That Night in Bethlehem

My favorite Christmas pieces to play are the songs I like to call "so traditional that nobody has ever heard of them". By this I mean songs that may be popular and have a long history in their cultures of origin, but for some reason have not spread widely to other cultures. On the one hand, you have pieces like "Silent Night", which was originally German, but is now sung wherever Christmas is celebrated-- and with good reason, because it's so beautiful. On the other hand, there are many wonderful songs that are virtually unheard of outside the place where they came from, but that somebody somewhere will be touched to hear again.

And so for Christmas Eve, and the last in this series of holiday harp videos, I offer the Irish carol which I happen to think is one of the most beautiful melodies ever written: "An Oiche ud i mBeithil". I have it on good authority from Tatskool's authentic Irish son-in-law that this is pronounced "an EE-ha ood ee MAY-hill". In English, it's "I Sing of That Night in Bethlehem", arranged by Sunita Staneslow.

"That Night in Bethlehem": Traditional Irish, Arranged by Sunita Staneslow ©2003, Used by permission.

More Minis

Continuing with the mini-ornaments, here is another of Jane Eborall's bells.

I must have had better tension on this one, because the shape is more even than the first. Even so, I think I will need to wet both of them and shape them properly. The colors on this one are Yarnplayer's "Night Wind" and Lizbeth color 631 "Light Country Purple". It pretty much has to be tatted in size 20 thread because there are so many beads that any smaller thread would make it all out of proportion (unless you can get your hands on some ultra-tiny seed beads, of course.)

Actually, the bell may or may not be a mini-ornament. While it is only 1 1/2 inches (3.5 cm) tall, and 1 3/4 inches (4.5 cm) in diameter at the bottom, being 3D gives it enough substance that it could be put on a full-size tree without getting lost. However, it is definitely small enough to go on a table-top tree as well. Anne Bruvold's SSSR Angel, on the other hand, is definitely a mini. I got out my giant quarter again for this scan. (Thanks for that comment, StringyDogs, it gave me quite a chuckle.)

These are both tatted in size 50, but they would still be minute even in 20. The colorway on the left is "Icicle" by LadyShuttleMaker; on the right is "Snowflake" by Yarnplayer. As I do with Anne's dragon pattern, I decided to make these with regular split rings instead of SSSR's, and for the same reason. You do have to add a second thread eventually for the SCMR, so why give yourself extra ends to hide, when you could just start with two shuttles CTM and have all the threads you need? In any case, this was a fun little pattern to make, and very quick. I like the way the skirt is designed; I never in a million years would have thought of doing it that way. Two of them would make a nice pair of earrings, too, if you need a last-minute gift.

These mini-ornaments are fun, and I'm going to keep doing them-- partly because I'm in the mood for some instant gratification, and partly because I'm trying not to get caught up in a large project right now. In years past, I have always observed the TIAS with great interest, but I've never tatted it before because I was always in the middle of something else and didn't want to get distracted. This year I am determined to participate, so I'll save the big projects for February.

Happy Chanukah!

It is Tuesday evening here, which means Chanukah has begun. If you're confused because your calendar says it starts on Wednesday, that's because the Jewish religious day runs from sundown to sundown; thus Jewish holidays begin at sundown the evening before the day they're marked on the "regular" calendar.

Tonight I offer two Chanukah songs, "Ma'oz Tsur (Rock of Ages)" and "Blessings Over the Candles (Blessings on the Menorah)", both arranged by Sylvia Woods.

(1) "Ma'oz Tsur": Traditional Jewish, Arranged by Sylvia Woods ©1990, Used by permission. (2) "Blessings Over the Candles": Traditional Jewish, Arranged by Sylvia Woods ©1990, Used by permission.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent

"Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent": Traditional French, Arranged by Stephanie Curcio ©2001, Used by permission.

This melody always gives me chills, and Stephanie Curcio's arrangement makes it even more haunting. Harpists can find the sheet music at her website, http://www.harpmusicpublisher.com/.

At one point in the video, you can hear my next door neighbor coming home; I hope it's not too distracting. I decided not to do another take because I wanted to be done before my downstairs neighbor started her regular nightly screaming and swearing fit... apartment life, gotta love it. I was doing these videos to help people calm down during the holiday season, remember?

A couple of people have asked me what I'm doing when I reach up to the top of the harp with my left hand. The short answer is I'm flipping sharping levers. Now I'll try to explain that as simply as I can, but I don't think I can do it without using at least a little bit of musical jargon.

The type of harp I play is most accurately called a lever harp; you may also hear it called a folk harp or Celtic harp. Near the top of each string is a lever that raises the pitch of that string by one half step. In other words, it takes a string that would be equivalent to a white key on a piano and makes it equivalent to a black key. Before you start playing, you set the levers for the key you will be playing in. Sometimes, though, there is a sharp that is not in the key (called an accidental). If the accidental is present throughout the piece, you can also set that lever before you start playing; if that note alternates between being sharp and being natural, you will have to change the lever with the left hand while you are playing. This is what you see me doing at a couple of points in this piece, "Carol of the Bells", and "The Cherry Tree".

Below is an illustration of my levers, which are known as "blades". Click on it to read the labels. You can see another type of lever here.

This should not be confused with tuning. Tuning, which has to be done before you play, is when you turn a peg to adjust the tension on a string in order to produce that string's particular pitch as accurately as possible. Raising a sharping lever changes the length of the string to produce a completely different pitch.

Just don't ask me about pedal harps-- way more complicated!

Star/ Flake Rant

When I saw this on Fox's blog, I knew I had to tat it. I love the look of rings on rings, and this one has both SCMR's and rings on split rings! I literally bounced with excitement when I saw it. OK, so maybe I need to get out more. Anyway, here it is, tatted in size 50.

The colorway is "Holly Jolly Christmas" by LadyShuttleMaker. I love how she's added just a hint of blue to the Christmas mix. The pattern is by Julie Patterson.

The design is called "Christmas Snowflake". I can barely bring myself to type that. My frequent readers will know that one of my biggest pet peeves is calling something a snowflake that clearly isn't. It is a fact of nature that snowflakes always have six points. That is simply the way that water molecules crystallize. Google it if you don't believe me. You wouldn't call a triangular motif a butterfly, because it's not shaped like one; likewise, a motif with any number of repeats other than six is not a snowflake because it's not shaped like one. I am therefore choosing to call this a "Christmas Star" instead. There, I feel better.

The tiny little bell I tatted a few days ago and this pretty little star have inspired me to do a series of mini-ornaments for table-top trees. I probably won't do a huge number of them, but enough to have a good selection at next year's sale.

To Drive the Cold Winter Away

This is what it looked like around here last week:

I much prefer to look at snow in pictures than to actually have to deal with it, so I'm happy to live in a place where it is infrequent and short-lived. Tatted snow I like, though. The flakes on this ball are all improvised and quite small. And by improvised, I mean that several of them really wouldn't work if they weren't pinned in place. I might work on the stitch counts on some of them to come up with designs that could actually stand on their own. These are all tatted in DMC size 80. EDIT: Just to be clear, these are four different views of the same ornament.

Not being a fan of winter, I love the title of the song "To Drive the Cold Winter Away", and I also enjoy the cheerful lyrics. This arrangement is by Ellen Tepper, from her book The Harper's Accomplice. Please visit Ellen's site, by the way, and click the "Reviews" link at the bottom-- all of the images on that page are Ellen's own embroidery, and you can click to enlarge them and see every detail-- WOW!!! Anyone in the Philadelphia area should also check out her schedule, as she has several concerts next week.

"Drive the Cold Winter Away": Traditional English, Arranged by Ellen Tepper ©1998, Used by permission.

Carol of the Bells

This is one of Jane Eborall's 3D bells. It is quite easy to tat; as long as you're comfortable with beads and split rings, it's a very simple pattern done all in one pass. I'm definitely going to make more of these. I have several ideas for different color schemes, and since I'm making them for next year's relief sale, I can make as many as I want, and they don't have to be done before Christmas.

I was a little surprised at how small it turned out. It's tatted in size 20 thread; here it is next to a shuttle for scale.

"Ukrainian Bell Carol" is probably the only tune in this holiday series of mine that you might conceivably hear on some store's Christmas soundtrack. However, the version you'll hear on Muzak will probably make you want to run screaming from the store, whereas this one, IMHO, is pretty and interesting to listen to. It is arranged by Darhon Rees-Rohrbacher.

"Ukrainian Bell Carol": Traditional Ukrainian, Arranged by Darhon Rees-Rohrbacher ©1997, Used by permission.

Side note: Has anyone else been having trouble lately with Blogger putting the paragraph breaks in random places? I've been having to fight with the computer to put them where I want them.