Baiduri

I've done it! I've completed the next snowflake, Baiduri, from Jon Yusoff's wonderful little book, Elegant Tatting Gems. This time I used size 40 Lizbeth, color #143 (Royal Wave), which was a gift from my friend Denise. Don't you just love the blue and white together? It looks so crisp and fresh!

Mid-day at the oasis...

is so much more fun than Black Friday crowds!

This isn't the greatest picture, but hey... I was holding my phone and taking a picture at the same time! From left to right... yours truly, Marilee, Sue Anna, and Jean.

We met about 10:30 and shared stories, laughter, and tatting goodies until about 3:30. We had a vendor come up and ask us what we were doing. One of her customers thought we were knitting for her! Ha! Ha! The vendor had heard of tatting, but didn't take us up on our offer of a free lesson. We certainly had enough supplies with us!

Michelle, are you sitting down as you're reading this? I was able to teach Marilee how to tat a single shuttle split ring! Me! Can you believe it? Sue Anna jumped right in and taught us both a neat little trick to make the SSSR even more easily. I'll have to play with it to see if I remember what she taught us. Sue Anna is a treasure trove of information!

Jean is a newbie, and she spent quite a bit of time perfecting her flip. We were all thrilled that she made her very first ring while spending time with us! Unfortunately, Jean doesn't have a blog... yet! We'll have to keep working on her to get her to blog. I do think she's addicted to tatting. How could she not be with Marilee as her teacher?

Sue Anna surfed the Internet on her iPhone to check out Etsy and various blogs. She is so much fun to be around! I wonder if she knows I call her Sue Anna the Enabler when I'm at home? She enabled all of us to tat with very generous gifts of Lizbeth and hand-dyed thread. She even gave me some shuttles to bling. I know she's waiting for the Random Number Generator to choose her number!

Marilee shared some of her hand-dyed thread with us. Her colors are beautiful! She also graciously autographed our copies of her new book, Tatted Jewelry.

Here's Jean working on closing her very first ring!

I'm probably leaving something out, but we did have a wonderful day together! Ladies, thank you for driving so far so that we could spend some tatting time together!

A perfect match!

Did you see the pretty pendants that Jane's been making? I'm the lucky recipient of one of them! I wore it to school the other day with my new sweater, and oh... the compliments I received! Not on the sweater, mind you... on the pendant! I was very pleased to tell all of my admirers that my friend Jane made it for me. The kids were especially impressed by it, and I was asked questions about lace, England, and William Shakespeare... gotta love those teachable moments!

Thank you, Jane!

Success!

I'm not sure when I'll use a single shuttle split ring, but now I know I can! After our online Tat 'n Chat on Saturday, I was determined to master this technique. Despite my best efforts, I just could not make another ring.

Last night, I went to YouTube and found Karen Cabrera's video. Suddenly, everything clicked! Thank you, Karen!

Almas

I love this snowflake! It's Almas from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff in size 40 Lizbeth, color #163.

Don't look too closely, please. There are three, yes I said three, places where I forgot to join to a picot! I went back and sewed the "mistakes" together... after all, that's how tatters used to join pieces... and I think I did a fairly good job. However, I don't think I'll give this snowflake to a tatter. I'll give it to someone who doesn't know what she's looking at! : )

Tat 'n Chat

Somehow I lost the picture... must be that I'm a computer pro! ; )

This morning Michelle, Cindy, Dena, Teresa and I connected on ooVoo for some tatting and chatting. What fun! I learned how to make a single shuttle split ring!

Notice I said "a" single shuttle split ring... the top ring is a regular old ring. The second ring has a decorative loop. The third ring is only half a ring... somehow I lost the rest of it. The fourth ring is true single shuttle split ring... yea! With great confidence, I tatted a fifth single shuttle split ring. However, after I took the photo, I noticed that just like the second ring, it sports a decorative loop. I guess I need more practice!

It was a lot of fun! Thanks ladies! I really enjoyed spending time with you and learning a new technique. Now, if I could only find that picture...

There it is! Proof that we got together!

First snow

As I was leaving school yesterday afternoon, thick, wet clusters of snowflakes the size of quarters were falling. Our first snow only lasted for about 15 minutes, but it was enough coat the ground. I'm glad I took this picture this morning, because the snow was gone by mid-morning.

Keeping with the snow theme, I decided to work on Adan from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. I was fortunate to be a test-tatter for Jon's book, and I think I've made this pattern three times now. I think I like it because it's so close to my grandson's name, Aidan. : )

I really like this color, #130, size 20 Lizbeth, but I think I'll tat my next snowflake in a different color... no sense in letting the other threads I have just lie there!

Good news!

Two Starlit shuttles hold one skein of HDT! Yippee!

Can you guess what I'm tatting? It's been a while, but I just gave four of them away, so I really need to tat some more. Yup... my favorite pattern... Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel glass mat!

This is size 20 HDT, but I lost the tag... again! I think this is one of LadyShuttleMaker's threads. I'm proud/ashamed to say that I have so much thread, that without a tag, I am clueless!

While I'm very pleased with the amount of thread these shuttles hold, I am not a fan of the pic, but then I'm not really a fan of any shuttle with a pic. I tend to separate the threads when I'm joining to picots, and I find a crochet hook much easier to use. The pic is similar in size to the old Boye shuttles. It does not come to a sharp point like the Clover or Sew Mate shuttles. The plastic is closer in feel to the Sew Mates. If Handy Hands comes out with the same shuttles without pics, I'm afraid I will be forced to buy every color! : )

I really, really, really like the thread holder! I had forgotten that it came with a ball of size 20 thread, which is inside the holder. There's no choice in color, but who cares? It's a bonus in my mind!

All in all, I'm very happy with my new purchases. Now all I need is a little more time to tat!

Drum roll, please...

The winner of the November shuttle is Teresa! Congratulations, Teresa! Please let me know which shuttle you would like to have, and I'll mail it off to you ASAP.

It's pretty amazing that you share a birthday with my Dad. I'm sure he's looking down from heaven and chuckling over our love of all things tatting. Happy birthday to you!

By the way... is that red wine? ; )

What did you do this morning?

I opened my package that arrived from Handy Hands yesterday. I was too tired when we got home last night, so I decided to wait until this morning so that I could fully enjoy opening my package of goodies!

Yes, ladies and gents, I ordered the new Lizbeth Thread Holder (with a free ball of Lizbeth thread) and Starlit Tatting Shuttle! Let me tell you, the thread holder is fabulous! I love the way the ball of thread spins around on the pin. The thread comes out of a hole on the side... very smoothly, I might add!

The shuttle package even has a free butterfly pattern on the back! What's a girl to do? I just had to tat a butterfly this morning!

As you can see, the Starlit shuttle is much larger than my Once Nekkid Shuttle from Karrieann.

It's also larger than my Sew Mate shuttle from Lacis.

And, it's smaller than my Tatsy. I think this could be the perfect size shuttle to wind on my beloved HDTs for Spinning Wheel glass mats! I'll try tonight and let you know.

Yes, I did indeed tat the butterfly from the shuttle package this morning. What a great way to start the day!

I think I NEED all the colors... don't you? : )

P.S. - The drawing for my blinged November shuttle will be tonight. If you're interested in a chance to win make a comment on the November shuttle post.

November shuttle giveaway!

I got a little carried away with the glitter nail polish, but that's okay. I love the way these shuttles turned out!

I even decorated the backs!

Would you like a chance to win one? Leave a comment on this post for your chance. The drawing will be Wednesday, November 9 in honor of what would have been my dad's 80th birthday.

I don't think Dad understood my obsession with shuttles, but he did make me a beautiful display case that I cherish. I remember him telling me that I had to stop collecting shuttles when my display case was filled. Luckily, my sister Janet gave me another display case for my birthday a couple of years later, and my husband built a display case for me last Christmas. I wonder where my next display case will come from? ; )

Note: If you are interested in seeing my display cases and some of my shuttle collection, type "display case" in the search box for my blog.

Much too busy!

I've had very little time for tatting, but I did manage to complete this bookmark last night. The pattern is "Simple Bookmark" by Dianna Stevens. I used size 20 Lizbeth, color #130. This will be a gift for my friend Nancy, who is in awe of my tatting, and makes me feel like a superstar whenever I finish something!

Look what arrived today!

I'm so excited to have Marilee's new book! I'm taking it along the next time we get together. Maybe I can get her to autograph it for me! (I feel like such a tatting groupie!)

Adiratna

I suddenly have the urge to tat snowflakes! I think I'm going to try and work my way through Jon's wonderful book, Elegant Tatting Gems. I've already tatted over half the patterns, but I don't believe it's possible to have too many beautiful snowflakes!

This is the first pattern in the book, Adiratna. I used size 20 Lizbeth, color #130. I know it's not a traditional snowflake color, but white seemed so boring! : )