Meeting goals

I had two goals for the weekend, and I met them both!

The first was to finish a set of five Ice Drops for my college roommate, Eileen. We've been best friends since high school. We haven't seen each other for years, but when we talk on the phone, our conversation picks up where we left off.

Eileen loved my Doodle Ice Drop pattern, and now the set is ready to mail off to her. Each one is slightly different. Five is my favorite number. Eileen has five spots for Ice Drops, and we are celebrating 50 years of friendship!

My second goal was to finish the sleeves for my knit-along sweater. We were only expected to knit one sleeve this week, but knitting two at a time made it very easy to complete both sleeves in short order. In a week and a half we will get the instructions for assembling the sweater. I'm pretty sure I can figure out what to do, but I'm going to stick with the knit-along schedule just to make sure I don't mess up!

Brrr

It was a cold and rainy day here today, perfect weather for working on a sweater! I now have 60 rows finished on my sleeves. I'm hoping to finish the sleeves this weekend. I do have some tatting lined up!

Sleeves

I didn't tat today, but I did get through row 34 on my sleeves!

Just another Thursday

Today I subbed in fifth grade. While the kids were at p.e. and band, I had time to tat!

When I got home, I worked on the sleeves for my knit-along sweater. It's going slowly, but I'm starting to get a rhythm. I have two weeks to finish the two sleeves, and I'm pretty sure I'll have no problem reaching the goal!

Subbing

I subbed yesterday. I subbed today. I'm subbing tomorrow. Luckily, I've been able to carve out a little time for tatting!

I'm still working on Ice Drops for my dear friend Eileen. I do carry tatting with me all the time, but I haven't found much time to tat in the past week for a variety of reasons.

One of the reasons is the sweater I'm working on. Today Marly Bird released the sleeve pattern, and I've decided to be really daring and knit both sleeves at the same time!

This project has been great for me. My mom knits beautifully, and I've always admired the sweaters that she made. I'm a little late to the game. Mom did teach me to knit way back in junior high, but I had one major hiccup when trying to knit a sweater way back then, and it has taken me all this time to try again.

I'm happy that my front and back pieces are the same size, and I am eager to finish My First Sweater!

Plans

I had plans to spend the morning tatting. It is easy to see that tatting has been left behind so that I could focus on my knit-along sweater.

I was able to finish an Ice Drop last night.

I found these cute, inexpensive shuttles on Amazon. They're Clover knockoffs, which I usually avoid because I've found that they're usually a waste of money. I was attracted to the color, and it turns out they're pretty decent. The tips are nice and tight. The biggest difference I noticed, is that the signature grip strips are missing. I was afraid the shuttles might fly out of my fingers, but they work just fine.

I finally finished off the next skein of yarn on Alison's waffle stitch afghan.

I expected to get quite a bit done today, but there's a stomach bug going around and I wound up subbing for two teachers today. One teacher had to stay home with a sick child, and the other teacher went home sick at lunch time. Yikes! Germs, germs, stay away!

Goal!

I'm not referring to a goal in sports. No, I'm referring to my knitting goal of finishing the front of my sweater before Wednesday.

It took a bit of concentration with the Easter weekend, but I did it!

I love the drape of the fabric created with this yarn.

I wasn't able to capture the color. It's really slightly lighter than the top two pictures, but darker than the bottom one. I'm looking forward to the next step, knitting the arms. I'll get the pattern for that on Wednesday. Until then, I'll focus on my other works in progress!

Addition

3" of ribbing plus 5" of stockinette equals 8" of the front of my sweater!

Chains included

I was at school all day today, but I did manage to find time to re-tat the Doodle Ice Drop for my college roommate, Eileen. This time I remembered to tat all of the chains!

I was able to finish the back of my sweater last night. When I posted, I had misread the pattern. I thought I had 8 1/4" of ribbing left to knit. That didn't seem right, so I reread the instructions and found that I needed to knit 8 1/4" from the armhole stitch markers, which meant I really only had about 1 3/4" to go. That was an achievable goal!

Before heading off to school this morning, I started the ribbing for the front of the sweater. Then when I got home, I took time to work on it some more. I wonder how much I'll get done tonight?

Ready for ribbing!

I knit, knit, knit today, and now I'm ready for the top ribbing. I know I won't get it don tonight. I have to knit 8 1/2" and I don't have that much knitting left in me today.

This was supposed to be Eileen's first Ice Drop, but as I went to add the ribbon, I saw that I forgot the last section of chain. Drat!

Luckily, I have plenty of pink and lots of glass gems. The shuttle is another from Veronica of TattingShuttles on Etsy. Both sides are beautiful!

Flattered!

My college roommate, Eileen, let me know today that she has room on her lampshade for five Ice Drops. She sent me a picture of what she'd like, and it's my Doodle Ice Drop and the variation in pink. I'm so flattered that she want some more of my little pretties! This one is in Lizbeth Butterfly Breeze, and the shuttle is by Veronica of TattingShuttles on Etsy.

Eileen and I have been friends since our senior year in high school. It's so hard to believe that we've known each other for 50 years! I was maid of honor in her wedding, and she was matron of honor in mine. When her first son was born, Eileen, her husband Tom, and I went to a drive-in movie. I was baby Glen's first date. He is now 46 years old, and I'm pretty sure he's tired of hearing that I was his first date!

I've been eagerly awaiting Wally Sosa's new book. The digital version is available in Wally's Etsy shop. I believe you need to contact Wally directly to receive a paper copy like I have. I'm so pleased that it arrived today. Wally autographed it for me, and even included a bookmark. Thank you, Wally! I love it!

I worked on my sweater some more this morning. I'm now up to the bottom of the armholes! I have 6.5" to go in stockinette, and then I can start the top ribbing. Time to knit!

Progress!

Today was a gloomy day with a mixture of rain and snow. It was a great day for making progress on projects!

The end is in sight for daughter Alison's waffle stitch afghan. It was wonderful to have it covering my toes on this chilly day!

The back of my Marly Bird knit-along sweater is now 15" long. I had hoped to be 5" further along by tonight, but I can tell that's not going to happen. Still, I'm happy with the progress I've made.

This is the eighth Easter theme Ice Drop for daughter Joanne. It might not seem like there's much difference between them, but I do try to make each one just a little different. The shuttle is by Veronica of TattingShuttles on Etsy. Oh, be be artistically talented!

Busy day

Today was one of those days that just seemed to get away from me. I started off the day by tatting an Ice Drop, and then I got to work going through some boxes of craft stuff.

I managed to take care of three of them. Most of what was in those boxes ended up in the trash. There were bits of this and that left over from various craft projects, nothing worth keeping. For some reason, I had kept an awful lot of packaging. I wonder what I thought I would use it for?

In the afternoon I treated myself to a nap, and I worked on my knit-along sweater. I'm really glad I sized down two needle sizes. The fabric has a nice drape, and the yarn is really nice to knit with. It's been fun to see the progress others in the group have been making. Some are way ahead of me, and some are still working on the ribbing. I kind of like being in the middle!

One a day

It seems that all I manage to tat is one Ice Drop each day. I think that's just fine!

My First Sweater Knit-along

Yesterday was the release of the first part of the pattern for Marly Bird's My First Sweater Knit-along.  Last week we knit our gauge swatches. I had to go down two needle sizes, which didn't surprise me. Marly even taught us how to figure how much we needed to knit each day to keep up with the class. I need to knit 3.78" each day. I have 4.5" done, so I'll need to do a little more knitting tonight.

There was not time to tat at school today, so I started an Ice Drop as soon as I arrived home and finished it after dinner. I do love my Doodle Art tatting shuttles from Grizzly Mountain Arts!

Testing, testing

It's testing week at school. Yesterday I proctored sophomores taking the PSAT, and today I proctored juniors taking the SAT. Tatting was not an option. The sounds that I find soothing would have been a distraction to the kids taking the test. So, I tatted when I got home!

I mailed off 18 Easter themed Ice Drops to Mom yesterday, depleting my supply. Not to worry... I have plenty of thread and glass gems!

I decided to start with the basic Ice Drop. I liked the shuttle so much, I decided to show both sides of it! This beautiful piece of art work is from Veronica of Tatting Shuttles.

In the meantime, daughter Joanne requested some Easter Ice Drops. I'm so happy to have a reason to tat Ice Drops. This wonderful shuttle is from Grizzly Mountain Arts.

One of the nicest things about the basic Ice Drop pattern is that I can complete one in about an hour. It doesn't matter if I use 1, 3, or 5 picots. I do love the basic pattern!

I would love to figure out a tatted design to mimic this delightful shuttle from Banyek. I love collecting shuttles from around the world!

Test tatting for Shelley

I am always flattered when someone asks me to test tat a pattern, and this weekend I was thrilled to test tat my friend Shelley Perreault's Flutterby Ice Drop. The pattern was very easy to follow, and I hope Shelley makes it available soon. The only problem I had was that I did not make my very long picots at least 3" as Shelley instructed. Lesson learned... follow the designer's directions!

Weather changes did a number on me this weekend. I didn't feel like doing much of anything, but I did manage to finish one basic Ice Drop other than test tatting for Shelley.

I was feeling more myself today, but I still tatted only one Ice Drop. I've been concentrating on finishing my Make-along Mystery Shawl from Marly Bird. I'm almost two weeks behind, and I am determined to finish it!

Tollway fun

It was a glorious day for tatting with friends!

The sun was shining, and we had a beautiful spot near the windows.

We made some new friends,

and we chatted about how we were inspired to learned to tat, as well as how we met each other.

Tollway Tatters is a wonderful group!

I finally finished round 6 of Tat-a-Renda's tat-along.

I gave it a quick shot of steam so that it would lay flat when I got home.

I also managed to finish another Ice Drop in Lizbeth Easter Eggs.

I added the ribbon when I got home, and somehow I managed to take pictures of both sides of the shuttle without even thinking about it!

P.S. ~ We've set our next meeting date: Saturday, May 4, 2019. Join us if you can!

Knit, tat, knit

Yes, I'm dividing my time. I finally finished week 2 of the Tournament of Stitches mystery shawl. I'm really enjoying it, but I sure am slow! Many of the participants have already finished. I'm just getting started with week 3 with week 4 still to come.

Knitting is not keeping me from tatting. I carry my little bag with me every day and tat every chance I get.

However, I have been distracted by another knitting project. Marly Bird is doing a sweater knit-along and I couldn't resist. I've never knit a sweater for myself, and I figure now is as good a time as any. It took two tries to get a correct gauge swatch. I'm using Red Heart Hygge Charm in Eclipse. Can you see the little bit of sparkle in it?