Re-do

It turns out that I made a major mistake in Alenalea's mystery doily. Luckily, my tatting friend Linda saw the mistake and sent me a message. The mistake... I tatted 11 blue rings instead of 12! Since we don't know what the rest of the doily looks like, it could cause major problems later on.

Rather that fix my mistake, I started over. Now I'm ready for next Wednesday's post!

Yes, I tatted another red, white, and blue Ice Drop!

I did some major reorganizing in the living room today, so I didn't have much time for tatting. Now that the space is reorganized, I need to get rid of those dust bunnies!

Having fun

It was a busy day around here today! We started off with a little gardening, but that didn't last long because of the heat and humidity. I know I'd never make it in the deep south!

Dave worked on our bathroom for a while. We're hoping the update will be finished by the end of the summer.

Since outside work was out of the picture, I had time to sit and tat!

I joined Alenalea Rako's mystery tat-along on Facebook. The first three rounds were presented yesterday. More will be posted each Wednesday until we are finished. I love mysteries!

I also worked on my sister-in-law's runner today. I actually spent more time untatting than tatting, because I made the same mistake at the beginning of the pattern repeat twice! It would have taken less time to snip and start over, but I stubbornly took out every little double stitch. It's about 1/4 finished, and if I would stick to my plan of tatting one motif a day, I'd have it done within a month. I guess I let myself get distracted by too many other things!

Today's Ice Drop is another red, white, and blue! 

Tree trimming

Daughter Carol once had five beautiful trees in her yard. Unfortunately, those beautiful trees have been falling victim, one by one, to the emerald ash borer. Last year Dave helped cut down two of them. Today we started on the third.

We spent about six hours at Carol's, and then headed out for lunch and a little shopping. We were both pretty tired when we arrived home. So, as you can probably guess, tatting took a back seat.

Still, I managed to tat one Ice Drop! 😊

Hard Maple Loom

I've been asked several questions about my looms, so I decided I would post some pictures of the process.

 When it got too hot for me to help out in the yard, I decided to warp my loom. The loom is from HardMapleLooms on Etsy. The loom has some adaptations that Mom requested, and I find that they come in quite handy... more on that later.

Dad made this cone holder for Mom years ago. It works great for warping at my kitchen island.

The length of the island gives me the size warp I want for my bands. I use a quilting ruler stand to hold my heddle in place. This one is from Off the Wall Quilt. It works great for me! The warping pegs are from TheKnitStore on Etsy.

I have a choice of threaders, which I use to pull the threads through the holes of the heddle. The top one is a dental floss threader. It works great in small places, but it's a bit hard to keep track of. The one with the green handle came with one of my other looms. The bottom one was a gift from Mom. I don't know if you can see, but it had a little loop at the end that helps keep the thread from falling out. This one's my favorite!

Unfortunately, my favorite threader was a little too big for this heddle. The one with the green handle worked well. I guess I'm a bit fussy with my threading. I've found that I prefer standing at the kitchen island for this part. At first, I would cut the threads on the peg to the left and then sit at the dining room table to finish the warping. I could never get the right angle, and my threads were constantly getting tangled.

Now I leave the threads on the peg and snip them one at a time. I'm able to easily pull back the thread that needs to go through the hole, and I can keep the threads at a fairly even length.

When I'm finished threading the holes, I like to slide the heddle all the way to the far end, then back. I can easily check my threading to make sure I didn't miss anything. It's a good thing I checked this time. I found three mistakes!

One of the adaptations Mom asked for was the addition of two sticks to attach to the metal rods. Gene Marino of HardMapleLooms came up with this solution. I add a little tie down on each side to keep them from popping off when I'm winding the warp. The first couple of times, I did not need these little tie downs, but I lost my touch and the sticks kept popping off. So to save myself some frustration, I just tied them down.

Here you can see the machine screws and how they align with the holes in the metal rod.

I snipped the ties off the back beam and took the stick to the far peg. It's easy to slide the end over the wooden stick and then place it on the back beam.

I've found that the quilt ruler holder fits nicely as a support for finishing up the warping process. I just slide my little brass hook between the metal rod and the tied down stick for tieing the threads at the front end of the loom.

Once I've checked everything to make sure it's the way I want it, I trim the ends and I'm ready to weave!

I've watched so many videos, read so many blog posts and books, and talked over ideas with my mom so often, I honestly don't remember where all my little tips came from. I use jumbo craft sticks to help spread my warp evenly.

The other adaptation that Mom had made for this loom was to add a bottom to it. I can easily balance the loom on my lap. It's a great place to keep my pattern!

The heddle I'm using is the Sunna7 from Stoorstalka. Mom got me started with these, and I love them! The 7 pattern band I'm working on is from Sami Band Weaving by Susan J. Foulkes. I chose to make the edging fancy, so it takes a bit of concentration to keep the pattern straight!

I'm pretty new to weaving, so if you're experienced and have any tips for me, I'd love the hear them!
SaveSave

Happy Independence Day!

I thought a red, white, and blue theme seemed appropriate for today!

I actually finished these yesterday, but there was no time to post.

Dave is cleaning up the gardens in our front yard, and I took on the role of design consultant!

Dave has been moving hostas and planting hydrangeas. As he's been weeding and working up the soil, we've noticed a lot of dead branches on trees, so there's been a lot of cutting and hauling to the burn pile. All I can say is, it's his vacation and he chose what he wanted to do!

I added some more shuttles to my collection from eBay. I especially like the blue Susan Bates shuttles!

Besides working outside, we went to visit some friends. The sky was beautiful on the way home. I wish I knew more about taking pictures with my phone. I guess I should do some research!

Another Bloomin' Ice Drop

I kind of like my new pattern! The only changes with this one are the glass gem and ribbon. It does take a bit longer to tat, probably double the time of the original Ice Drop, but I think it's worth the effort.

I just finished my latest band. This is Dots and Squares from page 18 of The Weaver's Inkle Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon. It's 1 3/8" wide by 72" plus about 8" of fringe. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out!

Bloomin' Ice Drop

I couldn't post yesterday. I was too busy designing another Ice Drop! Honestly, I was so caught up in what I was doing, I didn't realize it was dinner time. Luckily, I had leftovers that warmed up quickly!

As I was working on my Spring Garden Ice Drop the other day, I got to thinking about how I could adapt it.

And now my little Spring Garden has bloomed!

Copy and past doesn't work very well with Blogger, but I still haven't figured out how to attach a PDF to my blog, so copy and paste will have to do:

Bloomin’ Ice Drop 2 shuttle pattern
Materials: 3/4” glass gem, size 20 Lizbeth thread (approximately 8 yards on shuttle 1, 4 yards on shuttle 2), two shuttles, 12” ribbon for hanger (optional)
vsp = very small picot --- = long picot

Round 1:

•  Ring 4 vsp 4---4 vsp 4, reverse work.
  
•  Chain 6 vsp 6, reverse work.
  
•  Ring 4+4+4 vsp 4, reverse work.
  
•  Continue creating rings and chains in this manner until there are 6 rings and 6
  
•  sections of chain. On last ring, last picot is a join to the first picot of the first ring.
  
•  Lock join last chain to base of first ring.
  
•  Do NOT reverse work.
  
  Round 2:
  

•  Chain 9, reverse work.
  
•  Ring: 6+6, joining to vsp in chain on round 1, reverse work. Switch shuttles.
  
•  Ring: 4-4. Switch shuttles. Do not reverse work.
  
•  Chain 7, switch shuttles. Do not reverse work.
  
•  Ring: 6-1--1-6, switch shuttles. Do not reverse work.
  
•  Chain 7, reverse work.
  
•  Ring: 6+6, joining to same vsp in chain on round 1 as first ring, reverse work.
  
•  Switch shuttles
  
•  Ring: 4-4. Switch shuttles. Do not reverse work.
  
•  Chain 9, lock join to base of next ring.
  
•  
   Do NOT reverse work.
  
•  
  Continue in pattern to complete 6 pattern repeats. Reverse work.
  

After round 2, the piece should look similar to this. This is a good time to set the shape with a steam iron. I put my tatting between to layers of clean terry cloth wash cloths.

Round 3:

•  Ring 6-6-6 (very small picots). Fold ring away from you toward center of work.
  
•  Chain 8, lock join to base of next ring on round 1. Fold ring back up for joining
  
•  next ring.
  
•  Ring 6+6-6, joining to second picot of first ring. Fold rings away from you toward
  
•  center of work.
  
•  Continue in this manner until 5 rings and chains have been completed.
  
  
•  On the sixth ring, 6+6, slip glass gem into place, join ring to first picot of first ring,
  
•  6 ds. Hold domed side of glass gem away from you.
  
•  Chain 8, lock join to base of first ring on round 1.
  
  Cut, tie, and hide ends. Use 12” of ribbon to create hanger or tat a hanger.