Thursday 25 April 2024

ETs alit

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 Jan to March we refrained from organising any game of the month in our FB group. Both Ninetta and I needed a long break to attend to other tasks. Quite a bit of work is involved in holding a game which is not always visible. 

Instead we asked members to display their Endrucksian Tatting (ET) by taking a collective pic(s) of all their Endrucks' works done thus far. The collage they sent would be showcased as the group cover for a few days. 

We started with Ninetta's exquisite collage, but the images below are not in sequence. Several members have already gifted away most of their models.

Ninetta Caruso has now tatted samplers from all 44 of Endrucks' original patterns, besides so many derivatives!!! She tacked on the 44 samplers to an accordion book which was part of an exhibition of their association. You can read about it in her blog, and do take a few seconds to see the booklet in this video --- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X-11fHJliaA1WWBigcK51oJMGRv6Xjag/view
And her post - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/04/and-offline-life.html

Lella Loops shared her lovely needle-tatted models most from past games.

Michelle Forclaz sent in her works which include so many patterns she tweaked and played with.

Margaret Davies has been participating and tweaking and designing derivative patterns, too. This is her first collage.
 
Margaret Davies graciously sent in her second collage as well.

Debra F Cox took time out to gather whatever models she had left. She used a couple to decorate the book cover, too.
Muskaan This is my first collage which I detailed here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2024/02/endrucksian-links.html


Muskaan This is my 2nd collage which shows many of the doilies and snowflakes. Multiples are the result of either the design process or of tweaking for presenting the original pattern.

Antonia Lai had displayed some of her lovely ET at Queensland Tatters in Nov 2023. We used her pic as our cover for the 2nd anniversary of our FB group, hence not repeated this year. She has tatted many more, including new derivatives. In fact it is her Life is Bliss butterfly from E32, that we are using in our game this month.

We thank all our lovely members who took the time to send us a pic. This is merely a sliver of a slice of the Endrucksian pie which has grown in the past few years! 


Meanwhile, I have stopped receiving notifications when I leave a comment on other blogs. Kind of crazy why some glitch or other keeps plaguing Blogger. Fortunately, one just has to wait it out.

Friday 19 April 2024

bracelet query

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Early this month I was approached by a lady, Beata S, to help with a bracelet pattern. She showed me a pic and I immediately thought of a single shuttle pattern. However, the rings were so clearly overlapping, that it created some confusion and I veered towards interlaced split rings. That I was seeing the image on a small screen didn't help either. I can't show that pic for obvious reasons,

I asked my PIC Ninetta for confirmation and she quickly came back with a couple of WIP pics and it was such a relief. 

This bracelet is almost as basic as they come, quick to tat up, and a great way to embellish or use as a lanyard, jewellery piece, etc. It has dimension, texture, and strength. 
The following pics are a very quick stepwise pictorial using thick thread and large pearl beads. The size of ring will depend on the size of the bead - let the ring be just a tad larger.

1. String beads onto to shuttle thread and tat a ring.
Slip the bead towards the ring just tatted.
    Each ring is 12 ds ; 4mm pearl beads ; size 3 thread.
 
2. Leaving just enough bare thread to span the distance between previous ring and bead, tat the next ring.

3. Pass a crochet hook through the top of the previous ring and pull up the new ring through it,  centering the bead in the previous ring.
4. Continue these steps for the desired length.
Many variations are possible, obviously, including more than one bead in the center, seed beads around the ring, etc. 
Check out Ninetta's numerous Russian-inspired versions here - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2019/08/russian-inspired-bracelets.html

5. This is how it looks from the back. Notice the bare thread between rings. It can be avoided by using seed beads to cover the bare thread, thus making the braid reversible with kind of a dual look.

I really wish I could have made a better version - intended but not executed. Perhaps in future. At present I am working in fits and starts.

As soon as I was satisfied, I typed out instructions to Beata, and told her I would send the pics in a bit. I had barely uploaded the pics when I received her beautiful version! She was not only quick, but so neat! 

It is always satisfying to answer a query and be of help. And we learn in the process, too. I have often had to delve deeper into a technique to answer a question, thus improving my own understanding. 

UPDATE: (19th April 2024) Beata Saifer just sent me this new image of her bracelet and graciously permitted me to share it here ---
Thank you, Beata! It's been nice corresponding and chatting with you!

Tuesday 16 April 2024

gaming bookmark

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 An insertion as a bookmark is my entry for the two 2024 games I am playing.

Main body is from 'Tatting Techniques' by Elgiva Nicholls (p27, 1976) and the charm is from Rebecca Jones (fig123, 1985).

I have too many variegated Lizbeth, mostly with shades of pink/magenta. Difficult to always use for fear of eclipsing the pattern. But I took the leap and it came out okay I think. Lizbeth size 20. 

Learning from my past experience, where my chains are usually tighter/shorter than vintage patterns, I increased the chain stitches beforehand and it worked out well.

Pearl Tatting tail for the bookmark using Anchor perle cotton size 8. I didn't use any picot gauge since my main aim was to enjoy uninhibited tatting on International Tatting Day, 2024.
In order to avoid sewing in ends, I ended with two heavily picoted folded rings, hiding the other colour within each.
Pearl tatting is one of the blocks in Natalie Rogers' PICOT Bingo game which you can join here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/picot-bingo-95729145?  This is my fifth submission so far. Need to speed it up a notch!

The tail was attached to the #123 medallion from Rebecca Jones , shared here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2024/03/happy-itd-2024.html

Turning an insertion into a bookmark is nothing new or unique. Bookmarks, being short, are a good way to enjoy a pattern with a different use. 
The large rings are linked through a common picot. I think the colours are doing fine together.


And the bookmark is also my entry to splocik's Small Decorations game that was first announced here - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2024/01/mae-dekoracje-galeria-grudniowa.html
She shared the March entries here - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2024/04/mae-dekoracje-2024-galeria-marcowa.html

Many thanks to all mentioned here for lovely patterns and fun games!