Getting ready!

We've cleaned up from Thanksgiving, and today we are getting ready for Christmas! Dave has been busy washing windows and putting lights on the tree. I'm sure that the people driving by our house at 55 mph will be able to notice that the windows are clean. ;-)

As soon as the tree is in place, I'll start decorating. That's our deal... Dave does the lights. I do the ornaments.

In anticipation of today's activities, I decided to get in the Christmas spirit by tatting a Christmas tree.

This is Ruth Perry's Tatted Christmas Tree 2013, a great little pattern! Ruth has beads at the base of the tree, but I decided to try a doodad because they were sitting right next to me. My next one will have beads just like Ruth's. Oh, yes... there will be more Christmas trees! Thank you, Ruth!

I used size 20 Lizbeth #601, Snow White. I purchased doodads from Fire Mountain Gems, item #H20-8942FX. This is a multi-pack of 500. I know... that's a lot of doodads!The S hooks are from Wirestorm Creations. Some day I'll be brave and try some of the colored S hooks!

What's in your basket of Christmas tatting?

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!