Soaps and Shuttle Lace

TIAS Day 10 and 11 – forgot to post!

simplyshanan — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:43:50 +0000

TIAS Day 10

Things have gotten crazy here at home, so I have not had much time to update the blog.

I have finally found some time to get the last two days of the TIAS posted. The pic above is from day 10, and the one below is the final day, Day 11.

Jane’s TIAS was so much fun. I highly encourage even beginners to give this TIAS a try. You will learn so much, and get really good at split rings and hiding thread ends! LOL

Day 11 of the TIAS All Finished!

Knitting class projects

simplyshanan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:37:14 +0000

I joined a ladies tea and knitting class a few weeks ago.

Our first project was a dish cloth. Mine looks more like a kite than a square, but the 2nd half is much better than the first half was.

Our second project is rather large, a prayer shawl. Because I am using a modified version on the dish cloth pattern, it is a little easier than it might otherwise be. I actually have two shawls started at the same time.

The cotton one is coming along nicely. I am adding a design to the body of the shawl that is similar to the one along the outside edge and it is looking good so far.

cotton shawl in sea mist Peaches and Cream worsted weight yarn

close up of center design

The second shawl is in lace weight alpaca and is just so dainty and pretty.

Lace weight alpaca yarn on size 5 needles

Gauge – lace weight

Yarn Name – Gossamer

Fiber – 100% Superfine Alpaca

Color – Tumeric

Supplier – Yarn Hollow ( www.yarnhollow.com )

I really LOVE this yarn. I bought two skeins (both 4 ozs and 1240 yards) so I would have enough for the shawl I am making. I may end up with enough for two shawls!

Close up of the lace weight shawl

TIAS Day 8 and Day 9

simplyshanan — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:28:35 +0000

Day 8

Day 8 of Jane's TIAS

Day 9 is below. See the split rings we added today for the breast? I just love this happy little white rooster. Look how my third thread (red) turned out to be the comb !! How cool was that?!?!

Day 9 of Jane's TIAS

We have our own pretty roosters running around our farm. Below is Speckles (snacking on cat food the boys set out for the cats this morning) lol.

Our own De Colores rooster, Speck

All these roosters have me humming the spanish folk song De Colores.

The verse about the rooster goes something like this for the English speaking tatters: from http://www.songsforteaching.com/spanish/decolores.htm

Sings the rooster
Sings the rooster with his kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri
And the cluck hen with her cara cara cara cara cara
And the baby chicks
And the baby chicks with their pio pio pio pio pi
De Colores and so must all love be
of many bright colors
to make my heart cry
De Colores and so must all love be
of many bright colors
to make my heart cry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=610jOv4bZtw is a link to the song that talks about the rooster in spanish. Just be warned, If you listen to it, I’m sure it will get stuck in your head as well!

De Colores! Shanan

CTM Continuous Thread Method

simplyshanan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:25:42 +0000

A friend decided to give the TIAS a try and was asking what the CTM is that was mentioned by someone on Jane’s TIAS blog.

CTM is simply a way of winding two shuttles off one ball of thread and keeping the thread in one continous piece. This keeps there from being ends that need to be worked in later.

Start off by winding shuttle #1 with thread from your ball. Wind on all that you will need, then start winding the thread for shuttle #2 around the OUTSIDE of shuttle #1.

thread for shuttle 2 is around shuttle 1

Once you have all the thread you need you can cut the thread from the ball and attach to shuttle number 2 and start winding it on. This gives you a nice long bit of thread to tat with and you only have to worry about the ending threads. In this case day and and day two – you don’t even have to hide those!!

TIAS Day 7

simplyshanan — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:32:49 +0000

Pony of many colors??? I have NO CLUE!!!

Here is Day 7 from Jane’s TIAS. I have some close up views of the very last bit to show the SLT and how she is using it to get us to change colors back to the original color in this piece of the TIAS.

closer view of the SLT

See how the new thread (white) is on top of the old red one? If you continue tatting a chain the new ds will be white and not red. If you DNRW and make a ring, the ring will be white also!

The Shoe Lace Trick simply changes the color of your next set of work.

I have taken some pics of how this looks with some yarn so maybe it is easier to see what is being done (tatting with yard is interesting).

See how you just cross the threads like tying your shoes?

Once you cross your threads you can pull it tight.

the crosses threads pulled up snug to the last ds

Then if you continue to make a chain, your color has now changed! Simple right?!

Presto Change-o New working color!!

A New Idea – Split Ring Hearts

simplyshanan — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:31:29 +0000

Ok so here is a snippet of a bracelet I am starting. I got the idea to make a heart bracelet but needed to figure out a way to use split rings. Here is a small piece of what I came up with today.

Shanan Strode's Split Ring Hearts

The 3rd one in the chain turned out the best. I had to adjust the tiny ring and picot at the bottom to get it to lay the way I wanted.

I am making this into a bracelet.

Motif # 5

simplyshanan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:17:06 +0000

So maybe when I get on a creative bent I start playing with ideas and they morph into strange little creatures.

Motif # 5 started out trying to make split dimpled hearts in a chain. This is what happened …

Tatted Split Dimple Hearts

The top is a simple dimpled heart and the next two were an attempt at dimpled split rings. Still needs some work, but I ended up making a hearts bookmark out of this by adding a few more dimpled hearts and a spiral stem.

I have another idea that I am going to try for split ring hearts…fingers crossed it will turn out better…

Bookmark

Motif #4

simplyshanan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:02:51 +0000

Ok, on to posting Motif # 4. This is a tatted heart in pink that just came into being while I was playing around with my shuttles and the pink thread I just finished.

Shanan's tatted pink heart Motif 4

It needs blocked still, but with a few tweaks I think it will look more like a heart

Motif #3

simplyshanan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:54:11 +0000

Work in progress - Daisy's Heart

It took me a bit to figure out how to do the center rings. I folded the split rings behind the center ring I was working on then was able to make the joins without getting all confused. A pretty pattern that will lend itself easily to many variations. Thanks to TatBitTats for this wonderful pattern. http://teritatbitdusenbury.blogspot.com/2009/05/tatting-tales-behind-tatted-heart-pt-2.html

Finished heart motif #3

This is the finished heart made with my pink HDT. I think my next few motifs will be pink and heart shaped

Tias Day 5

simplyshanan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:52:56 +0000

Yup, I’m even more convinced this ia a pretty prancing pony with a pink party hat, ROFL!

Tat it and see day 5