And suddenly it's Friday!

I just didn't think to blog yesterday.

I was busy sewing face masks! I only finished a dozen, but I like to think that my small contribution will be helpful.

Today I focused on finishing my second Sanditon MKAL. I love the way it looks in a solid color!

Granddaughter Sophia received a sewing basket, plastic canvas, yarn needles, and scissors for her birthday. It's a grandma's duty to encourage fiber crafts! I was thrilled that Joanne sent me a picture of Sophia working with her supplies today. Maybe she'll be able to come visit this summer so that I can load her up with more craft supplies!

Clean the shed!

Dave spent the day cleaning the shed. No, I didn't make him do it. I only go in the shed when it's absolutely necessary!

I was a good girl and stayed inside! I tried a variation with my Doodle Ice Drop. On the chain, I tatted 3-3-3-3 instead of 6-6. On the outside round, I did a lock join on the extra picots. I don't really like the look, but it was fun to experiment!

Another bookmark was in order today. This is "Wave" from Tatted Bookmarks by Robin Perfetti. I really enjoyed tatting this one!

I have five rows left to knit on Clue 5 of the Sanditon MKAL. I still plan on having a drawing for one of the high school girls to win this shawl. I'm not sure if or when there will be prom this year. We received word today that there will be remote learning through the end of April. Prom is usually the first weekend in May. Still, I hope to make one of the girls happy!

There are 32 Ice Drops on my little tree. My grandchildren took three home, so I have a total of 35 for the month of March!

After taking a picture of my Ice Drops for the month, I've been carefully setting them in a box. I have two of these boxes that look like books. I'm guessing I'll be able to fit six month's worth of Ice Drops in this box. I'll have quite a collection to share when the holidays roll around again!

Internet slowdown

Our Internet has been extremely slow the past few days. I'm not sure if it's because I'm stubborn and stick with a basic package, or if it's because of an increased number of people working from home. I'm guessing it's the latter, or possibly a combination of the two. At any rate, I've been trying to post for more than two hours, and I can't help wondering if I should try to post at a different time.

I spent quite a bit of time walking on my porch yesterday. It was chilly, but it felt good to walk outside with the sun shining!

Again, I only tatted one Doodle Ice Drop. This one is in size 20 Lizbeth #699, Harvest Gold. The shuttle is from Chris Hinton. I often wonder what happened to Chris. I haven't heard anything about him in years.

I spent time working on my Sanditon shawl yesterday. So far I've been okay with the eyelet rows, but I'm being extremely careful and knitting very slowly!

Takin' it easy

I felt like taking it easy today, but I still accomplished a lot!

Before breakfast, I tatted some flowers for Vicki Clarke's and Cynthia Stevenson's project. They take very little time and very little thread, and they're fun to tat!

It took me most of the day to tat this Doodle Ice Drop and matching flower. The thread is size 20 Lizbeth #172, Pink Marble. The ceramic shuttle is another beauty by Sherry Pence (LadyShuttleMaker). I do love my ceramic shuttles!

I only had two rows left to finish Clue 3 of the Sanditon MKAL, which I was able to do between laundry loads. Tomorrow I'll start Clue 4.

Tonight, I think I'll relax and read a book!

Shuttle love

I'm really glad that I chose to showcase my shuttle collection while tatting Ice Drops. I'm taking out favorites that I haven't used in a while, and I'm loving every tatting minute!

Today's Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #186, Pastel Petals. The shuttle is another ceramic beauty from Sherry Pence (LadyShuttleMaker). Are you lucky enough to have a ceramic shuttle in your collection?

My Sanditon shawl is growing! I knit four more rows today, which seems like a great accomplishment as the stitch count grows. I think it looks dull in the picture, but in person, this yarn is gorgeous!

Thinking of Spring

Today's Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #615, Yellow Lt. I love a nice, soft yellow! This is another favorite ceramic shuttle from Sherry Pence (LadyShuttleMaker). I love the mossy green in this shuttle. The combination of thread color and shuttle have me thinking of Spring!

Things are going pretty smoothly with my Sanditon shawl. I think they key has been knitting slowly and counting stitches frequently!

March comes in like a lion?

It didn't come in like a lion here in our part of Illinois. It was mild and breezy yesterday and today. I'm not complaining!

I did start the month of right with an Ice Drop. I just wasn't in the mood to work on the computer yesterday. This Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #714, Seacrest Green. The ceramic shuttle is by Sherry Pence aka LadyShuttleMaker.

I spent many hours working on my second Sanditon shawl yesterday. I'm still struggling with eyelet rows. Luckily, I have been able to find and resolve my mistakes much more quickly than I did with the last shawl!

Today's Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #153, Rainbow Taffy. The ceramic shuttle is one of my favorites from Sherry Pence.

The high school production of Back to the 80s: the Totally Awesome Musical is in less than two weeks, and with it has come a renewed interest among the high school students with Rubik's cubes. I did some searching and found quite a few variations of puzzle cubes. I purchased some and took them to school today. It was kind of fun to see the kids focusing on puzzles instead of smart phones!

The February Collection

I remembered to take pictures of my February Ice Drops while the sun was shining!

I was asked to take a picture of the different shades of blue I tatted in February. I'm kind of surprised at how many there are!

Here are 31 of the Ice Drops I tatted in February. I know I mailed some off to Mom, and I gave at least one away at school. I think I was pretty productive.

I'm enjoying knitting the Sanditon MKAL for the second time. I did have a moment of panic on the eyelet row... more like an hour of panic. I came out with the wrong stitch count at the end of the row, or so I thought! I carefully examined my stitches and couldn't see any mistakes, so I unknit the row. When I finished taking out the row, I realized that my stitch count had been correct. I was looking at the wrong row of directions! I took a break from knitting, made dinner, and then I was able to continue without any problems. Whew!

Tropical Day

Today was Tropical Day at school. Staff members were encouraged to dress for a day in the tropics. Daughter Carol went all out, even getting a grass skirt from the prop room! I was lucky to pull out an old shirt of my dad's that I've been meaning to use for quilt blocks. I also wore my Birkenstocks, but it was way too cold for me to go without socks, long sleeves, and full length pants. Carol's feet look awfully cold to me!

Today's Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #712, Kelly Green Medium. The copper shuttle is by Sherry Pence, LadyShuttleMaker.

I'm making steady progress on my second Sanditon MKAL. I have ten rows to go on the first clue. I'm working much more slowly on this one, and I've had far fewer mistakes. I guess I'm just one of those people who should work at a slow and steady pace!

This and that

I subbed today, but I managed to do a little of this and a little of that.

Of course I had to tat a Doodle Ice Drop! This one's in size 20 Lizbeth #706, Sunkist Coral. The shuttle is by Dave Stanbrough of Grizzly Mountain Arts.

I took my knitting along with me, just in case I had a little time. I knit four or five rounds while talking with 6th graders. I think this cowl will be finished soon!

I only managed to knit one scrubby today. This one is Sand Stitch. Once again, I messed up the last row of the pattern, but I keep telling myself that this is just a scrubby!

I also managed to knit a few rows on my Sanditon shawl. I've been so much more careful this time, and I have only had one spot where I had to take out three or four stitches to fix my mistake. I don't want to jinx myself, so I'm knitting this one slowly!

Starting again

I wore my Sanditon shawl to school yesterday, and since I had so many compliments I decided to start another. This Yarn Bee 44th Street in silvery grey seemed the perfect fit!

The suggested needle size is 5, but I tend to knit loosely. I tried size 3 needles, but didn't like the stitch definition. So, I'm using size 2 again. Now that I know what to look for in the pattern, I think this will be an enjoyable knit!

I'm continuing with my scrubby project, starting with Double Seed Stitch from Barbara G. Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. Don't tell anyone, but I accidentally knit the last row repeat three times instead of two. I'm pretty sure my grandchildren won't notice!

Today's Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #702, Coral Orange Medium. I love this little shuttle. I can't remember where it's from, but it's smooth and light. Don't you love a good shuttle?

Knitting and tatting

I finished my Sanditon MKAL last night and blocked it this morning. I'm very pleased with it, and I think I may knit another.

One of the ladies in the knit-along asked where knitters could find other knit-alongs. It turns out there's a page on Ravelry called MKAL Fanatics. Of course I had to browse! I found a link to Liz Chandler's Heart Face Scrubby. I had seen this earlier in the month, but I was too involved in other projects to check it out. This was a fast and easy knit, and I got to thinking that this would be a great way to sample knitting stitches.

I bought this book years ago, thinking it would be great to work my through it.

I started with January 1, and my knitting looked nothing like the picture.

I Googled the pattern name and found a YouTube video tutorial. The pattern was pretty straightforward, but once again my knitting did not match the picture.

I decided not to spend any more time with trying to figure out what the pattern was and moved on to January 2. It's hard to see with the variegated yarn, but once again my knitting did not resemble the photo.

Moving on the January 3, I felt like I was close to knitting something similar to the picture, but it's still not quite right.

I decided to do some research on the book and found that the edition I have does not have errata online. I've emailed the publisher to see if I can get corrections, but I believe the book is out of print, so I don't have great expectations. I have other pattern books, so I guess I'll move on to them.

Dave and I went wine tasting yesterday, and I managed to tat a Doodle Ice Drop in the car. It's in size 20 Lizbeth #694, Harvest Orange Med. The shuttle is a Doodle Art shuttle from Dave Stanbrough of Grizzly Mountain Arts.

After finishing my knitting experiments today, I tatted another Doodle Ice Drop in size 20 Lizbeth #695, Bright Orange. Yes, that is another beautiful Doodle Art shuttle from Grizzly Mountain Arts!

Girls' day out

I went out to lunch today with two of my daughters and my sister-in-law. It was the first time we've done something like this, and we had a wonderful time.

I managed to finish Clue 5 of the Sanditon MKAL before we headed out. Clue 6, the final clue, is due out tomorrow. I'm excited to see how this is finished off!

After Alison headed home, I worked on my Linens and Threads Mystery Sampler. I've switched to a Q Snap frame. Using a scroll frame with a stand was too awkward for me. This is much easier to handle. I still have quite a bit to stitch from the January section. I'm hoping to finish with January before the March section is released!

My eyes got pretty tired after a couple hours of stitching, so I tatted a Doodle Ice Drop in size 20 Lizbeth #691, Mocha Brown Med. The shuttle is from Veronica of Tatting Shuttles on Etsy. I love the texture of the wood!

One more

Today was another one Ice Drop day. I'm enjoying subbing at the elementary school this week, but it does cut into my tatting time! This Doodle Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #685, Evergreen Dk. The shuttle is another beauty from Middy Clark of The Knotted Vine. I feel very lady-like using teardrop shuttles!

I'm halfway through this week's clue on my Sanditon MKAL. Stitch markers have saved me a lot of grief!

Making mistakes

Today seemed to be filled with mistakes. I forgot to put glass gems in my tatting bag, so I was only able to tat two partial Doodle Ice Drops. At least I had time to finish them when I got home! This one is in size 20 Lizbeth #673, Terra Cotta. The shuttle is from Middy Clark of The Knotted Vine.

I'm glad that I had two shuttles wound, or I would have been really bored while supervising students! This Ice Drop is in size 20 Lizbeth #677, Lime Green Medium.

I'm making pretty good progress with my Sanditon MKAL. I have seven rows completed of Clue 5, but the edge stitches are wrong on rows 2, 4, and 6. I'm leaving it. There are many mistakes in this shawl that I'm sure most people would never notice. I'm enjoying the knit, and that's what matters!