Can you pass me another birthday?

Today is my cousin's birthday! To help him celebrate, I tatted him a soda can cozy.

Split rings! Done in size 10.

It fits snugly onto a normal size soda can, and should help to keep the drink cold.

I did it in a dark red and dark blue, so that any spills shouldn't be as noticeable.

Depending on which way he put's it on, it can appear more red then blue when looking from an angle, or the opposite.
Done in all split rings, except for the first and last ring, which are normal rings.
Each ring is 3-3-3-3 or 3-3/3-3, with joins thrown in where appropriate.

A birthday is not something you sneeze on

Today is my uncle's birthday, so I tatted a handkerchief edging for him.

He's a Denver Broncos fan, so I tried to use thread that matched the team's colors. The thread is about size 20.

The pattern is edging number 8822 from the book The Tatter's Treasure Chest, edited by Mary Carolyn Waldrep.

This was tatted using my new Starlit Shuttle, whom I have given the name Narwhal.

Narwhal is quite sparkly.

Narwhal is larger then the Clover shuttles I normally use, which came in handy while tatting the edging; as that meant I could hold more thread at one time. The larger size did throw me off a little at first, but overall the Starlit shuttle seems to work alright.

Progress report

I haven't posted in over a month, so I thought it might be a good idea to show you some of the projects I'm currently working on.

Crocheting! How dare it be so difficult?

First off, a large chunk of my tatting time has been taken by crocheting. In April, I asked my sister to teach me how to crochet. She agreed, so now I know some basics.
But it is so frustrating! I'm not very good at making the stitches loose, since my fingers tend to hold the yarn as if I were tatting. With more practice, I'm sure that I'll be able to make a loose, fancy piece of crocheting.
The above picture is a little hat I crocheted.

Ah, split rings, how I enjoy making you. Winifred and Sunny the shuttles say hello.

Now tatting is so much easier for me then crocheting. My favorite technique would have to be split rings, which is what this project is going to be made mainly of! Using leftover thread from other projects, I'm making a little tatted box to hold a couple rings in. Leaning against Sunny the shuttle is the completed lid of the box, while below is one of the unfinished pieces. The box will have five pieces like that unfinished one: each being made of six rows of six rings, the rings themselves being a pattern of 3-3-3-3 (the 3's being the number of double stitches and the - being a picot, though after the first row some picots will become joins).

Carl and Pandora the shuttles have been hard at work. 925 rings to be exact.

Here is something I've been working on for a while. This is the first half of a tatted bag I'm making. As the tape measure shows, it will be just a little over fifteen inches wide. Each row has sixty rings (3-3-3-3), and I'm on row sixteen. The current plan is to have sixty rows. After it is done, I will tat an identical piece and connect them with a tatted insert also made of split rings. Its a good thing I like split rings, right?

Here is a hint at what has been eating a majority of my tatting time.

Now for this last picture, I'm not going to show you the entire project. Because it is not even close to done! This thing is ridiculously large for my meager crocheting experience, but I'm determined to finished it. This picture does show you how tight my crocheting is though. When I finish the crocheting, I plan on tatting an edging to complete this project.

Well, that's the end of this progress report! I hope all of your works in progress are going well!

Twin dragons

This was a post I meant to do last week, but I left for the woods before getting it up.
I tatted two Minor Norwegian Dragons for two of my friends. Each dragon has a slight mistake, but neither friend was upset about it.

Twin dragons meet in flight. Wings nearly touching, they stretch out their heads in greeting.

These are the first dragons that I have made in size 10 thread. They are a pretty nice size, and I'm thinking of tatting another one to put onto a bag.

Size 10 black. This dragon suffered a terrible injury to the left wing which makes it difficult to fly.

It was fun tatting with black thread in a larger project. The black thread causes the double stitches to melt into each other, which makes it a little harder to tat if you forget where you are in the pattern.

Size 10 white. This dragon was born with a second spur at the base of its tail.

The white dragon was fun to tat. I prefer to do a dizzy picot for the ears instead of doing a twisted picot.

There was a third dragon, but I forgot to take a picture of it before giving it to a friend. The third dragon had a white body from head to tail, and wings that variegated between black and white.
Next up for dragons, a Chinese Dragon! I recently got this real pretty size 10 thread that I think will be great for the Chinese dragon pattern.

One hundred years

Today was a very special day.
My family and I were able to help this woman we know celebrate her one hundredth birthday.
Cool, right?
I was able to tat her a present. I took a doily pattern from the book A Tatter's Workbook and left it partially unfinished. In the unfinished section of the doily, I added in the number 100.

Done in size 10 pink and green. Placed in a frame with the woman's name.

It was a pretty cool day. Her family was at the party, along with other members of our ward.
Go build some memories. And be sure to notice the good things that happen every day.

Shrimp doodle

Time for another birthday!
Today is my father's birthday. It took a bit of time for me to figure out what I was going to make him. Then I remembered that he likes eating shrimp.

Done in size 10. The colors are white, pink, and red.

I couldn't find a pattern for a shrimp in my tatting books or online, so I experimented. It is a simple doodle, attached to a card that reads, "Happy birthday! Here is a little shrimp for your lunch."
My father got a laugh out of it.
I think if I try tatting a shrimp again, I'll make it more detailed.

Dreamcatcher Episode II: Attack of the Shuttles

Today is my aunt's birthday! To be specific, she is the aunt I mentioned in the Snowflake extravaganza.
For her birthday, I made another dreamcatcher!

Done in size 20 Lizbeth thread. The colors are Mocha Brown Med. and Ecru.

The center of the body is a pattern called the Cobweb doily, from the book Tatting Doilies & Edgings edited by Rita Weiss. I added two additional rows to make the doily fit within the metal ring properly.

I tried to make the additions similar to the doily pattern.

I chose these colors because my aunt seemed to really like them. I think that they go pretty well together.

No chickens were harmed in the collecting of these feathers.

Once again, I was able to get some pretty feathers from the family chickens. There are six beige feathers and two of the reddish brown feathers. They are really soft. I decided to connect the feather to the dreamcatcher using split rings and a bead.
My aunt really liked it, so I am calling this dreamcatcher a success!