The learning curve includes learning about color!

Last summer, I was staying with my parents at the seashore. During the evenings, I wanted to tat Renulek’s summer doily, like every other tatter did in those days. I guess I wanted to tat-along. I could not concentrate, however. Through the window, I watched the sea, the tides, the birds, the sunsets, …and I listened to my parent’s stories! Above are my trials and errors. There was always something wrong! I re-tatted it 11 times! I changed colors, to motivate myself or to empty a shuttle.

When I finally could concentrate a little, I did not like it in this pale, grey color!  Besides, the solitary rings have 6 instead of 7 picots. Watching the colors of the sunsets (for us, the Channel is situated West, of course), made me bold, and I choose these:

I also tried to add beads, which was fine, but a lot of work! After this round was finished, I thought the doily looked like a fungus. I asked Frivole’s advice. She said the color combination was not good, because I combined brilliant colors with muffled colors. I call this Honesty. I asked Madtatter80, who said it was nice, but I had to pay attention to the colors I would choose in the next rows. I call that Diplomacy. I asked my mother, who said she liked it, and she kept it, which is called Maternal Love.
So, I started again, leaving the beads out:

I liked this color combination, but made an obvious mistake, again! I hid the WIP somewhere, and went back home. We went through some hectic times, at the end of last year, and in January,  TIAS began,…End of January,  I got my doily out and started again. I tried to change my luck by choosing VSC (Very Safe Colors):

Well, I thought I had memorized the pattern, and was too lazy to look at Renulek‘s magnificent design pages. So, I made another BIG, and consistent mistake in the last row. Yes, Jane, a scissor was a very funny pattern for a TIAS! OK, here comes “la méthode Fox”:

Then, suddenly, and for no reason at all, I made no mistakes anymore and enjoyed tatting this pattern. So much so, that I neglected the TIAS! Why, Oh, Why? Well, each cloud has a silver lining, I have become a very fast ring opener, and my hart does not hurt anymore when I pick up my scissors.

However, I have a bad feeling with the row that I am tatting at the moment, and the doily seems to cup a little. There is no obvious mistake this time, it measures 21.5 cm across. Come and see next time! All colors are Lizbeth’s #40, except in the second picture, where I used Clover.
With apologies to Renulek, whose blog with a new spring doily, you can find here!  

This is what our seashore looks like today at high tide and calm weather. Oh, I love long walks near the beach, looking at birds, searching for seashells! Feet in the water? Not yet!

For the love of my life!

                    The snowdrops, small and humble, made it again , this year! They make a nice bundle of flowers.


This little heart, was one of the first patterns that I designed 37 years ago. I glued it on a self-made Valentine card for my sweetheart.  And we are still together, today.

It owe it to him,  that I can tat. He did not teach me, but thanks to him, I was introduced to someone who could. He also bought me my first 2 tatting books. I made this little heart-motif many times, put it in a brooch,  and I sold it to friends and colleagues. So, I have witnesses who know this is mine :)

This motif is so simple and obvious, however, that I would be surprised if nobody else would ever have had the same idea, during all these years. Wheels and hot water have been invented several times!

                                                                       My little Heart : Ring : 4x3, Chains 8x3

                                                                       Glued on a card, it can survive for years

                                                                               Tatting shuttle by Chris Parson

TIAS and I started to see the light!

Let me start by giving you my best wishes, dear reader, and from the bottom of my heart, let it be  a peaceful year !

Day 3 of the TIAS 2015. It put me in a good mood right away! My resolutions: don’t talk nonsense, don’t show off on other people’s blogs, tat, re-tat, focus etc,.. I can’t guess right now. We’ll see what this becomes ! My yarn is a bit pale, a nice pistaccio colour in reality, but not good under the scan. I must choose a stronger color.  Hmmmm, here is my picture. The Aero shuttle is the first one I ever bought , right here in Flanders (no, we don’t live in a swamp), and it is still the one I use most. I must admit, however, that I am very fond of tatting shuttles decorated by La Cossette, which I often use as a second shuttle (here)

I learned tatting more than 30 years ago, and I was happy with what I did, back then. I thought I could tat. Obviously, I had 3 little books about tatting in Dutch, and I could make everything that was in there. Then life happened, and I lost interest in lace making.

Although my HB and I were interested in using computers and Internet right from the beginning, it never occurred to me to type the words 'Frivolité' or 'tatting' in Google.

But when I did so, one blessed day in 2013, I got some surprise! I did not see the  romantic lace that I expected, but a male goat!

This one:

                                          © Jane Eborall, 2012

Goodness, I can still smell him! I developed tatting angst! Needless to say, once this was over, I discovered a magnificent world full of pretty patterns and lovely colored thread ! What an incredible evolution this lace has made! I started learning furiously, but was handicapped by lack of time. It made me very happy to slowly learn new techniques, breaking fresh ground.

I learned from you all, dear bloggers, and I am very grateful for this. But I learned most from Jane’s TIAS. I started with the pram, which I could not do. I had never heard of split rings. So, I started learning in books, You Tube, blogs, courses. I tatted, un-tatted and re-tatted. And I finished last, just before the new TIAS!! Thank you , Jane for your encouragement! One day, she almost literally wrote: “shut up and tat”. That’s what made me do it! I was so proud of it, that I sent the pram on a card to my parents on my own birthday. They pushed a very similar one, after I was born!

                                             ©Design: Jane Eborall.Tatting: TallyTatty 2013

Last year, I participated in making the boat, but I was more interested in making rhymes and wrong guesses. I had an attack of prankyness, which hits to me from time to time. I finished in time, but I missed a ring right in the center. Not a stable boat, I’m afraid. And I have not had the courage to re-tat it.

                                         ©Design Jane Eborall. Tatting: Tally tatty

continental lace bobbin winder

It is a,….continental lace bobbin winder (that can be adapted to wind up tatting shuttle bobbins).

(In this context, continental means  Europe)

Thank you very much for your comments and great guesses! I had a lot of fun with my last blogpost, tatting Godmothers, plus, I have solved one of my tatting problems.

My family loves it when I tat in front of the television in the evening. The clicking sound of my old Aero shuttle reminds them of the coziness of knitting needles near a fireplace. What they do not like, and what I find very irritating, is that I have to drop my shuttle and let the tread unwined, as the tread I work with tends to twist on itself. Now I found a solution!

When I watched a farm instrument on LadyTats blog, I had a look in the attic and found my old lace bobbin winder. I bought it in Brugge many years ago in a shop specialized only in lace making materials. The shop-owner re-stuffed my lace pillow with horses’ hair, and did a wonderful job. Today, it still looks as new. A bobbin thread winder was a must in those days, everyone I knew and who made lace, had one.

The metal part of that instrument is made in Western Germany, and the shop owner told me that he made the wooden beak himself. It is adjusted with one nut and one bolt.

When I visited the Lace museum, annex shop in Brugge two years ago, the young teachers told me they had never seen such an instrument before. They told me that they wind up their shuttles by hand. (Imagine, winding up 100-200 bobbins by hand!) There was a wooden bobbin winder for sale, but they did not think much of that.  

My thread winder still works nicely as you can see.

And here is where the TATTING comes in! I shuttle tat, and always use a bobbin shuttle. I slide the bobbin over the shuttle’s tail, then I start winding tread on it. I wondered if I could place a shuttle in the beak of the machine, tail facing backwards. It worked, but I was afraid to break my old, well-loved Aero. I found the solution in an Aerlit shuttle. They  are strong and made of hard plastic. 

To my great joy this works!!! And, I do not have to unwind my tatting shuttle so often anymore, during tatting! This is a winner. It can also be used to sharpen a pencil, Jane Mactats! Thanks to Muskaan’s suggestion, I will now also use it as a semi-automatic Nostepinde. (Oh, I wish I could hear you pronounce that word).

So, everybody WINS!

Jane E gets the first price for thinking frivo-logically and deducing the correct answer.

Jane M, Muskaan and Pigimini win the scientific price, for formulating a hypothesis that could be tested.

Stitchety Grub and Anne win a price, because they had the first question right. I am thrilled that SG has exactly the same bobbin winder!

Contact me, so that I can send you a present!

Bye for now, Tally

frivologic@gmail.com

What Is this?

What Is this?

Cleaning the attic is not one of the things I do, because  I find it very hard to throw something away.
I rather re-arrange things. So I picked up this instrument which I bought in 1979 in Bruges, as you call her. I remember exactly where i bought it, because I still have the plastic bag, they put it in.

Two quiz questions:

• What is this?
• What am I using it for at the moment?

My apologies: I have nothing to give away right now to the person who finds the answer. Or maybe, I have,…. Depending on who you are and what you already have.

Tip: it is not made for shelling Belgian shrimps!

Re-inventing the little wheel

Re-inventing the little wheel

No, dear readers, my friendly computer man and myself have not yet figured out how to place patterns on this blog.
In the meantime, I made myself a promise to tat 100 poppy’s before November 2018, and place them on a wreath. Hence , I present you to poppy # 2 . This is the first time that I tat on a button.

Of course, I have seen  tatting on buttons before , like on Jane and Sally’s blogs here and here, but also on other blogs and on Pinterest. I know that Karen Bovard wrote  a booklet about how to. But I thought I did not need any help in any way. I thought I was clever enough to tat on a button all by myself.
I saw a flower on a button that I could not resist, on Rachel Colvin Jackson’s website: here , which I copied more or less without counting the stitches. The green leaf is from the Cariad tatted poppy, here .

The result is this:

Poppy on a button by Chantal Alenus
©flower: Rachel Calvin Jackson
©leaf: Cariad tatting


I attached the leaf to the flower, but I was not satisfied. There was something wrong with it. After turning the button over and over, I realized that the button was facing the wrong side. Or the tatting was. Ok, I have heard of front-side and backside tatting before, but it never bothered me! I grabbed Judi Banashek’s book Impeccable Tatting, and looked at page 17, and I understood.
No, for the time being , I don’t want the knots on my chains and those on my rings to face the same direction. But I want my buttons and my double knots on my rings to face the same direction!!
I realize now, that when I have a button in my hand and a picot ready to insert in it, I have to turn the button, so that it faces away from me.
Lesson learned.

A Poppy For Pappy

A Poppy for Pappy

For my grandfather who lost his life in the second world war. Thank you, young men and women who left their cosy homes and lost their lives on a cold , distant shore, in a foreign country. What a sacrifice they made!
Thank you soldiers from all over the world, who came to fight for us.
World Peace!

In my family, Remembrance poppy’s are being worn out. This is due to the fact that my father, a war orphan, is very interested in the history of both world wars. He wears his poppy all year round. The paper poppy’s that my sister brings with her from the UK, are not very strong.

Which is why a tatted poppy comes in handy! I used  Jon’s pattern as a basis to design petals, then, I tatted another and larger one, and a long, green leaf.

I attached the 3 parts with the threads that are still hanging on the leaf. First the leaf, then the sepals then the petals, then a black button. The leaf may need some stiffening, the flowers are fine. A safety pin finishes off the brooch.

I am following the tutorial on how to design tatting with Inkscape on Robin Perfetti’s blog. I’ll try to post a pattern asap. Bear with me please!

Shuttle made by Banyek