Checkin' in

Sorry, I have no pictures to post! We had Thanksgiving at our house, and I forgot to take pictures. I'm busy working on Christmas surprises, so I can't post pictures of those. If I do anything that I can share, I'll be sure to let you know! 

More cookies

This morning I decided to try making biscotti. Dave usually makes the biscotti, using his mother's recipe. The cookies are always delicious, but the recipe calls for 10 cups of flour and a dozen eggs. That's way too much dough for me to handle!

I did some searching on the Internet and found a recipe that was close to my mother-in-law's, but in a much smaller amount... 2 cups of four and 2 eggs. I combined my mother-in-law's list of ingredients with the quantities of the new recipe. They turned out pretty good, and Dave even liked them! It's a good thing I wrote down what I did!

Mom and I went out to lunch, and then this afternoon I finished another button ornament. I'm happy to say that I definitely have enough thread for the set of six that I wanted for Christmas!

Cookie day

 Mom and I have been doing a pretty good job of eating cookies, and with Thanksgiving only a few days I knew it was time to replenish our stock! These should be dry enough to bake after dinner. I'm eager to try the new flavor I've tried, caramel!

I now have four green and gold button ornaments ready for Christmas gift giving. I need a minimum of six, and I'm running out of this color thread. I hope there's enough for the final two!

My collar is progressing slowly. I really don't think I'll have time to finish it in time for Thanksgiving. There's just too much I want to get done! Maybe Christmas? 

2021 Christmas ornament

This is definitely my 2021 Christmas ornament! I love the way it looks, and the pattern is pretty simple. Please feel free to try it out, and if you find any mistakes in the pattern, please let me know.

Because I'm so poor with choosing names, I'm using the date that I designed the ornament. It works for me!

 

November 17, 2021 Button Ornament

Materials:

3/4" four hole button

size 20 thread

Shuttle and ball

Symbols:

+  join

-  joining picot

Round 1:

Ring 4 - 4 + 4 - 4, reverse work (join to button)

Chain 5 - 5, reverse work

Repeat around button with three joins in each hole

On final ring, join to base of first ring instead of making a picot

Round 2 (with right side of button facing you):

Chain 5, lock join to picot

Chain 5, lock join to same picot

Chain 5, lock join to base of ring in previous round

Chain 5, lock join to picot

Chain 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1- 1 (7 picots), lock join to same picot

Chain 5, lock join to base of ring in previous round

Repeat around.

Tie, cut, and hide ends.

For hanger:

Unwind about an arm's length of thread from shuttle. 

Join to any 5 chain ring. 

Lock chain 50 stitches (flip first half of double stitch, do not flip second half).

Join to same ring.

Tie, cut, and hide ends.

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!

Keepin' it simple

 

I wasn't in the mood to tat anything fancy today, so I simply added a small picot to each chain. It looks good to me!

I made a little more progress on my collar today. I'm really enjoying this pattern!

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!