Little Miss Muffet

I may have to give myself a new name if I keep tatting Curds & Whey bookmarks! Now that I understand the pattern, I have a new design that I really love. What took me so long?

If you haven't tried tatting with hand-dyed thread, I highly recommend it. This one is Lantana Citrus dyed by my friend Marilee Rockley aka Yarnplayer. It does make a lovely bookmark!

Finished!

I am thrilled with my finished Eightsome Reel mat! The pattern is by Mary Konior, and the thread is the gorgeous Lantana Citrus from my dear friend Marilee Rockley aka Yarnplayer.

This is exactly the size I wanted to sit under my yarn bowl!

Silence is golden

...or so I've heard! I've been too caught up in tatting and household projects to blog for the past few days. It's all about priorities, you know.

 
I have become totally engrossed in a new tatting pattern, Lagniappe by Mike Lyon. The pattern is available on Mike's Facebook page. It's done in size 40 Lizbeth and will be about 38" when completed. I did fine with rounds 1 and 4, but I ended up working on rounds 2 and 3 three times each. On round 2 I skipped a joining picot both times. It was easier to snip and start the round over than to try and retro-tat. On round 3 I managed to join to the wrong picot in round 2 two times. I figured out that if I turned the diagram upside down, it was easier to see where I was supposed to join.

So far, the pattern is very easy to follow. I can see that I need to work on keeping my chains a consistent length. They look a little wonky right now. I'm hoping that when I finish the next round my chains will look a little better.

I'm falling behind on my Ice Drop count, but I really don't mind. I tat them because I enjoy them, not because I have a deadline.

My Eightsome Reel mat is coming along nicely. I'm glad I ordered some more Lantana Citrus from Marilee Rockley, because I don't have enough to finish the current motif, let alone the last one.

It looks like today is going to be busy. Dave has already been out cutting wood from the storm damage two weeks ago. I'm pretty sure he'd appreciate my help in hauling branches to the burn pile. It's a slow going job, but it's one that needs to be done. Luckily, Dave knows how to pace himself so that neither one of us collapses!

Marigold motif

I've been thinking about tatting some pieces from New Tatting by Tomato Morimoto for a while now, and this morning I decided it was time to get started! This is Marigold motif. I suppose I should have used a nice bright yellow, but this beautiful blue was a great match for my new Dreamlit shuttle.

I didn't really look at the directions. I just got to work on the center motif. It didn't take me long to realize that I should have looked at the directions and started with the outer round first. Designers have their reasons for doing what they do!

This was my first time using a Dreamlit shuttle. It was a breeze to wind the thread, and since I already like Moonlit shuttles, the transition was easy. The only thing I don't like about the Dreamlit is that the bobbin doesn't have a hole to run the thread through and knot it. I'll have to remember to wind extra thread so that I don't run into the problem of having the thread slip when I get close to the end of the bobbin.

I stuck with my Doodle Ice Drop pattern and Karey Solomon's hand-dyed thread for my travel project today. The center is a glow-in-the-dark gem from Hobby Lobby.

I was determined to finish another motif for my Eightsome Reel doily. I do love this Mary Konior pattern, and I think it looks great in Marilee Rockley's Lantana Citrus!

Fumble fingers

Daughter Joanne and family had planned to return home on Saturday or Sunday, but they decided to stay for another week. Yay! I really enjoy having them around. I wish I could have all four of my daughters and all seven grandchildren here all summer long. Imagine the fun we could have!

My friend Margaret asked me to test tat her Taj Mahal Ice Drop pattern. I was eager to get started, and I did fine until the 4th round. I've done SCMRs before, and I've done split chains without any problem... until yesterday and today. I've lost count of how many times I've retro-tatted this segment. It took me at least five tries to get the SCMR right, and now I can't do a split chain for anything. It's not the directions; it's just me. My fingers and brain just aren't working together.

I decided that a change of pace must be in order. After all, a familiar pattern can be so relaxing. I decided to tat Eightsome Reel by Mary Koniorin Marilee Rockley's Lantana Citrus hand-dyed thread. You would think I had never read a pattern before. Honest to goodness, this little section took me a good hour to tat. I'm blaming the humidity!

My knitting is also moving along slowly. I am making progress with Blue Jean Saturday, but I've had to frog quite a few rows because of mistakes. Maybe I'm having trouble because we're in the dog days of summer. That seems to be as good an excuse as any!