use something else to mould your box, like a jam jar but it's particularly nice to have the right matching size for the lid.  It's a really neat idea and it would be nice to have those moulds in different sizes.

Thanks Linda!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Crochet in the Sunshine and a Tip

As you may know I have several projects on the go, three of them being crochet blankets!  I don't know what it is about crochet blankets but I do enjoy making them.  There's the colourful ripple one for my son, there's "Frida's Flowers" I have been showing you in the previous post and there's also another beautiful design by Jane Crowfoot:  Persian Tiles.  I like variety so it's nice to always have more than one project on the go (though of course, I usually have too many!!  Because I'm only talking about crochet here, there's also the tatting, the micro macramé, the knitting...)

Anyway, Jane Crowfoot had a tip about making a blanket with repeated elements.  She said rather than doing one whole element at a time (which is what I tend to do), it's better to do the first round of all the elements, then the next round on all of them, and so on.  She says that way, if your tension changes, your motifs are more likely to end up the same size.

I took her up on her advice and started working the remaining motifs of the Persian Tile blanket that way.  I have five of the large octagons made so I'm now working on the remaining eleven.

It was such a beautiful sunny day today, we ate in the garden and then I sat and crocheted a bit in the evening sunshine.  Lovely.

Best wishes,
Frivole

Where Has May Gone??

Time just seems to be zoooooooming by at the moment!  Long time since I posted and no tatting to show you.  Time available was dedicated to exploring micro-macramé a bit more...

And trying to keep up with the crochet along blanket - Frida's Flowers:

I'm now on the 5th element of the blanket:

there are 4 of these called "Heart Rose"

I just completed the first one tonight.

I also managed to finish my blue Ada lace top

and am enjoying wearing it.

So there you go, with all else that's going on, I'm afraid I didn't manage any more tatting for this post.  I still have the project from the previous post to complete, but at the moment, my crochet hook is still shouting louder than my shuttles!

What are you guys up to?  What are your current projects?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Mary's Cross

I needed another one.  This time I made Mary Konior's small cross from the book "Tatting with Visual Patterns".  It's quite a bit bigger than Elizabeth's small cross from two posts ago.  Surprisingly, I had to adjust the pattern a little bit and made small changes because it wasn't working out quite right for me (just a stitch here and there).  I like how it turned out.  This cross has a very nice shape and I like the centre part which I find visually interesting where the three rings join together).

And I had a sudden desire to try something new when I saw this bracelet (from a tutorial on YouTube)...  I had the materials so I gave "micro macramé" a go.  What's interesting is that if you look up close you will see that some of the stitches are just like tatting:  the curves around the centre beads are done with "double stitches".  There is one row of plain ones and then two rows of "double stitches" interspaced with beads.  I'm waiting for a wider ribbon end as what I had was too narrow (where the clasp is attached to the bracelet).  I enjoyed making it and will probably make another in different colours.

I've also made progress on the projet from the previous post (one part is finished) but I'll wait to show you the completed thing.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Sometimes...

things just don't work out!  I occasionally have patterns like that where I start to wonder if I was meant to make them.  I started again on the little project from the previous post and went wrong again.  Well, the size of thread is better - surprising how much difference there seems to be between Lizbeth 20 and Anchor Artiste 20 but I managed to go wrong more than once while trying to re-make this.

First of all the centre part wasn't lying flat at all - but that was stated in the pattern as it recommended pressing the piece after the centre part was made.

Surprisingly, it did go completely flat.

That's better.

Let's carry on...

Hang on, that's way too tight,

I just can't fit all the little rings in!

Ah yes, my fault!

There should have been two picots on each

chain of the previous round, not three!!

Snip, snip, snip

Let's start again.

Now I've got the right number of picots,

the following round should work out better.

So I'm afraid that's all I've got to show for so far.

I thought I would be showing you the finished item in this blogpost but as you can see, I've been thwarted by my own incompetence!  

Best wishes,

Frivole

In Progress...

Still limited time spent on tatting by me at the moment.  Here's the start of something which I will reveal in the next post...  it's not quite working out at the moment and I may have to cut and re-tat!

I've also made a start on the third element of the crochet-along blanket I'm making.  Remember when I asked you whether I should go for cotton or wool?  Thanks again for all your replies and votes for one or the other; I did go with wool (well, an acrylic blend) due to cost really.  You need quite a bit of yarn for a blanket and I wanted to keep the cost down.  I like natural fibres for clothing but I don't mind acrylic for blankets.  The first motifs were the plum ones, then the blue ones and now it's this fairly complex flower that needs lots of colour changes!  But it looks rather nice I think.  This is a blanket inspired by Frida Kahlo and this latest motif is called "Bird of Paradise".

Best wishes,
Frivole