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