Chinese Dragon!

Way back in 2009 I tatted Anne Bruvold's Chinese Dragon having see the beauties that others were showing.

Haven't had the chance to show you before now and today seemed appropriate.

My first attempt was in Altin Basak in an olive green with Rainbow Ruby beads.

It was quite hard to manage as you tat all the way along to the tail before coming back and joining to the first side all the way to the head....I had all the long length of tatting twisting and flopping around.

It wasn't until I tatted it again in a firmer thread that I realised how much the solftness of the thread had made it so much more unmanageable.

I wanted a bead for an eye but didn't have the  patience at the time to try to work out how to do that so am sewing one on afterwards.

The pattern is very very well written, but I still enlarged the diagram and coloured every bit in as I went along to make sure I knew where I was.

The second attempt was to be my piece de resistance in my own thread, Raspberry and Chocolate Mousse. This is a favourite thread as I like the subtle colour change.

However, despite colouring in every ring and every chain on my diagram when I got to the neck I was a ring and chain out!!

I checked every bit of my tatting and blow it but I couldn't find where I had made the mistake.

Isn't that funny, I can see as clearly as anything that the mistake is in the first loop of the body, but I can't pin point exactly where it is.

So forget it and live with it, it's just a rather differently postured dragon!

I did have to add an extra ring and chain in the neck so he has a longer neck and a slightly more bowed head!

Little gold beads twinkle throughout the body.

This thread was so easy to tat with, I am so pleased.

In size 30 the dragons measure 21cm.

Thread amounts

Sh 1 approx 15.75m,   Sh2 Approx 13m.

Would love to tat one like Tattycat did holding a pearl bead in it's mouth.

Blue Lagoon Season!

Back to thread dying again......I didn't mean to dye Blue Lagoon again so soon............................but.........................look what my friend Jackie brought along, her work in progress....



....we had both just got Karey Solomon's book Here Be Dragons................................
we were all so wowed by it that it was a while before I suddenly realised that it was my Blue Lagoon thread!...not that it used much thread!

It did really show the beads off tho'.

When she brought the finished article laid upon green velvet.....well what can I say!



.....and so I HAD to dye more of this thread!

Blue Lagoon is I think one of my successes, it's a 'lite' version of my Coral Reef (coming back soon) with the very gentle subtle colour changes that I like.

Then of course I got to looking to see what I had already made with it.....and the first things that I found were my Blue Lagoon Doileys..so I just have to do a recap from my earlier tatting posts.....just look away if you have already seen these!

The first was Eleanora by Iris Neibach....



...and then came Cornelia also by Iris Neibach...both from her book Tatted Doilies.



This was tatted in size 60 a size that I am beginning to like more and more....I never thought I would move away from size 20.

Of all the things that I have tatted (that I can remember at this moment in time) I think this is my favorite.

I love the way this pattern works out, isolating the groups of rings. I kinda think this looks like lots of little lagoons in the ocean. I dyed a deeper blue colour to make a good contrast round the lagoons.

I think this thread works best with a strong contrast to show it off. This time I am dying stronger shades of blue, turquoise green and turquoise blue and I think these will give quite different results....not enough time to try them all tho'.



What else did I tat with this thread...my usual Hearts Desire heart by Susan Fuller and lots of Tatman's Icthus's.....


These show the difference between Blue lagoon and Coral Reef really well...but none of the photos really bring out the beautiful pale turquoise green. that I love.

I have Blue Lagoon in sizes 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 so have no excuse for not tatting more.......show you the new things that I have made another day!

End of Summer! and No 32 Norwegian Minor Dragon

Oh my! today we have SUMMER...just when it's nearly too late...the sky is blue with those little fluffy white cloud things and the sun is shining...very brightly.

The house elf and I, we just hate it when the weather forecast man starts saying 'There is a touch of Autumn in the air', or 'Autumn chill'.
We shout at the television that we don't want to hear that word..especially in the middle of August!!

Heck we haven't even has Summer yet!!

We had almost given up on the Indian summers that we usually have in September...why did they have to leave it so late.

So I am in 'end of Summer mode'.

Season of mists and mellow fruit fullness sort of thing!

One of our favorite plants is flowering it's socks off outside on our deck. Does anybody out there know what this is......It's OK I do know as the house elf is a plantsman and it's his! There is a skein of my latest HDT for the first person to leave a comment with it's name...sorry but Latin name only, common names don't travel well internationaly and it may have many common names from different countries..
It almost left flowering too late and got it's head blown off.





It really is the most outrageous colour, I can't even begin to capture it. It's the deepest strongest violet I have ever seen and with the velvety leaves beginning to turn red...WOW. With the sun shining through it it looks so pale in the photo!!

Now on to the next part of my colour theme. Remember my Bonsai Crab Apple Tree that was the impetus for my Apple Blossom thread....well I have rather ignored it in this wet, wet summer and left it to do it's own thing and this is what it looks like today, bearing not one but four crab apples. Oh dear that will probably mean less flowers next year as fruiting uses up it's energy. Remember also that I told you that while the leaves on a bonsai will become smaller, the flowers and fruit will always be full size.





OK so keep these colours in your memory and we will move on.

I have been tatting Ann Bruvold's Minor Norwegian Dragon ...if you haven't made this one yet then you are missing something good. I have done Martha's dragon for my 25 motif challenge but the Norwegian Minor Dragon is in a whole different group!

My first one was in two colours of Flora 20...practice piece! I was glad that I had used two colours so that I could be sure that I was using the correct shuttle. The colours in Ann's diagram are the ones of the working shuttles...like the diagram I did of Iris's Eleanora.



The wings look like little umbrellas!

Second dragon in one of my own threads.



What to do my next dragon in, it was a puzzlement. None of my dragons fit the major dragon types that Ann listed so it was off to my stash of samples and trials that I did in the Spring. Mmmmmm Berry Dragon...I had 2 samples that would fill that bill.
They originated in a curious way. I had so many little bottles of trial mixes to throw away, but it seemed such a waste soooh I grouped them together in threes and tried them out on small skeins, and put them on one side for later.

Well now it's later and one of them gave me a lovely Berry Dragon my favorite so far, even has beads. I loved the way the tail worked out. these dragons remind me of the Luck Dragon in the Never Ending Story... remember that?



Oh I like that!

So lots of tweaking later and I have my latest HDT. Berry Burst!




You can't believe how difficult it is to show you the correct colour so lets imagine......and get your juices running........ well, over here in our supermarkets you can buy bags of frozen mixed berries to make pies. So imagine, redcurrants,cranberries, raspberries, loganberries and strawberries going into my pan. Then lets add bilberries, blackcurrants...and then blackberries and blue berries.

Making my mouth water I don't know about yours!!

Well when the berries get hot they burst and their juice comes oozing out into little pools which gradually mix.

With me so far!! well that's my Berry Burst...I wanted such an intense colour palette that I dyed it twice. Sometimes threads look so nice when they are wet that I an sorry that they have to dry much lighter.

Here is my finished 'Berry Burst Dessert', Hearts Desire by Susan Fuller and Jane Eborall's SCMR butterfly both my favorites in HDT's.




BUT having dyed all my threads I suddenly began to wonder if Yarnplayer or LadyShuttlemaker had dyed the same colours, heart in my mouth I checked them out and found.....Yarnplayer's Purple Punch.....very similar but on closer inspection I think mine is VERY much darker. She also seems to have light areas in hers unlike mine.

Oooer! I hope that mine is different enough...I think it is and it was dreamt up long ago.

Number 22. Tatting Dragons!

Next animal to fly off my magic shuttle is a Dragon. Yes, I know I said I was going to tat realistic animals...but who really knows if dragons really do exist.I am sure we all know a few contenders!!

This is the only dragon pattern that I have (I think) tho' I know there are lots around.
This is Paprika the Dragon from the endlessly inventive mind of Martha Ess. What would I do without her!



This trial Paprika is tatted in size 10 Flora and measures nearly 11cm head to tail.

But he isn't really a good paprika colour so he had to have a friend and more. The beauty of tatting an unrealistic animal for a change is that it doesn't have a realistic colour that has to be aimed for.



These little fella's are in Flora 20 and measure 8cm head to tail. One has a fringed tail which saved hiding ends! He really is in Paprika colour.

It's a nice pattern to tat.