SOUP catcher

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I haven't touched my shuttles for almost 3 weeks now, but I needed a small decoration for splocik's monthly game. So, I did a quick search in my stash and found motifs I had tatted in September. I hastily put these together to create some kind of ornament. It resembles a dreamcatcher somewhat, but could just as well be a suncatcher, a window decoration or a tree ornament. And overall, it could've been better! This will have to do for now since only a few hours remain of November.

Being made of pieces in my stash and with no clear identity, I was tempted to call it my SOUP* catcher! Remember what SOUP stands for? - Sewing On / Using Pieces of tatting. However a few of my friends say it does look like a dreamcatcher. And these are the component pieces ....

Motif #1 Mituko Ikuta's 1994 book 'Shuttle Lace: Tatting and Beads 1' has several picot effects which became popular as 'Ikuta Picots' through Georgia Seitz's tribute to the designer. The above motif is from Ikuta Picots Diagrams 1  by Georgia Seitz (https://www.theonlinetattingclass.com/technique-tools). Worked in Lizbeth size 20.

Motif #2 And this is from Diagram 2 same link as above. In the first motif the long picots appear like adjoining or continuous picots, being joined at the same distance. These are double picots and the two threads can be arranged to better resemble them - I did not. Worked in Anchor Pearl Cotton size 8.

In this 2nd motif the very long picots are joined to adjoining elements (rings here) and form overlapping layers with careful interweaving.

This time I pinned the long picots in 2nd motif while blocking in order to achieve the points. I like this better since it opened up the picots - what about you?

My pictorials for her overlapping picots effect - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search?q=Ikuta+picots

Motif #3 I was inspired by Corina Meyfeldt's beautiful Sakura pattern (https://cmhandmade.blogspot.com/2014/11/pattern-sakura.html). I had started out to tat the sakura, but pre-stringing the beaded picots (notice I put 3 yellow beads at the tips?) was quite time-consuming so I went freeform with only 5 stamens. Worked in Anchor Pearl Cotton size 8.

There's a backstory to this. When I did the post about Tatted Fringe (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2024/08/on-fringes.html) Stephanie W told me about her beaded fringe which she made using Nina Libin's 'single file beaded picot' and even sent me a pic! It reminded me of Corina's Sakura which had been taught in Georgia's class. The method is exactly the same, though for a fringe the picots would likely be longer.

Motif #4 The large mustard 4-petalled motif in the center of the bangle is an adaptation of Eliz Davis' motif (https://tatknot.blogspot.com/2016/05/mock-ring-by-joining-chain-back-to.html) which I made before in blue (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2016/05/of-long-chains-large-rings.html). After everything was assembled, I realised I hadn't taken a pic of the motif separately. Worked in Anchor size 20 (¬size 10).

Motif #5 There was a prominent negative space in the 4th motif so I sewed in the Fringe Star 

(pattern https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2024/08/starburst-fringe.html) 

I wanted to take a short video of the SOUP dreamcatcher but it wasn't to be. 

How fast this year has slipped by! Only one more month left, one last submission left. Do check out the range of October entries in splocik's 'Small Decorations' game - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2024/11/male-dekoracje-2024-galeria.html

Many many thanks to all mentioned in this post!  

who gobbled the sun?

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A mini video – please disregard the static. It’s actually the sound of the fan last night!

A few days back, Lilas Lace started a Celtic earring tat-along on facebook, which she has now posted in her blog here. From a bit of Googling, I find that it is a variant of the 4-leaf clover symbol.

It was a small project, broken into extremely tiny steps, And it was true Celtic interlacing unlike the ‘faux’ Celtic I’ve attempted so far. 

I chose Bliss variegated thread because it brings out the interweaving clearly. At the end, the motif is inserted within a 3cm ring which I did not have. This was the other reason I chose a thick thread (size 3 or 5), to mount on a bangle. 

The weaving itself took a long time! Pinning it down helped me keep track. After many trials, I reached this stage, where a part of it is still wrong. Took a pic to refer and remember. Then it was easy to undo and redo the last bit correctly...

TIP : Always remember that each chain/line goes over-under repeatedly. After choosing to keep the chain left of each ring above (over), at the next intersection it should be below (under), then again over and under meeting up with the next ring.

Final measurement – 2 inch square.

Pretty happy with it.

Now to make a suncatcher out of it - my very first. Chose a bangle with 2½” inner diameter and scurried over to the Queen of Suncatchers – Sue’s (His Kid) blog! 

• Before starting, I tacked the overlapping chains at 4 points - peer closely to see white sewing thread knots in pic below. And notice all the tools I needed?!

Gold metallic thread to shine through the transparent crystals.

I first sewed crystals through the 8 tiny picots, rolling the thread around the bangle frame. I don’t how she does it … I had a tough time keeping the crystals in place.

Wasn’t satisfied with the look, hence added more crystals, along with small green bicone crystals. This time I simply tied and cut each thread! Easier to handle the sequence as well. Yeah, I’m still not comfortable sequencing the beads correctly for pre-stringing.

ecided to snip off the first round of crystals and continued with the rest. Huh, this looked much better. So that was it!

Now how to hide the little ends? Tatting over the bangle using a single shuttle, and hiding all ends within. (cover a cabone/plastic ring - scroll down to #5 for tut links). I enjoy this process as can be seen in my previous bangle projects.  

The air pollution has been so high, that it has gobbled up the sun. It’s dreary and difficult to breathe even inside the house. This is the best we could do this morning. Soon we will be literally caged in - next week we're going to put up toughened glass in the balcony, sigh. Sliding, yet not the same. 

Many thanks Lilas Lace & Sue !