Monday, August 16, 2010

Tatting & Crochet

Now that my Great Aunt Doodle has taught me how to make Porcelain dolls she is teaching me to tat.  I must say tatting is the hardest handwork I have ever learned!  I sat there for nearly 3 hours watching her and doing exactly what she was doing and still I could not get my stitches to work right.  If you know anything about tatting you will know that your stitches are suppose to be on the bobbin thread and not the ring thread.  Of course mine were coming out on the ring thread and therefore I could not draw up the thread to close the circle.  I finally got out my camera and recorded her doing it so when I got home I could put it on my computer and study it.  After a zillion tries and lots of cutting thread and starting over I finally got it!  At first I would get a stitch to land on the bobbin thread and did not know how I did it.  And then couldn't get it to do it again for the next few tries.  Finally after sitting there and watching this you-tube video over and over where this lady kept saying you had to pull the bobbin thread tight I figured it out!  I was so excited!  Now I get my stitches to land right every time.  I am just having trouble getting my picots to come out uniform.  But with practice I will get that right too!

Here is a picture of my tatting.  It's not great, but it is getting there!
I have also been working on some more crocheted rings.  I love crocheting these little roses out of size 20 thread and making them into rings to wear.  I love wearing them and have been making some to sell too.
I don't know if any of you saw the watch band I crocheted for my watch several posts back or not.  It was a beautiful band.  The problem with having a crocheted watch band that you wear all the time is it gets extremely dirty after a time.  So I cut that band off my watch and am now working on a new one.  I am not finished with it by a long shot, but decided to post pictures of it in process.

I will be putting some crocheted flowers on it.  I love crocheted flowers!

4 comments:

Needled Mom said...

Hang in there. You will get it and love it. It is such a portable handwork as well. It is all in the little "jump" of the stitch.

Karen said...

Good for you for sticking it out until you got the "flip". Tatting is a rewarding in so many ways. Karen

Gina said...

It does take some time to get tatting down. I tell my students to practice every day for 10-15 minutes and they will feel it get easier and more natural. Your hands have to learn a new way of moving. I crocheted for 30+ years before learning to tat and the only thing crochet helped me in was holding the thread for the chain stitch. LOL! Welcome to tatting! And your crochet rose rings are so sweet!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the WWT (Wonderful World of Tatting)!

I'd say your rings look pretty good for a first-timer.

Don't worry how long it took you to get the 'flip'. It took me about a week (sure-as-shootin!) LOL

I see you are using the metal shuttles - looks like the Boye brand (am I right?)

I own 2 of those myself, and I have to admit that I'm not too fond of them. I like the Clover and Sew Mate brands rather well.

Here's a great site for supplies:
http://hhtatting.com/

Also, if you're interested, there is a very nice, new forum:
http://www.tattingforums.com/forums/

A lot of tatters have been so gracious as to place tutorial videos on Youtube, to help everyone that wants to learn.

There is a wealth of information everywhere. Don't hesitate to reach out, Tatters are some of the most helpful and kind people I've met online.

Oh, and if you're interested in joining a challenge, then please check out: http://25motifchallenge.blogspot.com/

Take care,