I’m making this one all in red and because I’ve been spending a lot of time watching lectures while studying for the CPA exams I’ve made quite a bit of progress on it.  It’s nice when studying involves tatting.  It’s much easier to get started for the day if I start with watching the lectures and tatting and can more quietly slip into the harder stuff (actually working the homework problems) a little later.

The original Priscilla pattern called for doing this with a single shuttle.  Make the center ring, make the rings along one side, and then come back around the other side leaving a bare thread on the back side between the flowers.  Nowdays we have split rings, so that whole thing can be done in one pass.  Here’s my modernized version:

Use two shuttles wound continuously.  

With shuttle 1:

R 2(-2)x8

Shuttle join to the last picot of the ring just made.

*R 2-4-4-2

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

R 2+6-6-2, join is to the last picot of the previous ring.

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

Repeat from * 2 times more.

R 2-4-4-2

With both shuttles:

Split ring of  2+6/2+6 the joins are to the open (lower) picots of the rings around this one.

**Split ring of  6-2/6-2

R 2(-2) x8, this can be done with either shuttle.

With either shuttle:

***Shuttle join to the last picot of the ring just made.

R 2-4-4-2

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

R 2+6-6-2, join is to the last picot of the previous ring.

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

R 2-4-4-2

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

With the other shuttle, Repeat from *** on the other side of the ring.

Split ring of  2+6/2+6 the joins are to the open (lower) picots of the rings around this one.

Repeat from ** until desired length is reached.

Hopefully that’s not too confusing with the 3 different repeats.

One of the big “discoveries” of playing around with the patterns in the Priscilla book was finding these patterns that call for making a series of rings with a single shuttle that are joined BETWEEN the rings to a row of picots (either on another ring or on a chain) below them.  It’s such a neat idea for traveling with a series of rings and I like that you can’t see the bare threads at all.  I admit that I don’t explore pattern books as much as I should, but I don’t recall seeing this sort of thing anywhere else.

I also love edgings that are both symmetrical AND can be done in one pass.  I’m thinking this would make a nice belt.  I haven’t made one of those for a while.

I’ve started another version of this in green and red that uses single shuttle split rings to put the red in the center of each flower, but I don’t have pictures, so I’ll save that to share on another day.  I’m also working on diagramming this one out, but I don’t have it done yet, so that also will have to wait for another day.

I’ve been a bit obsessed with turning edgings into garlands for our Christmas tree lately.  I started with it back in November when I got to thinking that if I tatted up one new garland each year that in 30 years our Christmas tree would look pretty awesome.  I thought it’d be neat to have an on going project throughout the year to work on, but I’ve sort of been obsessed with finishing them lately.

I finished the two early this month and have now started two new ones.  Both are based on this pattern from the Priscilla books.  (#1 I think).  This is not the thread I’m using for the actual garland, this is just what I happened to have already wound CTM that I wanted to finish off.  Originally this pattern was written up as a single shuttle edging done in two passes.  Thanks to the modern magic of split rings it can also be done in

just a single pass.  I also played around with the idea of expanding it out so that it would have 6 points.  I thought that if it were done in white that it would then look like a row of snowflakes.  Not sure that the third one really pulls it off, but I may play around with it some more.  It doesn’t totally lie flat yet and seems to be a bit too straight on the edges.  Maybe with a different stitch count on the outside rings to make them more pointy.  Tomorrow I’ll share the pattern and the version of this in all red that I’m working on.  It’s going to look great on the tree.

Here’s the second Christmas garland that I finished this last week.  In these colors it reminds me of holly and ivy.  This one uses a pattern from Priscilla Tatting Book number 2.  I’ve just realized that though I started using this pattern a while back, I never actually posted the pattern or my variation.

It’s always nice when I have very few changes to make on the original pattern.  That’s been the case a lot lately and I think this is because I’m still working on the tea cloth which has lots of changes so I’ve been picking easier patterns to work on as side projects while I struggle through that.  I’ve had my eye on a couple of more complicated projects and I’m trying hard not to start them until I’ve finished up some more of my other works-in-progress.

And here’s one of those former WIPs!  I started this soon after Christmas and decided to just keep going with it until I ran out of the red thread.  Ended up getting just under 7 feet of it.

Here’s the instructions.  My main change was to make the rings of the flower 7-1-7 instead of 8–8.  I don’t like to join all my rings to one center picot because then I have to guess at the right length to make it and because I think it’s stronger if you do a serious of picot joins instead of one large one.  Seems to also make it a lie a bit flatter and more even as well.  Except for that and a pair of Shoe Lace Tricks the pattern pretty much stayed intact.

*R  7-1-7

**Ch 3-3-3-3

R 7+1-7 (join to picot on previous ring)

Repeat from ** 4 more times for a total of 6 rings, joining the second picot of the last ring to the open picot of the first ring.

SLT

Ch 3(-3)x5

R 3+3-3-3 (join to the middle picot of the last chain of the flower.)

Ch 3(-3)x5

SLT

Repeat from * joining the second picot of the first chain in the flower (first 3-3-3-3 chain) to the ring between flowers.  Continue until desired length is reached.

That’s it!  Hope you like it!  Now that I finished off both the Christmas garlands that I started around Christmas last year I’ve been flipping through the Priscilla books to pick out the next on to do.  I think I’ve got a good one picked out, but since it involves changing a single shuttle pattern into one with split rings and maybe even three shuttles with split rings and single-shuttle split rings I want to make sure it works before I post in detail about it.

I was flipping through pictures on my cell phone and found this one that I took of the Take Something Leave Something table at Shuttlebirds.  It was a great success.  I was very happy to get rid of a lot of Royal brand thread that I’m not going to use anymore and picked up a bunch of other stuff that I will use.

For the last 5 or 6 years I’ve been slowly paring down stuff by setting a rule that if I buy (or get without spending money) 2 things I have to get rid of (either by using up or giving away) 3 things.  By “things” I mean thread, yarn, books, cds and clothing interchangeably.  I keep a little tally going on my phone and this is the first year I’ve left Shuttlebirds “positive” (meaning I could have brought more home) despite the fact that I had gone there in the negative.

It’s a bit OCD, I know, but it’s worked really well for me over the last few years.  It’s never really stopped me from buying anything I want (that’s not really the point), but it helps me to stay on top of stuff by motivating me to clean things out and get rid of things I know I’m not going to use in the future.  My thread stash has definitely grown over the last few years, but I have gotten rid of almost all my yarn (except for some for tatting) as it became clear that I have very little interest in picking up crocheting again, and I have cleared out at least a bookshelf or so of books and cds.

Anyway, the best part about the table was that there wasn’t a bunch of stuff at the end that I got stuck with.  🙂  The second day we put out a donation bowl so that people could take something and leave a donation for Shuttlebirds.  I think that was a good way to do it.  The first day things needed to be replaced, but the second day you could leave money for Shuttlebirds.  I got the word out about it fairly late, but hopefully this was a good start to getting the word around.  I’m looking forward to seeing what appears on the table next year.

Busy month!  Lots to get caught up on from Shuttlebirds, Camp Wanna Tat and other projects, but I’m going to start with the Christmas garland from my last post.  Finished it!  I had been hoping to get it done before the end of Shuttlebirds but didn’t finish it until the day before the LPS meeting last week.  This was taken outside our meeting space after I showed it off to the group.  Nice to finally finish it.  It’s a cute pattern when finished, but it’s basically just all chains and when you’re making 30 feet of it (technically 60 feet, because you do one side and then the other) it gets a bit boring.  I probably should have just put it aside for a while and come back to it in a few months, but I’m trying to go through my started projects and actually get a bunch of them finished so it feels good to have this one done.

I had actually been working on two garlands and when I finished this one I got back to working on the other.  I was only making that one as long as it could be until I ran out of the red thread for it.  Did that this last week so I’ll share that next. Strange to finish both Christmas garlands so early in the year.  Guess it’s time to start on another!

Today I’ll be finishing up my last papers for my masters degree (yay!) and heading to the doctor’s so see if they can do something for the cough I’ve had for the last week.  My voice has been pretty much shot for the last few days and I think it’s either pneumonia or bronchitis.  Pneumonia was going around the office about a month ago.  I thought I’d gotten away in time, but I guess it was just incubating until I got up to Seattle.  Hopefully they can give me something to take care of it quickly.

Over the weekend I did get a bit of work done on one of my garlands for Christmas this year.  I’m going through projects trying to empty shuttles for Shuttlebirds and picked up this one where I’m covering a beaded chain with Krystle’s rhinestone bracelet pattern.  It’s a nice easy chains-only pattern that I could do while zoning out on the couch and it goes quickly enough that it feel like you’re really accomplishing something.  Even so, I didn’t QUITE get to the end where you turn around and come back.  Maybe I’ll sit down with it for a few minutes tonight and finish of the first pass.  No real rush because 1) Even once I get to the end I’ll be turning around and coming back along the other side, so I still have 30 feet to go, and 2) It’s for Christmas, so there’s plenty of time.  I just wanted to clear off some shuttles.

I’ll be leaving tomorrow to go to Illinois for a funeral and won’t be back to Seattle until after Shuttlebirds and Camp Wannatat so tonight I’ll be packing up for the next two weeks.  Probably won’t get around to finishing off that last foot before the turn.

Quick correction in the pattern yesterday.  I forgot to add a line about a picot that is a regular picot in the first repeat and becomes a join in each repeat of the pattern after that.  I added it in red to yesterday’s pattern, so hopefully it doesn’t confuse anyone.

Wasn’t feeling well today, so the first half of the day was a waste.  Second half went much better.  I have an order for another pair of fingerless gloves so I’ll be starting work on those as soon as I clarify the details with the buyer.  I visited Pacific Fabrics and picked up some nice elastic for the project that I’m working on the Priscilla edging for.  Since I  think it’s going to actually work out, I’ll finally announce here that I’m trying to make a headband out of it.  I haven’t decided yet if it’s going to be just a single row of the edging or if I’ll double it over and do a second row.  We’ll see how long it takes me to finish off the first one.  I think it will look nice with either.

Here is the pattern to the edging from yesterday as written in the Priscilla books and as translated into modern notation by me.  I stuck to the pattern pretty straightly with the exception of adding two shoe-lace techniques to make it so that I could use a ball and shuttle instead of two shuttles.

R 3(-3)x3

*CH 3(-3)x5, SLT

R 4(-4)x4  (This is called the “large ring” from here on out)

CH 4-4-4+4+4, joins are to the 2nd and 3rd picot of the first ring.

R 3-3+3-3, join to the first picot of the large (second) ring.

CH 3(-3)x3 (Starting with the first repeat, the first picot of this chain will be a join to the previous repeat.)

R 3+3+3-3, the first join is to last picot of previous ring and the second is to the next picot of the large ring.

CH 3(-3)x3

R 3-3+3-3-3, join to the open picot of the previous ring.

CH 3(-3)x3

R 3+3+3-3, the first join is to the second to last picot of the previous ring, the second picot is to the next picot on the large ring.

CH 3(-3)x3

R 3+3+3-3, the first join is to the open picot of the previous ring, the second picot is to the next picot on the large ring.

CH 3(-3)x4 SLT

Join to the start of the large ring

CH 3+3(-3)x4, join is to the last picot of the first chain.

R 3+3+3-3, joins are to the first and second picot of the chain before the SLT.  When doing the next repeat, there will be another join to the second join in this ring.

Repeat from the * until desired length of edging is reached.

A relatively easy pattern and it’s nice that there weren’t many changes to be made.   I’m finding that the tricky part is in not making any mistakes because every ring is different in the pattern and there’s a lot of easy mistakes to be made.  (Too many picots in a ring, using 3 ds like everywhere else in the pattern in the one ring that’s supposed to have 4 ds between picots… that sort of thing).  Nothing too complicated, but each part different enough that you have to pay attention to it.

I’m still working on my original project idea using this pattern, but since I’m still not far enough along that I know it will work I’ll continue to stay mum about it.  I do think that a single repeat of this pattern will make a nice necklace pendent, so it’s possible I’ll work on that tomorrow, however I did get an order for a pair of fingerless gloves today, so if I can get the details of that sorted out tomorrow I’ll probably start on those instead of working more on the Priscilla projects.

Yesterday I got started on a new edging from Priscilla Book #3. I don’t usually use variegates and I almost never use them on a new project when I’m working out the pattern, but for the project I have in mind it felt like it would work.  I’m not going to say what the project is just yet, though, just so that I can make sure that it’s going to work out first.  Also, I came across a bag of Flora threads and wanted to work with them.

I was pleasantly surprised not to have to make any changes in the pattern as given in the book.  Well, one small change, just a SLT to let me use a shuttle and ball instead of two shuttles.  It’s late now, but I’ll write out the pattern tomorrow.  I think that just a single repeat will work as a nice necklace pendent.  When I’m done experimenting with this current project then I’ll try that out and also see what it will look like with two solid (or maybe one solid) color.  It’s a fun pattern and I like it.

I’m planning on re-doing snapdragonlace.com to be more of a website than just a blog.  I’m still in the planning stages, listing all the things I’d like it to have, figuring out the set up of the pages and links and picking out a format.  I’ve been paying a lot more attention to the websites of other designers and pulling ideas from what I like about them.

Here’s three of my favorites:

Gertie’s New Blog for Better Sewing. – This is a straight blogger blog, but I like the layout.  I especially like the pictures on the left as you scroll down that take you through her projects from Vogue’s New Book of Better Sewing.

Sheep to Shawl from Donna Druchunas – Full-blown website and a little more like what I’m thinking of as far as the overall website goes (separate pages, etc)

I Am The Lab – This is another full website.  I don’t think my front page would be quite so picture heavy, but I like the layout of their links at the top.

I found the first two of these websites through the Craftsy classes they’re teaching.  When I get some more time I may take Donna’s class on knitting socks.  One day maybe I’ll get to sewing.  I definitely like Gertie’s take on modernizing the old designs.

Part of the point of this blog entry is just to get these websites down in one place where I can find them later, but I’m also looking for ideas.  So, Dear Readers, my question for you is what makes a good website for you?  What do you find appealing and what makes a website easier to navigate?  Have any favorites?  Obviously, it doesn’t have to be tatting related, but it really doesn’t have to be even design related either.  Brainstorming time.  🙂