Two weeks ago I made several attempts to tat for myself on Tatting Tea Tuesday but ended up spending most of my day wrestling with my aging desktop computer. Of course I managed to eat chocolate.
Today is the day I have chosen to have an ITD do-over. Serendipity struck when Paris Breakfasts shared loads of lovely red store fronts, shop windows, cafes...even chocolate fish!
©2010 Paris Breakfasts
See? I don't make this stuff up. In France they celebrate April 1st with chocolate fish.
For my do-over, I loaded a fish-shaped shuttle with size 10 hand-dyed bamboo thread from Heather, The Tarnished Tatter. Having never tatted with bamboo, it was tantalizing to think of the lace possibilities this new fiber might bring.
Heather's Etsy shop describes this thread as VERY soft and perhaps not suitable for tatting, but very nice for crochet and other uses.
It is very soft, but in that dreamy bamboo way. This would be incredible for knitted, crocheted, embroidered or woven baby projects. It works for tatting, but is not as crisp as some other threads.
For the record I am a size 10 hater. So I was reluctant to try this. But as soon as I saw that it was a bamboo thread my inner fiber fanatic took over. I love knitting with bamboo blends because of the softness and renew-ability of bamboo.
Wouldn't it be grand to try a 6-cord cotton/bamboo blend? What are the chances that thread manufacturers would give it a test run? (That dreamy softness must be having an effect on me.)
Heather sent me more scrumptious HDTs in size 50 (my fave-o-rite thread size!) as a thank you for test tatting swans for her latest book. (A really good book, by the way. Full of fun "doodles" like a whale, swans, even a baby dragon hatching from an egg!) So I have more to try and more to show.
But this post is getting rather long, so I will save it for another day.
Mixed Media Bookmark
Time to pull out a cherished mixed media bookmark that I have carried with me since my adolescent days. (Back when rocks were soft and dirt was new. LOL!)
My twin sister and I made dozens of these to sell for a Horsethief Days festival sidewalk sale when we were 12 or 13 years old. What is significant (besides being cute) is that the bookmark looks as fresh and new today as it did the day it was made.
My grandmother tatted all the lace – yards and yards of lace edging for us to decorate these felt mittens. She tatted in front of the television, her hands flying back and forth amazingly fast. I can still hear the click-click-clicking of her shuttle.
It only took her a few weeks to tat all the lace we needed. For me to tat the same amount today would take a month or more. I still recount stitches more than once before closing a ring or finishing a chain. I still slow down to make sure each stitch is uniform and there are no gaps. In short, I obsess.
Because I have collected vintage threads by the hat box full, I can tell you what thread she used – Star tatting cotton in shade #176. (a lovely variegated combo of white, yellow and lavender).
Well, I have run out of time and must take The Sprout to his swimming lesson! See you all later tonight!
5 comments:
Hmm... chocolate fish... interesting! I much prefer the fish shuttle, though! I love your mixed-media bookmark. How wonderful to have some of that special tatting and the thread to match! If I could get even picots without a gauge and keep an even thread length between motifs, maybe my fingers would fly! Then again...
"Back when rocks were soft and dirt was new."
What a wonderful sentence - as is the rest of this interesting post. Your adolescent-made bookmark, must be a prized possession.
The Star thread in the pic reminded me to tell you something VERY important.
Okay, I didn't remember - MAEBH reminded me and ordered the following to be
...
Her skirt is trimmed with tatting in thread given me by you - the #80 Star pink, which I have used many times now, for the young'uns,I love this thread.
Maebh thought you should know, and so do I.
A Grateful Fox : )
Thanks so much for the kind words and for testing the bamboo, I now have some confidence to start dying it again... I made a little motif with mine last night I do love the softness too and its got a bit of shine to it as well... I guess I will change my description a little about the bamboo :)
I love the story you shared about the bookmarks. They are really cute, too! I really love seeing mixed media craft using tatting. I do other crafts and have been thinking of ways to combine them. Have a great day!
I agree that a cotton/bamboo thread would be very interesting to tat with. Maybe we could petition Lizbeth to start experimenting with different fibers once they get all their different sizes of cottons going.
I'm like you. I believe in the adage "Count twice, close once." Every time I don't do it, it comes back to bite me. And I undo and redo if the stitches aren't uniform or the picots don't match.
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