Fifteenth day Of December!

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

There are tatters out there who don't believe that it is really the 15th of December!!!

They may be right!

If they are then I will not have finished my 24 Snowflakes before Christmas!

But I keep going in the hope that they are wrong!!

Today has been a hectic day in my house, finishing decorating to name but one minor thing. I nearly didn't make it to my computer for this post, so think yourselves lucky!!

There are others who believe that there are tatting helpers in my house, they obviously don't know just how lazy two leprechauns egging each other on can be!!

Today's snowflake no 15 in the book was a real pain in the ....! I am beginning to see a pattern here of easy ones
to give me a feeling of false security followed by similarly easy looking ones that are NOT.

Lene's tatting is so immaculate in her photos, every picot is just so, and her chains all so even, that I am wondering how many dozens of times did she have to tat these to get a perfect one or can she do that every time!

OK enough of that, time to show what I achieved.



I can tell you that it looks a helluva lot better now that I have blocked it than it did before.

The tatting itself is easy. It is basically chains with rings thrown off, but it is so difficult to get those long chains to be smooth and even. Maybe practice would make perfect but no time to do that. That and getting the joining picots just the right length. Done really well it would be stunning.

The thread is another Altin Basak 50. the snowflake measures 9.5cm again.

Thread amounts Sh1 1m, Sh2 11.5m, sh2 does most of the work...or Sh1 if you don't RW when you come out of the center ring. In which case adjust thread amounts slightly.

Today's bonus snowflakes...more of my favourite Dec 3rd..this one is just so easy and so stunning.
I wanted to try it in Vanilla Sky. MY first one has a center of Raspberry Ripple and Real vanilla.



You may or may not notice a glaring mistake...but I will point it out anyway! Major forgetfulness in the big ring at the bottom of the scan. I get so used to tatting my picots in the central rosette with no stitches between them that I forgot not to!

I was too far past it to even think of untatting so I said to myself who cares anyway! It's just hand made that's all.

I don't really like the effect of the varig' center so I will use a solid colour. The choice was a pale pink from Vanilla Sky or a slightly deeper one. I chose the deeper one.




Not sure that this was the right choice, need to do another with a paler center!

On to tomorrow....still a week until Christmas!!!

Fourteenth day of December!

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

You wouldn't believe how much this tatting challenge is luring me into a false sense of security. In my mind it is really only the 14th of Dec and I am immune to the hustle and bustle going on all around me (well almost!). My mind says...plenty of time left to do everything. I think it might hit me on Christmas Eve that I AM NOT READY!!! HELP!
Well there is lots of help here anyway and Son and DIL to be are both so laid back that there is no hassle in Tatskool land.

Last night was the coldest we can remember for years, went down to -2.6C with the whole garden and windows covered in really thick, crystalline frost. Yesterday I skidded on an icy corner..the first real skid I have ever had. Today we are waiting until the bright bright sun thaws things enough to take the kids town to see all the changes, a whole new shopping street since they last came. The shops shown on the advertising video clip aren't the ones that actually came. It is about 75% occupied which in a recession is amazing. The shop on the corner called Fink (I think) is now a dedicated Apple Mac shop...superb. the new street which is a widened small lane goes thro' from our main street to our beautiful old art gallery. So if you want a glimpse of my city this is it.

Back to business. Today's snowflake was one of the stunningly beautiful easy ones. A lot of work in it but nothing difficult.



The thread that I chose is a very, very pastel Altin Basak 50 in pale peach,green.cream.
Lets take another look on a black background.



A very clever design.
The finished flake measures 9.5cm
Thread amounts. The total was 12.25m, not easy to give amounts for each shuttle as Sh2 did most of the work and so I had to switch shuttles half way thro'. Next time that I do it I would probably put 3m on Sh1 and 10.5 on Sh2.

A little extra treat today for everybody suffering Rainbow Bright withdrawal symptoms.



Isn't that a wow! and it really does look as bright as that. So now which one do you like the best!!!

Leprechauns in love!

I guess that the one most of you were interested in was THE GIRL!

Well she landed safely in Idaho into the welcoming hands of Lady Shuttle Maker. You can see them here. They look so alike it's hard to see which is the leprechaun! I think they are going to influence each other a lot.

I wasn't going to show Fergeal that blog post 'cos I know that he liked her...a lot. He tried to get her to stay, but she said "No! I want to travel while I am young enough and have no ties!" I think that I have heard that somewhere before!

We all hope that there will not be a repeat of last year when Brendan decided that he hadn't travelled far enough! and wandered off.
I can assure you (fingers crossed) that she is Brenda the stay at home..the homemaker. Blathnaid (Blon-ned...in Irish names you always lean on the first syllable) means flower...so we should be seeing flowery designs and HDT's in abundance from LSM.

Well back to this post, when I went to get a cup of coffee, Fergeal spotted the open window on my computer from his office on top of my piano..dragged up his tin of Chocolate Leprechauns to climb on for a better look.



I left him there while I got my lunch ready, when I came back I was gobsmacked to see that where I left one, now there were two leprechauns admiring the photo and not only that but Fergeal had managed to enlarge it so much that she was almost in the room with us.

In the blink of an eye Fergeal had lifted the other one on to his shoulders to get a better view.





"What's going on here?" I asked rather feebly, 'What's he doing still here??"

Fergeal wheeled round taken very much by suprise....



"Er...ummm!.....he's...he's.....he's my apprentice!!"


Apprentice my foot!

Seems that our Fergeal is lonely. He has seen three lots of leprechauns....just like him...well almost...arrive and then be sent away before he had chance to get to know them. "It's just not fair." he said.

Then he began to try to justify his actions. he reckoned that as he was in charge this year and did all the advertising and all the interviews, that his workload had got so much bigger than stated in his contract.....so he decided that he was in need of an assistant.....and had talked young Tadgh into staying....promising him...well who knows what he has promised him!!

I think we are going to here a lot more from him....as he and Fergeal are always together dreaming up some big scheme.

In case you didn't know Tadgh is the Irish equivalent of Tim...it is pronounced Tie-gg. Don't forget to lean on the first syllable.

Next time we write we will show you some more photos of Fergeal and Tadgh and some never seen before...photos of Blathnaid AKA Brenda before she left.

Oh the number of Leprechauns that are writing in saying they are smitten by Blathnaid is growing by the minute, whatever will happen next!

Normal snowflake challenge service will be resumed tomorrow.....OK so I am just playing for more time!!!

Thirteenth day Of December!

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

Gosh so many people seem to have just bought this book, I must have started a snowflake flurry! It will be great to see your results. Glad that you are enjoying following my journey.

Thanks for all the compliments about my tree and my angel. If I get a chance I will try to photograph my other trees. the little silver wire one with crystals hasn't even got a look in yet. just too busy.

The Snowflake challenge is on the downhill run and giving me a reason to keep tatting every evening, even with the son and DIL to be here now with us. Christmas is coming much too soon.

The snowflake for the 13th of December looked so much like the previous one for the 12th in my last post....ie rounds of chains...that I thought it was going to be as easy...well I was wrong!!

Be back tomorrow I hope.

It wasn't easy at all, it had a sting in it's tail! The instructions said to complete chain G with a false chain. It was in a very tight spot but OK I can do that I thought and was happy enough...until I got to the end of the next round.
I couldn't figure out what the diagram was trying to tell me. Printed the actual photo large and then again in reverse but it made no sense, until I realised that each chain G needed a split chain to finish...that was 4 split chains in awkward places! which seemed to get worse and worse.

The result looks tolerable but not good enough.



When I got round to having a good look at the photo and diagram, I realised that she had used graduated picots, and mine are no where near graduated enough to achieve the stunning effect that she got.

The thread is a varig' Flora 20 in a sort of peach and white.
Snowflake measures 10.5cm

Thread amounts, Sh1 2m, Sh2 10m as sh2 does most of the work.

Twelfth Day of December!

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

Snowflake number 12...yipeeeeeeeeee! Half way through the book.

It's all down hill from here...or should that be uphill!

This snowflake is a little beauty, one of my favourites.
It was so pretty that I had to stop halfway and do a scan...it is perfect as it is.




Add the final round and it is splendiferous. I think this is a design masterpiece.



It was very easy to tat, nothing more difficult than one split ring if you want to do it all in one go. It would look gorgeous in different colours for the rounds, but a lot of hiding of ends.

I tatted this in Coats 40 in a lovely medium purple. It measures 9cm. I really need to make all of these snowflakes in fine thread to make them suitable for the tree.

Thread amounts, Coats 40. Sh1 9.75m, Sh2 3m.

I finally finished decoration my big real Christmas tree. This year it has to be baby friendly, I put on only 2 glass ornaments and no little wire hangers like I normally use. A smaller tree than usual it had to be raised up...more baby friendly too. It took two milk crates to make a stable base I put all the cute decorations that a little boy will love to look at near the bottom, missed out all the tinsel and lammetta as it is such a pretty tree and then went to town with tatting.

Over 600 little tiny lights and it looks so much prettier than you can see.



Lets take a closer look





You will wonder why when I am tatting so many multicoloured snowflakes and then have a tree with nothing but white.

Well white is still the best for a snowflake and they do show up so well against the green. Upstairs I have also decorated my Silver Rainbow Christmas tree with total absence of white. My antique feather tree is all white also this year...totally tatting....so all my white snowflakes are not on my big tree!

The angel on the top of the tree was made many years ago.....



.....but she remains my all time favourite.

One year in Brownies we made a start for an angel. A cardboard cone with a cotton ball for the head, and told them to go away and decorate it for the following weeks party. The results were fabulous. This was my attempt with gold foil,holographic paper, glitter glue and sequins and a little angel hair with a pipe cleaner halo.

Some of my favourite decoration on my tree are geometric shapes made out of thin card and decorated with glitter and sequins...I must show them to you sometime.

Eleventh Day of December!

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

11th day of December and I am still tatting. I wish it really was the 11th, then I might have a fighting chance of completing my challenge.

Snowflakes are beginning to get thin on the ground...tho it is just possible that we might have a White Christmas...how cool would that be....probably very. We have had almost a week of dry sunny weather, blue skies...but gradually getting colder.

On to Snowflake 11...this was really very easy, if you can tat a trefoil then you can tat this, you can even avoid a split ring if necessary.



...the instructions say to make it in 2 rounds but since there are split rings...the 2 rounds are continuous...something she says in other patterns but not this one. I guess it's just happened in the translation from Danish.

Pretty snowflake....don't like my colour choice much...a varig' Flora 20...looks better in the scan than in real life. A bit clunky in 20, next time I will make it in 30 or 40.

It measures 10cm....interesting fact is that if you tat a snowflake in size 20 it will be the same size as the diagram in the book!

Thread amounts, Sh1 6m, Sh2 7.

An extra treat today....look what I got in the post from my dear friend Sally from Tats Heaven....tucked inside the Christmas card was a simply divine be-jewelled butterfly bookmark designed by her very own sister.



Hope to see ya tomorrow, better get down to it!

Tenth Day Of December!

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

Sorrrry! been a bit busy, trying to get Christmas sorted, finish the shopping, buy the tree (at long last), get it up and decorated for my tat party today with my lassies.
Trying to make my tree safe and wonderous for a one year old...is that possible!

Watching with fascination how Fergeal's new recruits have settled in to their new home. Two glorious reports so far,

find Ruari (Rory) here
and Stiofan (Stephan) here

Such wonderful photos for Fergeal's album, he is so proud of his siblings...and jealous too.

Back to reality and the next snowflake in my Christmas challenge.



Day 10 was an absolute joy to tat.
Isn't it beautiful, I love the negative space created by pulling those chains out to the side.

I made this in a gorgeous colorway in Oren Bayen another soft 3 cord Turkish thread which comes in gorgeous colours.
It measures 10.5cm and takes approx 12.5mm, can't give you the amount on each shuttle as had to do some shuttle switching to finish it, having put 7m on each shuttle.

This is a definate must do again.

Hope to see ya tomorrow.

Ninth Day of December!

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

This is the last of the 'how on earth am I going to tat this one' snowflakes. That's not to say there won't be any more, but they all look do-able from this distance!

This one took me 4 nights to get right, but I got there in the end. Tatted in one round, it goes in and out, up and down and round and about until you are dizzy!! Once you have figured out which direction you are going and where to join it's a doddle!!

I did start off on my first attempt going the wrong way as I came out of the inner ring and ended up with my block tat lines lying the wrong way round...which turned out to be useless...so that was abandoned...especially after I then noticed that there were direction arrows. silly me.

Once again the photo is the reverse of the diagram which doesn't help the confusion.
Nice big print out, flipped over had to be made.

The instructions are actually good with start arrow and follow up arrows.

Loaded up with Flora 20 in a minty green off I went....at speed...too much speed not enough thinking! using Jane/Julie's method as in the last snowflake...I was half way round before I stopped to take stock and realised that....the picot shown by arrow A should have been joined to point B.....ooops!



Looks simple doesn't it...just tie them together when I have finished...WRONG!! that would make one row of block tatting too many and I would end up at the outside instead of the inside!

Well I was b...... if I was going to unpick all that way...so I will tat as far as I can and see what can be done.

I cut out the offending chain and the first ring, stood on my head and tatted backwards to the beginning...or something like that. I did it anyway and it don't look half bad! Well apart from that blob of 4 ends tied off that you prob can't see and I won't look at!!



Yippeeeeeeeeee! it's finished...it was easy really on reflection! they always are..that's why I should tat it again and enjoy it this time. So what colour do you suggest.

Thread amounts it measures 10.5cm in Flora 20
This is just an approximation due to the mistake.....Sh1 9m, Sh2 8m...total 17m that's a lot of tatting!

Joy of joys, tomorrow's pattern looks easy and gorgeous.....now don't peep and it will be a suprise! See ya!

Eighth Day Of December!

Glad that so many of you enjoyed Fergeal's exploits....it you enjoyed it do please leave a comment...they do show me that my efforts haven't just disappeared into cyber space.
Only one guess as to which day of the week he held his interviews!!
There will more adventures of Fergeal to come as he is getting big ideas above his station now that he has his office.

Back to my adventure.......

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Bjorn

This is the second of the snowflakes from hell that I was dreading. Sorry Lene...all your designs are superb.

The finished snowflake is beautiful.



But it had major trials and tribulations.

I began with a solid colour in Flora 20....loaded up a shuttle connected to the ball.The instructions tell me that it is made in two rounds continuously...and I understand what she means...miraculously! I am told where to start and given direction arrows and further instructions.... so all should go well!!

But it didn't... I chose to do Jane's method of block tatting..that is one row of flipped stitches, followed by one row of unflipped stitches. Very easy once you get the hang of it and so turning at the end of a row. Jane has just reminded me that Julie Patterson used this method first, though Jane arrived at it independently.

All went well until I suddenly realised that I had joined in the wrong place! Way to far back to unpick...and so I abandoned it...and learned!



I do have one complaint about the presentation tho'! The photo is the reverse of the diagram...making it very difficult to compare where you are, especially when you are right left challenged. This wouldn't normally be an issue as most designs are symmetrical, but block tatting is not!
So I had to flip it and print it out...big!

I also learned something else...NEVER, EVER try to do block tatting with a soft thread like Altin Basak. In block tatting there is a lot of joining thro' tiny spaces and inevitably the thread gets split at some point. With 6 cord thread you can usually smooth it back into a useable state, but with this the soft single pulled thread broke and became a lump of fluff!! Twice I had to join in a new thread next to the fluff....bet you can't spot it tho'!!

I would tat this pattern again. I can think of so many threads that it would look pretty in. Using the shoelace trick method, the colouring in the block tatting would be continuous. Jane/Julie's method and switching shuttles method both produce contrasting stripes.

Thread amounts
Altin Basak 50 measures 8cm
Sh 6.75m, ball 4m...using Jane/Julie's method, other methods will take a different amount.

I promised to show you what I bought in the Big Smoke on wednesday. This was my best find, something I had been looking for for ages...and there it was in a sale, half price!

It's a tree about 18ins high, made out of silvery wire with crystals on each branch.
Even tho' the crystals are made of plastic they really sparkle. It's a good job they are not swarovski as they are destined to be taken off!



I put it in my hallway against a mirror so I will get to see two lots of tatting. I can see this with hearts or easter eggs too.

You can't see it very well in this photo so I have put a piece of card behind it.



Isn't that pretty.

See ya tomorrow!
Addendum...this is the same Altin Basak thread that I used for the first snowflake of 3rd December that I sent to Diane. Pretty colour.

Taking a break!

Necessity FORCES me to take a break from my challenge...that and tatting like a maniac to keep up!!

I had a wonderful shopping time yesterday in Dub's fair City! tatted a snowflake on the way up and another on the way home. The sun was shining and the sky was blue when we arrived having seen flooded fields all the way up in this sodden land,but within an hour the heavens opened and it poured down all day. I got some cool goodies tho'.

Ok back to business.

Now..you all know my Leprechaun Fergeal and his siblings.....well if you don't...where have you been living, obviously not in my corner of blogland!

You can catch up by either searching for Leprechaun in my side bar labels..I see there are 10 posts OR in the search engine at the top of the blog. This helps me enormously when I can't remember if I posted some tatting or not! It might help you if you want to know how much thread to use for a project and I might have made it!

Also and in addition you can go to the Leprechauns blog.......in my blog roll and read ALL the posts there......................................................................


sitting........................waiting for you to catch up.........................twiddling my thumbs.......................my hubby actually does this................while he is waiting at traffic lights.................who else does....................?

OK welcome back now I don't have to explain any more!



So lets start again.....

Fergeal has a list...(just like Santa Claus...only Fergeal checks his list every day). His list is all the tatters that he would like to have a Leprechaun.....

The problem is that he is such a gregarious little soul that his list gets longer and longer ...every day!!

I keep telling him "Fergeal, how do you think I can make all those Leprechauns, have you any idea how long it takes just to make one???"

Obviously he hasn't!

So I finally put my foot down and told him that I couldn't possibly make any this year.

He was not happy!

"If you stop that silly tatting you would have plenty of time!"

mmm I think I have heard that before!!

Well anyway, Fergeal decided that there was no option but to take matters into his own hands, handicapped as he is by his lucky Irish cent.

Nope, it's not what you think...he didn't borrow my felt, scissors, needles and thread.... he took the easy way out and he advertised in the Leprechaun Times....for Leprechauns willing to travel.... outside their homeland.....not afraid to learn new things...ambassadors for their country...and so on.

I didn't think that even one would apply..they are all so cosy at home....

But they must have been intrigued and so was I when he came and told me that he had seven applicants...seven!! (good job it wasn't the seven dwarves!!)

You might think that this was the end of the story...Oh no!

Fergeal decided that he had to interview them...to make sure that they were of good character and wouldn't let us down!!

There's more....

He said that he couldn't possibly interview them..where he normally lives...on top of the piano...watching me......Oh no!! he wanted his own office!!

I hope it keeps fine for him I thought!

Well it did..you may have noticed how the Leprechauns seem to get their own way...a lot. William has his own van and sets off whenever he feels the need....Oisin goes to college and let us not forget Brendan (the naviagator!) who was determined to see the world that he left his post and went AWOL! No we could never forget Brendan.

Fergeal didn't want a repeat of that.................and so I found myself in Leprechaun Office Supplies....with my credit card...bad move......

It seemed that not only did he want a desk and chair...but he wanted to upgrade his entire lifestyle!! He told me he wanted antique Irish furniture....solid mahogany circa 1850 ( he has been watching too many Antique Roadshows!

In yer dreams Fergeal!

Well to cut a long story short, he got ready for the interviews... I looked up and there was a line of Leprechauns waiting for their turn....pushing and shoving and nearly falling over each other, so eager were they.





A motley lot they look too!





Now there are no prizes...(but you can guess anyway)....for guessing which day Fergeal chose for his interviews???...think now think!.....or what he was going to ask them. All answers on a blank cheque please!

One by one they answered his gruelling questions, he even let them sit on his brand new rocking chair..... did they know what that mysterious object on his desk was?....



... the others relaxed on his new three piece suite!...and chatted amongst themselves...wonder what they were thinking...were they a teeny bit afraid of what they were letting themselves in for.



What was Fergeal holding in his hand and what was he going to use those books for that he had on his desk.....was he going to make them swear an oath....so many questions I was dying to ask...but i was going to have to wait...you can't afford to interrupt a Leprechaun doing his job.....remember that!



Every now and again he would get up and go over to his antique globe (note that it's an antique...well he thinks it is anyway!), give it twirl and peer into it and scratch his head.



Finally, finally the were all sent home, and I got to quiz him.

He was chuntering away to himself.

"What's up lad?" I dared to ask.

"One of them's a girl!!" was his reply.
"A girl, I ask you who has ever heard of girl leprechauns...no such thing!"

"mmmm!"I dared to reply, "if there are no girl leprechauns, where do you think you came from???"

Well if looks could kill!!

Looks to me like my brave little fellow fancies her, though he would never admit it.

I asked him how he knew it was a girl!!! He tapped the side of his nose knowingly and said that he knew all right, she may have been dressed like leprechaun but it was the little things that gave her away!!!

She was the first one that he called back and I did do a photo shoot while he wasn't looking.....but that's for another day.

As for the others he said they knew sod all about tatting, some of them had never heard of it.....but they were all keen....well wouldn't you be he said if you were offered the opportunity to travel the world.

I think he is jealous...he keeps on at me that I promised him a world tour!!

So anyway back to the job in hand....he has sent them away to the Lep Academy for their tatting/spy training and they just arrived back the other day.

I wonder where he has decided to send them.

I guess I will soon know.