365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Beaded Tatting
Day 364: I'm on a tatting jag again. I think my love of this form of needlework dates back to early childhood when I was first learning that you could do things with string. My grandmother had started me on embroidery when I was only three or four, moving on to crochet and knitting before I started kindergarten. If I had no tool handy and found a stray piece of string or thread, whether it was caught on my clothing or picked up from the ground, I would almost always begin tying it in knots. When I reached the end, I'd start knotting the knotted strand until finally, I had a compact knot of knots which I could drop in the trash. It seemed to me even then that something useful should have come from all that knotting, but it wasn't until I reached adulthood and began one of my first jobs as an art-needlework consultant that I learned how to tat using a shuttle. Only in the last few years have I discovered needle-tatting and find it much easier and faster. Adding single beads to a piece of work is a breeze using the needle. Simply string your beads on the ball thread and slide each one into place when it comes time to have it appear in the pattern. Here, I have taken a "snowflake" motif and have replaced most of the picots not used for joining with beads. These "mini-doilies" go in my lace box for use as thank-yous and small gifts.
Labels:
beaded tatting,
lace box,
needle tatting,
snowflakes
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