The book I bought myself with my birthday money finally arrived. 

It is a second hand copy and I have to admit I don’t think it is worth what I paid for it.  I missed out on a copy that was cheaper and instead of waiting to see if another cheap copy became available I just went ahead and bought the next available one which was about £20 more.

On a positive note there are patterns with lots of new techniques I have never tried before.  The first item I am going to make will be the choker that’s illustrated on the front cover.  Only thing is it doesn’t specify what size of brass rings to use.  The thread is size 20 so if anyone has any idea then please let me know!

The baby bonnet cap is frustrating me at the moment.  I did 4 heart medallions on for the 7^th row and decided that I attached the first one to the wrong picot and didn’t make the joining picots long enough what distorted the shape of it so this morning before I left for work I cut out the medallions and I’m going to start again tonight.  Longer picots seem to be tricky for me to do.  Looking at the old photo below it looks like picots used to be made very long and mine ended up about half the length of what these look like.

I think if anyone else what’s to do this pattern, I will re-write the instructions and have illustrations because some of the instructions are a little too vague with only one unclear picture of the finished piece, especially when the tricky bits are all hidden at the base of the bonnet.  Hopefully tonight’s tatting will be a lot more successful. 

While I was tatting away in vain last night we were watching a program called Ice Dogs.  Basically its a dcumentary about a guy trying to dog sled from Siberia throught the Bering Strait to Alaska.  I thought the guy was a bit of a tool and had no idea about sled dogs but my boy Nao seemed to enjoy it...

Until next time... Cat x

baby bonnet progress

My baby bonnet has progressed over the weekend.  I was working at it for a good chunk of the weekend and i've managed to get to the next section of hearts/clovers.

here is a photo I took yesterday.  I have done another row since the photo was taken and two heart medallions but I was so pleased by how it looks I thought I would share..

If I knew any Jewish men, I think this would make a nice Kippah to give as a gift.  I will have to keep this in mind if I ever do.

One thing I have learned is that doing a row of 25 rings and chains takes me FOREVER!  I was going a bit gaga by 9pm last night trying to tie and hide the ends on the last round.  I think I might have found my tatting limit for the day.

I had been looking for ages for a pattern I liked the look of and something that would be suitable for girls or boys with little success.  I’m not a huge fan of patterns with bare thread and since that was how most patterns were designed when baby bonnets were popular is has made my search even harder.

I finally decided to buy the pattern for this bonnet:

I know it has lots of hearts which isn’t exactly suitable for a boy (and knowing my luck it will be) but my Mum pointed out the could also be seen as four leaf clovers.  I can also change the design so that if it’s a boy I can leave out the frilly bit at the front of the bonnet.

So I have decided that if it’s a girl I will do the outer row of “hearts” in pink and if it’s a boy I’ll do the “clovers” in green and select a ribbon to match.

I started it on Sunday and so far this is all I have achieved:

The heart/clover medallions are harder than they look and I wasted quite a lot of time making lots of mistakes and having to re-do them but I’m now happy with how its turning out.  The only problem is the pattern doesn’t specify what thread size to use so I’m making this one in size 10 as it’s the only size I have in white.  I think it should be OK since the baby should grow into it by the time he or she is christened but I wont get a better idea of its size till I’ve done a few more rounds.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will at that stage and I’ll have time to order smaller thread it needs be.

Until next time... Catx