Shuttle mania

I got a good dose of shuttle mania lately, when someone at my Tatting Guild brought in some gorgeous handmade wooden shuttles she had purchased from Keld Oleson at http://www.kniplepinden.dk
I took a card from her and looked at the website when I got home - I just adore nice needlework tools and I knew I had to have some of these. I enquired whether Keld could possibly make me a pair of 'mini shuttles' for my miniature work. He agreed to try for me, although I'm not sure what he thought when I told him I wanted to tat with them! Apparently he usually makes the small ones as earrings. They arrived recently, and I had such a fun time unwrapping them all, it was like Christmas. Lots of oohs and ahhs! The striped tools are different woods which have been laminated together before turning.

I have had time to 'test drive' most of the tools, and I'm really impressed. The quality of his workmanship is superb, and these tools feel so nice in the hand that it's hard to put them down - they are a real joy to work with. My favourite are the mini shuttles - they are so dinky and - well - just plain cute! The points are nicely closed and they 'click' just like a full size shuttle does.

The look and feel of the wood on the full size shuttles has me itching to do some work with them too.

Then there are all the tiny hooks - the first is a 0.6mm crochet hook, next is a tiny latch hook and last is a pair of lace hooks which would have to be the smallest I have ever seen. I have tried these out as subsitute crochet hooks for my miniature tatting, and they work beautifully!

Of course, I couldn't wait to try out the mini shuttles, and here is the beginning of 'Snowflake 1' by my friend Carol Lepard from http://proudneedletatter.blogspot.com/

There's a US dime in the photo to show scale.
Thank-you Keld, for making me so many wonderful tools!

I'll show Carol's snowflake again when it's done, but in the meantime my next post will be some other miniature tatting I have been working on.