Sub day

I subbed in third grade today, and I really enjoyed myself. The teacher had great lesson plans. The kids were well behaved. The only down side was that it interfered with my tatting time!

Luckily, I wasn't sleepy after blogging last night. I was able to start the next motif for Lagniappe, and I was able to finish that motif tonight. I only have one more to tat before moving on to the blue thread I've chosen!

I started an Ice Drop before school, and I finished it after school. I have one tree filled with colorful Ice Drops. Now I want to focus on white ones. The glass gems can be of different colors, but I'm going to try and stay away from colors for a while.

Ooh! There's a skein of hand-dyed thread on the table! Maybe I should stick to colors!

Fooled ya!

I wish I had been clever enough to come up with the idea of the book pumpkin, but that wasn't my group.

My group came up with #13 the spider pumpkin. I did help with it, but I had no ideas. I just followed the rest of the group.

I am hopeless when it comes to Halloween ideas. I've never really gotten in to Halloween, and if it hadn't been for Dave, our children would have never known anything about scary stories, witches, and the rest of it. I don't have anything against Halloween. I just couldn't care less about it.

So, I fooled everyone!

Last night I finished another motif for Lagniappe by Mike Lyon. After I tat two more of thee motifs, I'll tat six unattached ones that will be joined as I tat the next round. This is a fascinating pattern!

My bookmark stash is growing. This green one brings my total to eight for Christmas in the Village. I have 1/3 finished!

Lagniappe progress

With my recent focus on bookmarks, I haven't spent much time working on Lagniappe. I do love this pattern, and I hope to stay on track with it by balancing my tatting time. I still want to tat Ice Drops and bookmarks, but I don't want this beauty to take the back seat!

Yesterday

It's that time of year again... allergy season! I feel like I go through a box of tissues each day. I don't, but it feels like it.

The yard cleanup continues. Dave cleared out some bushes that had been damaged by the storm a month ago. We didn't realize how much undergrowth there was until he pulled the bushes out. Our back yard is looking much more open.

I spent about an hour crocheting snowflakes yesterday. I gave them each a shot of steam, but they need to be blocked properly, something I was not in the mood to do yesterday.

I'm thinking of crocheting three colors: cranberry, gold, and white. This is Barber.

This one is called Stellar Crystal. In the book, the spokes are more rounded. I think it looks more like a crystal with the spokes pulled out straight.

This little cutie is called Frost. I definitely need to do some adjusting with this one!

The last one for the day is called Spring Snow. After looking at the individual pictures, I'm ready to pull out my blocking mats!

Since I had the ball of white crochet cotton out, I decided to tat Curds & Whey in white. I thought the white thread felt thicker than the other crochet cottons I had used recently, and I was right. I've been tatting eight pattern repeats, and I only had room for seven in the white.

I'm amazed that I still have some of Karey Solomon's hand-dyed thread left. I think the gold is my favorite glass gem with this thread.

I finished the St. Louis Cathedral Spires section of Lagniappe by Mike Lyon. I love the way this pattern flows!

Not much to show

I only tatted an Ice Drop yesterday, and I was concentrating on another project, so I didn't post a picture yesterday.

Instead, I focused on Mike Lyon's Lagniappe. This pattern is so pretty, and I'm really enjoying working with size 40 Lizbeth. I completed round 5 just before dinner, and I ready to start on round 6. After round 5, it's about 6" across. It's kind of fun to have a big project to work on!

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!