Another busy week!

The middle school production of Bugsy Malone is next weekend, and daughter Carol has needed my help with supervision of her 45 member cast. It's been a long time since I've been this busy and let me tell you, it is wearing me out! I guess I'm not as young as I used to be! ;-)

Because of the long hours at school, I only have 12 pattern repeats on round 17, so I guess my goal of two weeks for this round is not going to happen. That's okay. It's just a goal!

The upside of this week was that I was able to knit quite a bit on my new scarf, Askin from Sequence Knitting. Knitting while sitting in the wings and supervising children is much easier than tatting, especially with dim light! The yarn is Knit Picks Preciosa Tonal in Stormy. I do like the subtle variations of color in these yarns!

Mom called the other night to let me know that she will be moving in to her new apartment on Monday. I tried to do too many things at once while talking to her and dropped my computer. I just noticed the ding this morning. In all my years of owning a computer, this is the first time I've dropped and damaged one! Luckily, the ding doesn't affect the operation of the computer. There are two nice little dents in the wood floor as well. I'm happy to say that Dave was the first one to gouge our beautiful wood floors, so my feeling of guilt is minimal! ;-)

Slowly, slowly, slowly

Tonight was the first night for the middle school kids to practice in their costumes for their November  6, 7, 8 performance of Bugsy Malone. There was so much excitement! I was on hand with my safety pins to help with costume adjustments. One costume will need a few stitches to hold everything in place, so I will show up with needle and thread tomorrow night. Otherwise, it looks like it's all good to go!

I didn't do much tatting this weekend. I wanted to give my wrist a rest.

At least I've managed seven pattern repeats so far!

Despite my determination to stop collecting shuttles, the addiction continues! I found these really cool shuttles on Facebook. Australian jeweler Greg Mann makes them out of knife blades. I haven't tested it out yet, but it looks like it will hold a ton of thread!

This weekend I finished knitting my pink scarf, Ruddock from Sequence Knitting. I love the way it turned out!

I also finished weaving the beige and pink scarf that was on my loom. It's very light weight. I wish I had made it just a little longer, but it's still a nice length.

I'm too tired to tat any more tonight, but tomorrow is another day!

Starting round 17

I can tell that round 17 of my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece is going to take a while. I'm giving myself two weeks to tat it. I hope that's not too lofty a goal!

I spent the morning weaving. I needed to give my wrist a rest, and I've been itching to start another scarf!

It's been a while...

It's been a busy week... two nights of play practice, one night to recover, parent/teacher conferences... and I still managed to tat!

I'm very happy that I've finished round 16 of my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece... only two rounds to go!

Today's mail brought a new batch of hand-dyed threads from my dear friend Marilee Rockley. I LOVE her new color, Lilac Sea.

Knowing I'm so close to finishing my JS Masterpiece, I'm off to wind my shuttles!

Snowflakes and shuttles

A while back I posted that I had an idea of something I wanted to do. That idea is to post pictures of my shuttle collection, using the shuttles with snowflake patterns. I have no clue how long this will take me or how regular I will be with my posts, but I'm starting today!

I was chosen as a lucky test tatter for Frivole's 2015 snowflake. Isn't it pretty? I should have used the blocking template that comes with the pattern, but I was so excited to finish it, I didn't take the time. Luckily, I can re-block it! The blue shuttle is a Clover that I decorated a few years ago. I think this may be one that I used in a shuttle give-away, but I'm not sure. The reindeer is one of my La Cossette shuttles, which I am really enjoying using!

Early this morning I finished round three of the Heart Doily from Land of Laces. I'm finding the pattern very easy to follow!

Today my goal was to finish my pink scarf. I had fringed one end last week, but I just didn't feel like fringing until today. Since I was on a roll, I decided to finish the scarf that I had on the loom. Dave really likes the pink scarf, but the beige one is much softer!

Joanne sent me this picture of the twins today. Look how strong Karolina is! Joanne said that Jan can lift his head well also, he just wasn't cooperating for a picture! In this picture, Karolina looks just like her Auntie Carol at the same age... lucky girl!

Sneak peek...

I started test tatting a pattern when I got home from school today. Can you guess the theme? The mitten shuttle is a Clover that I decorated a few years ago. The bobbin shuttle is a La Cossette decorated with a Christmas tree on one side and a reindeer on the other. Now can you guess? ;-)

I took my Heart Doily from Land of Laces to school with me today. I still have some third and fourth grade students who are interested in tatting. In fact, they asked me to bring some "crochet hook shuttles" to school for them. I did, and they are very excited! Of course I spent some of my lunch time tatting. Between that and my demonstrations for the kids, I managed to get about half way round the doily today.

Round 16 of my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece is off to a good start. I'm 1/10 of the way around!

Round 15... in the books!

That's right, ladies and gents... round 15 is finished! Round 16 looks super simple, so we'll see how quickly I can crank that one out. There are 18 rounds in the Jan Stawasz Masterpiece, so I really am feeling that the end is in sight! I'm really starting to get the hang of my bobbin shuttle from La Cossette. I don't know what my hangup was in the past, but I'm having no problems now.

I spent some time working on my Heart Doily from Land of Laces. The shuttle on the left is mother-of-pearl on wood from Veronica. The beauty really doesn't show up in the picture. The shuttle on the right is one of my Tatting Shuttle Addicts shuttles from NAGStudio. I really like this shuttle. It is so smooth and easy to work with, and I was able to get it engraved with Lace-lovin' Librarian!

One more!

I managed to finish one more pattern repeat today, so I only have one more to go!

My newest La Cossette shuttle arrived in the mail today. Isn't it a beauty?

Not quite there...

My goal was to finish round 15 of my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece this weekend.

I underestimated how long it would take me to tat around each motif. Still, I only have two sections left on this round!

I also worked on the second round of the Heart Doily from Land of Laces.

I'm amazed at how much I can accomplish in one day, especially when I have very few distractions! I did take time out to go grocery shopping, but otherwise I timed my goals according to t.v. shows I had recorded. I haven't worked on my Ruddock scarf as much as I'd planned. Still, I am making progress!

I finished weaving my shades of pink scarf today. The fringe is ready to be trimmed on one end, but I still have to fringe the other end. The threads and yarn on top of the scarf are all of the fibers I used for this scarf.

I started another scarf today, this one in Wool-Ease. The subs of color are leftover yarn from a scarf I made last year.

The twins are one month old today! Jan weighed in at 9 lbs. 9 oz last Friday. Karolina now weights 7 lbs. 4 oz.

Sophia seems to be enjoying her role as big sister!

So, that's how I spent my extra day off. All in all, it was a terrific day!

Sidetracked

It's all Fox's fault, of course...

Last Thursday Fox asked for help with this motif... at least I thought it was a motif... but, no. It's actually the center of a doily from Land of Laces!

Right now it reminds me of a Tudor rose. I'm determined to keep going on my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece, but now I have printed out all the directions for the Land of Laces doily. I guess I'm destined to work on doilies for a while!

Thanks, Fox!

Daughter Joanne called...

...to let me know I hadn't posted since Tuesday. I told her it was because I didn't have anything to blog about!

I get bored posting about little bits of progress, but tonight I reached the halfway point of round 15 and that's something to blog about!

Now for the big decision... do I spend time this weekend on some much needed housework, or do I tat? Stay tuned!

Back to the bobbin shuttle

One of the advantages of working on a really large project is that I can use a variety of shuttles. I do love my post shuttles, but I'm finding that the more I use my La Cossette shuttles, the more I like them. I think I've finally gotten in to the groove of tatting with a bobbin shuttle!

I've tatted 1/5 of this round... I'm practicing my math skills. ;-)

Round 15

I started round 15 of my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece today. I hope with the long weekend coming up that I'll be able to finish round 15 in less than a week. I'd say fingers crossed, but it might make it a little hard to tat! ;-)

The next scarf on my list is "Ruddock" from Sequence Knitting. The yarn I'm using is Preciosa Tonal "Pokeberry" from Knit Picks. This pink is very bright, not at all what I'm used to working with. It's kind of nice to work with something that's not in my comfort zone!

I was going to post yesterday...

...but I didn't finish round 14 until early this morning. Daughter Carol's garage door broke, and we went over to help her. We were only gone a couple of hours, but that was enough to keep me from finishing.

There are only four rounds to go! My Jan Stawasz Masterpiece now measures 27.5" across. It's time to move on to round 15!

I finished my Piland scarf yesterday. So far, this is my favorite pattern from Sequence Knitting. The yarn is Preciosa Tonal "Duchess" from Knit Picks.

Early morning tatting

Somehow I ran out of time yesterday, and I did not pick up my shuttles at all! However, I did wake up very early this morning and managed to tat around another motif.

I've been using one of my La Cossette shuttles the last couple of days. I think they're beautiful, but I've always been slightly uncomfortable using them. I think it's because I learned with Susan Bates post shuttles and old habits do die hard. However, I've been watching some of Joelle's videos lately and I'm happy to say that I'm starting to get the hang of using a bobbin shuttle! Sometimes watching a video repeatedly helps me learn something new... go figure!

Anyway, as I've been tatting on my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece I've been thinking about what I'll be doing next. All sorts of ideas are spinning around in my head. I know I want to work on something small and showcase my shuttle collection. I know that I have some real beauties in my collection. Some of them are wonderful to use, and others are just pretty to look at. The librarian in me wants to categorize and organize all of my beautiful shuttles. First though, I must finish my Masterpiece!

Faster than a speeding bullet

Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I am making good progress on round 14 of my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece!

In fact, I'm now half way around! I'm carefully blocking each section as I go. I wasn't as good about blocking the last round, and I want to make sure everything lies flat.

My newest eBay purchase arrived in the mail today. It was quite a bargain... only $2! The shipping cost more than the book! I've only leafed through it so far, but I'm pretty sure the book has never even been read because there are some pages that are not cut. I'll be doing that carefully this weekend. The book is from 1974, the year I graduated from college. The original cost was $7.95. I paid less than that with shipping, so I'm feeling pretty good about my purchase. I'll let you know more about the book as I learn more about it!