Winding down

It's been a very busy week, and I'm glad to be winding down for the weekend!

One of my high school girls asked me for a bookmark early this week. She said she liked black and red, and I knew I had the perfect thread for her. I just needed to find it!

Luckily, I remembered where I had stashed it, and I managed to tat Libby's bookmark before going to bed last night. It's been a while since I've tatted Mary Konior's Curds & Whey, so I had to keep my copy of Tatting with Visual Patterns open while I tatted. I was very pleased that I was able to tat it without making any mistakes.

I also managed to wind my shuttles for today's Ice Drops. I chose to use two handi-wind shuttles from Grizzly Mountain Arts. This one is in size 20 Lizbeth #183 Orange Crush.

My second Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #187 Green Ice. It's fun to tat with beautiful colors and fabulous shuttles!

A few more rows are finished on my cowl. I'm attending a knitting night tomorrow night, and this will be a great project to take along for knitting and chatting. I'm pretty sure I can remember k3, p1!

Ashley Snowflake

Today's tatting tried my patience! First I had two failed attempts at tatting split rings to climb out of the first round. I tried two different methods and after neither one worked for me, I chose to cut, tie, and hide my ends and go on to the next round.

"Ashley" from Teeny Tatted Snowflakes by Samantha Melnychuk looks pretty good here, but don't look too closely. I didn't know it was possible to mess up as many times as I did with this little snowflake. Except for the split ring part, I think it will be easy to tat this one again as an Ice Drop.

Yes, I will attempt the split ring again tomorrow. I am not going to give up! The split ring itself isn't what gives me fits. The problem comes when I try to join or add a picot on the second half of the split ring. It does me in every time!

My sister Janet came to visit with her grandchildren today. We had a great time! The best part for me was watching four little girls go through my button and glass gem stash to fill little organza bags with goodies. The funny thing is, they had bags of treasure and my stash doesn't look the least bit depleted!

Peony Ice Drop

My task today was to turn Samantha Melnychuk's "Peony" snowflake in to an Ice Drop. I think it turned out rather well! The pattern can be found in Teeny Tatted Snowflakes. My next challenge will be to take on one of Samantha's split ring patterns. I know I can do it!

Tomorrow is going to be another fun filled day. My sister is going to visit with her two grandchildren. I haven't seen Gavin and Abby since last summer, so it will be great to see them! 

Multiple crafts

I'm sure there are many tatters who indulge in multiple crafts. After all, variety is the spice of life!

I forgot to take pictures, but I finished my last set of curtains for the elementary school cafeteria this morning, and then I delivered them. It feels good to have another item checked off my list!

I'm enjoying tatting Ice Drops with Orange Crush. Today I used my newest Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle in cherry. I like the yellow organza ribbon with the orange. I ran out of cream, which is my usual choice with orange, unless I have orange!

My Virus Shawl is growing! This is a super simple pattern to follow, and it's a great way to show off pretty yarn. This is Lion Brand Mandala, and the color is Pegasus. I do like this 3 ply yarn. I bought my first cake on Amazon for about $10. I knew I could find it at Walmart for just under $5, but at the time I was eager to try the yarn and I knew it would be at least a week before I could get to Walmart. When I did get to Walmart, Denise and I were surprised, because it rang up at just under $4! I love surprises like that!

Crochet Sunday

It looked like I was pretty close to the end of my ball of Mandala yarn, so I decided to concentrate on finishing my Middle of the Road Scarf. Mine isn't quite like Susan Pinner's. The yarn she used changes color more frequently and has little flecks of white in it. I may break down and try to get some of that yarn (James C Brett, Northern Lights), but since I have to send to England for it, I was happy to use what was readily available.

I cut off the crocheted button that was at the tip of the triangle. Mine wasn't very clean looking, and because the colors of the Mandala yarn are not flecked like the yarn used in the original pattern, it didn't have the same interest. I will practice making those crocheted buttons, because I think they look really cool.

It's been a while since I've crocheted with yarn, and I wasn't happy with the way my edges looked. So, I single crocheted around the scarf and then finished off with slip stitching through the back loop. I'm not sure that blocking will do much good since this is an acrylic yarn, but I may give it a try anyway.

Of course, I had to tat an Ice Drop today! This one is in size 20 Lizbeth Orange Crush, #183. I love my new Russian doll shuttle!