Tatted Halloween broom, by request for Georgia and the online class.


Use about 2 yards of orange or yellow thread, and fold it in half twice. Tie a knot in the middle and, using black or brown thread, tat over the thread on each side of the knot leaving a large picot at the knot (for a loop to hang the broom). Fold this all in half at the knot, and tat over all the threads with one black thread on one side, and the other black thread on the other side, as in perl tatting, but include the opposite black thread in each stitch. You can make it look like a crooked stick this way by varying how many stitches are done on each side.

When the broomstick is long enough, wrap the remaining orange or yellow threads around your fingers to form a tassel, and tie the black threads together through the middle of the loop. Flatten the tassel out like a broom, and sew through these threads three times back and forth with the black threads. Finally, secure the black thread by sewing several stitches like you would hand sewing, and hide the black thread ends in the top part of the tassel. Trim all the threads to the desired length, then hop on and take a ride! Or glue it to a Happy Halloween card. I do not recommend using this broom to sweep your floor, it will just gather up the dust.

Happy Tatting!
Ruth

Spider pattern is available for free on my website. Not a Celtic pattern, but a nice spider, and a good one for first Split Ring project.

Instructions for the Iris, Lily, and Poinsettia are now available on my website in the Pattern Instruction Store.

The Cincinnati Celtic World Festival at Coney Island was this past weekend, and I got to go hear Patti Walker and Ceol Mohr play. I learned that the name means "Great music", or whas that "great noise?" I'd say the former. The only problem I had was the music was so inspiring I kept wanting to get up and dance a jig or a polka, depending on the tune.

Wilma, K & Bill Boniface and I enjoyed the music, and sitting around together tatting. I had tatted some Celtic Knots with twisted cord and put them on Hair clips, so we all had a Celtic knot to wear.

I also volunteered in the kids craft & games area where I tatted spiders, butterflies, and Celtic Knot snails for prizes for the games. It was a good day but a hot one.

One of my favorite things about the Celtic Festivals is the Welsh cookies. These are very much like the cookies my grandmother made when I was little. YUM!!!

The weekend before I got to go to the Beavercreek Heritage Days festival with the Dayton Tatters, and demonstrate with Ann S. and some of the other Dayton area tatters. That was a fun day too. Lots of people stopped by to look at the tatting and several tried it out.

Well, that's about it for now.

I enjoyed teaching at the Circle City Lace Retreat over the weekend. More details to follow...

Tatted Feather - Eyelash Yarn, Perl Cotton, and wire...

The perfect embelishment for a special hat.