Solar eclipse

I did not go outside to try and view the solar eclipse today. I didn't have the glasses, and I didn't have the materials to make a viewing device. So, I watched it on t.v.

Besides, staying inside and watching t.v. allowed me to keep tatting!

I finished my Hanging Garden doily from  Tatting lace with your life. The rings are in Lizbeth Green Coral Sea, and the chains are in Azalea Lt. As you may recall, I guessed that the finished size would be about 6". Wrong! In size 20 thread it measures 8 1/2".

I managed to tat another Ice Drop in Vinyard Harvest. It's a bit darker than I like, but I think it's a pretty good combination for heading into fall. 

Way off!

Hanging Garden doily from Tatting lace with your life
size 20 Lizbeth Azalea Lt and Green Coral Sea

My guess that this doily would be about 6" was way off. It's already 7" and I still have a round to go. Don't count on me for good estimates!

Distractions

This weekend was filled with distractions... wonderful distractions, which left little time for tatting.

We spent Saturday car shopping with daughter Alison. I had forgotten how long it can take to choose a car! Sunday we visited friends.

With all the activity, I became very distracted. I tried starting a new doily, but have nothing to show for my efforts. I started several times, made foolish mistakes, snipped, trashed, and started over. I'd like to say today will be the day I really make progress, but I offered to help daughter Carol set up her classroom, so this may be another unproductive day on the doily front!

Luckily, I can almost tat Ice Drops in my sleep! I love Lizbeth Caribbean with the blue glass gem. This time I put picots on all the inside chains... much better!

I'm not sure I like the pale yellow with the pink, but I'm sure some little girl will love it, and I have several little girls who will be visiting in the next several months. 😊

Can you tell that I"m enjoying the Green Coral Sea and orange glass gem combo? Orange is not a color I am drawn to, unless it's part of a Dreamsicle, but since I have several orange glass gems, I have to find a way to incorporate them in Ice Drops. Finding threads that work with the orange has been a real eye opener for me. Who knew orange went so well with so many different colors?

Playing around

I couldn't decide what I wanted to do today, so I just played around.

I started out look through Tatted Crosses by Sharon Briggs. There are so many pretty patterns in this book! All of the patterns are designed to be tatted with size 80 thread, but I wanted to practice with size 20 first.

This is the center os Sharon's Rose Cross in size 20 Lizbeth, Azalea Lt. I can tell that this cross would be gigantic in size 20. Just the center measures 2" across. I'm glad I practiced this rose motif in size 20 first. It was good practice in tatting chains in a consistent length.

Next, I pulled out this tatting magazine from 1944. Did you notice the price?

The very first pattern was one I wanted to try. It's #8894. I'm using Coats and Clark's size 70, color #8.

It's been a while since I've tatted with thread this fine. It was surprisingly easy!

Of course I had to finish the day with an Ice Drop!

Time to relax

I had time to relax this afternoon, and there's no better way to relax than to tat!

While I've had the book New Tatting by Tomoko Morimoto for quite a while, I don't think I've tatted anything from it before.

I started with Marigold Motif in size 20 Lizbeth #629, Azalea Lt.

Since I had Azalea Lt and Green Coral Sea left on shuttles, I decided to combine the two. For this Ice Drop, the Green Coral Sea makes the rings, and the Azalea Lt makes the chains.

Here, I reversed the colors. I think the two go well together!

Friday fun

I finished my chores early today, so I had plenty of time to play!

I finished "Camilla" from Tatted Bookmarks ~ cross-shaped by Lene Bjorn, and I still have plenty of size 20 Lizbeth Green Coral Sea.

Next on my list was to finish Alenalea's mystery doily. I'm really glad I chose to tat it in blue and white, one of my favorite color combinations.

I had plenty of blue and white thread left on my shuttles to tat my latest Ice Drop. Sometimes two color tatting is really effective!

A walk in the park

I woke up bright and early this morning, so I took the opportunity to warp my new mini loom. It's so cute, and it fits on my lap!

It was such a beautiful morning, I called daughter Carol and asked her if she wanted to walk around Perry Farm with me. I realized that I haven't done much walking in the past week and a half, and I really needed the exercise. Perry Farm is about five minutes from Carol's house, so she was willing to go along. We walked for an hour, which is a lot for me. Afterwards, we had salad and iced tea for lunch, and then I headed home.

I managed to tat an Ice Drop, but then I was done for the day. I think I'll plan a shorter walk for tomorrow!

The best laid plans...

I really did have a great day of tatting and crafting planned out, but once again I let myself become distracted.

I must have spent three hours flitting from one page to another on the Internet. It all started because I wanted inspiration for my next band. I never did find what I was looking for, and to top it off, I didn't get my loom warped... not good!

I needed to move around some, so I worked in my sewing room until lunch time. I didn't accomplish much... I spent too much time looking at the books I was trying to organize. I did manage to gather up two bags of trash. That's progress, right?

After lunch, I sat down with my tatting. I finished "Maria" from Tatted Bookmarks ~ cross-shaped by Lene Bjorn. I had started this cross yesterday, but I made several mistakes. Why does it take so much more time to fix a mistake?

Once again, the left-over thread on the shuttles was used for an Ice Drop. I really like the way this one turned out!

Inspired!

I've felt inspired since the Twin City Tatters retreat, and I really think I'm ready to get on a roll. and not just with tatting!

First thing this morning, I finished up the band I had on my Shining Glen loom. I think this may be my best band so far. The patterns seems nice and even for the entire length, and my width is nice and consistent. I meant to warp my new loom today, but I just ran out of time.

I used up the Green Coral Sea that was on my shuttles to make this Ice Drop. I think the white glass gem and ribbon really mute the colors, where the green glass gem seemed to brighten up the thread. Still, I think it's pretty.

I have many more things I want to work on. Cindy made beautiful Origami/Dorset bags for all of us attending the retreat. Cindy makes the bags slightly differently than I do, and I'm eager to try her method. The tutorial I follow uses some hand sewing. Cindy's method is all done by machine, and I'm eager to try it.

I'm also ready to start weaving bags to go with the bands I've been making. My loom is all set up, and I have my bobbins wound. All I need to do is spend a little time in my sewing room.

Why is there so little time? 😉

Green Coral Sea

The last time I was in Hobby Lobby, I found a ball of Lizbeth Green Coral Sea #171. This is one of my favorite colors, so I purchased it to use at the Twin City Tatters retreat.

Before leaving the retreat, I started tatting "Monica" from Tatted Bookmarks ~ cross-shaped by Lene Bjorn. I love the patterns in this book!

With the thread left on the shuttles, I tatted an Ice Drop... of course! Mom requested six Ice Drops in light colors. I think I can do that!

In exchange, I received this beautiful mini loom from Hard Maple Looms. Gene Marino made this loom to Mom's specifications. Isn't it adorable? I plan on finishing the band I'm working on, then I will warp this little beauty and go to town!

Tatting by Myra Piper No. 2

Do you have favorite tatting books? I know I do. My all-time favorite is Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior, but following close behind is Tatting by Myra Piper.

Today I managed to finish motif #2 in size 20 Lizbeth, #171 Green Coral Sea.

The shuttle is from TattingShuttles in St. Petersburg, Russia. The shuttle is beautiful and light weight. I've been on a quest for Russian tatting shuttles since I purchased my Russian tatting book.

As a matter of fact, I'm searching for plastic jewel tone shuttles from Russia. I know I saw a picture of them within the past few weeks, but I didn't save the link. Does anyone out there know the shuttles I'm talking about? If so, do you know where I can purchase them? Somehow, I feel my shuttle collection is incomplete without them! ;-)

Tatting with Myra Piper

One of my favorite little tatting books is Tatting by Myra Piper. The directions are not written the way I like, and there are no diagrams, but I find the patterns easy to follow.

This is the first pattern in the book. Myra called it a snowflake, which I have difficulty doing. The perfectionist in me is looking for 6 or 12 points, not 9! ;-)

The thread is size 20 Lizbeth, #171 Green Coral Sea. I purchased tins online, and then found them available at Hobby Lobby. I'm trying to organize my tatting life, not very successfully. I used my newest shuttle from Banyek. This one is made of birch root, and I give Fox all the credit for my newest purchase!

Shuttle purchases have been booming! I'm sure there are parents wondering why their children "need" so many shuttles, but I haven't heard any complaints yet.

I'm so pleased that the kids keep practicing and choosing motifs from the treasure tins.

Alicia has taken to blinging shuttles, and I think she does a wonderful job! What's even better, she lends her shuttles to friends who have left their shuttles at home!

I give students a floss bobbin with each shuttle. That way they can have plenty of thread to work with when they get home.

Some of the kids have asked if we can have some after-school time for tatting. I guess I'd better put in a request to use the library so that we can have some more tatting time!

Green Coral Sea...

This certainly isn't a snowflake color, but I couldn't find my ball of Snow White anywhere, and this was close at hand.

This is Snowflake 4 from Snowflake Roses by Denise Munoz. I'm not a big fan of dimpled rings, but I think I did okay for my first try.

The third graders received their shuttles and thread today, and they were all so appreciative and excited. I even had six more boys ask if they could learn to tat, for a total of 38 third graders! I think that's amazing! Their task today was to learn how to wrap the ball thread around their fingers. We'll progress from there. ;-)

Oh, and that missing ball of Snow White... it was on my dresser!

Blogging slug

Yup, that's what I'm becoming! The days have been going so quickly, that before I know it, it's time for bed and I haven't blogged. That doesn't mean I haven't been tatting!

Maria, The Knackful Kniiter, and I have been emailing back and forth about Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel glass mat from Tatting with Visual Patterns. Maria had this idea to use green for the chains and floral colors for the rings. Why didn't I think of that? Any way, we decided to try it out to see what we could come up with. I got the jump on Maria, because I had the colors I wanted to use on hand. There are definite benefits to having a thread stash!

I also had the advantage of nine hours in the car, driving to Minnesota! I used size 20 Lizbeth, #684 Leaf Green Medium for the chains, and #171 Green Coral Sea for the rings. I love the way it turned out! Thanks for the challenge, Maria!

We made a quick trip to Minnesota, up Friday and back Sunday, to pick up daughter Joanne and our newest granddaughter Sophia. They'll be visiting for two weeks... lots of fun for me! While we were visiting with daughter Andrea on Saturday, granddaughter Ella asked me if I would "knit [her] some tatting." What's a grandma to do?

Ella wanted the same Green Coral Sea for the chains, and she chose #119 Jelly Bean for the rings. I'm not sure I would have chosen that color combination, but I'm not four years old! ;-)

In typical four-year-old fashion, Ella asked me about every 15 minutes if I was finished knitting her tatting yet. When she tired of asking, she told me I could mail it to her. That I will do!