Pile of Errors

For those who have been inspired to give tatting a try, and lest you think I've had no trouble learning, I give you this:

It's the pile of scraps and pieces I've been tossing aside when I've made failures I felt I couldn't back out of. Luckily my skills at "retro-tatting", as one Craftree forum member calls it, (that's meticulously picking out mistakes), have grown and that means less and less thread is being sacrificed to the scrap heap. I'm likely making almost as many mistakes, usually the result of a moment's foolish inattention, but now I spend ages picking the errors out rather than tossing the entire piece away in frustration. 

Just thought you should know in case you're giving this a try and judging yourself harshly based on your perception of my progress. Ha!

But for all those errors I do keep persevering. Tatting is challenging, fun, and occasionally there is a worthy end product. 

First of Many Ice Drops

Ice Drops are a fun little thing to tat!

They are formed around a "gem" that you can find in hobby stores or sometimes in the area of the aquariums in a pet store.

Pretty little doodads with little purpose, they are sometimes done as Christmas tree ornaments, package decorations, back pack charms and so forth.

Did I mention that they are fun to tat? For that reason alone you might be seeing many more of these.

Portrait Ornament

Many, many years ago (has it been 23 already!) I made a few ornaments similar to this one.


Featuring pictures of my 3 little ones they immediately became my favorite ornaments of all time. Year after year I put them in prominent locations on the Christmas tree. As the children grew older (they are all adults now) I loved to reminisce of Christmas from so long ago.

Last year I sorted the ornaments and carefully stored the portrait ornaments away where they would be "safe". I had put them in a sealed container with an aluminum bottom. I guess some kind of a chemical reaction, (or perhaps the lack of circulating air?) caused them considerable damage. The pictures are fine, but the crocheted part turned all brown and ugly. I'll have to redo them some time.

The ones I made this year are for pictures of our first grandchild on her very first Christmas. Very special indeed.