The Down Picot

    Well. It has been a few weeks since I have posted anything. Too much going on. Work is trying to kill me, of course, and the wife is laid up with sciatica so I have to tend to her. This is making for long days and little tatting.
    I am also preparing for Tat Days, just barely more than a week away. (Yes, someone will be with my wife.) I have been working out a couple of patterns in advance since I was asked to assist in a couple of the classes I signed up for.
   Another little thing I am trying to do is a new pattern, sort of made up as I go, but I have some idea where it is headed. I got to my third round and found I needed a technique I have rarely even thought of, much less used. The down picot is becoming quite useful suddenly. I don't know I have ever used it before. It is not hard to do at all, but solves a problem.
    In the photo, you can see that I have a chain going back up to where a ring will be, but the ring is not there and I am putting the chain as a sort of "liner" around the rings, mostly using lock joins. If the ring is not yet there, how can I attach to it? Make a down picot on the bottom of the chain. When I make the ring, I attach to the down picot and it is as if the ring had been there.

    These are simple to do. When you get to the point you need one, simply make 2 first half stitches, then the picot space, then 2 second half stitches. The picot will pretty much drop into place by itself. For a better look at the instructions, see the article on Jane Eborall's site.

Continuing With The Ice Drop

    I finally got around to trying something with the doubled ice drop. I want to use it as a sun catcher, so I put it in a 3" ring. As it turns out at present, it is too loose. I need to use fewer stitches in the chain so it will suspend without sagging. I have a feeling it is going to sag some anyway. Those gems are not light.

    I will probably remove the dark blue and try again. I don't know if it will be ready by Tat Days. If it is, I want to put it on the display table. I am also thinking about a way to partially cover the steel ring. I'll work on it.

Storage Needed

    I have started humming an old familiar tune the last couple of days. Remember the Beatles' "When I'm 64"? I did that on Sunday. No, it was a birthday anniversary, not a birthday. I wouldn't do that to my mother twice! But yeah, now I'm 64. Feeling it too.
    I have been running out of room for my tatting tools, books, threads and so on, so for my "anniversary", I decided to do something about it. I have been looking at this for over a year at Hobby Lobby. It is probably overpriced, but I bought it anyway. There are 13 drawers that hold 666 balls of thread. Just kidding! It does have 13 drawers, but I am not at all superstitious and do not have triskaidekaphobia. It DOES hold thread wonderfully. I used 3 drawers just for size 20. I am thinking of sorting by color, but one step at a time. I was able to use a small hutch at the bottom for all my bead boxes. It has worked out quite well.

    One other thing this lets me do. You can see I have books on the shelves next to it, but because of the thread storage drawers, I was running out of shelf space for them. Now I can use my bookcase for my tatting book collection.