I have been doing mainly tatting for 5 or 6 years now. However, in the last little while I have started two projects and jammed with both of them. One is a vintage pattern with lots of ‘repeat from * to * six times’ or whatever, and I got lost somewhere. It’s in 100 thread, so I plan to do it again in larger thread, then correct the first one once I know exactly what I did. To add insult to injury, the book is a ‘Learn Tatting’ booklet from J.P. Coats.
Then I treated myself to a new tatting book by Iris Niebach – Tatted Doilies. Fell in love with one of the patterns (Delia) and… got into trouble again. I love the look of it, but the chains are long! The first one is 60 ds between rings with only three picots. I found out my tension is not as even as I thought…
So I went back to crochet. I forgot just how fast it is compared to tatting.
The Solomon’s Knot (also known as the Love Knot or Hailstone – don’t ask me about the last one…) is old, but I love the effect. The pattern is Love Knots and Leaves by Susan Badgley, which you can find here.
Shawl in Progress
I didn’t like the edging in the pattern, and so invented my own. I also ended up playing thread chicken.
Thread Chicken
That is all I had left after three 50 gm balls.
Here is the finished shawl.
Completed Shawl
Since we are in the Southern Hemisphere and heading into winter, it is now too cold to wear the shawl…
Something else while I was busy with crochet.
Behold, the Kraken!
This was for a challenge on Habitica. A fun way of motivating yourself to get things done by developing positive habits using a gaming format.
I have also published a post on my tatting site, Tatted Threads. Maybe I should do a post about biting off more than I can chew… 😉
notewords 
Sounds like you’ve been having a nice time. The Kracken! Haha!
I have a cream colored shawl like that, my mother made it, although I cannot tell you if it was crochet or tatting.
It sounds beautiful! It is most likely crochet. Tatting would literally take years for such a big piece. I did the shawl in a couple of weeks.
“Release the Kraken!!” keeps echoing through my head now. 🙂
😉
oh v nice indeed! love the kraken and the shawl
that certainly was a close call with the thread 😉
You should have heard the swearing – I was quite sure I wasn’t going to make it. 😉
The shawl is lovely. i never did figure out how to tat.
Thanks!
It took me three days to get the first tatting stitch right. Crochet is a lot simpler and more versatile. To tat a shawl that size would have taken months.
But I still prefer tatting. 😉
I need to practice more with tatting – I can make miles and miles of chains with picots – I become all thumbs when I try to make circles and join. 😦 I became frustrated too quickly I think and just gave up. I love the shawl and I’m off to check out your tatting site right now! 😀
Looking forward to seeing you. 😉
If you are interested, there is an online tatting class. Free to join, lots of fun and they have a beginners section.
The link to join is at the top of the middle column.
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2016/2016index.html
The site is not that easy to navigate, but there are lots of interesting links.
Thanks I’ll check it out!! 😀
I love the Kracken!!! hmm tempted to pick up a crochet hook…
Welcome to the slippery slope… 😉
I love tatting, but for cute creatures, go crochet!
That looks like a great crochet shawl – love the look of it. Bookmarking it so that I can come back to it later. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you liked it. It was fun to crochet. 😉