Let it snow! Day 23

I tatted another quick doodle tonight... no pattern... just mindless tatting. You see, my brain is mush...

after finally finishing Doily 4 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito. Here you see it just tossed onto my footstool. I'll block it tomorrow. Why is my brain mush? Well, with seven pattern repeats to go, I realized I'd left out a ring and a chain necessary to the design. So, I had some retro-tatting to do. After dinner tonight, I finished the last pattern repeat, only to discover that I had one pattern repeat too many! So, snip snip, re-tat, and ta-da!

Granddaughter Ella helped fill the final shuttle with thread...

and she was very pleased with the way "the big snowflake" turned out!

1/3

Isn't it looking great? I really am enjoying this pattern. Even though it is very large, it has been a very easy pattern to follow. I'm really looking forward to seeing my sister-in-law's reaction to it on Christmas Eve!

I was saddened today to read of the passing of Jan Stawasz. I have both of his books and some of his shuttles. I greatly admire his work, and I'm sure there are many in the tatting community who will miss his talent.

This fall has been incredibly busy, and I've been enjoying every moment! I do take time to read all of the blogs I follow every day, although not all at one sitting. I have been aggravated by the fact that I can only leave comments on about half of the blogs I visit. I wonder if it is a problem on my end? I suppose it's something I'll have to investigate when I have a little more free time.

I probably won't have time to post again before Thanksgiving Day. The festivities are at my house this year, and I'll be spending tomorrow cleaning, shopping, and prepping for Thursday. I love Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

One quarter!

That's right... I'm one quarter of the way around, and I love the way it looks. No time to chat... have to tat!

Lofty goals

My goal was to finish this by Thanksgiving. I'm not sure that's possible with 32 pattern repeats and an hour and twenty minutes for each pattern repeat. It's not that there isn't enough time in the day. I probably could finish two repeats a day if my hands could hold out!

I'll just keep going. I don't really have to finish by Thanksgiving, just by Christmas Eve, and I'm confident that I can finish by then! :-)

Only one pattern repeat...

That's all I have in me tonight.

I did watch the clock to see how long it took... one hour and twenty minutes. I shaved ten minutes off my time. I feel like a speed tatter!

The final round

...is going to take a while!

I'm pretty sure each of these pattern repeats took me about an hour and a half, although I didn't actually watch the clock. There are 32 pattern repeats... only 29 to go!

One more round!

I was able to tat a lot this weekend, because my Internet was down Friday night through Saturday. Since I had no access to my blog buddies, I was able to achieve my goal of finishing this round. 

The last round is going to take a bit of time, because it weaves in and out. The doily is going to be larger than I anticipated. It's already 10"  and as I started working on the last round, I realized that my doily will probably be close to 18" when it's finished. Why? The directions called for size 50 thread, and I'm using size 20. Dang!

and then there were 12...

...pattern repeats that is!

I know I only progressed a little bit, but I'm happy with what I have. I hope to finish this round this weekend, and then it will be on to the final round! Who knows? I could be finished by next weekend... just in time to start some Christmas snowflakes! :-)

Lovin' this round!

I only have seven pattern repeats done, but I love the way this round is looking! Only 25 repeats to go!

Two more rounds!

Doily 4 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito is now 9" with two rounds to go. I'm thrilled that I was able to get so much tatting time in yesterday, but I have a feeling the next two rounds will not go so quickly. I'm really interested in the next round because of the way it looks in the picture.

Should I post my daily progress, or wait until I have the next round finished? Decisions, decisions...

Apparently, Smee knits!

The middle school production of Peter Pan is next weekend and daughter Carol, aka Madame Director, requested a last minute prop... knitting needles with some knitting attached. It's been a long time since I've seen Peter Pan, and I really don't remember Smee knitting, but since Carol asked, I complied!

I decided that if I was going to knit, I might as well start a real project. This is one of my favorite patterns, a Seafarer's Scarf from The Seaman's Church Institute. I like this pattern, because the center is a knit 4, purl 4 ribbing, which makes a nice thick layer around the back of the neck... great for keeping winter winds at bay!

Smee was greatly impressed. We'll see if the start of the scarf is still intact when the play is over next weekend!

I did manage to finish tatting round 5 of my doily (Doily 4 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito) this week. It's now 6 3/4 inches. I need to wind my shuttles for the next round. I'll be supervising kids at play practice tomorrow. It will be the perfect time to get some tatting done!

Round 4

I've finished four rounds of Doily 4 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito. It's now 5 1/2" across. I did pin and steam after round 4 because of all the rippling, but I'd rather have rippling than see the piece cup like the last doily did. I'm very pleased with this one so far, and hopefully I'll have time to work on it this weekend.

Starting over

Well, I chose to quit the pattern that wasn't working for me. I will get back to it some day, just not when I have a deadline!

I chose doily #4 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito. I haven't tatted this particular doily before, but I have finished a similar one in the book.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

This pattern is working out so much better for me!

My new Sunlit shuttles arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I'm very happy with them! Since I have so much going on right now, I decided to check out how much thread the shuttle would hold.

I happened to have a ball of size 3 Lizbeth on the table next to my chair, so that's where I started. Silly me... I forgot to measure how much thread I used! I think it was about 4 yards. Anyway, this is how much I was able to tat with one shuttle full. The pattern is "Flower Fragment" from A Pattern Book of Tatting by Mary Konior.

Since the thread is so large, and every little thing shows up, I decided to use front side/back side tatting. I'm very proud of the fact that I was able to keep track of what I was doing! ;-)

However, I don't think I'll be using the Sunlit shuttles for size 3 thread. I would spend all my time winding shuttles!

The Starlit shuttles, on the other hand, hold plenty of thread to complete this pattern! There's even a little thread left on the shuttle. 

Now that I've finished with this pattern, I'll have to decide what to do with the rest of the size 3 thread. I really prefer finer threads. Although the thread is nice and smooth, the size felt a bit like tatting with rope!

Done and done!

I finished binding my quilt Thursday morning before school... 7:05 to be exact... and I left the house at 7:10!

On Saturday I made matching pillowcases. It took me all day to make four pillowcases... too much time on the phone with friends and family, plus laundry. Somehow, the house cleaning never got done. : )

On Sunday afternoon I washed all the sheets and re-made the bed with my beautiful new quilt. Luckily, it was nice and cool last night!

Then tonight, best of all, I finished my blue doily! I am thrilled with it! This is Project #1 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito. The finished size is 12" in size 50 Altin Basak, color #363. It's 12" in diameter. I think this is the largest piece I've ever tatted! I don't think I ever would have attempted this piece without inspiration from Barbara Payne. Thank you, Barbara!


Now, I think I'll take a little time to catch up on all the blog posts I've been missing!

More inspiration!

This time I was inspired by a facebook post by Barbara Payne. She had a lovely coaster, and I asked for the name of the pattern. Believe it or not, I have the book!

It's funny that sometimes patterns seem so difficult to me until I see what someone else has done. Why is that? I guess I have to see that someone other than the designer is able to follow the pattern!

This is the first doily pattern in Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito. If I'm counting correctly, I have ten rounds to go, so this one will take me a while to complete. The thread is size 50 Altin Basak, color #363. So far, so good! Thanks for the inspiration, Barbara!

I also had the urge to bling yesterday.

This time I decided to make a personalized shuttle for myself. Can you see the sparkly little "D" in the middle? Of course, I had to add a touch of blue!