5 petal beaded pendant, earrings, and weaving a runner

A very old tatting book showed a pretty motif with 5 "petals", and seeing it inspired me to design this black pendant. I may tweak the center a bit before writing up the pattern.
The earrings were also inspired by a vintage pattern. I like how they turned out, but I am thinking of variations that may improve on the design.
Here is another pendant started in HDT (same design as the first).
My weaving project has gotten to the actual weaving stage, yay! I decided to put some Brooks Bouquet (the part with the "holes") on either side of the patterned area. I think I will leave the center part of the cloth plain, with bands of patterning at the ends. So far I'm very happy with it! Yep, I'm thinking this table runner will be way too lovely to ever part with - but hey, I think I put on enough warp for two!

For those who have been patiently waiting for the "Sugar Maple" HDT - I'm sorry it's taking so long! Should have the new HDT added to my Etsy shop in a few days.

Hand dyed getting to the loom, and packing

Included in my last batch of "Lola" HDT was some prepared warp of size 5 pearl cotton. I'm combining the hand painted warp along with white for my weaving project. The photos show the yarn ends being sleyed through the reed, then being threaded through the heddles. (I'm warping from front to back). This is as far as the weaving project has come.
Other things I'm doing include packing a box for Palmetto's Tat Days. No, I can't make the trip myself, but some of my HDT is going! It will be available in the Tat Days vending room, and arrangements have been made with the Palmetto Tatting Guild to do the selling for me.
Don't worry, my Etsy Shop will remain open and stocked during Tat Days - I dyed some extra thread for that event.

Must get back to winding skeins for Sugar Maple!

"Lola" HDT

"Lola" is one of my personal favorites! Like many of my dye batches, the color seems to have a "mind of its own", but I'm still pleased with the results.

Future plans for dyeing include "Sugar Maple" (very popular for tatting fall leaves), and sometime after that, the very pale pastel "Snowflake" (popular for, you guessed it - snowflakes!)

Skein winding in progress

Here's a peak at my skeinwinder, showing a skein being made for the next HDT batch. BTW, yes, I did paint the floral design on it myself :-) My beloved yet oft-neglected loom can also be seen in the background.

What I'm planning is to hand paint some warp stripes in the same colorway as the tatting thread skeins, then weave a table mat that may be embellished with a matching tatted edging. Purples and blues, I think. We'll see what happens.

Time enough for earrings

This is another installment in the "R's" wedding necklace saga. I consider it a good sign (regarding the groom's health status) that there was time enough to tat earrings to go with the necklace.

Here's an outline of what I did:
Strung some beads, wound 2 shuttles, and started with a mock ring (also known as an open end chain).

Slipped a round bead onto the starting loop. Then, I put the shuttle through that loop. The center bead has been tatted halfway around at that point.


The beads dangling at the bottom are in one large picot. Then, I tatted the rest of the way around the bead.

I like to keep a paper clip in the space where I'm going to join - that way the space is there when I need it - not hiding inside the bead!



Then a lock join to close up the mock ring, after which I tatted a small split ring.

Then slid up the same number of strung beads from each shuttle, and secured them in place with a lock stitch (one half not flipped, the other half flipped) to secure them in place.

I finished off with another split ring, followed by a normal ring, which was used to hide the ends.

"String-a-ling" and some handweaving

Looks simple, but there is a lot of experimenting in this necklace.

I started out using beads in center of split rings (inspired by Jane!)
But, after doing just two beads that way, I got dissatisfied, I dunno - the upside, downside, look of the bead either on top of the ring or below it just seemed to twist on me or something, and I knew mine wouldn't turn out nice like Jane's.

So I continued with it as a string of beaded mock rings - then I noticed yet another phenomenon - there is S curve sort of effect, which would be more noticeable with 2 colors. I didn't notice the effect on my first try using all red. To top it off, I found out that if I wasn't consistant with how I did the joining, the look of the curves changed - yikes! I'll show more of what I'm talking about, after I manage to figure out what I'm actually talking about, LOL!

Then, I decided that either I should do some weaving or sell the loom. I really don't want to sell it! It's just a table loom on a stand, not a big jobber, but big enough to do some serious weaving, and I've had it about a dozen years. So, I finished one scarf I had started quite a while ago, and saw that there was enough warp for another - when I finish that one I'll put it in my Etsy shop if it turns out nice enough.
These colorful towels I finished some time ago just got added to my Etsy shop.

Maybe someday I could get around to weaving lacy things (using HDT) that would look nice with tatted edgings (in matching HDT) - gotta keep dreaming, LOL!