Tatters' Gathering

I met up with some fellow tatters last Saturday. It was my very first time meeting them. They are Aileen, Ellen and Jullie. Being new to this craft, tatting and its community, I had alot to learn from them. During lunch, we chit-chatted, mostly about Jullie's impending delivery and confinement. We did Ellen's Simply Tree after the luncheon. I was clueless about split ring and split chain but this design was using these 2 techniques. To begin with, I brought 2 separate shuttles loaded with thread. What was I thinking??!! It was supposed to be a continous thread method. So, Ellen had to teach me how to join and hide thread. Hee~~ My mistake turned out to be blessing.

I had some problems with the pattern (my fault as I am still not used to it). Then I had some trouble with the split ring. The method Ellen taught was slightly different from the Japanese Tatting book. But I managed to get it in the end. I am a slow coach so I only managed to do this.


















Aiyaya~~ others already completed theirs. Thanks to Aileen, she tatted a piece just so that I could attempt the split chain. This will be my headache challenge for now. Will update when it is completed.

I brought a cake to the gathering, themed Shuttle & Needles, which is the group's name.


















All the girls couldn't bear to cut the cake so I had to do it. Maybe my heart is already hardened, but hey, cake is meant to be eaten right? I hope the cake didn't disappoint. And seriously, I think Clover should pay me for advertising. We stayed there from 1.40 p.m. (I was 10-15 mins late) to close to 7 p.m. Hmm.. actually, we could have continued our dinner there. Ahahah~~ The restaurant was kind and did not chase us out. Kudos to Sizzler's (Toa Payoh Branch) and their staff!

To read more about the gathering, please visit the above links. My brain was not functioning properly that day.

My First Tatted Motif

This motif was my first attempt on tatting and there is no turning back. The affair with tatting started when I was at a craftshop last Saturday browsing some crochet pattern books. I was attracted by the designs on the cover so I picked it up, thinking it was for crochet patterns. I was intrigued by the technique and bought a pair of shuttlers on impulse. I didn't have time till 2 days ago, I decided to sit down to study the technique and started to play with this new toy.

The first motif is a butterfly because my girl spotted the pattern and said she wanted a pink one. I used my crochet thread to practise with it. It took me one whole hour to figure it out. Phew.


















I found some pink thread in my stash and used the same pattern last night but tried adding beads to the picots. The centre seemed empty so I threaded a pearl. Looks pretty good for a hairclip! Ah Girl loved it when I gave it to her this morning. I'm going to make another one tonight to make it a pair.

じゃね～～

A New Beginning

This blog is a showcase of stuffs that I do when my fingers get bored, mostly craftworks. My first cross-stitched pencil case was done when I was 7. It was a project for art lessons. I first discovered crochet when I was about 9. My aunt used to crochet me those water tumbler holders and dresses for dolls. She taught me the basics. I started bead weaving when I was 11. It was a Mother's Day project (a necklace) during art lessons. Made loads of braided bands when the craze kicked in during my teens. I knitted my first muffler for a friend going for studies in United Kingdom.

Over the years, besides finding the joy of baking and cooking, I found peace in craftworks. You sort of enter a 'zone' whereby time stood still and nothing mattered except that piece of work you are concentrating on. I stopped making craftworks for some time when I had my kids but I think I am ready to embark on this journey again. There are so many things I would love to do but the priority would be my children. I am stealing an hour or two before bedtime for these projects. My current project is a cardigan for Ah Girl. When that finish (heaven knows when!), I will start one for Ah Boy. I am not a very disciplined crafter so intermittenly, I will do something else which catches my attention. I hope it won't take me donkey years to update this blog here.

And thus, the journey begins.