Tiny Round Teapot is Finished!

Thread: Handy Hands' Flora 20

White-to-Dark Purple variegated

I finished tatting Martha Ess' Tiny Round Teapot. Isn't it adorable? After all that built-up angst over the folded split ring, it turned out to be the easiest thing in the world to do. Silly me.

Can you believe I started this on June 23? If you would have told me that it would take me a whole month to tat this, I would have said you were crazy.

Ultimately careless mistakes ruled the day. You'll see that when I started, it looked as though I was tatting around the same direction as the picture in the book. Maybe I was. But I realized later that my teapot was tatting up in the opposite direction of the one in the book. Huh?

Guess I really shouldn't be surprised. Swords get rusty if left unused. It is time to get cracking and sharpen my blade. (Practice, practice, practice.)

Note two other bloggers who tatted this charming teapot. Their teapots face the opposite way.

Icelas Fishbowl of Tatting: April 26, 2009

The Space Between: Of Teapots... : April 7, 2009

Here is what my teapot looks like facing the other way. See how after the first the picot joins show? But if you look at the first photo, the first picot join shows on that side.

I'm chalking up the directional issue to my own careless error. It really is a delightful, wee teapot. And truly not difficult at all.

The truth is, this little project has blown the barn doors wide open for me creatively speaking. Martha Ess achieves a perfectly delightful teapot shape with simple, clean lines. Brilliant!

Pet PeevesReflections in A Hand Mirror

This post was originally published in 2003 on Ambitatterous website.

A personal pet peeve of mine is the notion that left-handed tatters need only a hand mirror and a cursory understanding of geometry (more specifically, how to place a mirror at a 45-degree angle) to tat with the fluidity and efficiency of their right-handed cousins.

Anyone who has ever plied a tatting shuttle knows that it takes two hands (no matter which one is dominant) to tat, not one. Therefore, the tatter must read the instruction, apply the hand mirror to available images for reference, PUT DOWN THE MIRROR and pick up the shuttle -- thereby displacing the visual reference so critical to success in tatting's initial learning stages.

It's not as easy as it looks. Try mentally reversing the drawings (or photographs) generally found in, say, the standard crochet lace instruction booklet.

That's not to say that left-handed tatters don't accomplish the same flow and grace of motion that right-handed tatters do, because we do. As Georgia Seitz says, "There are as many ways to tat as there are tatters." In my opinion, it just takes longer for us lefties because of the mental gymnastics.

That said, every lefty encounters directional and joining challenges in their learning curves. These challenges may or may not be present in less sinister studies.

Teapot Tuesday: Kitties in the Kitchen

Love @Mothermark's fun new post for Teapot Tuesday: Kitties in the Kitchen http://ping.fm/9yq73

Fishy Fun on Tatting Tea Tuesday

Happy Bastille Day, everyone.

Instead of nibbling fancy French chocolate and tatting with the colors of the French flag, I'm settling in with a mandarin orange/decaf green tea. Today's tea accompaniments include gossip, photos and a bit of tea lore.

This past week I have been steadfastly working on a design for a heart. Just finished it late last night. The test sample looks so ragtag from emptying three shuttles of end-threads I just couldn't bring myself to scan it. Writing out the pattern to work it all in one pass will make it easier for you all to try.

Test tatting continues on the fleur de lis edging as well. It has been giving me some trouble, but I am still excited to get it worked out. Who knew "communi-tea" would be so invigorating.

Who am I kidding? It's all you! Your continued interest has spurred my "creativi-tea" as well as huge swells of gratitude. Can't thank you all enough for dropping by my little tatting corner each week.

Can I share a delicious bit of tea gossip? Just a tiny morsel to tease your appetites...

I received a flood of nearly unanimous responses to my recent call for nominations to revive my old National Treasure feature. You all didn't waste any time! You knew who you wanted to see.

But I can't spill the beans about who it is. That would be cheating. No amount of wheedling, trickery or chocolate will get me to talk. (Can't believe I wrote that chocolate wouldn't work.) I can tell you this: it is a joy to prepare this write-up.

To keep things interesting and fun, the following photo contains two clues to the National Treasure candidate's identity.

(I've probably just made it too easy for you uber-sleuths out there.)

If you've seen one of these fish-shaped shuttles before, you might hazard a guess as to the next National Treasure tatter's identity. Mine arrived earlier this week via parcel post. It has been a great week for receiving tatting goodies!

Decypher the squiggle underneath the fish for clue #2... Isn't this fun?

Can't wait to use this fishy shuttle next time International Tatting Day rolls around. (April 1st) I'm sure I will use it before then too.

Last but not least is tea lore from Tea Digest: Teatime at the Cat-Tea Corner. (Why? Because I love the pun!) It's not revolutionary, but still welcome in this little corner of tat-land.

Well, my tea has gone cold while I'm at the computer. Off for a freshly steeped cuppa to begin writing out the pattern for my heart.

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful. See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!