PDF Version

I've made the Easy Christmas Bauble pattern into a PDF document. Here's a link or there's one on the side bar. I'm hoping to sell a few baubles today at a Christmas market.

Tiny Bows

 I found a tutorial showing how to make a very small bow using a fork. When I was a child, I read about making pom poms using a fork, but there was no internet then and I couldn't quite figure it out. Actually, I think it must use the same principle as these bows. Small bows can be fiddly to make neatly, so I'm happy to find a solution when I want to decorate coat hangers or whatever.

Quick quick

The coat hangers had a good reception yesterday at my craft group meeting. I sold the plastic ones, so I need to make some more for Saturday's Christmas market. There's not much time, so I'm using Milford Satin 2-ply thread and a very simple edging, with some beads on the ball thread for bling. I'm not sure how many I'll manage, but I'd like to have at least a few to show off.

A Flower

 I went to a craft group meeting this morning. We made these organza flowers, which was fun. The edge of each layer is seared with a candle flame, which makes it crinkle. Makes me think that I shouldn't stand too near a fire when wearing the flower as a brooch, or it might completely disappear!

The Pattern

I've written this pattern down so that next Christmas I will still know what to do.

Easy Christmas Bauble

Materials

Bauble with an ‘equator’ of approx 18 cm, size 20 thread, 2 shuttles

Abbreviations

CTM continuous thread method; R ring; SR split ring; Ch chain; - picot; cl close RW reverse work; + join; BTS bare thread space

First half

Wind 2 shuttles CTM

1^st round: R 2-2-2-2 Cl, RW;* Ch 2-2, R 2+(previous R)2-2-2, Cl,RW;  repeat from * until there are 19 rings and 19 chains, SR 2+(previous ring)2/2+(1^st ring)2

2^nd round: SR 4/4; using shuttle 1,* BTS of 10 mm (tip: use a folded piece of paper to measure the BTS), R 4+(R on previous row)4, Cl, repeat from * until round is complete, + to SR

3^rd round: SR 4/4; using shuttle 2, *BTS of 15 mm, R 4+(BTS of previous row)4, Cl, repeat from * until round is complete, + to SR.

Cut threads and hide ends.

Second half

Make exactly the same as first half.

Completing the bauble

Place the two halves over the bauble and use a piece of thread on a needle to lace the two halves together, imitating the look of the BTSpaces. Tie the 2 ends together in a secure knot. 

Baubles

 I like the beaded bauble, but it took a long time to make. I'm running out of time to make things for a Christmas market, so I wanted something that would be a bit quicker to make. I must have had beginner's luck with the beaded one, which fitted the ball first time. This pattern needed some cutting and trying different things to get right. But I think I have it now.

Look Ma.....

 Not 'Look Ma, no hands', but 'Look Ma, no beads on the shuttle'. These baubles were temptingly close to the till when I went to The Plastic Shop to buy coat hangers, so I bought a box of 12. Coincidentally, pluto1415 on In Tatters showed baubles covered using a pattern by Nancy Tracy.  They're absolutely beautiful, but because it's a shuttle-only pattern, it involves having hundreds of beads on the shuttle. Pluto1415 was looking for tips for working with so many beads on a shuttle. I couldn't help. I thought I'd try to make my own version that had the same swag effect, but no beads on the shuttle. There are beads on the chain thread and beads added to picots.

Another Idea

 This idea came about by accident. I made a mistake on the edging I was tatting for a coat hanger, so I turned it into a motif. Then I thought, wait a minute, I could hang a motif in the centre of the hanger as a different way of decorating it. I think it has a lot of possibilities. This motif is a doodle using floating chains. Here's a close up:

I managed to find plastic coat hangers in town yesterday in The Plastic Shop, naturally. Unfortunately they're rather complicated things, which doesn't make covering them with ribbon easy. I had visualised a plastic version of the wire ones, a simple triangle, but I'll work with what I have.

Good and Bad

 The good thing was that we had a much needed shower of rain on Tuesday night. The bad thing was that lightning struck a transformer and we had no electricity for 24 hours. The good thing is that tatting doesn't require electricity. The bad thing, rather oddly, is that without television to distract part of my brain I make mistakes and have a lot of un-tatting to do! These are Grace Tan's 'Jane's Bookmark Cross', there's a link to the pattern on the sidebar.

Piccadilly Steams Off

 The Piccadilly Express is off to Perth to take Annika to the zoo.

Idea

 A friend showed me a picture in the latest Ideas magazine of a coathanger with a crocheted edging and suggested I make a tatted version. In the original version,  the whole hanger was covered with thread, but I decided to use ribbon instead. I intended to buy plastic hangers in town, but they are the sort of thing that seem ubiquitous until you actually want to buy them. I'm sure they must be available somewhere, but I didn't find any. I used wire hangers that I had at home. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Sewing the tatting to the hanger was a bit fiddly, but otherwise the project was pretty straight forward. They could be a good candidate for the Christmas market.

For Princess Penelope

 My grandddaughter tells me that she likes princesses. A princess needs a tiara, right? I made this up as I went along. The central flower derives of course from Jon's daisy pin, though I had to adapt it because the 'ruby' was bigger than the beads Jon used. The photo makes it look as though the tatting goes all the way round, but I confess that although that was my initial plan, it was going to take far too long, so the back of the tiara is plain material. It is fastened with velcro, which should make it easy to put on and enable it to be converted into a hair band.

Earrings

 I've been trying out new (to me) earring patterns. The purple ones are tulips by LaCy Life. Here's a link to the pattern. In looking for the link, I see that there are beads dangling from the bottom of the tulip, though they're not shown in the diagram. I think it looks a bit like a fuschia, but that may just be because I'm more familiar with fuschias than tulips. The green ones are Petal Dancer by Rachael Mohler. The pattern can be found on the Online Tatting Class, here. I had to learn to do a ring on a ring for that pattern. I watched Rachael's video and aha, I've learnt something new! I used size 40 thread to start with, but I didn't like the look of the earring, so I started again with size 20 thread. I did use size 40 thread for the cross earrings, which are by Tatting Box on Facebook. I added a bead to the bottom ring of the multicolour pair.

Spiral Bracelet

 I turned the spiral bookmark pattern into a bracelet, with beads on the chains. Here's a link to the pattern for the bookmark. I'm using black and white again because I have an order for two bracelets in black and white and I thought it would be good to give Nettie some choice. The ones Nettie doesn't want will go on the Christmas market. In any case, black and white are quite striking.

In Black and White

 This is Jane Eborall's daisy bracelet. Easier the second time round, once I'd assembled the right size beads!

Size Does Matter

 Jane Eborall's patterns clearly state the size of the beads needed. Unfortunately, the beads in my stash are not necessarily as clear about their size! Sometimes it comes down to trial and error. In the blue daisy, the bead I used for the centre was much too small.  The daisy is squashed and not round - it just won't do. The small white beads I used in the other bracelet are too big, so the petals don't sit correctly. I was a bit worried that the middle bead would be too big, but actually it works. Some experimenting on the blue one means I know exactly how big the bead for the in-between rings should be.  Now I can revisit my bead box and choose the right beads for a black-and-white version of Jane's Daisy bracelet.

Daisy Bracelet

This is Jane Eborall's daisy bracelet pattern. My version is not perfect - after numerous false starts I was prepared to let a few mistakes go! At first I felt a bit overwhelmed by the paraphernalia involved - three sizes of bead, safety pins, picot gauge, beading needle, two shuttles, bracelet clasps.... - but it became easier once I grasped the pattern properly. It's never going to be an easy or quick tat, but it does become easier with practice. And of course it  helps that Jane's patterns are always so clearly presented.

Bracelet for Me

This is the third bracelet I've made using Paula Gero's pattern 'Roses and Vine Bookmark', which I found on In Tatters. This one is for me. The flowers are tatted in Tat-ilicious keylime raspberry parfait, the vine in Cebelia which I dyed myself. 

Flowers and Vine Bracelet

I was tatting along merrily with Tat-ilicious Little Boy Blue thread when I realised that it really isn't a rose colour. So I've renamed this one, flowers and vine bracelet. This one is for the Christmas market, but I think the next one will be for me.

Roses and Vine Bracelet

I've turned Paula Gero's Roses and Vine bookmark into a bracelet by doing just three repeats and adding fasteners. I added beads to the centres of the flowers too. The bracelet is for an order. The brief was  a wide bracelet in black and white that would fit me. I think it works, I hope Nettie will be happy with it. I might do another in other colours for the Christmas market.

Towels for Two

I made these hooded towels yesterday for my cousin's twin grandchildren. The frog one was designed by Amber of Crazy Little Projects blog, the flower and leaf design is my own. The twins are tiny, they weighed 1.5 kg each when they were born and now weigh 1.9 kgs, so I thought half size towels would be more appropriate than full size ones. The hood goes across one corner of the towel, which makes it easy to wrap the towel around baby.

Slave Bracelet

The flower is Jon's  pattern, called Daisy Pin. The rest I made up as I went along. I've been thinking for a while of making a hand decoration that was much quicker and simpler than mignonette gloves.  Originally I was asked to make the gloves for someone who does make up for weddings and wanted to look good in the photos. I think these could work for that purpose. This bracelet is a bit big for me, but I have very small hands, so if I want to put it on a Christmas market table, I had better make it so that it fits other people!

Peas?

 This is Jon's Peas-in-a-Pod pattern. I like the bracelet, it's simple but looks rather complicated. The blue beads look like peas perhaps, but the faceted and rice grain beads? Not so much.

In Blue

Instead of Miss Caroline, the blue milk jug cover has Jennifer Williams's flower and Jane Eborall's SCMR butterfly. The leaves are in inverted tatting, just made up as I went along.

Simpler

I'm working on much simpler edgings for the muslin milk jug covers, beaded chains that are attached to the material as I go, using the aero hook, so that they don't even have to be sewn on. The machine embroidery is an extra embellishment, but it seems to distort the material, so I may have to rethink that.