Practicing picots

Dylan and Shelby went to town practicing picots over the weekend!

Dylan chose a motif that I tatted.

Shelby chose a motif from Carollyn.

The girls did a great job keeping their picots uniform in size, and I can tell that they really like choosing their on thread colors.

I haven't accomplished much on the tatting front. I've been letting mundane things like cooking, laundry, and sleep take over my life. ;-)

I did manage to tat Doodad Snowflake #1 (minus the doodad). Think how much I could accomplish if I didn't fall asleep in my chair at night!

Getting ready...

to share goodies with the third graders! Carollyn sent some tatted pieces that her daughter stitched to little cards. Aren't they adorable? Thank you Carollyn!

I have a weakness for Whitman Sampler tins, and if I'm honest, I like the chocolate too!

Don't you think it's a great tin for holding tatted goodies for the kids?

It snowed all day yesterday, and while I did get some tatting done, I mainly worked on my newest scarf. I'm knitting another "Saroyan" by Liz Abinante. Now that I know what I'm doing with the pattern, I really like it. Maybe I'll even block this one!

More Fancy Pants!

My third graders are having so much fun tatting, and I am experiencing the most enjoyable year of my teaching career!

Let's see if I can remember who each of these tatters is from her hands...

Brooke

Dylan

Shelby

I hope I remembered correctly! If I didn't, I'll make corrections after I see the girls on Monday. As you can see, Dylan and Shelby chose tatted motifs from Fox as their reward for tatting 6" of Fancy Pants. There are other third grade tatters who are getting very close to reaching their goal, so I decided to gather together some tatted motifs for them. I found quite a few in my tatting treasure box, but I also tatted some more motifs.

This is the first motif from Patti Duff's Minitats. I had planned to tat motifs from this book all weekend, but I took the book to school to show the kids, and I left it on my desk. Luckily, I have other books with patterns I love to tat!

This is the left bud fragment from Tatting with Visual Patterns by Mary Konior...

and this is the right bud fragment.

I also tatted Masquerade from the same book.

The kids really like my snowflakes, so maybe I'll tat some of those up this weekend. Teaching others is great motivation!

The kids want tatting!

That's what several of them told me yesterday.

So, last night I pulled out one of my favorite threads, Lizbeth #149, a shuttle, and Patti Duff's Minitats. Once again, it took me three times to tat this motif correctly, but I have three pieces for the kids to choose from.

I really need to go through my sewing room. I know I have lots of motifs that I can share with them. My goal is to have my little tin overflowing with motifs so that the kids can choose one they like whenever they achieve a goal.

One more child asked to learn how to tat yesterday. That means that out of 53 third graders, 52 have asked for a shuttle. Isn't that amazing? Only about half of them are practicing on a regular basis, but I'm okay with that. I'm just thrilled that so many have shown any interest at all!

Sun Dogs

We had Monday and Tuesday off school because of blowing and drifting snow and frigid temperatures. You'd think that I'd sleep in, but I didn't. One advantage to getting up early is watching the sun rise. Yesterday's was spectacular! I admit, I didn't notice at first. Dave called me to the window to see. I might have missed seeing this if he had left for work on time.

I had read about sun dogs and I've seen pictures before, but until yesterday I had never seen them myself. Aren't they amazing? Dave took the picture for me... it was way too cold and windy for me to be outside!

Increase section with eyelets... unintentional!

I've been doing some knitting. I figured that a little different hand and arm motion might help out with my wrist and elbow, and I was right. This is a Saroyan scarf, pattern by Liz Abinante. You can find it on Ravelry if you're interested. My sister-in-law gave me some yarn for Christmas, and I was very excited, because it appeared that I'd be able to make the scarf with one skein... wrong!

Sometimes I just don't read carefully. I actually needed two skeins, nearly 400 yards, to complete this scarf, but by the time I realized it, I was nearly halfway through knitting it. I decided to only knit three pattern repeats for the center section instead of the ten shown on the pattern, making it a shorter scarf. By the time I finished, I realized that I probably had enough yarn to knit four pattern repeats in the center. Oh, well!

The pattern is divided into three sections. The first section is increasing to the desired depth. Six pattern repeats were used for the sample. Even though I haven't followed a knitting pattern for ages, I thought I remembered everything I needed to know. Oh, how I wish I'd refreshed my memory! About three pattern repeats into the decrease section, I noticed that there was no eyelet next to the leaves. There was on the increase section.

Decrease section without eyelets, as it is supposed to be. Oops! I made a big mistake at the end!

As I neared the end of the scarf, I realized that I wasn't going to have enough stitches to complete the decrease pattern at the end. I know I made a mistake somewhere, I'm just not sure where! The scarf won't go to waste. I have a friend whose daughter loves to dress up. I'm going to offer the scarf to her for dress-up. That way someone will love it, and I won't have to see it! ;-)

Now that I know where I made my mistakes, I've started another. So far, so good! I think this will be my sister-in-law's Christmas present next year. Since she chose the yarn, I'm sure she'll love it!

I'm slowly easing back in to tatting. Yesterday morning I took out my Minitats by Patti Duff. Lelia at Stitches of Life II has been working her way through this book, and she has tatted some beautiful samples! I didn't think I had enough thread left on the shuttle for another motif, so I decided to turn it into a bookmark. I don't think this is especially appealing, but I had fun.

I'm way behind on Jane's T.I.A.S., because I was having trouble with my split rings. As you can see, I did manage three here. They were torturous! I just can't seem to develop the correct rhythm for split rings, and I certainly struggle when picots have to be added, especially when they're on the second half. I'm not giving up yet, but it may be summer before I manage to finish!

Mom's dark green Spinning Wheel is coming along slowly but surely. With any luck, I'll have it to her in time for Valentine's Day!

Fancy Pants

I needed a way to encourage my third graders to improve their tatting. How could I do it? They were so excited to learn the double stitch. What could possibly be better than the double stitch? Then I remembered the title of Donna Edwards' book, Fancy Pants.

I told the kids that the next step after learning the double stitch was to learn "fancy pants." It worked! I now have kids telling me that they're still practicing the double stitch, and they'll let me know when they're ready for fancy pants. I have others who come to me eager to learn the secret of fancy pants. This is so much fun!

I love seeing the way kids learn. Some spend time learning from YouTube videos that they can view on my iPad.

Others sit in small groups and help each other, and there are some who want some one-on-one time with me.

They come to the library after lunch, and they work on their tatting after they've completed their library work for the day. Some of them even start tatting in the cafeteria as soon as they finish their lunch. Isn't it great?

Fox was kind enough to send some goodies for the kids to choose from when they achieve goals. I've told them that they may select one item from the goody box once they've tatted six inches of fancy pants.

Alexis was the first to reach the goal. Her tatting is beautiful! As you can see, she chose one of the motifs that Fox sent. Next week, Alexis will add picots to her chains, and she'll get to choose different thread colors. There are several girls who are close behind, so I expect to be opening the goody box again on Monday!

Gung ho tatters

Three of my third graders needed thread today, because they've been practicing their chains. I was so excited to have them wind more thread onto their floss bobbins! After they perfect their chains, we'll move on to rings.

They love their shuttles, and they love learning to tat! Today I gave the two third grade teachers shuttles and thread. Who knows? Maybe we'll have a local tatting chapter yet! ;-)