Sometimes the Tatting Just Click

Yesterday, I didn't have anything in mind and had nothing else to do. I decided to load up two shuttles and let my fingers fly. What came out of it was truly a happy surprise.

I was very satisfied with myself considering that I didn't sketch anything out beforehand. And, the stitch counts just fit in very nicely. I did not have to unpick to change the stitch count (well.. okay, I unpicked once because I made a join to the wrong picot). But most importantly it lays flat. I didn't have to block it at all.


This is the raw cut of a snowflake motif. It you look closely some picots got dropped half-way through it because I didn't like the way the are crowding up. This was tatted with size 50 thread and measures 10cm (4inches) across.

The one below is the refined version. I made slight changes in it - put in extra picots, made additional joins and changed the curve of the chains in some parts. But the stitch count remains the same.


This version was tatted with size 40 Lavender orchid HDT from the Yarnplayer. The finished size is 11cm (slightly over 4.25inches).

How I wish it is as easy as this all the time ... *big sigh*

Now I know why .......

..... I don't like to tat doilies when they are made in rounds. They warped and bowled up like nobody's business.

Remember my earlier post about starting on a doily? This is where I have reached until now. Actually it is not much from where I stopped before. Just another two rounds of rings and chains.

Can you see how much warp it has. No? Here is another picture taken with elevation


I tried pressing it under a heavy book overnight. It worked for the first few rounds but not the last two rounds. I unpicked the last round and added extra stitches to the rings but it did not improve the situation one bit, urrgghhhhh!!!! And it is such a beautiful design, *sigh*

My conclusion is, large doilies made in rounds don't click with me .... unless..... I design the doily myself, .. ha .. ha ... ha

As usual, when faced with frustrations such as this, I turned my focus to something else. This time it is knitting. Yes, I used to knit, but the last time that I held knitting needles was over 30 years ago.

My youngest girl asked me to knit a cardigan for her. She was so sure about it, she had already made a search for a pattern on the internet. *sorry - I can't give a link to the picture of the cardigan here because the site is taking too long to load* This is as far as I got up till today,


This is the lower part of the body. Instead of knitting from bottom edge upwards, the cardigan is formed by knitting the body sideways round the lower part of the body. Then, there is a yoke for the upper part followed by the sleeves. Luckily the stitches used are only garter stitch and stocking stitch. After 30 years of NOT knitting, those two I still remember how to do, :-).

At least I am getting some satisfaction with this cardigan. After the hard time with the doily, I still don't know what to do with it, :-(

Wish Me Luck

After thinking about it for a while, I decided to take the plunge and start selling my tatting on etsy. All are welcome to visit my store, mytatter.etsy.com. There aren't many things there yet.

The latest listing is a set of tatting pattern made up of a medallion, a bookmark, a snowflake and an edging. I am putting them up as a set because they are made from one basic pattern. Here is a snapshot of them together.


Wish me luck on this new venture.

Threads from Heather and a Doily

Heather of The Tarnished Tatter held a giveaway to mark her blogavesary in May and I was among the lucky few picked to receive something from her. In my case, it's either a copy of her book or choosing 3 skeins from her HDT tatting thread. For someone who will never have enough pf tatting thread, naturally I chose the threads. I chose the many-coloured hand-dyed, the lemon freeze and the Bead box (I think)

I received the threads last week, and boy they are much more beautiful in person. I couldn't wait and started making some snowflakes with the many-coloured HDT. I think the snowflakes look pretty with that thread. The other two thread are still in their skeins. I have to think of something special for them.



To see more of Heather's HDT, visit her etsy shop, hajdesigns31.etsy.com There are many other things to find there besides her HDT.

The designs are from my book Tatted Snowflakes Collection.

For no apparent reasons, I decided to tat myself a doily. The pattern is from the Japanese book, A New Approach to Tatting by Yusai Shokoin. I am using Omega thread in size 50 for this.


I have finished 4 rounds and almost finished the 5th round before running out of thread in one of the shuttles. Utilising the split ring and split chain techniques, I was able to work until the fifth round without any cut-and-tie after each round. There are 13 rounds in all. Two of the rounds are made up of small flower motifs. I foresee those two rounds are going to take quite a while to complete. I get bored very fast with repetitive motifs, :-)