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!

It's Here! Thank You, Tatskool!

An envelope filled with these scumpt-dilly-icious hand-dyed threads arrived today from Tatskool. Click on the image for a larger view.

I didn't think it was possible but the hanks are even more beautiful than in the photos. As crazed as it sounds, no words can describe my glee at holding them in my hands.

She even included an "itty-bitty" skein of Rainbow Bright! See it?

I had intended to reserve this blog post until I got a sample tatted up to show along with scans of these luscious-looking threads. But I just couldn't wait! It is too hard to choose which colorway to load onto shuttles first. *big.goofy.grins*

Pamela, you've made me a very happy lady. If your other customers are a fraction as excited as I am, you need never worry about where your next dollar comes from.

Thank you again (to the power of 10). Hey, that rhymed!

Tatting Tea Tuesday

It's time for another Tatting Tea Tuesday!

Inspiration can strike at the oddest times. While waiting for Fourth of July fireworks display to start I sketched out a quasi-design for the fleur de lis edging. The only sketchable surface on hand was The Sprout's travel-sized magna doodle pad. Too funny!

So now it is time to tat up test pieces to see if it works or if I go back to the drawing board. (Isn't the dreaming phase always the most fun? The application phase can get a bit knotty.)

As I haven't started tatting the design test, I sat down with my green tea and picked a lovely, small tatted heart to write about. It has been dear to my heart ever since it first appeared online.

Small Tatted Heart
Designed by Betsy Evans
© 1998

I have made this heart many times. This small heart was created to celebrate Connecticut Tatters Get-together, October 1, 1998.

This heart may be small, but it is big on grace and elegance. Back in January, 2009, I emailed Betsy to ask if she had ever considered working this heart into an edging. She had a forthcoming snowflake book coming out at the time — all snowflakes with 6 or 12 points. Don't rightly know if her snowflake book is out yet. Anyone in tat-land got the latest info on when or if it is published?

Betsy created a Rainbow Heart Bookmark with her small tatted heart design in 2001. It is one I use for my most engaging reads.

This second snippet I found while organizing my tatting supplies. It is my first attempt at making onion rings. Once again I used the variegated purple thread. Isn't it funny how I gravitate toward the same one, even though I have spool-upon-spool, hank-upon-hank and even a cone or two of cotton thread to choose from?

Are onion rings supposed to have so many layers?

In Shrek, Donkey and Shrek discuss how ogres are like onions because they have layers. Now I need some "ogres are like onions" green thread! Another random burst of oddly timed inspiration.

Last but not least is a sexy little black edging I tatted way back in the 1980s. Isn't it stunning? I don't have the pattern written down. Not sure where I found it. Does anyone recognize this pattern?

I will knuckle down and count out the stitches one day, but fine black thread can be terribly taxing on the eyes. No matter how favorable the lighting, my poor, aging eyes strain to scrutinize it.

Off to refill my tea and tat while The Sprout naps.

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

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Completely off-topic, but worthy of a tangential remark:

Did I mention that I have started wearing progressive lenses? It's another name for no-line bifocals for folks like me who are in denial about our aging eyes.

When Shakespeare wrote, ". . . that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet," he meant that it doesn't matter what things are called. But ladies and gents, let me tell you, when the "forty-something" life changes slowly creep up on you, it matters.

So in a cunning attempt to camouflage and compensate, I chose a contemporary Anne Klein frame in a brown metallic for a more youthful, professional look. So far the deception is working.

Pay-It-Forward Giveaway Teaser

A bit of a post backlog is building so it is time to make an announcement:

An incredible, super-duper awesome gift arrived in the mail this past week from JB!


But I can't tell you about it just yet. All I can say is that it was my prize for winning the PIF Giveaway on JB's blog. I was floored with the workmanship and thought that went into it. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! See? I can't stop gushing.

A proper blog post will follow in a few days (with photos!) so you can share the awesome-ness in all its glory. Thank you, JB.