Another find

I'm making slow progress on my sewing room. I keep finding things, such as this snowflake. It took a bit of investigating, but I figured out that this is the beginning of Kencana from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. It's hard to believe I had two snowflakes started from the same book. Since I'm not as far along with this snowflake, I'm hoping to find the rhythm of the pattern so that I can finish this one with no mistakes!

Sorry to disappoint you, Jane. Believe it or not, I was going to start the new year with a blue Spinning Wheel. Unfortunately, I haven't found my blue thread yet! ;-)

Don't look too closely!

If you do, I'm sure you will find at least three mistakes. There's a ring that was pressed over on itself, an easy fix. There's a chain with a big lump, the result of kinked thread because I didn't drop my shuttle to untwist the thread. To top it all off, I missed a join. I sewed it together, so it's not super obvious. All in all, this is not my best tatting effort!

I find that when I come back to a project that I haven't worked on in a while, I tend to make lots of mistakes. Does that happen to you? I'm not quite ready to trash all my UFOs, but I do get tempted when I make lots of mistakes.

I will try tatting Nilam from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff again, hopefully with no mistakes!

I am prepared!

Dave bought this beautiful black cabinet for me for Christmas, specifically for storing shuttles!

I'm still in the middle of reorganizing my sewing room. I'm afraid it's going to take a while. I get a bit overwhelmed as I look at the supplies I have.

As I feared, I have way too many shuttles...

Was I afraid that Handy Hands would run out of Aerlit shuttles?

How many small Clover shuttles does one tatter need?

...or large Clover shuttles for that matter!

What's really scary is that I've only begun working on this room, and I have more supplies upstairs! I hope to have some pretty pictures of an organized space in the next week or two.

I did manage to find time for a little bit of tatting today. One thing I learned from working on my Jan Stawasz Masterpiece last year is that it really doesn't matter how much I tat in one day. What does matter is how much I enjoy the time spent tatting!

I hope you enjoy your tatting time today!

Look what I found!

Today was filled with the activities that come after a vacation... picking up the mail, doing the banking, catching up with laundry, paying bills, grocery shopping... the mundane list could go on and on!

I did work a little on reorganizing my sewing room, the key word being little. While trying to decide what I wanted to do first, I found a snowflake that I had started a while back, Nilam from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff.

I love this little book! There are 18 snowflake designs, each of them beautiful. I may be a little prejudiced, because I helped test tat some of the patterns, but I think this is one tatting book that every tatter should own!

Mustika

Simple and elegant...

I love this snowflake! This is number 7 from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. It's just under 5" in size 20 Lizbeth, Arctic Waters. 

#8 is next on the list. It looks like one I'll really enjoy, but I'll have to keep a close eye on the pattern so that I don't mess it up!

Galuh

Galuh is the sixth pattern in Jon Yusoff's Elegant Tatting Gems. I had to pay attention to this one because of the shuttle switches, but luckily, Jon's color coded visual pattern helped me keep track of where I was!

Galuh is 4 1/4" across in size 20 Lizbeth, Arctic Waters. 

It's not November yet, but I'm starting to feel the Christmas crunch! Are you?

Cintamani

Isn't it pretty when tatted correctly? I know it was pretty before, and I do appreciate all the ideas for salvaging the snowflake with the missing ring. Never fear! The mis-tatted Cintamani has a loving home!

Again, I used size 20 Lizbeth, Arctic Waters. The finished size is 4 1/2". My craft rings arrived this week. I have some ideas for setting my snowflakes in the rings. I'll be sure to show you the results!

Lest you think I've been a slacker... after all, I have not been blogging much... I'll show you what else I've been working on...

These are infinity scarves I crocheted for my granddaughters. I just chained 40 for the youngest, 45 for the older girls, joined the circle, and double crocheted until I ran out of yarn. I used very soft bulky yarn, so they worked up fairly quickly. I think I'll try for a lacy look with finer yarn next time, and I think I'll make them just a little longer. 

I finished weaving another bag, and I've been practicing making fringe with my new fringe twister from Lacis. I actually ordered it from Amazon, because that's where I found it. I saved a couple of dollars, which means I can buy a little more yarn! ;-)

What's wrong with this picture?

I don't think you even have to look closely to see the big gap where I forgot to tat a very important ring! I have no idea how I did that, but I'm going to blame it on tatting in the car. ;-)

Baiduri

Baiduri was a fun snowflake to tat! I think I should have used longer picots, because when finished there was a lot of cupping. I was able to tame it with my steam iron, but I will use longer picots next time! This is the 4th pattern in Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. 

Again, I used size 20 Lizbeth, Arctic Waters. The finished size is 4 1/2" across. I've ordered some 5" craft rings, and I'm hoping to successfully mount my snowflakes in the rings. I may have to drive to Michigan to get some help from my friend Sue. Road trip!

I finished another scarf this weekend. This one measures 60" after wet finishing, so there was more shrinkage than with the last scarf. Is 60" long enough? Should I make them longer? They're about 10" wide. I'd love to get your feedback!

Almas

I am really enjoying tatting snowflakes again! I can complete one in two or three evenings, and I don't get bored!

This is Almas from Jon Yusoff's Elegant Tatting Gems. I used size 20 Lizbeth, Arctic Waters, and it measures 5" across. Time for another snowflake!

Adan

It took me a couple of days to finish Adan from Jon Yusoff's Elegant Tatting Gems, because I kept making mistakes on the last section. First, I need to remember that with a pattern like this, I need to count the rings on the inside, not the outside, to determine when I'm at the end. Retro-tatting is so time consuming! Second, I need to pay attention to where I'm supposed to join... again, retro-tatting is time consuming!

The finished size is 4 1/2" in size 20 Lizbeth, Arctic Waters. 

One of Dave's customers requested a red and white bag. I found this really cool yarn that is very soft. I really like the way this bag turned out, but more importantly, Dave's customer liked it!

I really am enjoying my loom. This weekend I finished a scarf. I had so much fun, I started another!

Adiratna

Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff is one of my favorite tatting books, so opening it up to tat a snowflake was a no-brainer.

Adiratna is the first snowflake in the book. It's one I've tatted many times, and I never get tired of tatting it! It's about 3 3/4" across in size 20 Lizbeth, #185. 

With snow reported in our area this morning... I never saw any, but it was on Facebook, so it must be true ;-)... it seemed that tatting a snowflake was very appropriate!

Delima

I love Blue Ice! I think it's a fabulous color for snowflakes. The touch of blue looks wonderful to me... a touch of chill!

The pattern is Delima from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. 

Keeping up with the kids...

Have you heard of the Rainbow Loom?

It's very popular with the kids at our school, both boys and girls. I can't remember how I heard of it, but I investigated right away and then headed off to Michaels to buy two... one for my granddaughter Lily's birthday present, and one to keep at my house for when the grandchildren visit.

2nd grader Grace encouraged me to start with the fishtail pattern, so I did with very pleasing results. She wants me to start the starburst pattern next. We'll see. I'd sure hate to use up all my rubber bands before my grandchildren get a chance to try it out! Oh, wait... I can buy more. ;-)

I worked on my scarf some more during the Viking/Bears game today. I can't believe I've been working on this for two months. I used to be able to finish a scarf in a week, but that was before tatting took over my life!

I did start another snowflake in size 20 Lizbeth Blue Ice. Sigh... so many things to try out, so little time.

Kencana

I finally finished Kencana from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. The pattern wasn't difficult at all. My problem was technology!

My printer stopped working at the beginning of the week. Not completely, it just wouldn't print black, and of course, Dave needed some information printed out for work. So, instead of tatting every night, I worked with my printer. I tried everything I could think of, and then I tried everything I could find on the Internet. Nothing worked.

Luckily, I still had my old printer. There was nothing wrong with it. We just wanted a new one so that Dave could print directly from his iPad, and the old printer didn't have that capability. So, I decided to dust off the old printer this morning. Simple, right? Wrong! Because of updates to my computer operating system, a simple installation didn't work. It took almost three hours to get the old printer working, but it is working!

So, to reward myself for a job well done, I took the time to finish tatting Kencana. Now it's time to fix dinner!

Nilam

Well, I never did get around to putting all my toys away today, but I did manage to finish Nilam from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. The thread is size 20 Lizbeth, #163, Blue Ice. This is one of my favorite colors of Lizbeth. It's so smooth, and I love tatting with it!

I did manage to finish one other thing today, a book my grandson lent to me at the beginning of the summer. Aidan loves dragons, and his dad bought him the Wings of Fire series. I am not into dragons, but the first book, The Dragonet Prophecy, is very well written. It was so good, I started the second book, The Lost Heir. I think I'll do a little more reading before heading off to bed.

Good night, all!

Mustika

I love the triangular spokes of this snowflake! It took me a long time to make, because even though I didn't feel tired after school, I couldn't seem to concentrate long enough to tat more than a few rings and chains each night.

Don't look too closely. My twisted picots aren't right. I just couldn't seem to get the hang of twisting them. After fiddling with the long picots for about 20 minutes, I gave up and did a pathetic little twist in each picot. I could tell it wasn't right, but I wanted to see how the pattern worked up. Now that I know, I can go back and figure out how to twist two picots together!

I'll also have to remember to join the last ring. Yup, I forgot to join it, and I didn't realize it until I was hiding my ends. So, I just kind of sewed it together. I figure if sewing together was good enough for tatters in the 1800s, it's good enough for me!

My grandson had his first soccer game of the season today, and we drove up to watch him play. It's an hour and a half drive each way, so I took some tatting along, of course!

I don't like to try and follow patterns in the car, so I chose my favorite pattern, Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel glass mat. I've been very good about sticking to my ball of white for the snowflakes, but I don't have enough left from that ball to make another snowflake... good reason to try out my new Perfect Quilter thread! I had 17 spools to choose from, and of course I chose blue. Look how tiny this Spinning Wheel is going to be!

This really is a nice thread to tat with. Maybe they should have called it Perfect Tatter!

Galuh

Finished! Despite having to restart this one, I really like it! I have now finished six snowflakes from Elegant Tatting Treasures by Jon Yusoff. I think this weekend I may "chill out" by washing and blocking them. They're all pretty, but a little bit of water and a few pins will help them look beautiful!

Sometimes it takes two tries...

I was happily tatting Galuh from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff, when I realized that I had too many rings in the center. I wasn't sure why, so I kept on tatting. It wasn't until I finished the third cluster that I realized I had missed a join and created an extra ring.

I wasn't in the mood to retro-tat, so I just started over. This looks so much better!

Cintamani

I sure have been enjoying tatting snowflakes from Jon Yusoff's Elegant Tatting Gems! I love the way Cintamani flows. It looks very complicated, but if you just follow Jon's wonderful directions, all turns out well!

School starts tomorrow, which means I'll have far less time to tat, read blogs, and write posts. Let's see if being on a schedule helps me accomplish more. I have spent a lot of time daydreaming about what I'd like to do this summer. I really do think I get more done with time constraints. I don't want to stress myself out, though. Maybe I'll set a goal of tatting one snowflake each week... and I need to work on Aidan's dragons... and finish Joanne's doily... and start on Christmas presents... and...

Maybe I need to just set aside a little time each day for my tatting and not worry about setting goals!