Bzzz Bzzz!

I recently made a shuttle with bees on it.  The person who purchased it said they were going to tat some bees with it!  What a nice idea.  So I asked about the pattern and this is the one:  it's simply called "Tatted Bee" and is by Nancy Tracy of the Be-stitched website.

It's rather cute!

One of my daughters promptly said she wanted a pair of earrings with these on.  So I shall be making a second one.  I couldn't find my black thread so this is Lizbeth 606 (Charcoal) with Lizbeth 611 (Gold).

And below is the shuttle with bees.

I'm very fond of bees.  They are busy in our garden at the moment, enjoying the spring blossoms. They are so vital for pollination and I definitely want to add more "bee-friendly" plants to my garden.

Has anyone tatted it before?  Does anyone know of other tatted bee patterns?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Collar, Just Three More Rounds

It took me a while to complete this last round!  Here it is, not pressed or blocked so looking a bit messy at this stage.  It will all look nice again after the next round which stabilises the large rings from this round.

And I definitely think joining to two picots together of the round above

(where the small rings of this round join to the previous round)

is much better than joining between scallops of round above

as I had done in the previous version.

However, you could probably remove two of the picots of the small ring

(the ones just before and just after the join)

as those get lost among the picots of the scallops from the previous round.

On another note, I have been advised that the "FollowbyEmailwidget" will no longer work after July.  I'm not completely sure how that will affect the lovely followers of my blog but perhaps you will no longer get notices of new posts?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Making Progress

Two more rows added!

That's the nice thing about this pattern.

There are several places where you could stop, depending on the width desired.

But for this exercise, I'm making the whole thing again

so I can see how to adapt the edges for the open version.

Best wishes,

Frivole

One More Round...

This would already make a nice collar as is.  I've also figured out that tatting it open like this makes it possible to tat rounds 1-5 continuously!  It does mean that you would have to work two of the rounds with the back facing up but you would just need to use reverse order stitches (as in front side / back side tatting) for those two rounds which is not a problem.  I often use traditional tatting but in this case, I would definitely make sure the front of all my stitches are on the same side.

On to the next round!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Round One Complete, Moving on to Round Two

Making this design open, as a collar, means that you can conveniently move from the first round to the second without having to cut and tie.  I made more repeats as I thought it might be a bit tight as a collar to be worn over clothes so I tatted 40 repeats instead of 36 in the original pattern (it can still be buttoned smaller if desired).  I added a small natural shell / mother of pearl button on the chain after the small ring, then continued with another 4 Victorian Sets to bring me to the starting point of the second round.

I see now there's another change I need to make at the beginning of the first round so that I would be able to carry on with the third round continuously too.   I need to start the first round with the same extra chain I made at the end to get me to the starting point of the 2nd round; now I will need to add it at the end which means I will not be in the right place to start the 3rd round.  Always hard to describe tatting with words but I hope you get what I mean!  

Best wishes,

Frivole

Started on Collar Version

I decided to start straight away on the open collar version of the Victorian Trellis Doily.  This time I'm doing the small rings as true rings instead of SCMRs.  It seems to me they sit a bit straighter than the SCMRs.  Also, unusually, I'm not reversing work to make them (you normally would after a chain) so I'm kind of "cheating" by not reversing work and still making the ring with the one shuttle (otherwise I'd have to have two shuttles) but it looks fine.

In the end, I chose classic white for the collar.

I was going to make a button loop at the beginning but the button I have fits nicely in the diamond shaped space at the start of the round.  I will add a button at the other end.  You can then choose to button it in any space to adjust size.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Victorian Trellis Doily No. 2 Completed!

It's been good to re-visit this pattern and make a whole series of videos on how to tat it.  I've never made so many videos in quick succession! - 16 of them.  I found some things I would change on future versions like starting some rounds in a different place to where it is stated in the original pattern, some rounds that could be tatted continuously and other little changes that would make the pattern sit better I think.

I tatted this second version in Lizbeth size 20, Country Turquoise Lt.  The thread I used for the first version is softer and the doily is slightly larger too.  Unfortunately, I cannot remember what thread I used for the ecru version (but wondering if it might be DMC Babylo).  At first I thought the blue one would work out too small to be worn as a collar but in the end, it does also fit over my head even though it is slightly smaller.  That got me thinking though... thinking that I need to make it one more time!   And this time I will make an open version that can be closed with a button at the back.  So I will need to adjust the pattern at the beginning and end of each round.  

I'm also planning on writing a new version of this pattern with all the little changes and tips that occurred to me as I was tatting it so hopefully it will help more tatters tackle this design if they wish to.  I know some vintage patterns, including this one, can sometimes be a bit hard to decipher.

Best wishes,

Frivole