Adjustments

Well, I adjusted my morning routine this morning. I still started walking at 6 a.m., but this time I changed my goal. I set my timer for 15 minutes, but I didn't stop there.

We live on a state highway and we see a lot of semi traffic. Years ago, a friend of mine who lived about 4 miles south of us told me that he and his wife found that 100 semis per hour travel our road. That's a lot of semi traffic for a rural area!

So this morning I adjusted my goal... walk for 15 minutes or until 25 semis passed our house, whichever took longer. For my 6 o'clock walk, it took 23 minutes for 25 semis to pass. My 7 o'clock walk took 18 minutes. Traffic really picked up for my 8 o'clock walk... 43 semis passed our house in 15 minutes! My 9 o'clock walk lasted 15 minutes, with only 900 steps left for my goal of 10,000 steps, so I kept on walking. I was very pleased to have my 10,000 steps finished by 9:30!

Is this what my future holds, mornings of walking and counting semis? I think I'll need some more adjustments! ;-)

I finished my dishcloth early this morning. I love knit dishcloths!

The rest of the day, I spent every free minute tatting, because I wanted to finish this Spinning Wheel glass mat. I'm not sure this would really work as a glass mat since it's only 3 1/2" in diameter. The pattern is from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior. The thread is Perfect Quilter #070, Denim. It's too bad this thread has been discontinued, because it is wonderful for tatting! There's one color left at Superior Threads, Cotton Candy. It was originally $8.99 per spool, but it's on sale for $2.00. What a steal!

First day of retirement

Yes, you read it correctly! Since today was the day teachers in our district headed back to school, I feel like today is the first day of my retirement. I had a big smile on my face this morning!

Monday is the first day for the kids, so my plan is to take my morning walk so that I can wave to the kids on the school bus as it passes by. :-)

On Tuesday, I went for my physical and finger printing so that I can sign up for substitute teaching. I'll be babysitting the daughter of some friends after school. Most exciting of all, I'm going to be giving sewing lessons to two third grade girls after school, starting next week!

I tried breaking my day into segments to see what could be accomplished. Every hour at the top of the hour I went outside and walked our porch for 15 minutes. I managed to get in my 10,000 steps before lunch!

I set little goals for myself for the remaining 45 minutes of each hour: household chores, fixing and eating breakfast, tatting, knitting, crocheting, reading. I didn't accomplish a lot of anything before lunch, but at least I accomplished something.

After lunch I treated myself to a 45 minute nap, then I watched a movie on Netflix. Of course I tatted while watching the movie!

I'm not sure if I'll continue this routine, but I did find that switching activities frequently helped with my wrists. Tomorrow I may try something different, but I had fun trying this routine today!

Rainy Monday

What do you do on a rainy Monday? I caught up on household chores, did some grocery shopping, canned some beets, and even managed a little tatting!

My baggie of butterflies is growing, and I've barely touched the odds and ends of thread I have left on shuttles. It will be interesting to see how many I manage to tat!

Yes, I started another Spinning Wheel glass mat. This one is in Perfect Quilter Denim. Did you notice the personalized shuttle? It's one of my favorites from La Cossette!

Unplugged

I've spent the last few days away from technology, and I will admit that it felt good to be disconnected from electronics. Why? We drove to Minnesota for the twins' baptism. We had a wonderful weekend that went by way too quickly.

I was so unplugged, that I didn't even take out my phone to take pictures. Luckily, several other family members kept track of what was going on all weekend.

Because I ignored technology, I was able to get quite a bit of tatting done.

On the way to Minnesota, I tatted a Spinning Wheel glass mat in size 20 Lizbeth #616, Daffodil Med.

I started this Spinning Wheel when others were sleeping in size 20 Lizbeth #170, Pineapple Parfait.

There were still a couple of hours left of our drive, so I pulled out my carry-along project that has been in my purse for probably two years. I only had three spokes left to tat, so I was able to complete it before we arrived home. This one is in Perfect Quilter #088, Leaf Me Alone. Unfortunately, Perfect Quilter by Superior Threads has been discontinued. When I checked the site, there was only one color remaining. I do like this thread!

Excitement!

I just received an email stating that the new Sunlit shuttles are in at Handy Hands! I'm very excited, because I really need more shuttles! ;-)

While I'm waiting for my new shuttles to arrive, I need to stay focused on my newest project. Yes, I've started another Spinning Wheel in Perfect Quilter. This color is #088, Leaf Me Alone... funny name for a very pretty thread.

I've found that when I'm working with this really fine thread, I really don't mind using the shoelace trick at the end of each spoke. That little half stitch isn't noticeable the way it is in size 20. That's nice for me... I only have to wind thread on to one shuttle!

Reaching out

Back in June, my good friend Marilee Rockley aka YarnPlayer emailed me to see if I'd be interested in writing a blog post for Craftsy. I was intrigued, so I gave her permission to share my information with the people at Craftsy. They contacted me in July, and I agreed to write some articles for them, starting with one on shuttles.

After a great deal of procrastination, I finally wrote a piece about tatting shuttles. If you're interested, you can find the blog post here. I know Marilee has had a great number of people sign up for her shuttle tatting class, and it seems from the replies to my post that there are people interested in learning more about tatting and the materials we use. Maybe I should write a piece about finding other tatters online! ;-)

I'm not sure what my problem is lately... age, weather, distractions... but I sure am having trouble focusing on projects! My sewing room is still a disaster, and I can't find what I want when I want it. I haven't been blogging much, because I haven't had anything to blog about!

I did finish another Spinning Wheel before heading off to school this morning. This one is in Perfect Quilter Sun-n-Surf #086. It's only about 3 1/2". I'm so glad Fox introduced this thread to Blogland. I love it! This little beauty already has a home in my curio cabinet.

Now, what to do next?

Perfect Quilter Sun-n-Surf

Yes, I have another Spinning Wheel in progress! I am enjoying using Perfect Quilter. It's so smooth, and when I make a mistake, I haven't had any trouble picking it out.

Let's see, I have 17 colors of Perfect Quilter, so I can anticipate at least 17 Spinning Wheels in my future. Superior Threads also makes King Tut, which I absolutely love, so I suppose I should have a Spinning Wheel out of each of those colors. But wait... I don't have all the colors of King Tut. Could it be that it's time to go shopping again? ;-)

A perfect Spinning Wheel?

Well, it may not be perfect, but it is made with Perfect Quilter thread!

It measures about 3 1/2" across, and I have the perfect place for it...

in my curio cabinet! Wait... what's that? Another tiny Spinning Wheel? I had totally forgotten that I tatted a tiny Spinning Wheel over a year ago in Sulky Blendables! I think my cabinet is looking a little bare. Maybe I should tat a few more tiny Spinning Wheels... food for thought.

Since I got a little carried away buying quilting thread, please email me if you'd like a sample. I know I have way more than I'll ever be able to use. If you have a specific project in mind, please let me know how much you'd like so that I send you enough. Also, if you have a favorite color, I can look to see if I have what you like. I'm happy to share!

Perfect Quilter comes through!

It's hard to imagine, but I managed to tat with quilting thread in the car for almost three hours without making a mistake.

Today, I had about five minutes to tat after finishing my lunch. I finished a chain successfully, but when I made the next ring, I managed to join the ring to the wrong picot. Of course I didn't notice it until I had closed the ring. Go figure!

After dinner tonight, I sat down to un-tat the ring. It was very easy! Thank you, Fox, for pointing me in the direction of this terrific thread!

I had a wonderful surprise in the mail today...

...a sun catcher and a thread sample from God's Kid. Thank you, Sue!

Hmmm... I wonder how she knew that I like blue?

Mustika

I love the triangular spokes of this snowflake! It took me a long time to make, because even though I didn't feel tired after school, I couldn't seem to concentrate long enough to tat more than a few rings and chains each night.

Don't look too closely. My twisted picots aren't right. I just couldn't seem to get the hang of twisting them. After fiddling with the long picots for about 20 minutes, I gave up and did a pathetic little twist in each picot. I could tell it wasn't right, but I wanted to see how the pattern worked up. Now that I know, I can go back and figure out how to twist two picots together!

I'll also have to remember to join the last ring. Yup, I forgot to join it, and I didn't realize it until I was hiding my ends. So, I just kind of sewed it together. I figure if sewing together was good enough for tatters in the 1800s, it's good enough for me!

My grandson had his first soccer game of the season today, and we drove up to watch him play. It's an hour and a half drive each way, so I took some tatting along, of course!

I don't like to try and follow patterns in the car, so I chose my favorite pattern, Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel glass mat. I've been very good about sticking to my ball of white for the snowflakes, but I don't have enough left from that ball to make another snowflake... good reason to try out my new Perfect Quilter thread! I had 17 spools to choose from, and of course I chose blue. Look how tiny this Spinning Wheel is going to be!

This really is a nice thread to tat with. Maybe they should have called it Perfect Tatter!

Because I needed it?

Nope... that excuse won't work. I have enough of each size to open a small shop.

Because Fox made me do it? Not really. She's very good at enabling me, but if I blamed her, she'd probably turn around and blame Liyarra. That just wouldn't be fair.

Because it was on sale? That's probably the best reason. Who can pass up a sale? Certainly not me!

But seriously, couldn't I have done without 17 cones (there should have been 18, but they ran out of one color), 300 yds. each, of Perfect Quilter thread?

Obviously, not!