Baiduri

I've done it! I've completed the next snowflake, Baiduri, from Jon Yusoff's wonderful little book, Elegant Tatting Gems. This time I used size 40 Lizbeth, color #143 (Royal Wave), which was a gift from my friend Denise. Don't you just love the blue and white together? It looks so crisp and fresh!

Mid-day at the oasis...

is so much more fun than Black Friday crowds!

This isn't the greatest picture, but hey... I was holding my phone and taking a picture at the same time! From left to right... yours truly, Marilee, Sue Anna, and Jean.

We met about 10:30 and shared stories, laughter, and tatting goodies until about 3:30. We had a vendor come up and ask us what we were doing. One of her customers thought we were knitting for her! Ha! Ha! The vendor had heard of tatting, but didn't take us up on our offer of a free lesson. We certainly had enough supplies with us!

Michelle, are you sitting down as you're reading this? I was able to teach Marilee how to tat a single shuttle split ring! Me! Can you believe it? Sue Anna jumped right in and taught us both a neat little trick to make the SSSR even more easily. I'll have to play with it to see if I remember what she taught us. Sue Anna is a treasure trove of information!

Jean is a newbie, and she spent quite a bit of time perfecting her flip. We were all thrilled that she made her very first ring while spending time with us! Unfortunately, Jean doesn't have a blog... yet! We'll have to keep working on her to get her to blog. I do think she's addicted to tatting. How could she not be with Marilee as her teacher?

Sue Anna surfed the Internet on her iPhone to check out Etsy and various blogs. She is so much fun to be around! I wonder if she knows I call her Sue Anna the Enabler when I'm at home? She enabled all of us to tat with very generous gifts of Lizbeth and hand-dyed thread. She even gave me some shuttles to bling. I know she's waiting for the Random Number Generator to choose her number!

Marilee shared some of her hand-dyed thread with us. Her colors are beautiful! She also graciously autographed our copies of her new book, Tatted Jewelry.

Here's Jean working on closing her very first ring!

I'm probably leaving something out, but we did have a wonderful day together! Ladies, thank you for driving so far so that we could spend some tatting time together!

A perfect match!

Did you see the pretty pendants that Jane's been making? I'm the lucky recipient of one of them! I wore it to school the other day with my new sweater, and oh... the compliments I received! Not on the sweater, mind you... on the pendant! I was very pleased to tell all of my admirers that my friend Jane made it for me. The kids were especially impressed by it, and I was asked questions about lace, England, and William Shakespeare... gotta love those teachable moments!

Thank you, Jane!

Success!

I'm not sure when I'll use a single shuttle split ring, but now I know I can! After our online Tat 'n Chat on Saturday, I was determined to master this technique. Despite my best efforts, I just could not make another ring.

Last night, I went to YouTube and found Karen Cabrera's video. Suddenly, everything clicked! Thank you, Karen!

Almas

I love this snowflake! It's Almas from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff in size 40 Lizbeth, color #163.

Don't look too closely, please. There are three, yes I said three, places where I forgot to join to a picot! I went back and sewed the "mistakes" together... after all, that's how tatters used to join pieces... and I think I did a fairly good job. However, I don't think I'll give this snowflake to a tatter. I'll give it to someone who doesn't know what she's looking at! : )

Tat 'n Chat

Somehow I lost the picture... must be that I'm a computer pro! ; )

This morning Michelle, Cindy, Dena, Teresa and I connected on ooVoo for some tatting and chatting. What fun! I learned how to make a single shuttle split ring!

Notice I said "a" single shuttle split ring... the top ring is a regular old ring. The second ring has a decorative loop. The third ring is only half a ring... somehow I lost the rest of it. The fourth ring is true single shuttle split ring... yea! With great confidence, I tatted a fifth single shuttle split ring. However, after I took the photo, I noticed that just like the second ring, it sports a decorative loop. I guess I need more practice!

It was a lot of fun! Thanks ladies! I really enjoyed spending time with you and learning a new technique. Now, if I could only find that picture...

There it is! Proof that we got together!

First snow

As I was leaving school yesterday afternoon, thick, wet clusters of snowflakes the size of quarters were falling. Our first snow only lasted for about 15 minutes, but it was enough coat the ground. I'm glad I took this picture this morning, because the snow was gone by mid-morning.

Keeping with the snow theme, I decided to work on Adan from Elegant Tatting Gems by Jon Yusoff. I was fortunate to be a test-tatter for Jon's book, and I think I've made this pattern three times now. I think I like it because it's so close to my grandson's name, Aidan. : )

I really like this color, #130, size 20 Lizbeth, but I think I'll tat my next snowflake in a different color... no sense in letting the other threads I have just lie there!