A Heart for St Valentine's Day

If you're looking for something quick to tat for St. Valentine's Day I've put the patterns for two fairly easy ones under 'patterns' on the left.

January was a very busy month, the snow slowed me down a bit when it came to getting out and about so I spent nearly all the time working on the computer. I had plenty to do because The Ring of Tatters is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and we're publishing a book of new patterns to mark the occasion. Last May we decided to ask thirty members of the Ring, who create tatting patterns, if they'd design something for this book. They've all been so generous and we've been given a really lovely selection of designs.

The sad news that Mary Konior had passed away on 16th January made me look again at her books, well, the two that I'm lucky enough to own. What an example she set to people writing tatting books - or any craft book for that matter. It is obvious from reading them that Mary believed if something was worth doing it was worth doing well.

Snowdrops

I have about 20 - 25 tatters who come to my groups every month and at Christmas, instead of Christmas cards, I like to give them something tatted that they can use every year. The first year I made them Christmas crackers. I remember sitting in the waiting room at the garage while the car was in for its annual service, as this took over two hours I tatted about eight of the sprigs of holly to go on the crackers.



In 2008 I thought that I'd give them a diary for 2009 with a pattern for each month throughout the year. In the dark days of winter I like to look for the first snowdrops so this is what I did for January.

If you'd like to tat my snowdrop click on the link on the left for the pattern.

The National Christmas Lace Fair, Solihull, UK

I had a busy day last Saturday. It was the day of the National Christmas Lace Fair and the Ring of Tatters had a stand to display some of our tatting for Christmas. The table was only 6' X 2' 6'' so we didn't have much space. As we hadn't been represented at this event before we wanted to show the bobbin lace purists that tatting is not inferior to bobbin lace, it's just a different form of lace.

There were four of us on the stand, demonstrating how traditional tatting works and generally promoting tatting to anyone who was interested. At all of the other exhibitions that we attend we're asked how much the different items are but at this one we were asked where they could buy the patterns so watch this space (for next Christmas).

3D Snowman

It wouldn't be fair to the ladies who were on my Missenden Abbey course for me to release the patterns just yet but I'll give you the link to the 3D Snowman pattern that Jane Eborall has converted into a pdf for me.

I write my patterns in a drawing programme called 'Serif' and export them into 'word' This pattern is four pages long so it'll take a while to download.

The link for the pattern is on the left hand side of the page.

Christmas Tatting at Missenden Abbey.

I had very busy couple of days last weekend at Missenden Abbey in Buckinghamshire. The course was called 'Tatting for Christmas' so I'd taken patterns for snowflakes, baubles, embellishments for cards and an angel.
Four of the students were absolute beginners so their first challenge was to learn how to 'turn' the stitch. As anyone who teaches tatting will know, some people achieve this quicker than others but it isn't a race and they were all pleased with their progress. Two made at least one simple decoration to take home and the other two were well on the way to finishing their first tatted project. They all did very well.
On the first evening I gave all the students, who could tat, a fairly easy pattern to work but from then on each lady decided what she'd like to make next, with a bit of advice from me when necessary. When they found that the pattern used a technique that they didn't know, or had forgotten, we had a learning session. The most popular designs were the little angel and a beaded snowflake (not shown in the picture). Some tutors of tatting courses move on to a new pattern each session but from what I've been told by students what they don't finish on the course usually ends up as a UFO and they all chose to finish one project before moving on to another.
I wouldn't usually do the choirboy, choir girl or snowman on a weekend course because there is too much tatting or sewing to be able to complete just one of them in the time. These projects I've done with my groups at home where we do part at each meeting and there is time between classes for my ladies to catch up ready for the next stage.
I've got two more tatting events before Christmas so my bungalow has boxes of tatted decorations in most of the rooms because it isn't worh putting them away.

Snowflake with mock rings

An easy snowflake

One or two of my ladies found the 'daisy picots' a bit difficult last month so instead of making the butterfly I gave them the option of doing this snowflake instead. It is quite easy and uses mock rings instead of normal ones in the second row.

When they had all gone home last night and I was tidying up I noticed that there weren't any of the patterns left on the table!