3 more for 25 Motif Challenge

Isn't this a beautiful shuttle? It's described as a madras knotting shuttle in Needlework Antiques and the information about is says:
"The condition of this rare shuttle is very good. It is solid and tight and there are no knicks or chips in the bone" but ends are open. It is also $365. For that much money, I need a pedigree with it.

I followed an alert from google about a tatting reference and in the same newspaper, I found the perfect tatter's event - The Chocolate Affair!

A Chocolate Affair is Ballet Des Moines’ social event of the year that is held in conjunction with the merchants of the East Village.

Start at 5:00 pm by touring the East Village merchants for chocolate tastings at every host location. Then, at 7:00 pm join the ballet at 504 East Locust for a “hot” chocolate party. Chocolate martinis, a cash bar, great hors d’oeurves, and salsa dancing provided by Salsa Iowa.

Friday February 1, 2008

5-8 PM Chocolate sampling in the East Village

7-? PM Party in the Ballet Des Moines Building at 504 East Locust

I started tatting the last of Jane's TIAS ( and my hippo OR rhino guess was good!) but when I got to the eye...my thread snarled at me when I tried to bead it. It thought I was beating it, not beading...and it frayed eventually and broke. I know this will shock some, but I'm not going to fix it and finish. LOL! I've been unhappy with my tatting of the first three motifs anyway and I rarely tat animals for myself so it's not a loss to me to not finish it. It WAS fun however!

Last night I made 3 more motifs for the 25 motif challenge. I'm really glad I'm doing this. I would never recommend this book for a beginner now. The instructions have too many mistakes. I corrected as I tatted, but...I'm only on motif #7. That's not a good sign!

Motif #5 has a picot left out of the ring that is thrown off the chain. The points in the book are sharper then mine blocked out because I used 2 shuttles and used the ball shuttle for the rings while the designer used the ring shuttle - although it does not say exactly how it was done, I'm sure that's how it was tatted.

For #6 I tried to make a long mock picot and and start my chain from there instead of starting a whole new round. Then I made a split chain at the end of that round to climb out to the final round, making a split ring to start it off. My split chain is obvious because it's a bit bigger and more pointy than the others in that round. I retatted it twice, trying to get it smaller and more in line with the other chains. The outer chains are to have 5 picots but one chain in the book photograph has 6 picots. LOL!

There were several mistakes in motif #7. There are 4 picots instructed in the first ring but none of them should have more than 3 picots. There is a clover (3 rings) at the top and the remainder of rings are in pairs but when you read the instructions, it states to make a pair of rings and then chain and then ring. THEN it says to make 3 rings together....so you would have a single ring plus 3 rings....and it says to continue for 7 sets of rings but you actually have 1 clover and 6 pairs of rings with the chain between each ring segment. There are 7 segments of rings altogether though.

I worked out at the gym this morning...seemed like a nice gentle workout...but I'm off for a nap now!