Tatting, Tatting, Tatting....

Finished my cro-tat edging last night - er, I guess at 3 am it is technically early in the morning...

Today I'm going to piece together the recycled denim tote (or at least try) from a Quick Sew pattern that I picked up at the local thrift store for $0.25 last week. I already have 5 canvas totes around the house that I use for holding various needlework projects & 2 that I use for groceries, but the canvas is just not holding up well on any of them anymore. Figured rather than buy some more generic bags (that "have no soul", as my friend Roy would say), that I would give it a go & make some of my own. Having a monstrous pile of knee-blown jeans taking up space in the house is a pretty good motivator too!

I'm thinking that I might also make some flower or heart motifs to applique onto the totes too, or maybe even try my hand at a quilt patch - not really sure. Sometimes it's best to let the project "speak to you" as you go along making it. I've found that some of my best creations have come about that way.

After I finished up the cro-tatted piece, I stayed up even later to give a try at shuttle tatting again. I had done it for a little while years ago, when Deb was just a baby, but didn't have access to hardly any patterns then, so I didn't keep with it for very long. I still don't have a proper shuttle around the house (yet), but I'm pretty good at improvising - I found that all my sons have lots of great shuttle repacements in the form of Knex building pieces :)

Being overly abitious, I started with a size 30 tatting thread. It was a bad idea, as I was too tired to see the stitches properly & couldn 't figure out why I couldn't pull on the shuttle thread to close the loop - wasting a lot of good thread in the process of knotting everything up. Decided to go to good ol' size 10 & see if I could make a better go of it. Same problem - I couldn't close the loop. Picked up the instructions again, looking for a clue - ohhh, I was making the stitches with the shuttle thread rather than on the shuttle thread! This happens when you pull the shuttle thread taute, but failt to relax the loop wrapped around your other hand. Trying again, I finally could close my loop - yay! Now that I've got shuttle tatting figured out again, I'll have another hobby to take up space, Bwahahah!