Button ornaments

 

I haven't done a lot of tatting in the past three months. When I have, I've made button ornaments. These were sitting in a dish waiting for finishing, which I did this afternoon. I'm not sure how many I've made this year, but I know I have plenty for Christmas gift giving!

A lot of my summer reading has been the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child. I'm reading them in order of publication, and I really enjoy the stories. However, the author's use of incomplete sentences and misplaced commas just about drives me crazy!

Tollway Tatters Zoom!

 

We had our monthly Tollway Tatters Zoom meeting today with nine in attendance. I do miss meeting on the Tollway, but meeting via Zoom means that anyone can join us without worrying about weather or traveling.

My project for today was going to be Robin Perfetti's Classic Heart. However, after about 45 minutes of tatting I realized I hadn't been joining the rings to create a curve. I guess I was having too much fun visiting! Anyway, I quietly snipped off my tatting and decided to work on some button ornaments instead. I'm pretty good at tatting them while chatting!

This afternoon I worked on my newest knitting project, Pebble Arch Shawl by Karen Hoyle. Mom and I found some Christmas sock yarn on sale at Mary Maxim and decided that we should start next year's Christmas knitting now. This color way is called Candy Cane. Mom started Reyna with Mistletoe Sparkle, which is really pretty. However, it has a metallic thread running through it, and that metallic thread was cutting Mom's fingers. The combination of cold, dry air and metallic thread was just too much for Mom. She'll be starting Reyna over again with a beautiful wool that she bought at our local yarn shop, Yarn Hollow. Mom's a pretty fast knitter, so maybe I'll have a picture to share the next time I blog.

Weather predictions are for a snow storm in the middle of the week. We really haven't had much snow this year. I don't get all wound up about storm predictions. It seems they're usually wrong. Still, we are prepared. There's food in the house. Dave has the snowblower ready, and Mom and I have plenty of crafting supplies!

Button ornaments

Today I played with a new design, and I think that it will look good once I'm consistent with the outer rings. I have four different stitch counts going on there, not intentionally! I was kind of daydreaming as I tatted and kept making mistakes. At least I have a good idea of which size ring looks best to me!

During our Tollway Tatters meeting this morning, I played around with this design that I tried the other day. I finally have it the way I like it, and I think this will be my Christmas ornament for the year. I don't think I'll go crazy and try to design a different ornament each day in December, but I may have a few new ideas this year... no promises!

New buttons

 

There's no hope for me. I see something. I get inspired. I buy.

It all started with a search for buffalo plaid napkins. Yes, I found the napkins... and then, magically, all sorts of items in buffalo plaid showed up as suggestions. How could I resist buffalo plaid buttons?

The buttons arrived yesterday, and I couldn't resist getting started on ornaments today!

I didn't get much done on my collar today, but every little bit counts!

Carry-along tatting

 

I did not succeed in making my Dorset button ornament yesterday. I started the morning by tearing apart my bedroom closet. I was about halfway through reorganizing it when I received a call asking me to sub. The clutter was left on the bed while I fixed a quick breakfast and lunch, and 20 minutes later I was out the door. Luckily, I had my carry-along tatting in my purse!

Subbing in art class gave me plenty of time to tat. It seemed natural for me to be working on my projects, while the kids were working on their assignments. It's been a while since I've used these wooden two-hole buttons. The gold thread I had with me seemed like the perfect accent!

Too busy to blog... again!

Blogging really doesn't take that much time, but for the past few days I've felt too busy to blog. We had cleanup from the dinner theater, typical for this time of year. I've been subbing quite a bit, and I have my regular part-time job of lunch supervision. I'm reading a murder mystery called The Trouble with Tulip by Mindy Starns Clark. Of course there are all the normal household chores, but none of these things have kept me from blogging for long. Maybe I'm just getting lazy! ;-)

Another Dorset button and Dorset button ornament are my biggest achievements of the week. I love this blue/green perle cotton!

While subbing on Monday, I managed to tat two button ornaments.

I guess I should really start calling these donut ornaments!

On Tuesday, I experimented with air dry clay and my Springerle rolling pins and molds. They're still not completely dry. When they are, I will take them to school for students and staff members to decorate. Then they will be offered for sale at Christmas in the Village as a fund raiser for the drama club.

I subbed again yesterday and managed to tat two ornaments at school. I finished a third one last night. 

I'm keeping busy!

Well, I did it again!

I managed to not post for several days. This time I had an excuse... it was middle school play weekend!

Mom, my sister Janet, and I attended to Sunday matinee. Carol's assistant director took a picture of the four of us.

The kids did a fantastic job! It was easy to tell that the thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Despite all the busyness, I did manage to tat some more button ornaments. I feel like I'm slowing down in making ornaments, but it can't be helped. My days have been so busy, and I don't have the energy to do much at night.

My shuttle collecting continues. These are my two newest from Rita Richmond of Shuttle by Design. I love them!

Subbing

Subbing has been crazy this week! There's a terrible sub shortage, and this week I have subbed for multiple teachers in addition to doing my own job each day. I'm happy that I'm able to help out, but I sure am glad that I don't have to do all the planning. I just show up, go where they tell me to go, and follow the teacher's instructions. Luckily, we have great kids in our school district, so there are seldom any problems.

I have been tatting while subbing, something that's easy to do at the high school level.

Yesterday I subbed in the middle school, so there wasn't as much time to tat.

Today I'll be subbing in the elementary school, so there will be no time to tat.

I guess I'll just have to see how much I can sneak in before and after school!

Bottle caps and buttons

 

Yesterday was a slow tatting day, but I did manage to complete one bottle cap ice drop!

Today was another busy sub day, but I was able to tat quite a bit since I was with high school students who were busy writing essays that were due by the end of the school day. Good planning by the teacher!

After school, I worked on another bottle cap ice drop. I wonder what I'll be inspired to work on next?

Tollway Tatters Zoom!

Thanks to sweet Sue in Michigan, Tollway Tatters were able to meet via Zoom today. We were quite the international group! In attendance were Sue from Michigan, Jenni from Australia, Ines from Germany, Bernice from Canada, Karen from Virginia, Marilee from Wisconsin, Sue Anna from Illinois, and me from Illinois.

While it is very sad that we have lost our gathering place, the Hinsdale Oasis, it's wonderful that we can gather with international friends!

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While we were chatting, I finished the button ornament on the left. I also found the finished ornament on the right tucked into my tatting bag. It looks like I accomplished a lot today, even though all I really did was complete the last section of chain and then the hanger.

As I've been reorganizing and decluttering the sun room, I keep uncovering buried treasure! I found my baggie of Russian nesting doll bottle caps all ready for tatting. A new box of perle cotton was right next to my chair, and I saw a perfect match!

This afternoon I went out to do a little more reorganizing, and I came across some supplies for decorating more bottle caps. At first I was just going to put the supplies back in the box, but then I decided it would be better to go ahead and assemble them so they'd be ready for tatting. It looks like I'm in for some fun tatting!

Back in business

It's been very quiet around here. Our Internet went out Friday, came back for a very short time on Saturday and Sunday, and then went out again. Of course, I waited too long to make the service call, so I wasn't able to schedule service until yesterday afternoon. Luckily, the tech guy was very knowledgeable and had us back in business in about an hour. Something was wrong with the cable between the receiver on the shed and the house. A new line has been run, and I can easily access the Internet again!

I'm really enjoying working my way through Gina Barrett's boo, Dorset Ring Buttons. This one is Templar Cross - traditional in #8 perle cotton.

Next up is Encased Star, also in #8 perle cotton.

This one is called Open Star. For some reason, I found this one especially difficult. The spacing of the spokes looked even when I started, but by the time i was finished, everything looked off center and unevenly spaced. I didn't quite get the look of the pointed spokes, either. This is one I will definitely try again!

These two buttons are failed attempts at Swanston - M. Howitt 1985. The gray or silver one shows what happens when I use a ring that's too small and thread that's too thick. I've been working my way through my bag of 18 mm stitch markers, and this ring was mistakenly in the package. I decided to use it anyway, without changing to a finer thread. I was only able to complete two rounds of the pattern, so the spiral affect is not evident. For the last of the 18 mm stitch markers, I switched to Sulky Blendables 12 wt. The thread size was perfect, but I should have used a solid color. I lost the spiral pattern very quickly. There was just too much going on for me to be able to see what I was doing. I think I'll save the multi-colored threads for simpler designs!

These buttons won't go to waste. I've been talking to our art teacher about Artist Trading Cards (ATCs), and she's thinking of a school wide project for students and staff members. I've started gathering materials and ideas for my ATC, and I hope to have time to work on it this weekend. If the project goes through, I'll be sure to post pictures!

Before our Internet went down, I watched some more YouTube videos from Gina-B Silkworks. I was fascinated by the Hishikazari ornaments and Yubinuki thimbles, so I ordered the kits. I saw that there was a small book on Sashiko, which I've admired for years, so that ended up in my shopping cart as well. Now a I need is the time to do it all!

Subbing has been keeping me busy. The sub shortage is greater than ever with the pandemic still looming. When I'm subbing at the middle school or high school, there are times when I am just supervising as students work on their assignments. That allows me time for tatting. However, when I'm at the elementary school, there is no time for tatting. I don't mind that at all. The little ones are so much fun to work with!

I keep my tatting bag in my purse, and when I have time I do a little tatting. I was able to complete these five button ornaments over the past week... not bad for tatting while subbing!

Keeping busy

It was very humid today, a perfect day to sit inside and tat! I did go out on the porch for walks throughout the day, but otherwise I was  content to stay inside.

I'm working my way through my button ornament patterns. I'm finding that I really like some of them, and others just do nothing for me. Still, I had great fun creating them all last year. This is my December 2 pattern. I'm terrible with names, so naming them by dates kept me from getting bogged down with decision making.

The December 3 pattern is one that I can take or leave. I'm not real thrilled with the open spaces. The shuttle is one of my newest ones from Alexey Romanov.

December 4 is a pattern that just didn't seem right to me, so I decided to tweak it a little.

I changed the stitch count a little on the last round, and I think it has a much cleaner look. So now I have a December 4 variation!

December 5 is one I really like. One advantage of tatting these designs after months of ignoring them is that I have to follow my own directions. I know I had to revise several patterns because of mistakes that others found. It's funny that at the time I just couldn't see the mistakes in the patterns. Thank goodness there were tatters who asked for clarification!

Still playing with buttons

 

Last night I decided to give the Lychett Basket pattern another try. I did the casting before heading off to bed. Casting is covering the ring with the blanket stitch. This morning I did the slicking (pushing the bumps formed by the blanket stitch to the back), laying (wrapping the spokes around the ring), and rounding (weaving the pattern. 

Although this looks better than yesterday's attempt, it's far from being acceptable!

Since I wasn't doing very well with the Lychett Basket, I decided to set Dorset buttons aside and work on a button ornament. It's very satisfying to tat a familiar pattern!

I have a little tin that's holding the buttons, donuts, and findings that I plan on using with size 40 Lizbeth #669 Poppy Red. To make things more interesting, I just reach into the tin and pull something out. It helps keep things interesting!

I was going to try another Lychett Basket, but after three false starts I decided to make it into a Dorset Crosswheel. It looks like I need to work on my tension!

Playing with thread

Mom and I went to get our hair cut this morning, and then I spent the rest of the day playing with thread!

My blog posts will probably be pretty boring for a while. I have quite a selection of buttons and donuts that I plan to tat around with size 40 Lizbeth #669 Poppy Red. My December 1 button ornament pattern is pretty simple and tats up quickly, and I want to be sure to have plenty of ornaments for Christmas in the Village!

I plan on having some Dorset Crosswheel centers, so I'll be stitching up some of them as well.

My 5/8" four hole button stash doesn't seem to be getting smaller, even though I feel like I've been going through them like crazy!

It took me a while to figure out the Dorset Crosswheel variation. This was another one of those times when I wondered why I found it so difficult once I was finished!

I gave away most of my 5/8" two hole buttons, but I found some more so I might as well use them!

My final button of the day was supposed to be a Lychett Basket. This looks nothing like the picture on the pattern page! I'll use it as a center for a button ornament, but I know I'll be much happier when I create one that looks like the pattern picture!