Troublesome Tatting Tuesday

Well, I've done a lot of tatting but haven't accomplished much.  There's been trouble . . . trouble with a capital T.   First, I have totally fallen in love with the idea of having a tatting shuttle decorated with my very own tatting.  I just think that would be such a lovely thing.  And wouldn't it be cool if I could have one made for each of the girls?  An heirloom type gift from their mother but that might wait until I'm a more experienced tatter.

(Just in case anyone reads this blog that doesn't already know about the Tatted Shuttles that Chris Hinton of the Shuttle Shop is making, you'll find more information here:  The Tatting Forums, and specifically on this thread.  And there is still more on Anne Bruvold's site where she has an information sheet and several patterns for motifs which can be used to make the shuttles.)

So I started on one of Anne's patterns.  It was going well - it's an easy to make pattern with nothing tricky in it.  I was using size 20 lizbeth in black and a multicolor that had black in it.  I did just fine until I joined the last two rings and made a stupid mistake.  I still could have finished it but I didn't really like the colors well enough to make another so I decided just to abandon it.

Then I decided to try the "Tatted Shuttle" by Elizabeth Zipay.  Again, it's not a difficult pattern tho it is a little more intricate than Anne's pattern.  Well, I didn't get very far at all before I messed it up and couldn't go any further.  I was making it in thread that I knew was going to be too big just to see if I could make it.  I think I could have if I hadn't done something stupid.

Ok, enough with the mistakes and false starts.  I decided that I needed to go back to something that was a sure bet, something I could finish quickly and not worry about messing up.  So I grabbed my faithful Mary Konior Tatting with Visual Patterns and turned to the bud fragments and made this rosebud.  It worked just fine.

Unfortunately, it was a brief respite from the bag juju. I stared a bookmark that called for self closing mock rings just to see if I could do it and didn't even get to the SCMR's before I messed up.  At least, I'm pretty sure I messed up . . .

And Finally, for Miss S - two more hints, one a perfect picture of the gift but something must have been on my camera lens when I took it - oops!  I am still not seeing any guesses from you.  I mailed the package to you today so it should be there by Thursday or Friday and when it arrives, I'll reveal the mystery to the rest of the blog readers!!!