Where I live.

I have recently purchased a really neato keen camera. Not expensive but BIG on quality much more so that that damnable HPM425. I ended up choosing a Nikon L18. This thing is fantastic. I highly recommend it! it has a panorama picture mode that works GREAT! I just wanted you to see the first one I did and a glimpse of where I am in the world.

Follow up for the christmas ornaments that I finished but never posted.

Here are some pictures of the ornaments that I finished up for the january challenge. I am sorry that I have not posted till now but hey life gets hectic at times yes yes?
I really am tickled that there are more followers now. this is really cool.
Still I tried to make several different designs, working on the KISS method,

That way the bulb can be accentuated instead of over run with the tatting. there was one that I had already posted that truly took over the globe. it was the multicolor variegated blue green white one that really lost the globe all told.

but here are some more that I have yet to post.
And for my friend Jean, I love your socks. I purchased 2 sets of needles. sets of 4 both end pointed so that I can learn to make socks.

And the Horses were a gift. I just think they are grand so I decided to post them.

I'll get to it later....

Back in October I got a package from my friend Sandra, She had included some HDT and I fell in love with the colors. Well I was debating upon what I should make from the thread. As luck would have it I kept putting off working with the threads as I just could not figure out WHAT I wanted to make with such lovely threads.. I had to find SOMETHING that suited the thread, when in all reality all I had to do is decide on what to make and the thread really did the trick and brought the pattern to life. Don't you just love those Chicken or the Egg arguements. Still I decided to load a pair of shuttles and just DO the next pattern that I fell in love with. AGAIN Sandra came through, you see she sent me a pattern of the HEARTS DESIRE and I was hooked. I have made 2 of these thus far and will make another here in the next day or so. I am going to give away Tatted Valentines wishes this year! I already know where the first two are going and I have a good idea where I can send a third and a fourth. I am thinking of adding one of the Buttons that H sent me of the lady bug to the heart and see how it accents the piece. We shall see and I will scan one to give you a chance to tell me how you like it. So Please Feel free to let me know which you like better.. with or without the ladybug.

It's Magically Delicious!

I know it has been Much too long since I posted last but I have just not be up to it. Needless to say I have several projects that I need to post here but I wanted to get this one up before I did anything else!
Thank you H!!! THANK YOU!!

I went to my mail box today and what did I find there but an envelope from a friend. She had included some neato things for me to use in my tatting.
I never figured out how to use the snowflakes yet but I will I promise, Now I have some other things to figure out how to incorporate them into my tatting!
Thanks H! You are a true Peach!!! There was one more closure a round with a bar that I did not get a clear shot of so it is not included here but I am So happy and thankful for Everything!
I also want to send out another thank you to S for everything she put in her box for me. I am going to do the Hearts desire pattern out of the HDT you sent me luv!
Here is what was in my envelope:

Ok, I know I have been remiss in posting, but I have several things to show off now that I think you will get a tickle about. I have been experimenting with different pattens to wrap christmas ornaments with. I think I am going to try and make 2 or 3 A month this coming year so that I can either give them away next year or make a tree entirely of tatted ornaments. I think that would be most excellent.

here are some pics of the newest. :D
Enjoy.

Still working with Ornaments.

I finished a couple new ornaments. one is simple white tatting around a red globe. Very dramatic up close, the second is with HDT in a multi colored blue white and green, It is very nice I think. I had a friend threaten to steal it. Then again she also likened herself to a magpie. Not sure whether to be amused or flattered. heh.

Also incuded are the two newest iterations of the snowflake pattern. not sure what to call the blue one, the green one is called "Green grow the rushes" from my friend lark.

In Honor

In Honor of the woman who originally taught me to Tat, I am offering a giveaway!
My Nana was an enigma, She was born in aught 2 as she used to say, She passed away in 2000. 98 is a formidable accomplishment in life. Her story truly is long and involved but suffice it to say she lived a very long full life. She buried all of her family, including her son, my father. She survived 2 husbands. Sold Stanley Home Products, as well as being a full time beautitian! She had a shop set up in her basement. Her nickname on the CB was Gadabout. She loved to travel and see new places. She taught me to crochet, knit and Tat. She would not kiss me because I had WHISKERS! She also gave me her recipe to make her Date Nut pinwheel cookies. What is funny is this, I am the only one she taught these things. She always just "DID" for others, I was the only one who asked to learn them.
So here is the Game~ Guess the Gadabout's Birthday!!! The person who guesses her birthday or guesses closest to her actual birthday will get the white snowflake with the silver beads that is the main blog picture for this blog. I got such wonderful responses from you all I want to return something to you. So, I will take guesses until Yule! December 21, 2008. I will determine who is closest on that day and will send out the prize on Monday the 22nd of December. So send your submissions to my email, inkydaffin AT gmail.com with the subject of "Gadabout". I will notify the winner via email and as a comment to this blog entry to let everyone know who won.
I want to thank Everyone who has posted comments to my posts. You ALL have been wonderful and for that I am truly thankful. In the event that two guess the same date and either hit the date exactly, or hit the closest date exactly I will JUST have to tat a second one to send out. I hope that will be acceptable as far as a tie resolution.

Mike.

Come on up to the Lab and Ill show you my favorite obscession.

Forgive me the RHPS reference, but I watched it with a friend this week and I just have it on the brain just like the newest iteration of the last snowflake I posted. I wanted to give a new friend something a little different, I offered her a snowflake and then decided to send her Two instead. I did not want to send her exactly the same one as before, because well after all, NO SNOWFLAKE is exactly the same as any other. Going on that theory I figured I would change the snowflake a little to see what I got. I decided to use Half double sitiches for the long legs of the flake points. I did the Second half of the DS first on the way out to the point and did the First half of the DS on the way back to the center. I figured this would give the resulting spirals a symmetry to them. Now that I have had a chance to look at this enhancement to the original pattern I Love it even more than the first one that I did. I still get the swirl effect but now it is even MORE pronounced. Also since this alteration works, I guess doing the hds in the same direction for the whole length of the bar to the point and back could also make for a nice effect. I guess what I am saying is this, "It is excellent to follow a pattern, You will always get the expected result. Adding your own flair to the design will make it uniquely yours and could end up pleasing you more than accomplishing the pattern did the first time!" Tatting is such a relaxing passtime for me that I look for ways to make it more fun! I hope you like this flake as much as I did making it. M.

Size does matter

I was speaking with my friend Sandra recently and she said, I am doing snowflakes in sz 10 as they go together quickly and you get a huge snowflake. I got a request for a burgandy flake so I decided to pull out some thread in 10. Here is the result. I pulled one of the rings too tight but Ill correct that on the next one. I loaded enough thread to do 2 of them. point to point this flake is 5" across she is OH so Right! in so many ways. Thanks Sandra!

Playing in the snowflakes.

I found a pattern I liked some and decided to work on it and make it more my own. Here is what I ended up with I really like how the tips of the snowflake are tipped and I get the curve just right. I like how it swirls. I have been counseled about posting things and not posting my pattern with it so I am going to include probably more information than yall ever wanted to know but here goes.

Here is one version of the written pattern I will include 2 for the sake of just being redundant. Muahahah! 
*R 2ds 5p sep X 2ds 10ds cl rw
ch 3ds 6p sep X 2ds J last picot of ring continue 13ds rw
R 2ds 7p sep X 2ds cl rw
15ds j last picot of last ch rw.
Repeat from * 5 times
and:  

* R: 2---2---2---2---2---10 cl rw
CH: 3---2---2---2---2---2---2 j(p on r) 13 rw
R: 2---2---2---2---2---2---2---2 cl rw
CH: 15 j(p on ch) rw * 5 x

And here is a visual pattern as well.

I do not know how, I do not know when, I do not even know why, but I found these tonight when I was out picking up last minute things to make holiday fixings and I am GOING to use them somehow some way in my tatting!!! these are just TOO cool!!!

Working with large pearls while tatting.

As all of you know adding large beads to work can be tedious. I am doing a collar where I am adding 6mm pearls and I was trying to get it on my regular little shuttles. Talk about tedious!!! Still I was trying to work with it but I had just too many pearls for the work I had to do to get safely or securely on the shuttle I was using. Then, I remembered! My friend Sandra sent me some really interesting shuttles from Russia!! I pulled out the middle one, green, and loaded the pearls on it. Talk about AMAZING!! the shuttle is not really any larger than the shuttle I was using but is much much taller! So I loaded my pearls and started tatting. Here is the current result. I am Such a happy TATTER right now!!!

Christmas just would not be the same without...

Ornaments! So I have been working on tatting around christmas ball ornaments. I have been experimenting with different styles of beads on the balls and I like how thats going but adding the beads where I do I have found that it makes the tatting that much more difficult to manage and work with. Still here is a selection of the balls that are done. :D

Oh the weather outside is frightful!

The weather here in colorado has turned COLD! Tonight happens to be snowing and blowing wind. Fine by me as we are on a wind generator for electric!! Since it is cold and really no other things to do I have been busy with tatting. Who woulda thunk it?? right? heheh.. Still I have been having fun with color. Enjoy!

Mike.

Ok I have been a bit busy these last few days. So I decided to show you all the variations I have done on color for the snowflake pattern I have fallen in love with. I have decided upon two basic patterns. one more open and one with the clovers at each point. I included a dime and a quarter to show you all the scale of the snowflakes. :D Here is the work I have done thus far. More to come!

I have decided to do the Primary colors for snowflakes as well. I am going to experiment with Pearls and different beads. So far I have used the gold beads and the green beads in one case. I have blue beads and red ones as well. I am going to hit the bead shop tomorrow if time allows and pick up some foil lined beads to make them shine a little brighter when they are hung on the tree. I love how the gold beads play against ALL the colors. I also have some semi precious beads. Ameythist and onyx etc. I may even try those to see how they look worked into the pattern. I picked up some pearlescent beads to put on the white snowflakes so expect to start seeing some of those as well soon.

Christmas gifts and some tryout tatting.

I started tatting the other day and decided to try some around a christmas ball. I used size 20 and thought it might be a bit too clunky. After it was done I looked at it and it seemed ok. The more I look at it the better I like it though. I think I will try doing some with size 80 to see how it looks. I know it will be a bit more delicate but this one reminds me a bit of snow on the rooftop, kinda sorta. Still I am going to experiment some more with it.







I started a necklace for my aunt. I posted it earlier and I have since finished it. so I am posting the finished product. I also made some earrings to match. I know how hard it can be to match things when it comes to jewelry.











And last but not least an update on the Hat. I have completed two more rounds. I altered the pattern because I did not like how small the rings were in the second round. so I increased it by 1ds each part. so its now 3p3p3p3 cl.

Update on russian tatting shuttles.

I was asked about the size relative to something so that they could determine the size. so here is a new pic with the shuttles next to a ruler and a Tatsy shuttle so that you can determine the sizes.

More...

Sandra was ever so kind as to send me a really neato CARE package. I absent mindedly forgot to include some other MAJOR gifties!! so here, is the rest of the story! (I just knew you would catch the reference Sandra.)


In my package she included these two skeins of HDT one is called apple blossom the green to pink/red and the other is called coral reef. Both are from Tatskool. (note: Tatskool you do some lovely work with the thread dying, thank you I will be looking your direction soon for some colors)



Also here are the Russian Tatting shuttles that were in the box as well.

Christmas is coming.....

So of course we start thinking of what can we do with this obsession called tatting so that I can make christmas gifts and feed the obsession at the same time???
Well I decided to make necklaces for my aunt and two of her children. I saw this pattern somewhere but forgot where so I just made something that looked similar to what I had remembered.




My aunts favorite color is yellow so I ordered a ball of medium yellow, I SWEAR the color charts just do not do the colors justice. I fell in love with this ball immediately. It has such a beautiful sheen to it and it just makes you want to bite into the ball!

Now for a side point. I also ordered the CHRISTMAS RED ball of thread from Cebelia. Did you know that the number for this particular thread is 666? I find it mildly amusing with that whole Santa = Satan bullcrap I heard years ago but still to put the number of the beast on CHRISTMAS RED?? heheh... I just guess I have a warped sense of humor....