View Full Version : Strivers or Reminders as I call them
These little hand made tools for tatting are great...I just read on someones blog about them......at Here be Tatters we had a strivers exchane some years ago and I recieved 2 you can see them in this photo...they remind me where to add my next motif to
Hugs
Joy6099
xstchntat
12-08-2010, 01:34 AM
They are also great for starting with a chain to hold onto and save the 'picot' or for SCMR to save the space to join to. I made mine with a head pin, added beads, used a ring nose pliers to bend into a loop through the hole on a earring finding that opens and closes. (they have a name that slipped from my brain) Very useful little critters and so easy to make.
Just came back into brain - leverbacks - sometimes I wonder about my brain LOL. They tell my brain aneurysm doesn't cause this my Lupus does but I am not sure I believe them.
tatknot
12-08-2010, 01:37 AM
carolivy has posted instructions (http://proudneedletatter.blogspot.com/2010/07/strivers-stitch-place-holders.html) on her blog about how to make these. I haven't made any yet, but I sure intend to do so. Thanks, Joy, for sharing one of the ways you use them.
dharts04
12-08-2010, 01:38 AM
Michael's had a set of 4 (stitch minders), but I've found these to be too heavy to add to a small project-they're actually heavier than the entire thing!
carolivy
12-08-2010, 01:51 AM
With homemade strivers, you can add as many or as few beads for any kind of weight you prefer. That is the great thing about making your own.
StarrBeth
12-08-2010, 02:24 AM
I have some old earrings that I made about 3 years ago. I curled the wire around on those and have been using them for strivers, but honestly I want to make some new ones with lighter and/or fewer beads. They are a bit heavy at the moment.
PattyD
12-08-2010, 04:33 AM
This is all brilliant information. Bobbin lacers use strivers to mark where they want to finish lacemaking for the day. Tatters use strivers to mark other things. Very useful info.
Instead of the earring on the strivers I used Parrot clips....... the strivers make a super gift for exchanges too
Hugs
Joy
carolivy
13-08-2010, 01:31 AM
What are Parrot clips? I've never heard of those.
Susan B T
13-08-2010, 02:20 AM
These are clever, thanks for sharing. Easier than the paper clips or "wine rings" I have been using.
Josie Passell
13-08-2010, 07:49 AM
Yes please put us put of our misery, alright we hate to think there is something out there that we do not have. I have lobster claws, makes it hard to eat peanuts.
MercyPres
13-08-2010, 08:04 AM
I love my strivers. Viv made me a bunch. I even put them on the ends of the picot gauges I made from an old credit card. (after I dropped the gauge and could not find it cause it lodged in my boot) The strivers make it easy to find the gauge. I tuck my gauge into the ring on my index finger between picots, so I don't connect them all together. I also keep the same guage with the project till finished.
Liyarra
13-08-2010, 10:07 AM
MercyPres - you have certainly taken up the challenge of promoting strivers. Glad they have come in handy. They look great.
Susan B T
13-08-2010, 03:18 PM
MercyPres what a great way to keep those tiny gauges...
Guess i will have to hit the hobby store today.
BahmaTerri
13-08-2010, 11:35 PM
What a wonderful idea. I've never heard of parrot clips - can someone post a picture of them??
6209Here is a pic of a parrot clip
HUgs
Joy
stashtamer
14-08-2010, 12:06 AM
I have to chuckle, that's what I call a lobster claw. More names for the same thing.
carolivy
14-08-2010, 12:25 AM
Its what I call a Lobster Claw too....what the package I have calls them anyways.
MercyPres
15-08-2010, 10:06 PM
I see the lobster claw would work but I think the ones I have would leave a large space than I want for size 20 and smaller threads. Here is a picture of how I place my striver handled picot guage while working.
carolivy
15-08-2010, 11:06 PM
Yes, the lobster claws that I have are much thicker than the Paperclips that I am replacing with the Strivers because the earring finding on the striver is much thinner and won't leave such a big gap....just big enough to hold space for my thread to fit when I join.
If you look carefully at my first photo you will see that my strives/reminders are hooked to the picots where I need to join the next motif...the picture I sent of the Parrot clip was a large clip so that you could see it better ...you can get them in all sizes...for my project I used small ones.
Hugs
Joy
carolivy
16-08-2010, 12:42 AM
This is how I use Strivers. http://www.intatters.com/album.php?albumid=229&attachmentid=2806 They are used in patterns that call for a stitch to be "held" with a paperclip. I did this one with a paperclip, but found that I don't like the thickness of the paperclip, so had gone to using just pieces of string, when one of the ladies here posted a picture of her Striver. I then made one for myself and use it instead of the paperclip in patterns that call for one. I have never used anything to mark picots that I need to join, but then, I have never made anything where I am joining multiple medallions.
tatknot
16-08-2010, 02:42 AM
This is how I use Strivers. http://www.intatters.com/album.php?albumid=229&attachmentid=2806 They are used in patterns that call for a stitch to be "held" with a paperclip. I did this one with a paperclip, but found that I don't like the thickness of the paperclip, so had gone to using just pieces of string, when one of the ladies here posted a picture of her Striver. I then made one for myself and use it instead of the paperclip in patterns that call for one. I have never used anything to mark picots that I need to join, but then, I have never made anything where I am joining multiple medallions.
carolivy, do you pack your tatting projects around? I'm concerned that the striver might come loose. Although, now that I think about it, my paperclip is usually held in a pretty tight grip by my work. Am I worrying needlessly?
carolivy
16-08-2010, 11:03 AM
I was concerned about the striver coming loose, that is why I added the extra curl to the earring finding, because I do take my projects with me and I didn't want to loose the place I was marking or my striver. With the extra curl, I have no problem with the striver accidentally coming off.
Fox Tats
16-08-2010, 12:16 PM
Thanks, Joy!
This is a great idea. The holders I have been using are plastic stitch holders made for knitting and are way too thick and I find paper clips annoying in that they have bad edgings. I will try these Lobster Claws in a thin size.
Fox : )
JaneReese
16-08-2010, 01:43 PM
I enjoyed reading and viewing everyone's posts on this. Why are they called strivers?
PattyD
16-08-2010, 02:48 PM
Well, I am also a bobbin lace maker and in that kind of lace, a striver is placed where the lacemaker wants to end their session of lace making. Since, of course, that doesn't work for tatting, it has been used as the starting point when you start with a chain (otherwise there is nowhere to hold on to). The other ideas here, where you mark the picots of where to join the next motif in a large piece of tatting is just brilliant, as far as I am concerned.
xstchntat
16-08-2010, 07:06 PM
I'm concerned that the striver might come loose.
This was why I used the lever back earring finding. It opens and closes so it doesn't come loose or get caught in anything it shouldn't.
The Parrot clips have a spring catch so they cannot come undone.....up to now none of mine have come undone
Hugs
Joy
I understand and appreciate all the useful way strivers are used here. I've never had any. But I do have several sizes of coil-less safety pins used in marking stitches in knitting and crochet. They work very well.
j.stacy
23-08-2010, 05:10 AM
well, i sure am glad i found this, a whole thread on strivers, because i'd never heard of them until i saw a picture of one in carolivy's album. being a knitter and crocheter, you think i would have known what they were on first sight, but i was baffled!! i am now *enlightened* :D
@fox: i also have been using knitting stitch markers when i need to start tatting with a chain, and i also found the space left by them to be unsatisfactorily large. another reason i am glad to have found this thread!
@lynn: i understand why people would rather use coil-less safety pins instead of these. but my outlook on life is: "why have something plain, when you can have something sparkly?" :D
i must make some at once! and i just have gobs of the stuff to make then on hand! double -> :D
perlnaofee
28-09-2010, 07:30 AM
Hi folks, just found your thread and all these posts here. Found the strivers at carolivys blog, and then found this thread. Thanks a lot for sharing your wonderful ideas. I am a user of coil-safety pins, with no problem at all, but I am a lover of beads so you know what I w ill do now. As I do not like these special earing findings,I even forgat the name..lever..., I thank you for the idea to use them as strivers, they are small enough for thin thread and close enough not to open and now used and not any longer in my box. The funny thing is, that I yesterday cut my old kreditcard...:( So thanks to all of you.
I know the name strivers is one that I didnt understand and had to query it, so I call mine reminders........just to remind me that I tat something different at that spot or join there
Hugs
Joy
I now have several strivers. Woohoo! When I visited with Squeeky, she pulled out a whole bag full to show me, and just handed some over. They are pretty, and I can totally see using these instead of my coil-less safety pins. Thank you, Squeeky! Tatters are some of the most generous people I know.