Heidi Holland sent me this post-it pen. Isn't it cool? Teensy little post-its fit right into the barrel (got 2 refills too) so you can write a note and post it on your work. It went straight into my tatting workbox! Heidi also sent me some wonderful organic teas. I haven't tried them yet but they sound sooo delicious - I know they have to be! Mint Melange, Chamomile Citrus and Green Tea Tropical. Also got a small tube of Nexcare hand cream which also went into my tatting workbox. Uhhhhh....I need a bigger workbox. LOL!

Tatters are the greatest! Nell sent me a few samples of the Turkish polyester thread she has. I have a few too, but they are a different brand. They look the same...but I wondered if they tatted the same? This is that shiny smooth delightful looking thread, Dantel.

I was disappointed in it as a tatting thread. Starting with the bookmark on the left:It's so slick I had trouble keeping a slipknot made to even wind my post shuttle with. The rings are very hard to close - it seems to grab against itself. Fortunately, it's an extremely strong thread so the extreme pulling I did to close the ring didn't snap the thread. It does look nice and shiny but I had trouble keeping my tension even because it slips a bit. I had to pinch nearly every stitch to keep it in place. The thread frays or comes apart easily if you have to untat it and catches on every little snag of dry skin or rough spots on anything. When I blocked it, it laid out on the board perfectly, but after it was dry and I removed it from the board, it seemed to take on a life of it's own. The heart curled up - you can't see it here because the cover of the scanner flattened it out and the tail curved to one side. Part of that curvature has to do with the nature of split rings, but usually when you block it, it stays the way it dries.

So then....I HAD to tat it in the thread I had and this is the middle bookmark in pink. I had all the same problems except it did seem to block better and the rings seemed a teensy bit easier to close. Maybe I got the knack of it better by this time. I wonder if I use a different color in the first thread if it will do the same thing. Sometimes it's the color dye that has an impact on how a thread behaves.

The whole time I'm tatting, I remembered the rayon floss I used to tat the Pam Palmer elephant. This thread is shiny and appears slick but it wasn't as bad as the Dantel. I used 2 strands of floss throughout the elephant. I wondered if I'd just forgotten that it was difficult to tat so I hunted down some floss that I still had separated and tatted the 3rd bookmark, shown on the right. It turned out larger but it was so much easier to tat! The rings closed easier and it blocked nicely. It does have a tendency to fray or split just like the other thread but the end result is shiny, just like the other 2 threads. It's not as convenient when you have to separate the floss strands and you are limited to 8 meters in length but I still like the actual tatting part much better.

I'm going to try the Dantel in some crochet cord and possibly as the filling stitches in some Romanian point lace and see how that works out. I'm a little concerned about it sliding out of the RPL as a filling stitch though.

BTW, the Butterfly Heart bookmark came from Dianna Stevens' Animal Bookmarks, A Tatted Zoo and this included design is by Bev Dillon. It's quick, obviously. I tatted all 3 in 2 evenings.