Woven Rose done

I have completed the Woven Rose motif. This is a pattern by Jaquie Teal, and you can find it in the May 2013 issue of Tatting Times.

This one is tatted in Lizbeth size 20 with 10/0 beads. Fox tatted her version here - it's very pretty.

Because of the way I added the beads (a la Jane), tatting this was a bit cumbersome. But I persevered!

In other news, I went to my tatting/knitting/crochet group recently, and found an interesting and inexpensive way to get custom dyed wool.

One of my group goes to thrift stores and looks for nice quality plain wool sweaters, like Lands End ones. She especially like large men's sweaters. "If it looks like a dress on me, then it's perfect!" Then she takes the seams apart and flattens each piece out - and she hand dyes them!

This is a sleeve of a gray Land's End sweater, bought at a local thrift store. (She buys these sweaters for $5.) She took Wilton cake dye and added a little vinegar to it to make the dye permanent, and then she splashed it on the sweater until she was happy with the color, and set the dye.

Here's the shawl she's knitting, pulling yarn directly off the yarn in the sleeve. Is this not COOL? You have to make sure each piece of the thrifted sweater is knitted continuously, not cut out of a large knit fabric. Otherwise the yarn of that piece will not be all one long continuous thread.

What a great thrifting idea!

BTW - registration at Tat Days is open! I'm teaching, along with a ton of talented folks! Sign up - join those who've registered!