Quick tats

This morning I realized that it's only about two months until Mean Green Goes Pink night. I'd like to have a white Christmas tree decorated with button ornaments for the auction.

I had several community members say that they would bid on a tree decorated with Seagreen Lt ornaments. For a little variety I decided that some of the ornaments should be in Butterfly Breeze.

Seagreen Lt is one of the colors in Butterfly Breeze.

Seagreen Dk is not in Butterfly Breeze, but I thought it would be a nice contrast. Luckily, these patterns tat up very quickly!

Oh, and today was curtain day!

Mite

 

The Dorset Crosswheel and Mite are basically the same pattern, but the Mite is much smaller. At first I thought I had read the pattern incorrectly, but I hadn't. I do like the way it looks!

Success!

 

I've had success on two fronts over the past several days. First, I finally finished the curtains for daughter Carol's classroom. There are eight panels. Each one is 75" long and 16" wide. Our plan is to go to school tomorrow to hang them, and then I will show pictures of the final product!

Do you ever struggle with reading patterns? I do! It took me three tries to get the Basketweave - traditional pattern correct. This is my first attempt, which is clearly a spiral.

My second attempt is pretty, but completely wrong!

Fortunately, Gina from Gina-B Silkworks patiently guided me through the pattern, and I finally managed to do it correctly! I've knit basketweave patterns. I've crocheted basketweave patterns. I even took a basketweaving class a couple of years ago. Now that I've followed this pattern correctly, I find it hard to believe that my past experience didn't help me understand the technique. 

Despite the amount of time it took me to complete this pattern, I am quite pleased with the end result, and I do believe I'll make this button again!

Lychett Basket - traditional

I spent most of the day working the curtains for daughter Carol's classroom. Tomorrow I will be making the tabs for the tops of the curtains as well as the tie-backs. The end is in sight!

Once again, I worked on Dorset buttons before going to bed. This pattern is one I've done before, Lychett Basket - traditional. The pattern can be found in Dorset Ring Buttons by Gina Barrett, and it's available at Gina-B Silkworks.

Of course it's always nice to end the day with a simple tatted piece. I've already had requests for button ornaments, so I have a feeling this may be a good fund raiser for the drama club!

 

Curtain call

I'm busy making curtains for daughter Carol's classroom, so I don't have much to show. I'll post pictures of them when they're finished.

Since the curtains are a priority (school starts next week), I only managed one Dorset button and one ornament. This pattern is Old Blandford - traditional. I actually made the Dorset buttons Monday night before going to bed. I had just bits of the light pink perle cotton left, and I decided to try and piece them together to finish the ornament. It wasn't worth the effort. I was short! So, I snipped off the tatting and moved on to the next color.

I spent the entire day working on the curtains, and then tatted the edging last night. I was too tired to finish the hanger, so that was my first chore this morning.

As soon as it's light out, I'll be back to the curtains!

More Dorset buttons

I'm really enjoying trying the patterns in Dorset Ring Buttons by Gina Barrett. This one is Blandford Cartwheel - traditional. 

Next in the book is Dorset Basket - traditional.

Although I'm enjoying making these, I really need to focus on ornaments for Christmas in the Village. So, I think I'm going to try and limit myself to no more than one each day.

That's going to be hard to do!

Going through the book

 

I've started going through my new book, Dorset Ring Buttons by Gina Barrett. At the suggestion of one of the members of the Gina-B Silkworks group on Facebook, I'm making a button for my button collection as well as a button ornament for each of the patterns I try. We'll have to see how long this lasts! ;-)

This pattern is Dorset Crosswheel Variation - traditional.

This pattern is Dorset Crosswheel Variation 2 - traditional.

I'm always looking for new things that I can use, and I found these large stitch markers on Amazon. These are slimmer than the plastic curtain rings I've been using. I hope they work!