For years I have been enamored and entertained by the lace poems created by Noelene Lafferty and shared to lace and tatting list serves (yes, I go back that far!). I especially remember her ‘Tatting in my pocket’ series. So when I learned that she had compiled her poetry into a book, I immediately HAD to buy it. Noelene self-published it through a service/company called Blurb which has a branch company in the US to print and ship it to me domestically. Total price for the book and shipping: $11.60—worth every single penny!

I found these three dessert plates in a thrift store in Denver, Colorado several years ago when shopping with my daughter. We were looking for a few items to outfit her new apartment. She was just starting her master’s degree in counseling. I actually have four plates, thinking I had the complete set. But it turns out, I have two of one plate (the last one pictured). I did a search for my plates and found a picture of all four on ebay (price: $15), which is less than I paid for my four!!!

I spent the first week of March traveling from Omaha, Nebraska to my second home in Grand Junction, Colorado via Amtrak train–The California Zephyr on a vacation from work. I love taking the train because it gives me a whole day to tat both ways (there and back). The train leaves Omaha, NE at 11 pm thus I can work a full day and not have to sacrifice a precious day of vacation time. The train travels from Omaha through all of Nebraska (along the flat, boring Platte River Valley that interstate 80 follows) during the night to get to Denver early morning. In Denver I get a great coffee at Union Station (recently renovated and cool)–Pigtrain Coffee Co. From Denver the train is timed to go through the incredible Rocky Mountains in the daylight. Jerry likes to sit in our assigned seats/room and I like to go to the Vista Car where I sit and tat and talk to people around the world. There’s almost always Amish people on board. The tatting sometimes gives people around me a ‘conversation starter question or comment’ that then gets us talking about where we’re going, where we’ve been, and life in general. We usually get to Grand Junction, CO around 3 pm–our destination. I say ‘usually’ because when you are talking train travel, especially during the winter and going through the Rocky Mountains, the one thing that you can NOT count on is the train being on time. My husband and I are used to this and just sit back and say “we’re on vacation”, bonus time to stay on the train (AND TAT!). I would NOT recommend Amtrak Train travel if you are on a time schedule! I once took the train from Omaha to Denver to ski with my kids (who both live in CO) and the train was late. I was sooo unhappy because I had already bought 3 ski lift tickets (not cheap!) and was calculating how much money each minute of lateness I was missing from skiing.

If anyone wants recommendations about train travel on The California Zephyr, let me know. I have met people on this train that traveled from around the world to ride this train (however, that was pre-Covid).

A while back an old friend (‘old’ as in I’ve known him a long time) gifted me with this antique tatted purse/bag. He found it while cleaning out his late mother’s home. She had put a note in it saying that she had bought it at an garage sale in the last decade…thus no clue as to its age or provenance. But I knew Marge and have alot of history with several of her kids and thus it is an honor to have received this piece.

Recently I became aware of a new (at least to me) brand of thread: VALDANI. It is my understanding that they have been producing Pearl Cottons for awhile, but that they had recently introduced Crochet Cotton 20.

I was originally intrigued by Debbie Arnold’s comment that Valdani Pearl Cotton threads were known to not be the same size as other brands pearl cotton threads (ie. DMC, Anchor, Finca). I have been experimenting with threads in the size 10-20 range for ‘another’ project and was intrigued that I might be able to find a thread in the middle of that range–a Size 15 thread. (I have done a lot of leg-work to create a graph of ‘Thread Size Comparison’ based upon calculating yards per 50 grams of many threads—look for this info in upcoming posts.)

Observation 1: As someone who has tatted with size 20 thread A LOT (I have extensive experience with DMC, Anchor, Manuela, Lizbeth 20 for all the ‘Fun with Split Ring Tatting’ pieces I’ve tatted for my books), my first observation when tatting with Valdani Crochet 20 thread was that it definitely was NOT a size 20 crochet thread. It felt like a size 30 thread.

When I compared the finished piece with the same pattern tatted in Lizbeth 20 and Manuela 20, It was distinctly smaller in size. (The Lizbeth and the Manuela thread are almost identical in size/finished piece.)

When I compared the ‘Yards per 50 grams’ of these three threads, the quantification of these threads confirmed my physical tatting observations.

Yardage per 50 Grams

• Lizbeth 20: 410 yards per 50 grams
• Manuela 20: 438
• Valdani 20: 550

Thus, with a larger amount of yards in the Valdani thread (versus the Lizbeth and Manuella) the thread is smaller is size.

Anchor Liana 30 is 536 yards/50 grams; DMC Cordonnet 30 is 540; Manuela 30 is 547 yards per 50 grams. Thus you can see that the number show that Valdani 20 is actually a solid size 30 thread.

Observation 2: This thread is VERY twisty. I struggled to tat with this thread and had to force myself to finish even this small piece (I really wanted to prove that this thread was smaller physically by comparing a finished piece with my favorite threads). I can’t remember being this unhappy tatting with a thread since working with Flora thread.

Observation 3: The colors in the variegation do not change very fast, from one color to another. I love variegated threads that will change colors 2, even 3 times in one average (16-20 DS) ring. The Valdani Crochet 20 thread variegation changed after 1-1.5 rings…not very fast. So the variegation effect was not as wonderful as the Manuela 20 thread. This however is very personal preference–I get that.

In late 2020 (I’m not sure of the exact dates) IOLI (International Organizaiton of Lacemakers, Inc.) issued a challenge to show projects inspired by one ‘stash’. At first we were to state what our proposed lacemaking project would be and how it was inspired by our own stash of materials or other inspiration. I became inspired to contribute to this challenge after I had just learned that the 2021 IOLI Convention that I was supposed to teach at was cancelled. Up to that point I had been working on my latest (non-tatting) book on Teneriffe/Sol Lace, one of the two classes I was supposed to teach. When I learned that my 2021 deadline had been postponed to 2023, I was deeply ‘bummed-out’ for at least a day, wondering what I was going to do with my time with that deadline gone. Then I saw the call for the IOLI Stash Challenge and thought of a bigger tatting project that I had put on the back burner for my latest tatting book I was writing (Greek Key Designs in Split Ring Tatting). My ‘stash-inspiration’ was the Manuela thread collection that I had stashed away in my studio. Manuela thread hasn’t been available for at least 10 years. I had several balls of both solid colors and some exquisite variegated combinations. I did a test sampler and found that the black thread I had would work well (size-wise) with my favorite variegated color of the same manufacturer. (Note: not all thread colors will tat up well with my split ring designs, even within the same manufacturer. It seems that the dark colors are notoriously thicker–probably due to the process by which the thread was dyed)

So for several weeks, I was ‘as happy as a pig in slop’, happily tatting away on my project. The final product/piece is what I call Ultimate Meander 1 . Ultimate Meander 1 is one of two of the biggest designs I have created while studying, designing and tatting models for the Greek Key Designs in Split Ring Tatting book that I am currently working on.  (I have Ultimate Meander 2 designed, but not yet tatted).  This book will be number 10 in my ‘Fun with Split Ring Tatting’ series of books. 

Ultimate Meander 1 is comprised of 11 different motifs of 10 rings wide.  Each motif is completely different, no two alike (I worked long and hard to achieve this effect). 

The primary color of the ‘meander’ is black and is a continuous, unbroken line of split rings. The ‘shore’ components are the multicolored rings. 

The finished size (worked in Size 20 Manuela cordonnet thread) is 2.2 inches high by 27.4 inches long.

Ultimate Meander 1 was tatted in one ‘round’ using Padded Split Ring Tatting Technique, a technique that the author will introduce and teach in the book when it is published.  This piece, like all the others in the book, was worked using 3 tatting shuttles–two shuttles for the primary color (black) and one shuttle for the secondary (multi-colored) thread. 

Another name for Greek Key design style is ‘Meander’.  This takes its name from the Meandre River in southwest Turkey.  I have a personal connection with the Meandre River and Valley when I travelled through it on a trip in November 2019 (yes! While Turkey was at war with it’s neighbor, Syria).  It is in the Meandre River Valley that fine Turkish cotton is grown that makes up several of the thread brands that we know and use.  I passed the Altin Basak thread factory and got quite excited, much to the perplexion of my travelling companions. 

If you look at aerial views of any river, you will see that they seem to be meandering—winding, twisting, zigzagging, snaking or convoluting–through the terrain they are associated with.  It is this meandering mechanism that is seen in Ultimate Meander 1 and other Greek Key Designs in Split Ring Tatting technique (as seen below).  If you discern which is the primary, meandering color of adjoining split rings you will see that they are continuous.  In both of the two illustrations above, the primary colors are both blue, analogous to the blue waters of a river winding/meandering through an area on its way to the ocean.

I found this display sofa table at my local At Home store. I SHOULD have purchased it immediately but instead I took this picture, thinking I would talk to my husband about it. When I went back to buy it, it was gone. Wouldn’t it have been a great space to display a tatting shuttle collection as well as actual lace? Regrets……