Tatty cat

[telophase]

I have picked up tatting again, thanks to the cat. She got in a fight with a fluffy orange cat that wanders around at twilight, albeit through the window screen, so neither participant could actually sink claws into each other, so they were both frustrated. And I noticed, after I ran screaming over to the window and scared both of them enough to break up the fight, that there was now a nice large foul-smelling puddle on the carpet next to the window. Oh, cat. Fight or flight indeed.

So I had to leave my nice cozy cocoon of a home and venture unto the wilds of WalMart to pick up some cat odor neutralizer stuff because the pet store close to me just moved farter away and I didn't want to get onto the highway. And I didn't want to go to WalMart for just one thing - if I'm going to be forced to brave that parking lot and the checkout lines, I'm going to buy more than one thing.

I've been jonesing to do some sort of fiber arts, thanks to my visit home. Mom's a weaver, and has ... at least 4 floor looms, an inkle loom, and a couple of other small looms cluttering up the house, and many projects in various stages of completion. At the moment she's into chenille scarves, and I have profited by two in the past year. :) And because I'd read a mention of bobbin lace in Lark Rise to Candleford, my old desire to learn bobbin lace had come back, although having to track down all that damn equipment put me off (I couldn't find any kits for sale online).

I'd learned to needle tat back in grad school when I was doing an internship at a museum in Wyoming, and that pretty much suits my budget at the moment - tapestry needles and crochet thred = less than $5 - so I picked those up at WalMart along with the odor neutralizer and that, my dears, is how the cat piddling all over the carpet led me back into tatting.

Anyway, it still has the same problem that I have with knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch, bobbin lace, etc, in that there is absolutely nothing tatted that I need or want, so it's mostly something to do with my hands while I watch TV. I have no use - nor indeed much liking - for random tatted motifs, I don't like the earrings they show, I have no use for doilies, and I'm not doing any costuming that calls for lace details. (I'd have the same problem with bobbin lace, but the art piece possibilities inherent in that I like much better than the art possibilities in tatting.)

Comments

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

I think there's an untapped market in fanart filet lace. Of course, that's crochet and not tatting, but it's one of the art forms that lends itself better to personal expression than a rigidly constrained geometrics of hardanger. At one point, I even charted a pattern for a Goomba, before realizing the essential basic problem that I really suck at crochet.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Hee. If I were seriously into bobbin lace, I could see designing a fanart lacework of some ilk. XD

[oyceter]

Tatting! That is so cool! Is it really hard to get started?

Um, not that I need yet another fiber art hobby, given the frightening amount of yarn I have stashed away.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Nope, quite simple if you do needle tatting and not shuttle tatting. :) I never got the hang of shuttle tatting. With a needle, it's just a matter of getting used to the basic loops and knots and you can make a simple, small doily in a matter of an hour or two.

Mind you, I need to order tatting needles, which are better than tapestry needles because the eye end is the same width as the rest of the needle, which you really need when sliding the loops and chains you need off the needle. Because you slide the needle through them, by necessity the resulting lace is a bit larger and coarser than shuttle tatting, where you make loops and knots without running anything through them, so they can be finer.

I also found a website that explained how to make Cluny leaves, which is a nifty way to make leaf shapes using a finger loom - you loop the thread around your fingers to form a three-string warp, weave the needle through it for a few passes, then pull the loops to make them go away and to tighten up the leaf. I made two leaves last night. Not that anyone could tell that those lumpy, ill-shaped things were leaves unless I told them, but baby steps, baby steps... :D

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

Craft fairs? Alternately, when you have more funds, hospitals generally use donated baby hats for babies or preemies.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Ah, possibilites. :) Thanks.

[mistressrenet.livejournal.com]

I still have the hats some generous person knitted my preemie daughter. :D