Eeek! Spider!

Jane recently posted instructions for a new method for tatting a floating chain, with this spider pattern to try it out. Floating chains are really fiddly for me, (think split chain with one end that won't stay put) so I thought this was worth a try.

Well, the tatting part goes pretty easy, but when I pull the thread end back through the stitches, I have a terrible time with the thread twisting and tangling. Those of you who don't tat as tightly as I do (ie, almost everyone) may not have so much of a problem. Anyway, it was a fun exercise, and a potentially useful new technique.

Peacock Blue

Sometimes I buy thread colors because I have a project in mind. Sometimes I buy a random ball of thread because the color calls out to me. This thread was all but jumping up and shouting at me. This is Lizbeth 657. The label calls it Ocean Turquoise Dark, but I call it peacock blue. I love this thread. In real life, it's brighter and just a tiny bit greener than it shows on the screen.

First, I made the Luna moth pattern shared by Pamela (Totus Mel) here. Then I teamed it up with some bright yellow and worked Sharren Morgan's Flag Tail Dragonfly from this year's Palmetto Pattern CD. I had enough thread left on the shuttles to make a little parasol by Karey from an issue of Tatting Times.

I'll be looking for more things to make with this thread.

This makes more than enough motifs to wrap up this round of my 25 Motif Challenge. The theme this time had been any motif that I did not design myself. I'll just start over again soon.

More Buggy Lanyards

Oh, did I mention it was a bag of assorted buggy buttons?

I haven't been up to more than mindless carry-along projects lately, so this fit the bill. I'm well equipped for Palmetto TatDays now, anyway.

Buggy Lanyard

I had these buttons I wanted to do something with, though none of my ideas had been working out. Then TattingChic started her dicussion of the Single Shuttle Split Ring and its use for climbing out. Oooh, just what I needed! and a lanyard was born.

(Now, who knows why I need a lanyard with bugs on it? How many of you are making a buggy lanyard too?)

Now another discussion has started in TattingLand about adding joins to the SSSR. I can't wait to see where that will lead.

I suppose I could call this an "Excercise Your Stash" project, since otherwise those buttons would have languished in the drawer forever.