Why no new motifs?

...you may ask.

Instead of tatting, I have been knitting furiously for the Socks For Soldiers project. Our immediate goal is to knit and ship 500 pairs of socks to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and the first shipment goes out in October.

If you are a knitter as well as a tatter, please check out the Socks for Soldiers website and join in this worthy effort.

In breaks from sock knitting I'm working on another motif from Mini Tats - the most difficult I've attempted so far. I'll be back to tatting soon!

Motif 7 & Friends

Back to Patti Duff's Minitats for this motif - number 61 in the book. It looks like a miniature figure to me so I gave it a couple of friends to keep it company.

I painted the friends with watercolors and am not sure I like the effect. Too much of the original white is showing in this scan. I'm going to try one more and thoroughly soak it in water before starting to paint it. That way maybe the watercolors will go on more smoothly.

Additions to 25 Motif Challenge Notebook

I have a tendency to procrastinate, but am trying to keep the notebook up-to-date. Just added motifs 5 & 6 and am looking for a new motif challenge.

The new version of Motif 6 uses Olympus Special crochet cotton No. 40. It has a solid feel and an almost silky sheen. A delight to tat with. It's the first time I've used a 40 thread. Much easier than crocheting or knitting with this weight thread.

Snowflake Redux & I Think I'm in Love

I think I'm in love - with the Aero shuttle that is. I'd never used one before but decided to try as several tatters in the online groups have praised it. I used it for this second version of the snowflake pattern from Lindsay Rogers' Tatting Collage and really like the light weight, non-slippery surface that is easy to grip, the bobbin which can be rewound quickly and (oddly enough) the dull grey color. It's probably silly but I never have liked spending time working on say a pink motif using a bright red shuttle. Grey goes with almost everything! Do any Aero users reading this know what you do with the hole in the bobbin? Does the thread go through it when you wind on? Oh, I also like the fact that you can wind the bobbin on the back end of this shuttle. At first the length and the pick on the end made the shuttle clumsy to use, but I quickly adapted to the extra length after completing a few rings.

This is my third or fourth (who's counting when you're having fun) attempt at the snowflake and I'm putting it in my 25 Motif Challenge notebook as Motif #6.

Let It Snow! The 6th Motif

I've never made a snowflake design before and wanted to try a more difficult motif and finer thread. For motif 6 I chose a snowflake from Lindsay Rogers' book Tatting Collage (Guild of Master Craftsman Publications, 1996). I used Omega #30 thread in white and it seemed somewhat fuzzy compared to the Manuela and Opera used for the other pieces.

This is attempt #2 at the snowflake. I'm used to doing handwork in front of the television or listening to audio books and can do even quite intricate crochet without being distracted. At this stage of my tatting development, however, I admit that watching TV - especially an exciting baseball game - can result in unpleasant surprises. Attempt #1 was a misshapen discard.

This attempt is better but I'm not at all happy with the overlapping picots. Maybe I should have made them smaller? Maybe blocking would help? Am working on version #3 right now, but here's what I have so far.

5th Motif

This motif is #20 from Patti Duff's Minitats. It was tatted with Manuela 20. I'm trying to tat so there is a right side and a wrong side, but must confess that when I come back to the work later after finishing it I can't always tell which is the right side! Hopefully I've scanned it right side up.

25 Motif Notebook Sample Pages

Here are some sample pages from my motif notebook. Four motifs completed!

25 Motif Challenge Notebook

I was buying groceries today at Wal-Mart and mysteriously found myself in the crafts section of the store. No tatting thread, no crochet thread smaller than #10. No temptations there. Not even a shuttle in sight. But then I found the perfect scrapbook for the 25 Motif Challenge sitting there with a price of $2.97. Who could resist that?

It's called the Darice Foamies Photo Keeper. It's about 5" by 8" and has a foam cover with a display area on the front where you can insert a title for the album or decorate it with stickers, pictures or stamps. Inside are 18 double sided pockets where you can display the motifs.

4th Motif

I decided to attempt a slightly more difficult (for me) motif for #4 and skipped to motif nineteen in MiniTats by Patti Duff. I was intrigued by the shape and it provides a lot of practice in making uniform picots. I'm still having trouble with the last join so the finished motif pictured here is actually the fourth I did until this "keeper" came off the shuttle. I used Opera thread in size 20 and really like the crisp results.

I was working on this motif during one of the weekly get-togethers of a crocheting group and someone asked me what I was working on. I explained that it was a motif for the 25 Motif Challenge. "But what is it FOR?", she asked. As a crocheter and knitter I'm used to making purposeful items: knitted socks or crocheted water-bottle totes, etc. Tatting, methinks, exists to decorate and to enjoy for itself, but I immediately began thinking would this motif look good as a brooch? As though I need a practical reason to spend time working on it.