End of January

With it being the last day in January, I felt the urge to tat as many Ice Drops as possible. I was able to that three!

I love this green, size 20 Lizbeth #638 Christmas Green. It's such a beautiful shade, and it goes really well with my handi-wind shuttle from Grizzly Mountain Arts!

This lovely purple is size 20 Lizbeth #633 Purple Dk. The handi-wind shuttle is another beauty from Grizzly Mountain Arts.

I finished the day with size 20 Lizbeth #640 Antique Violet Med. I love this dusky color! Yes, that is a third handi-wind shuttle from Grizzly Mountain Arts.

I've been hanging my Ice Drops on this little faux feather tree that I keep out year round. I love this little tree!

I really had no idea how many Ice Drops I tatted in January until I laid them all out. There are 35, which means I exceeded my goal of tatting one per day. We'll see if I'm able to stick to that goal.

I've emptied the tree and stored the finished Ice Drops in a box. It will be fun to see how full the box gets by the end of the year!

Clue 3

I was thrilled to finish an eyelet row with no mistakes last night! So, feeling confident in my knitting abilities, I finished Clue 3 of the Sanditon MKAL today. Whew! The next clue will be available on Sunday.

Even though I had two shuttles wound for Ice Drops today, I only found time to tat one. One is good! Today I used size 20 Lizbeth #630, Peach Lt. The handi-wind shuttle is another beauty from Dave Stanbrough of Grizzly Mountain Arts.

I think I may start on reorganizing my sewing room this weekend. I may even be brave enough to show before and after pictures!

Feeling accomplished!

I find that if I wind my shuttles before going to bed, I accomplish much more the next day. I love this shade of pink. It's size 20 Lizbeth #621, Dusty Rose Lt. I have quite a few handy-wind shuttles from Grizzly Mountain Arts. With so many shuttles in my collection, it's easy to forget which ones I enjoy using, and I do love my handi-wind shuttles!

This Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #628, Salmon Med. I feel so accomplished when I manage to tat more than one Ice Drop in a day!

I had another good knitting day with my Sanditon MKAL. I've now completed twenty rows, with only six more to go for this week's clue!

Thinking of Spring

Today's color, Lizbeth #616 Daffodil Med, had me thinking of Spring. Every Spring I think that we really should plant bulbs in our yard. We have plenty of room. However, I never think of bulbs when it's time to plant them. Maybe we'll think of it next year!

I feel like I'm making good progress on my Sanditon MKAL. I managed to knit today without making any mistakes!

The curse of the eyelet row

I needed to tat today. Tatting helps give me focus, especially when I'm tatting an easy, familiar pattern like my Doodle Ice Drop. Why did I need to focus?

I believe I am under the curse of the eyelet row! I've never had trouble with eyelet rows before, but the eyelet rows in the Sanditon MKAL have given me fits. I've only knit one of them without incident. Today I had to take out 2/3 of row 7 four times before I realized I had dropped a stitch. If nothing else, I am learning extreme patience from this knit-along!

Clean up time

I kept getting notifications on my computer that my disk was almost full. I've known for some time that I needed to sort through and organize my files. So that's what I did from the time I arrived home from school until bedtime, with a brief break for dinner.

I thought that was all it would take. Boy, was I wrong! I started working around 5:30 this morning. I did make breakfast and I talked with Mom. I also stopped to switch laundry loads. I didn't finish cleaning up my computer until 12:30!

I'm no longer getting the annoying messages, but I think I will need to thin out some more files.

I did take some time to tat this afternoon. This Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth Twirlz #404, Mermaid Lagoon. The shuttle is another handi-wind from Dave Stanbrough of Grizzly Mountain Shuttles. I love my shuttles!

Winding down

It's been a very busy week, and I'm glad to be winding down for the weekend!

One of my high school girls asked me for a bookmark early this week. She said she liked black and red, and I knew I had the perfect thread for her. I just needed to find it!

Luckily, I remembered where I had stashed it, and I managed to tat Libby's bookmark before going to bed last night. It's been a while since I've tatted Mary Konior's Curds & Whey, so I had to keep my copy of Tatting with Visual Patterns open while I tatted. I was very pleased that I was able to tat it without making any mistakes.

I also managed to wind my shuttles for today's Ice Drops. I chose to use two handi-wind shuttles from Grizzly Mountain Arts. This one is in size 20 Lizbeth #183 Orange Crush.

My second Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #187 Green Ice. It's fun to tat with beautiful colors and fabulous shuttles!

A few more rows are finished on my cowl. I'm attending a knitting night tomorrow night, and this will be a great project to take along for knitting and chatting. I'm pretty sure I can remember k3, p1!

Variety

I have a wonderful variety of shuttles. I even have a variety from one shuttle maker, Dave Stanbrough of Grizzly Mountain Arts. This little post shuttle is one of my favorites. The Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #168, Latte Foam.

I love Dave's handi-wind shuttles. The little handle screws off for easy tatting. It's nice to have something to hold on to while winding. This Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #169, Autumn Apple Pie. I can almost smell the apple pie!

This violin shuttle by Dave is one of my favorites because it is so unique. When I was in junior high, I wanted to join either band or orchestra. The only instrument available was the violin. I wasn't sure I'd like the violin, but I auditioned with the director anyway. I was unsuccessful. I guess I could only carry a tune in my head! The Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #182, Spice Cake, another yummy color!

I didn't have as much time for knitting today, but I figure any progress is good!

Busy subbing

I subbed today, and I will be subbing tomorrow and Friday. Since I'm supervising students who are taking online classes, I'm hoping I'll get lots of tatting and knitting done!

Since I'm caught up with the Sanditon MKAL, and I have lots of yarn in the house, I decided to start another cowl. Once again, I am following a pattern from Sequence Knitting by Cecilia Campochiaro. It's similar to a spiral pattern I've done before, but with a different stitch count. I am intrigued by the subtle differences I'm seeing with each pattern I try.

I was able to tat two Doodle Ice Drops today. The first one is in size 20 Lizbeth #130 Island Breeze. The shuttle is one of my new ones from Grizzly Mountain Arts.

The second one is in size 20 Lizbeth #131 Vineyard Harvest, and another of my new Grizzly Mountain Arts shuttles.

I'm not sure if I'll stick with it, but for now I'm trying to tat one Doodle Ice Drop in each size 20 color I have in my stash. However, I tend to lose interest in long term goals that I set for myself. I guess we'll see what happens!

Yay for stitch markers!

I finished Clue 2 of the Sanditon MKAL today, and it really did help to have the stitch markers every ten stitches. I caught a couple of mistakes before they could become a problem, and I only knit the eyelet row one time!

New shuttles arrived from Grizzly Mountain Arts today! I love collecting shuttles!

I subbed in high school math today, and while students worked on plotting graphs, I knit and doodled!

I only had time to tat one and a half Ice Drops at school, but I did have time to finish the second one before dinner!

Stitch markers

Apparently I'm not very good at counting. Once again, I had trouble with an eyelet row. This time I only spent three hours figuring out what I'd done wrong, and the problem was actually with the row before the eyelets. I had an accidental yarn over. I counted the stitches in that row at least three times, so I'm not sure how I missed that extra stitch.

Anyway, I decided that I would put a stitch marker every ten stitches to keep myself on track, and so far it's working.

Knitting and unknitting is mentally exhausting, so I gave myself a break with tatting. This is size 20 Lizbeth #112, Carousel. The shuttle is another beauty from Grizzly Mountain Arts.

We had snow today, something I wasn't expecting. I managed to get my steps in by walking around the house every time I was on the phone. It took until 7 tonight, but I did get my steps in!

Remembering Barbara

My friend Barbara Gordon passed away Wednesday evening. She was such a lovely, talented lady. I think the only times she missed Tollway Tatters meetings were when she was in Florida. Barbara loved tatting, bobbin lace, sewing, and Ghirardelli chocolates. She always had a smile on her face, and she was a great conversationalist. She was Sue Anna's "wing man" and I think Sue Anna will miss her the most. Rest in peace, Barbara.

I kept very busy this weekend. Yes, I tried to solve my computer problems with no luck. I think I'll just settle in to a routine of using two browsers until I figure out what's going on. Oh, how I wish I could get back the hours I've spent trying to figure this out!

I worked on my Sanditon MKAL this weekend. What a frustrating experience this has been! The pattern is wonderful, but I could not get my hands and brain to work together. It took me ten hours to finish six rows. I kept dropping stitches, adding stitches, just generally making a mess of things. Late in the day, things started to click, and I was able to finish another six rows before bedtime. Some days are like that!

I convinced Mom to join the knit along. I love the red she's using!

I've been slacking in the Ice Drop department. It's not that I'm losing interest in tatting, but I have been a bit distracted by knitting and computer issues.

I still have Joanne's Sneak a Peek cowl to finish. All I have left to do is graft the two ends together and block it, both of which I intended to do over the weekend. However, time got away from me!

Now I've done it!

I was trying to fix my computer problems. I'm a Mac user and every once in a while Safari (my browser of choice) and Blogger don't play well together. Now is one of those times.

I haven't been able to leave comments on other blogs when using Safari, so I started using Chrome. Once I started using Chrome, I started getting all sorts of spam comments. Yesterday I thought I'd be smart and change my password so that the spam would stop. It didn't. I found more spam comments this morning.

To make matters worse, I now can't leave comments on blogs using Chrome. It seems that all I can do is create a new blog post using either Safari or Chrome.

Guess what I'm doing this weekend? I'm going to figure out how to fix this problem if it takes me the whole three day weekend!

In the meantime, please know that I am reading blogs and taking in every word you say. Also, I appreciate the comments I'm receiving. I just can't respond to them. Technology is not my friend at this point in time!

Starting over

There was nothing for me to post yesterday. I subbed in kindergarten, and I was too worn out at the end of the day to do much of anything. Those little kindergarteners were so much fun! There were 16 in the classroom, and they were extremely well behaved. Still, their energy level was far greater than mine!

After sharing pictures with my friends Denise and Jen, I decided that I needed to start my Sanditon MKAL over with size 2 needles. I don't know that it's obvious in the picture, but in person there is a significant difference, and I'm glad I decided to switch needle sizes. Both of these samples go up to 83 stitches. I have until Sunday to increase to 227 stitches. I think I can do it. Even if I don't, there's no school on Monday, so I should have plenty of time to catch up.

I managed to finish two more stripes on Joanne's Sneak a Peek cowl. I only have five stripes to go!

It was time for a splash of color in my Ice Drops, so I switched to Lizbeth #100, Falling Leaves. It may be the wrong time of year for this color, but I couldn't resist using it.

I think I have a little more time for knitting before heading off to bed!

Sanditon

Last night I recorded Sanditon, a PBS series based on Jane Austen's last unfinished novel. I first heard of this series when I signed up for the Sanditon MKAL from Kristen in Stitches. I've finished 11/35 pattern repeats that make up the first clue. The next clue will be released next Sunday. So far, I'm really enjoying this project!

I'm also continuing to work on Joanne's Sneak a Peek cowl. I finished two more stripes today with seven left to go.

My newest Grizzly Mountain Arts shuttle arrived today.

I love both the front and the back!

It just so happened that I had chosen another Grizzly Mountain Arts shuttle for today's Ice Drop. I had intended to tat another Doodle Ice Drop, but I didn't have enough thread with me. Luckily, I was able to wing it!

Lorraine Kolasa offered some of her enameled shuttles to raise money for Australian relief. She had a blue shuttle that I would have loved to have purchased, but I forgot to go online when she listed them. I was lucky that when I looked, there was still one left!

Crafty Sunday

Since Dave and I did so much cleaning yesterday, I had plenty of time for crafting today. I'm working on the second side of Joanne's Sneak a Peek cowl. I managed to knit two of the nine stripes for this side. I'm really enjoying this project!

I intended to tat two Ice Drops today, but I only finished one. Instead, I spent a couple of hours with my friend Jen and her daughter Tori. We had a really nice visit, and Jen and I spent time knitting while Tori crocheted.

Jen, my friend Denise and I are all knitting the Sanditon MKAL. Jen and Denise both chose the mauve colors, while I chose the blues. Are you surprised?

Photo op

We chose not to have a Tollway Tatters meeting today because of the predicted weather conditions. It was very windy and wet here, and some of the ladies had snow to deal with. I think we made the right decision to cancel!

Sue suggested we all take pictures of ourselves tatting in our tie-dye t-shirts, so I asked Dave to take a picture of me tatting.

True confession time... I had the t-shirt on for less than five minutes. It was just too cold, and I couldn't wait to put my sweater back on!

Another true confession... I only tatted 6 ds today. Dave and I spent most of the day taking down and putting away Christmas decorations. We accomplished a lot, including deep cleaning the sun room, dining, room, and living room, but we still have more to do. The bannister is still decorated, and we haven't taken down any of the outdoor decorations. Once those tasks are completed, we'll be back to our normal routine.

The first side of Joanne's Sneak a Peek cowl is finished. I know I never would have chosen these colors, but I do like they way they look!