Fumble fingers

Daughter Joanne and family had planned to return home on Saturday or Sunday, but they decided to stay for another week. Yay! I really enjoy having them around. I wish I could have all four of my daughters and all seven grandchildren here all summer long. Imagine the fun we could have!

My friend Margaret asked me to test tat her Taj Mahal Ice Drop pattern. I was eager to get started, and I did fine until the 4th round. I've done SCMRs before, and I've done split chains without any problem... until yesterday and today. I've lost count of how many times I've retro-tatted this segment. It took me at least five tries to get the SCMR right, and now I can't do a split chain for anything. It's not the directions; it's just me. My fingers and brain just aren't working together.

I decided that a change of pace must be in order. After all, a familiar pattern can be so relaxing. I decided to tat Eightsome Reel by Mary Koniorin Marilee Rockley's Lantana Citrus hand-dyed thread. You would think I had never read a pattern before. Honest to goodness, this little section took me a good hour to tat. I'm blaming the humidity!

My knitting is also moving along slowly. I am making progress with Blue Jean Saturday, but I've had to frog quite a few rows because of mistakes. Maybe I'm having trouble because we're in the dog days of summer. That seems to be as good an excuse as any!

A Terrible Beauty

Yes, it's nasty out there, but does it really count as a blizzard? I'm not sure. In the years that we've lived here, I've seen snow storms that dumped more snow at a faster rate, and we've had sustained high winds that prevented me from seeing the shed from my front door. That didn't happen this time. Still, I know we won't be going any where today, and possibly tomorrow.


This is the view from my front door. I think it's going to take a while to move this stuff! I remember the winter of 1983/84. The snow drifts in front of the shed were 15 feet high, so we could only see the peak from our front door. Daughter Alison remembers climbing to the top of the drift and sliding down.


Looking out the back door, things don't seem so bad. The snow is about 6" deep on the ground, and about 3" deep on the porch. Everything looks so serene!


Looking to the left from my front door, we can see some awesome drifts, evidence that the wind was, indeed, blowing. It's snowing some more right now, and the prediction is that it will snow until noon. We'll be okay as long as the wind doesn't kick up. Dave's out taking pictures right now... I think he's having fun!


So, what's a girl to do when she's snowed in? Tat, of course! A while back, Fox sent me some thread samples. Was it Valdani? I have a terrible memory, and I'm too lazy to go back and look. Any way, I wound thread onto one of my tortoise shell Clover shuttles, and my pretty little shuttle from Tatting-Marie. I love the way Mary Konior's "Star" motif turned out! The finished size is 2 1/2".


I think I may be on the verge of a "Star" binge! The pattern can be found in Tatting Patterns by Mary Konior. I hope you're lucky enough to own a copy of this book. I think it's fantastic!