Since I ended up five days ahead of schedule on my suffolk puff/yo-yo coverlet I've decided a break from it for a couple of days and practice some tatting because I've been dying to make something lacy.

While I was at it, I thought I'd join the 25 motif tatting challenge. I want to get past tatting little "bits" and work my way up to making things like Jon's Diamond Square and Emma Crew's Daisies and Clover Doily. I'd really like to make the clover doily in a rich blue and light green.

First I emptied my shuttle bobbins to get back into the swing of how it's done because I haven't tatted anything for about a year and even then I was only a beginner. These are made with size 8 and 10 perle thread. I count these as a single motif for the challenge because I just wanted to remind myself how it's done and work on my tension while using up the thicker thread that was on the shuttle bobbins. I'm going to use these with embroidery.

I want to get used to using finer threads because I feel the 8 and 10 are a bit chunky for tatting so I reloaded a bobbin with some size 20 thread that I just bought at the op shop and started one of the beginner's edgings from Rebecca Jones tatting book. I'm going to keep going with this until the bobbin has run out. With this edging I'm practicing my tension, keeping all the rings the same size and the threads in between the same size as well. I think it's going pretty well so far. It's also going to be used for embroidery.

Almost all of my threads come from the op shop, some from sales and one lot from an auction a very long time ago. Most are a bit thick for tatting but I do have some vintage (dare I say "antique"?) size 80 that I'd like to try and one ball that I'm not going to use as it has a note in it saying it's rationed thread from WW2 and I think the inclusion of the rationing note makes it too collectible to use.

Well, I'm off to have a cup of tea, tatt for half an hour and then it's a day of Spring cleaning (in Winter) because I really need to do an enormous pile of laundry, vacuum, clean the oven and all that boring stuff.