Motif # 19 - Horsin' Around

Horsing Around with Ineke Kuiperij's Paard

Earlier this fall, I saw a Yahoo tatting group post from Riet over at Bengelblog called "Horsing Around with Ineke's Paard."  The linked PDF file credited Bobbie Demmer with showing a horse to Katharine Buckner, Pam Freck and Riet at the end of 2011 Tat Days.

The clever trio of tatting sleuths discovered the pattern was taken from the "Knight" piece in Ineke Kuiperij's Chess Set book.

And what a cute, cute, cute horse it is!  I immediately added it to my "must tat" list.

Motif 19 - Horse on a Paperclip
Here is my first attempt, tatted with Lizbeth^® 40 Spice Cake #182. For the eye I used a black bead from my stash.  My best guess for its size is either 4mm or size 6/0.

Two shuttles wound CTM are used for this and (don't hate me) but I did not pay attention to where I started in the color progression. I just picked up and started tatting. Normally I would have chosen the starting point, but I was thinking, 'It is only a test tat.'

Not only was it a very successful test tat, it was pure pleasure to tat and was completed in about an hour.  Pardon the pun, this spurs me on to create a few more horses on paperclips.

Thank you Riet, Katharine and Pam, as well as Bobbie Demmer for sharing such a fun project!

Outdoor Tatting - Dragonfly!

* Scroll down to the UPDATE for dragonfly photo *

As birds twitter overhead and midday sun warms the grass, I sip my tea (iced) and contemplate tatting for the first time in days. Fireman Sprout is playing in the car a few feet away.

"Quick! There's a fire!" he says, grabbing his imaginary fire hose. "Let's go put it out!"

And so the stage is set for an outdoor tatting session.

But what to tat? A UFO or a new project?

There is the lovely 'Eventail' fan the online tatting class discussed yesterday. It was designed by a needle tatter named Lucette Evain-Lacan and is included on page 27 of her book "La frivolité à l'aiguille pas à pas." (Needle Tatting Step by Step)

Alas, I need to learn how to make Single Shuttle Split Rings before I can tackle it. *le sigh*

Riet Surtel Smeulders prepared the SSSR practice pattern for the online tatting class in 2002 – Libel, the Dragonfly.

And here is my dragonfly, such as it is. I ran out of time before having to go pick up Big Daddy from the commuter lot and take The Sprout to his swimming lesson. Will have to complete it after swim class.

My first attempt at Single Shuttle Split Rings

All in all, not a bad first try at SSSR's. More practice will make them less lop-sided.

As a funny aside, Riet named her dragonfly Libel...with all the muttered curses and name-calling, perhaps mine should be named Slander. LOL!

But seriously, no bad things were said about any person real or imaginary. (Though if the green cotton had ears...they would be flaming!)

UPDATE: Didn't finish the dragonfly until Wednesday morning. Sorry to keep you waiting, Gina!

Single Shuttle Split Ring Dragonfly

For the wings, I used two threads wound together (HWT)^† – a pale yellow DMC Special Dentelles in size 80 and a Signature variegated machine quilting cotton in size 40 (M09 - Golden Harvest). It gives the wings just a hint of dimensional color. 

^†Jane Eboral defines HWT in her post HDT vs. HWT