Tatted Lace Projects

This is the third in a series of edged hankies that I'm making for my mom. The other two are crocheted, and since I sent them before I got pictures, I don't have pics up of them yet. This one, though, I do. This is the first tatting I completed, although I'd messed around a bit with #10 thread before this. This is done in #30, though, and now that it's finished, the #10 looks like ugly rope to me. I love the fabric -- it's an oil batik, and it reminds me of the colors in the interior of a conch shell.

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This is The Mystery Hanky, in that I can't recall where I got it. When I started tatting, I decided that I wanted to make a pretty edging for it, and here 'tis. I love this edging pattern; it's one of my favorites. Simple and easy to remember.

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Snowflake taken from an Anne Orr pattern booklet. I think I did this one over the winter holidays of 1998 or some such. Can't recall. Didn't impress me when I did it, but I like it better now. This snowflake is a nice pattern, actually. Makes up quickly. Would make a nice shawl done in #10 cotton.

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This is an easy one -- just hexagonal medallions attached to one another and edged with another color. It could be as big as you want -- tablecloth or veil sized, or just a little doily like I made. It's only about 5" across, maybe less. Very pretty.

Hexagonal medallions are wonderful, if you hadn't noticed. They fit together in a variety of ways -- point-to-point and edge-to-edge both -- so the same medallion can be used to make a very lacy or a dense design, with complete plane-filling coverage. I believe that a tatter has designed a lace pattern based on Penrose tiles as well.

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This is a demin shirt that I bought at a craft store and trimmed with green lace for my brother's wife for the winter holidays. I was going to leave the denim pockets on it and make crocheted pocketflaps, but the pockets were SO crooked that I opted not to, and found a pretty variegated green fabric of roses that went perfectly. Used what I call "73 lace" for the back and button accents down the buttonband (used this on the conch-shell pink hanky above), and the "5/10 lace" for the sleeve edging (which I used on the antique/mystery hanky). The collar was a simple one-shuttle edging.

I've grown fond of one-shuttle patterns. No ball thread to tangle, and it's easy to just toss them in a pocket when you're interrupted. "Interruptibility" is a major plus in a craft for me.

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Another modular doily made with the same thread as the snowflake one above. Quickie, pretty, easy pattern. 8d-8d for the center rings, with a large picot to attach the six rings to, and 2d-2d-2d-2d-2d-2d-2d-2d for the chains (7 picots separated by 2d).

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A tatted rosary, and my first split ring project. Made it for my mom. I was going to make it in silk thread, which would have made it significantly smaller, but I loved the lavendar/green cotton thread so much that I just decided to use it instead. Easy pattern as well; I'll post it at some point.

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The majority of this pattern, the inner part, was from an Anne Orr book. However, I wasn't very enthusiastic about one of the rounds, so I decided to alter the pattern a bit and add an edge consisting of what I call "73" lace, since the picots and ds's come in groups of seven and three. If you look up at the edging onthe Conch Shell Handkerchief, you'll see that it's the same pattern. This is the largest lace piece that I've tatted, and I'm very happy with it.

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On the quilting page, at the very bottom, you can see a set of reversible placemats and napkins that I made from my roommate's fabric stash, which I was asked to help beat into submission.

These were the result, along with some double-sided quilted placemats. The corner pieces were made of a variegated cotton quilting thread that matched perfectly. The pattern is another favorite edging pattern of mine which I've dubbed "456" lace. Like the "73" lace, the "456" lace has picots and DS's that come in sets of 4, 5, and 6. You can see that I've used the same pattern as an edging for the Salsa Handkerchief below.

You can also see if you look closely at the pattern and know anything about mathematics that this is a self-similar pattern, recursive and fractal. It's quite pleasant and can be recapitulated to make a square or right-triangular mat as large as you wish.

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The handkerchief itself is just hand-hemmed muslin that I cut out of a quilt backing fabric that I purchased, and the edging itself is tatted in cotton quilting thread. Finding variegated tatting thread is becoming very difficult, but happily, the explosion of interest in quilting has made it very easy to find gorgeous, variegated colorways in cotton thread via another route.

This particular colorway reminds me of salsa and avocado, hence the name. I will be making an insert square (eventually) and then shipping the resulting item to a friend.

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I wish I could recall where I got the thread for this. I remember the woman who sold it being really sweet, possibly dyeing it specially, and being thrilled with the quality of the thread when it arrived. (She normally dyed crochet thread and not tatting thread, so this was a deviation for her.) And how, I can't recall for the life of me, years after finishing it, where in blazes I bought the thread. I feel terrible about that.

Not in the least because it was excellent thread that worked up beautifully well in one of what's become my current obsessions: single-shuttle tatting. I just love the simplicity of it. I do think that shuttle+ball is the best, but one-shuttle just has a spare cleanness to it that I like, abstractly speaking.

This is a relatively simple pattern, and if you look at the close-up, you can probably work it out. Just wagon-wheel pinwheels connected at two points apiece. A fun, portable, easily worked pattern that turns out looking great.

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