Tatting when you're bored

At work the other day I was waiting on decisions to be made and changes to be done by a couple of other people.  I was listening and doing my part in the job but only so many people can fit in one small area at a time.  While standing there I noticed a few thin wires on the floor that had been the tail of some cable or other.  As they hadn’t quite made it to the trash yet I picked them up and started fiddling with them instead of throwing them away.  Noticing the size, color and length I tried tatting with them.

When you’re bored you’ll tat with anything

I made the ring on the right first, then a smaller ring that didn’t close.  With another couple of scrap wires, one green the other white, I made the rings with the chain between.  I even joined the rings though I had not left a picot.  There was still a lot of white wire left which I wound around the wire tails of the first two rings.  I did not try tatting that part, my fingers were already feeling the strain of working with wire.

No, I did not use a shuttle to work with the wire, I finger tatted it.  The shuttle is only for reference to the size of the wire tatting.  The wire is about 24 gauge but due to the stiffness does not tat small.  I made the white chain using direct tatting but the rings I did normally.

I knew that tatting with wire could be done; I’ve tried before but never with coated wire.  It was challenging but fun.  I don’t think I’d want to make any large project out of it though – talk about hard on the hands!

“Nobody is bored when he is trying to make something that is beautiful, or to discover something that is true.” William Ralph Inge                                                       www.brainyquote.com

It's a Plane!

I've been trying to post about this airplane for the last several weeks.

First I had trouble with my computer so I couldn't work on the pattern.  

Then I thought I was ready and lost the tatted airplane without a picture of it.  So I tatted another one and in the process found I hadn't saved the most recent changes of the pattern (I think the computer ate it).  

Today I finally get a picture of the new airplane - and the computer won't let me download it.

After a bit of fussing and worrying I tried out a feature of our camera that we hadn't attempted before - transferring the picture from the camera to my phone.  Have you seen the commercials for the Samsung Galaxy phones where two people hold their phones close together and the picture/file is transferred?  Just like that, except from our Samsung camera to my Samsung Galaxy III phone.  Then from my phone to my Google+ and the picture is accessible from anywhere I can get to the Internet.  Pretty cool!

Airplane @ Wanda Salmans 2014

This airplane is made of Lizbeth thread # 605 Silver in size 20.  Unfortunately the pattern isn't up yet.  I still have to go back and fix a few things.  If things go a bit smoother tomorrow it will be up in the afternoon (I hope) but if not, then in a few days I will try to put it on my Pattern tab.

Triangle update

I've gotten a little bit done on the triangles.  All the white center motifs are done and I've started adding them to the middles.  The one on the left below has tatted chains instead of the bare thread.  The center was added last just like before except this time I went all the way around with the bare thread and caught all the picots of the triangle as well as the long stitches in the corners, then went around a second time using the needle as my shuttle and doing direct tatting (un-flipped stitches) on the bare thread.  I don't like this very much: it wasn't fun to make and it didn't end up very round.

Independence Day is this Friday and I actually get the whole weekend off!  This doesn't mean I'll have a lot of time for tatting but I plan to get a little in one way or the other. 

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."

Henry Ford

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