Tatting elbow

Hey folks,

Ever since I caught tatting fever last weekend, I had been tatting up a storm. Tatting for me comes and goes. Sometimes I even forget tatting exists. Then my interest gets reignited and off I go.

For the past few days I had been sitting on my ass just literally tatting away. Yesterday I made my last tatted item and decided to stop. The fever was over. Besides my elbow was hurting and I do believe I have developed tatting elbow. I could also easily have hurt my elbow some other way as I am extremely clumsy. I hope the elbow stops hurting because it's my right elbow and I am right handed. Also every Friday, I go for my cardiomix class which has some sort of kickboxing thingy and I need a good working pair of elbows. (kickboxing sounds so cool rite? it's just crazy swinging of arms and legs)

So I was tatting rite, and I decided to make the items in my craftsy shuttle tatting class. This craftsy shuttle tatting class is taught by Marilee Rockley and there are 7 projects altogether. The projects build up your tatting skills. I will tell you what I think of this class later on. I signed up for this class around 2 years ago but I only made 1 item. It was the floret tatted earrings and I gave it away to my friend, Vivian who loved it. And I have a photo of her wearing the earrings somewhere on my computer but I have no idea which folder to look under. So...

Anyway, I thought it was time I attempt a few more items in the class. The first thing I made was the same floret tatted earrings. It is a fairly easy and straightforward tatting. This time I made them for myself. Nowadays I want to be very selective when it comes to making stuff. I don't want to make every damn thing. Like do you go shopping and then tell yourself, "I can make that. And that. And that." AND you actually make them? With so much clutter in my life, I want to make stuff that I would use. And that's why I took the trouble to buy stainless steel earrings findings. Stainless steel is not surgical steel so it's possible my skin will react badly. Only time will tell. When it comes to jewellery, I like it to have some gold, platinum or a gun metal look. I got really lucky I was able to find earrings findings AND jump rings in gold to match the golden beads. I think I'll rock these floret earrings.

 
Next project... I was very attracted to the classic edge bracelet and I used red thread with blue toho beads. Again, not a difficult pattern. It's just a lot of repeats. I can see myself wearing this bracelet for many years. For the closure, I used a toggle clasp. Can you tell I love this bracelet so much?

This next rhapsody necklace I wasn't attracted to at all. Now I said I would choose my projects carefully and not end up making something I won't use. But the instructions looked complicated and I had never done any tatting that had a mirror look. I attempted this project solely to upgrade my skills. Well, I must say I learnt a few tricks. But making it was a nightmare. It was very easy to make mistakes and I certainly made a few which I couldn't undo. All in all, it wasn't fun at all. Plus, it turned out quite ugly. Okay, it's butt ugly. I will never wear it. If I make it again using a thinner thread, I may like it more but I don't think I can go through another process of making it again.

I was excited to make this next bracelet because it's my kind of thing. It is fairly easy, lots of repeats and it used split rings. But after making it and trying it on, I see that parts of it tend to stick up. I tried to get them to stay flat but it just won't work. Somehow the sticking up part spoilt the look of the bracelet for me.

There was a parfait snowflake which I didn't make but I watched it mainly just to learn something. And there was another pair of earrings which I deemed far too ugly to make. But I sat through it as well.

Now I'm going to tell you what I think of the class but you want to take it with a pinch of salt because this is just my experience. First of all, I am a fan of Marilee Rockley, the instructor. I think her tattings are really gorgeous. But if I were brand new to shuttle tatting and I take her class on craftsy? I think blood would come out of my nose, my eyes and my ears. Maybe my head would explode. I think a lot of the fault lies with the camera person/producer/director of the class. When you want a close up of what she is doing and mind you tatting is very small and hard to see, guess what? You will get a front shot of the teacher from the chest up. Why? The point of view of the camera irritated me as well. Like stay with her hands, come on! Pay attention. Also, Marilee doesn't show to the camera the in-progress shots of her tatting nearly as clearly as I would like. I was able to follow the class mainly because shuttle tatting is not new to me. Still there were times when I had to replay over and over just to understand what was going on. This was especially true for the rhapsody necklace. So why did I enrol in this class? I was attracted to adding beads to tatting. I have tried bead tatting before and I learnt it from a book. But the process of learning from a book caused blood to spill out of my eyes, ears, nose and mouth and maybe my head exploded a little. So did I get anything out of this class? Yes, I achieved my goal of learning about adding beads to tatting and I am happy about that.

If you are new to shuttle tatting there are lots of youtube videos available. Like tatted treasures and she is just one of many. Marilee offers some free tutes too. See here. Tatted treasures as well as Marilee use the traditional way of holding a shuttle. I think most people who can't tat have problems with the traditional way of holding a shuttle. There's a youtube instructor who teaches another way of holding the shuttle. I tried it and it's a lot easier to get. Try it here. She has over a hundred tatting videos but they are silent ones. There are English instructions so if you can get used to the non-verbal...p.s. she has crazy nails too. I have tried switching to this new method of holding a shuttle but you know what? My muscle memory automatically uses the traditonal way.

Tat's all for now.