Shuttle button - first and second attempts

I know only one way to design. It's called 'hit and miss'. 

I take two shuttles and a vague idea and run with it. I also write everything down as I go - on my tablet or whatever is available. NEVER on paper as I used to lose those notes time after time or (if found) couldn’t remember what I meant!  

When I've done the first attempt I then copy the notes (having named them 'version 1’) and paste above them calling that version 2. This means that if I don't like version 2 I can go back and look again at version 1 or see which stitch counts work and which don't.

Well that makes sense to me!!!!

So today you can see that after the first attempt it was cut off in it's prime!!!! 

Second attempt did go a bit further but I'm not happy with that!! By the time you read this blog post many more attempts will have been made and hopefully something good will come out of it in the end!!!  More next week!

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My new carry about

I never know what to call this sort of tatting!!!

Mindless? Carry around? Any suggestions out there?

I need something when I'm with my craft groups that needs little or no concentration but I do need to make a few at home before I take it along so I'm on the right track!!

This will also be my 'go to' (there's another name for it) piece while I'm travelling or sitting around talking in America.  Mind our talk is mainly about tatting!!

Gosh, I'm SOOOO excited about my trip that I can hardly keep still.

A new tatting shuttle

I bet you've all seen Handy Hands have brought out a new shuttle. It's called the Dreamlit and you can find it here.

Well I suddenly remembered (after studying the Dreamlit shuttle) that I had my VERY OWN supply of shuttles so could probably go into competition with Barbara.

Well I fished my supply of shuttles out of the tatting cupboard and set off on my new venture!!! 

That was all a joke, folks!!! I couldn't market my shuttles as they're only 1" in length and are (probably!) the only ones in the whole wide world!!! I'll show you one just to wet your appetites!!

I'm going to make earrings out of them but this will take time as the tatting I want to do MUST fully show the shuttle button in the middle. BC3 is off on another adventure!!!

A VERY long braid

This time I decided that if I was going to do another braid then it had to be LOOOOOONG.

I started off with around 4 yards of wool on each point of the compass. Obviously this was going to bring up issues with the tangling of thread behind the 'wheel' so BC3 had to give it a little thought.

First idea was to use these. I happened to have an unopened packet which had 8 in so that was ideal. OR so I thought!!! 

I happily set off but found out all too soon that they kept unwinding themselves. Darn nuisance. 

So, back to the tatting cupboard and I found some floss winders like these.

My four yards of yarn worked out to a braid of 2 ½ yards in length. I've now got three braids of various lengths and NOT A CLUE what to do with them!!!! Think this will be the end of my braiding session as I've had another GOOD TATTY IDEA!!!

As far as I'm going!

Now that I've decided to pull the plug on this I've changed my mind!!! I DO like it now as it does what I wanted - shows the swirls from one shade to another! 

But I will still not be keeping it as I've started another in white. Well it's white and a sort of 'off' white if you know what I mean. I'll talk about that another day!!

So, whoever 'gets to me' first at Palmetto (and wants it, of course) will be given this. My box of tatting bits sighed a big sigh of relief when I told it!! 

Well, to be honest, there are two or three boxes of 'stuff' around the house. One day I'll show you a picture of them!!!