One More Bookmark for the Road

I couldn't resist making another braided bookmark. This one is with a variegated color and has a more interesting look.

Now I'm done with them for this challenge. I'll make them for gifts but I promise not to post pictures of anymore braided bookmarks.

Response from Jane in South Africa

In my last post, I mentioned that I did not know how to contact Jane from South Africa who updated the bookmark braid pattern I used. Well, she saw my post and wrote to me. Jane does not have a blog due to some unreliable internet access and I asked her if I could share her store with all of you and she gladly agreed to let me post it here.

Jane's story is heartwarming and I know you'll love reading about her life so here it is:

Hi Tatteristic, (that sounds funny, hi anyway), glad you like the bookmark pattern. I’m Jane....from Zimbabwe, but there have been a lot of political problems there, so I am currently living in South Africa. I learnt to tat just before I got married, 30 years ago. I had a teach-yourself pamphlet, but I couldn’t figure out the ‘flip’, so my aunt took me to tea with a friend of hers who tatted, and I got the hang of it. The problem with teaching myself was that it was a few years before someone lent me a book that said ‘NB, the term picot refers only to the loop of thread and not the stitch that holds it’, and I realised that I was doing an extra stitch for every picot in a pattern! Anyway, I used Burda patterns and Coats pamphlets and what not for a few years, until I started a spinning and knitting business. I spent a lot of time stirring a dye pot, and it just wasn’t compatible with tatting. I didn’t do much tatting for many years. When we were forced to leave the farm, I had to close my spinning business. I took tatting up again, and discovered the wonderful world of tatting on the internet. I’ve learnt so many new techniques in the last few years, and am now even using beads, as you can see on Jane Eborall’s blog. I would blog myself, but I live on a farm very far from the nearest town and my internet connection is very iffy. I have problems uploading photographs, and a blog is no good without photos! There is talk of putting a tower near here, so perhaps one day.... Best Wishes, Jane

I'm so glad Jane contacted me and I hope we're able to continue to stay in touch. It's always fascinating to hear someone's story about how they began tatting and who taught them.

Thank you, Jane, for sharing with all of us and let's hope they get better internet connectivity out there in your area so that you can begin your own blog too.

Bookmarks Galore

I was looking through my patterns for a bookmark to give as gifts to a couple of friends and found one that originally was from an Anna Burda magazine (May 1984). The 'braid' pattern was updated to use split rings between the repeats by Jane in South Africa; the revised pattern was posted by Jane Eborall (Mar 2009). 

It's a very pretty bookmark and the picots can be varied in size to change the look a little. All three of these were tatted with Size 20 thread and each one only took an evening to complete. The tatted section of the bookmark measures about 5 inches and I added a 4-inch tassel to the last split ring.

I think I'll make a couple more and keep them around. They are a fun tat and make great little thank-you gifts.

I'm not sure who "Jane in South Africa" is but I'd like to include her name or website or blog in my post so if you know who she is, please post a comment or send me an email so I can update this post.

19th Motif - One More Snowflake

There is one more snowflake that I sent in for the Palmetto Tat Days quilt. It was the last one I made before the deadline date for mailing and I think it turned out really pretty.

It is The Second Day of December snowflake from Lene Bjorn's 24 Snowflakes in Tatting book. Instead of tatting it in two rounds, I chose to do a split chain to move into the second round. I have to say that for the longest time, I avoided all patterns having a split chain because I just could not get the hang of it. Well I was bound and determined not to let this technique get the better of me so I searched for all the help I could find online and practiced them over and over until I figured it out and could make them match the rest of my tatting.

I've been looking for patterns with split chains now because I'm fascinated with them and they really are a nice way to transition from one row to another. When I saw this snowflake in her book, I had to try it and I'm glad I did. It's a very easy snowflake pattern (with or without the split chain) and works up quickly - two of the things I like most - fast and easy patterns.

If you haven't mastered the dreaded split chain, don't give up yet. Just keep watching the videos that other tatters so graciously make for us and look for help online - you'll get it with a little more practice. I know you will!

18th - Snowflakes for Fundraiser

Instead of making each snowflake an individual entry for the 25 Motif Challenge, I decided to group them together as my 18th motif.

As many of you know, the Palmetto Tatting Guild is putting together another quilt with tatting as a fundraiser for Tat Days 2011. They did this last year and it was so much fun and raised quite a bit of money so I couldn't wait to see what they were going to do this year.

I sent in 11 snowflakes total; some big and some small, all shuttle tatted, and really enjoyed making them for the quilt. Besides we didn't even have to hide the ends since they will be used to help join the snowflakes to the quilt! Such a deal!

The patterns used, in no particular order, are:

• Ice Crystal Snowflake, Saundra Hameed
• Layered Tatted Snowflake, Be-Stitched
• MHC Snowflake, Sally Magill
• Hearts in a Snowflake, Jon Yusoff
  
  
  
  

17th Motif - Duet

Here's another Mary Konior pattern from her book, Tatting with Visual Patterns. I lover her tatting and have enjoyed everything I've made from this book.

This is an all-rings pattern and I was surprised at how quickly I was able to tat it. Once you get in the rhythm of making the small rings and knowing where to join the large rings, it's a fast tat from start to finish.

Unfortunately I ran out of thread or I would have kept going and going and going. It's a fun repeat and I enjoyed making it.

15th & 16th Motifs - Hearts in a Snowflake & Simple Angel

Here is my 15th motif - a beautiful pattern by Jon Yusoff called Hearts in a Snowflake. I thought it was fitting for Valentine's Day. I really enjoyed doing the second round with chains and clovers done by switching your shuttles. Jon's patterns are lovely, very easy to follow, and fun to tat.

I had some thread left so I tatted Birgit's Simple Angel (Motif #16). Again, it was also a fun pattern to tat and worked up in no time at all. Next time I'll have to add beads to make her more 'glorious' and 'heavenly.'

Modified 2/15/11 to change the motif numbers.