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.