Back to blogging

I'm really trying to get back into blogging on a regular basis. However, I'm not doing a very good job. Mom and I are enjoying our new routine, which includes a lot of time sitting and doing puzzles on our iPads. Magic Puzzles is highly addictive!

I did get back in to tatting this week. Jon Yusoff is doing a tat-along on Facebook, and I couldn't resist joining in the fun! The pattern is called Harmony, and if I recall correctly, it will have eight rounds. I had three false starts, and each time I couldn't believe the silly mistakes I made! I'm almost finished with round two, and I'm eager for the next round to be released!

Joanne and family arrived at daughter Carol's last Friday, and we were able to spend some time with the kids. Kara loves Grandma Green's weaving, and she was very pleased to receive an itsy bitty, teeny tiny blanket!

Sophia is getting to be a big girl! She starts second grade in the fall.

The girls asked for dolls. Doll making is not my thing, but I did my best. The girls chose the fabric and buttons. I think I'll stick to tatting!

Janko made himself at home on Grandma Green's lap. Who can resist a snuggle little boy?

A little bit of tatting

I managed a little bit of tatting today. First, I finished round 5 of Jon Yusoff's tat-along. For this round I used Lizbeth 624, Raspberry Pink Med. Have you guess that I'm using a Lizbeth thread pack? It's the easy way to have multiple colors in a project that go well together!

I'm still working with Lizbeth Boysenberry Dk for Ice Drops. I tatted today's Doodle Ice Drop with a shuttle from Rita Richmond of Shuttle by Design. I love this little logo shuttle!

Another icy day

School was called off because of ice today. It's kind of amusing to watch the news and see people commenting about schools closing because of ice. Yes, the main road in front of my house was clear. However, the back roads were sheets of ice, and it would have been dangerous to have school buses on them. Our drive was solid ice, and my car was sheathed in ice, so I had no desire to go out!

Instead of venturing out, I worked some more on my Reyna shawl (free pattern by Noora Backlund on Ravelry). I've now finished 88 rows, and I still have the correct number of stitches!

My Ice Drop today is another basic one, this time with five picots... such a bold choice! ;-) The shuttle is another by Rita Richmond of Shuttle by Design. I'm still tatting with Lizbeth Boysenberry Dk.

Round 4 of Jon Yusoff's tat-along is complete! This round is in Lizbeth #668, Green Orchid Dk. Somehow, I managed to purchase two shuttles commemorating Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday. Guess what? I don't mind! These wonderful little shuttles are not expensive, and I really do like them. You can check them out at Roseground.com. I see there are two Christmas shuttles that I don't have in my collection. Do I dare order them?

Commemorative shuttles

You may have guessed that I love collecting shuttles! I especially like commemorative shuttles, because I hope that at some time in the future there may be a tatter somewhere who gets excited about finding one of my little beauties and cherishing it as I do.

This morning I decided to join Jon Yusoff's tat-along, which is posted on Facebook.

Round 1 is in size 40 Lizbeth #618, Magenta Dk.

For round 2, I used Lizbeth #683, Leaf Green Lt.

It's been a while since I've tatted with size 40 thread, and I'm really enjoying it.

I really like the way the Boysenberry Dk looks with the crackled glass gem. This is the basic Ice Drop with three picots instead of one. The shuttle is another beauty from Veronica of TattingShuttles on Etsy.

I found my box of shawl pins this mornings, so I decided to wear my new Garter Lace Triangle Shawl to school today. I couldn't believe the number of compliments I received!

Daughter Carol took the pictures for me after school. Maybe I'll knit some more shawls!

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!