Testing almost complete.....

Well, we bought a new Galaxy 2 tablet complete with keyboard. My hubby really put it through its paces. This morning, I am testing the keyboard and how well things work with blogger. So far there are a few issues but nothing that doesn't have a work around for. Now on with the blog entry.

It has been quite a while since I had anything to post for you all. Today I will journey the hour and a half to Sedalia to meet with some fellow tatters. I found out that they had been doing demonstrations at the state fair. Unfortunately most of the fair was over by the time I found out  because of coming back from my son's BMT graduation. I was invited to come and meet with them. 

Today I thought I would post a couple of pictures for you to see. They are of some of my shuttle collection. These are ones that I find either difficult to use or have some defect that prevents me from using them effectively. I found a couple of display cases and with some tatting and cotton backing, you have a hanging wall display:

They are varied and beautiful. I recently discovered the "detach-a-spool". I want more of these! Unlike the modern Bates metal, it has no edges that will catch the threads.

That is all for now. Hope to post again soon.

Happy tatting.

Arial - Tatting Faerie

Tatting Pocket design......

I am finally awake and healthy again. The house is very quiet without anyone else running around interrupting my thinking. Even though I am still trying to clean up from the last two weeks, my brain is running a mile-a-minute with some new ideas. Right now it is not tatting related directly but a place to carry our very portable project. I was sent a "pocket" many years ago that I would really like to try and recreate with my own spin. This pocket was made up of several squares of material but I would like to recreate it with as few extra cuts as possible. When finished the "pocket" would end up as a 3 inch square. My question for you (my wonderful readers) is what sort of lining should I use that would keep the points of the shuttles or mini crochet hooks from poking through? It would need to be something thin enough to sew through yet sturdy enough to keep the points in place. My immediate goal is to have something which travels well and can be put into a pencil case (currently available at Walmart cheap because of school sales). The case size is approximately 8" x 3 1/2"  which is perfect for travelling. I would like more of these pockets to store extra materials in to keep things from getting all jumbled up and tied in knots. The advantage of the pockets would be that I could just grab the pocket with the most current project in for quick trips or set up several projects to take on the longer trips to occupy those very long times of waiting in lines.

Here is the promised image of the finds from the Florida trip! The shuttles are from an antique shop we ran across not far from where we were staying. The silver shuttle is a "detach a spool" which I like much better than the more modern shuttles of similar type as there are no metal pieces to snag the threads. The black shuttles I have found more commonly but these are unusual in the fact that they are nearly perfect as in "gapless" at the tips from years of use. These items were included with an accompanying article about a local tatter who tried to keep tatting alive in her area. I will dedicate a later post to this lovely lady when I get things more settled here. The wooden shuttle is more of a netting shuttle as the size of the gaps were for holding larger threads in mending things like fishing nets. I also ran across a shop that teaches both beading and tatting, though their tatting teacher just moved from the area. So the beads and cone of thread was purchased from that shop. The cone contains 2000 yards of size 30 thread. (I do see plenty of thread dyeing in my future with this one.)

Guess I had better go so that I can plan what I want to do for the rest of the day. I look forward to hearing from you with regard to the lining.

Happy tatting!

Arial - Tatting Faerie

Finally home for a while!

I am happy to say that my very busy summer is finally over! The last two weeks were the worst. The first of those two weeks was family vacation. While it was pleasant and enjoyable, the weather made it unbearable because of the heat and humidity. I did find some goodies that I will share with you when I get photos. The second week involved my son's graduation from basic training at Lackland AFB. Given that this was deep in the heart of Texas, the temps were even hotter. This has left me severely sick. I have been unable to eat much for the last few days. I hope to be over this soon and will post some pictures.

So with a few days of rest and I will post new pictures soon.

Happy Tatting
Arial - Tatting Faerie