How do you use thread leftovers? Earrings of course!

I really hate wasting thread, and throw it away, mostly if it's good and not so cheap thread!
That's why I like the patterns where you have an overall indication of how much thread you will need to tat the pattern! But even when you have the indication, we don't have all the same hand and tension... and if there's something I hate even more is to get close to finish a tatting piece and be left with no thread... so I always wound a bit more to avoid attaching new thread during the work!
The consequence? A lot of small leftovers, wounded on the shuttles :-(

I'm sure at all tatters happens the same (if not please explain me how do you do!!!), so what we just need are very small tatting things to use them. What do you do with your leftovers?
I often tat small flowers, hoping I will find them a place one day!

This time, I decided for another pair of earrings, to finish all my Lizbeth thread leftovers, adding some coordinated seed beads.

Not a new pattern, you've already seen it here. I don't know where I first saw the pattern, or who is the designer, if you know please tell me so that I can give credits :)

Summer readings... or tatting bookmarks?

Last few days have been still very hot here in Italy... but since yesterday evening we began breathing again! And this means my baby Giò can sleep a bit longer... so finally more tatting time!

Usually summer to me is the reading time, when I have time to relax, lay down and put my hands on all the books I can't afford in winter. During the year lots of books start piling up, waiting for the summer to hang around with me during holidays. But this time is different, this is my first no-reading summer - mostly in these last days in which Giò discovered how fun is to rip up everything paper she can find :)
So this year for me only very short books, like the one I'm reading now: Amelie Nothomb's "The life of hunger": have you ever read one of her books? To me she is just amazing... give it a try if you feel ready for great imagination and disdainful irony. But this post isn't supposed to be about a book, but about a bookmark!

Here there is the "Foldover Bookmark", a free pattern from Jon Yusoff blog, you can find the link to the pattern here.

It's tatted in Lizbeth #20 (my usual size), in one of my favorite variegated color, Vineyard Harvest.

As all others Jon's pattern I tatted, this is a sincere joy to tat, so if I can't have relaxing time reading, at least I can enjoy relaxing time tatting! I love above all all the sudden changes of directions, that anyway flow so smoothly!!! It's so harmonious!

Hope you like it!

So what can I say...
Just have a nice summer reading ;)

My first own designed tatted bracelet... it's finally done!

It's done! I completed my first tatted bracelet - pattern all by myself!!!
I know... matching earrings are still missing, but I'm working on them!

I couldn't imagine how rewarding is to see something you realized from A to Z... So happy today!

Well, I don't want to be boring with all my excitement, maybe to me it's wonderful but nothing special for anybody else!

But, as you can see, I also enjoyed making picture to post!!!




Anyway, while working at the earrings, I need to find a name for it, any suggestion?

I still have to find my way to draw the diagram... I received some really worthing advices from more experienced tatters, but I still didn't find enough time to try!

I'm working on something else as well, I'm preparing something for my first giveaway!!! So stay up to date, it will be coming soon (if I find out the technical way to run it)!

Some steps forward on my first design

Still working on my first design... this weekend has been a beautiful one with all the family to the seaside, that means beach, sun, sea, ice creams and barbecue... but only little bit of time left for tatting and therefore testing my design! But I'll show you that little bit of progress I made on the bracelet:

Here there's the first two motifs in Lizbeth #20 Ecru with wood beads of 8mm... and this has been the issue: the pattern would work better with smaller beads, I guess 6mm should be fine.

But in my mind I had seen this pattern tatted in ecru thread and wood beads, and I only had home 8mm beads.. so to fit them I changed a little bit the stitch counting.

By the way, the pattern is customizable depending on the bead size you use, just need a change in number of ds in the chain over the bead. In the paper design the chain had 4 picots indeed... here in the picture you can see there are 6!


What do you think about it? I'd love to hear you sincere opinion!

Hope I'll be able to show it completed, and maybe even in some other colors and beads size!
Please be patient :)

Working on my first tatted jewelry design!

Today I tried to face my greatest tatting challenge: design my first tatting pattern!

It's been a long time I desired to design a pattern for some tatted jewelry, but each time I had the time to relax and think about it, I didn't have the inspiration, and each time I felt I had the inspiration I didn't have the time to work on that! How many times did it happen to you as well? It's the hard fate of craft designers, isn't it?

By the way, this afternoon I finally made some little steps on the designers' path! I was browsing once again in the DMC Library Tatting book, and my attention has been raped by #16 medallion. I don't know how, but in few minute I was frantically drawing rings and chains with a pen on my moleskine notebook. And somehow a small piece of that medallion, with new connections, a little bit of asymmetry and few beads turned out into a bracelet and earrings parure!

I haven't tried to tat it yet... so I'm pretty sure I will have to change more than once the stitch counting...



And what is worse, is that I have absolutely no clue on how to transfer my "handy" drawing in a smart tatting diagram... There must be some software... need to research a bit, hoping to find something enough user-friendly to me.

At least I've already decided thread color and beads I will be using for the first test... let's see how it works... wish me good luck!