A New Year's Resolution?

    I resolve to - finish this doily. And block a few others that need it. Ok, ok. I know that is pretty lame, but I can keep those resolutions. I really don't get into the resolution thing. I usually just do what has to be done.
   So. I have started round 8 of 10. I am dreading round 9. There are motifs all around that are done individually, which means tails.

    You may notice that I like to do continuous tatting when possible. If you look at where I started this round, I started with a chain. I did the split chain to come out of round 7, but usually I am on a ring. Not this time. At least it was not difficult. I just don't remember ever doing that.
    Some have asked how big this is. After round 7 I show 5", unblocked. It will probably be about 8 inches, best guess. When I am done I will measure it and we will see just how small King Tut thread makes it. I would bet it would be twice that in size 20.

Merry Christmas

    It is December 25, 2019. Merry Christmas. I hope you and yours are happy, healthy and enjoying the time together.
    I have been tatting more of the doily and thought I would post an update. I am now on round 7. Last post I was going to take the doily to the Palmetto Tatters Guild meeting and so I did. I am glad I was on the round I was on because, don't you just know, I left the pattern at home. Fortunately it was a pretty simple round and easy to memorize. So is round 7, but round 8 will be a bit more complicated.

I am making good headway on this. I have been tatting while watching the TV. Once in a while that causes me to have to untat something because I don't pay attention. It is not so bad, though, once you get used to the King Tut thread size. It is tiny, but works exactly the same as size 20.
     Now perhaps a little wassail...

Making Progress

    I have been busy lately, cleaning out the house and getting paperwork done, but I have made some progress on the doily. I am into round 5 on this one now. There are 10 rounds. Does this mean I am half done? NOOOO! Remember, the rounds get longer as you go further from the center.Half way is probably something like round 7.

    This one is a little challenge so far, not difficult, but you do need to pay attention. For instance, in round 4, the chains constantly change. There are not 2 in a row that are the same. Round 5 is a bit more forgiving. Only one real chain count and 2 differing rings.
    I will be taking this one to the Palmetto Tatters Guild meeting this Saturday. I have missed the last year's meetings so I am really excited to be able to get to one.

Another Stawasz Doily

    It has been a month since I posted here. It has not been a good month. Most of you probably heard my wife passed away on November 24th. It has been rough and lonely without her.
    To help with some of that I decided I needed a tatting project. Something that will last a while because now I have a lot more time to myself. The one I chose was the first doily in Jan Stawasz's book Tatted Treasures. (The red cover one.) I am on round 3 of that doily. You can see about how big it is compared to my shuttles.. Of course, I am using King Tut thread in a variegated color from ecru to a tan. It will look good on my coffee table when I am through.

    Tatting seems to take most of my concentration and relaxes me. Once again, I put a train video on the TV and let it play. I have cleaned and rearranged so I have a pretty nice place to tat. And tea. I do make hot tea. Soothing.

I'm Gonna Tat Today

    I'm gonna tat today. I swear I'm gonna tat. I need the break. Lately I have been busy outdoors and I am tired. It is yard trash pickup today so I have something for them. I just put out the last 8 bags this morning. They can have it.

    I have 32 bags of leaves from the back yard. My front yard is not so bad by far, but parts of my back yard are just full. I have trees everywhere. Remember? They like to fall and cause me expense. And now I have to pick up after them. Yeah, it looks better. I like it, but it is a lot of work.

    Well, I'm gonna tat. I have some things to get done and I want to do the tatting, not the raking. That rake is making my arthritis in my thumbs hurt too. That makes it harder to hold the shuttle. I don't care. I'm gonna tat. Then I can post tatting instead of leaves. Gimme my shuttle!

    Oh,  by the way. I gave my buddy next door the hat. He loved it!

Hat Done

    Now I have the knitting done. My hat is finished. I am not sure if I will keep it or give it to the guy next door. I do have a couple of mistakes in it, but they are not obvious so I let them go.

    To me knitting can be boring, so I like to watch videos while I do it. I can knit by feel pretty well so I don't have to watch it all the time. I cannot say that about crochet. I have to watch crochet. I can tat by feel also.
    Anyway, I found some really nice videos to watch on YouTube. They are train rides from the view of the engineer. There is no sound but the sound of the train on the tracks, but some of the scenery - WOW! So far my favorite has been a train across Montenegro. It is a 3 1/2 hour video. They sure have a lot of tunnels. So I  ride the train and count stitches. You may not like it but I do. Now I would like to visit there.

More Knitted Hat

    I told you I was a slow knitter. I can only do a few rows then stop a bit. I am not in a speed contest and don't really care. I did look at some videos on YouTube about the fastest knitters. They do appear to use the continental method, but, as I said, I just don't seem to be able to get the feel of it.

The question here for the day is, am I knitting correctly? Not the stitches, but I seem to knit inside out. The photo above is the inside of the cap.

    The second photo shows the outside. You can see the cables on it. But which way is correct? I have seen discussions that talk about that issue and it seems that I knit on the "away" side of the piece instead of on the "near" side. I don't know that it makes much difference once it is done.
    Does anyone else do that? Oh, and the camouflage color does it's job. Hard to see the cables.

Face of a Madman?

    This is another hobby I am learning. Being a spaceman. NO! I put a wood shop in my shed out back and I go out there to play when I am not tatting or knitting. We all need something different now and then. I don't do it a lot yet, but I go out when the mood strikes. It is nice in the shop. Quiet and alone.

    Did I say quiet? Well, no one bothering me. It is far from quiet. That is why I wear hearing protection. Start a table saw in a 16x20 foot room and you will see how quiet it is. Along with the dust collector, which is a large industrial vacuum.
    In my picture, I have on eye protection, hearing protection and breathing protection. The cutting equipment generates a lot of fine sawdust that I just don't need to breathe. And chips can fly into the eyes. I need those to see what I am tatting.
    I just wanted to post a picture to show how silly I look. But the personal protection devices do help keep me safe. I am already worn out. I don't need more problems!
    Oh, the hearing protection is a commercial type. It has built in noise reduction, a radio and bluetooth. I am usually listening to an episode of Last of the Summer Wine playing on the computer while I work.

A New Cap

    Now and then I will do something a little different. I do know how to knit and crochet so the other day when I was in WalMart, I spotted a color of yarn I had never used, camoflage. I had to try it. I usually make a new cap every year, though not usually for me. I have one that has worn well for several years. I do have friends that like them, though, so I will probably give this one away. 

    I like to work on double pointed needles. I have used circular but this has become my favorite way. The point of all this rambling is not really the cap or the knitting, but the point stoppers. I kept dropping stitches off the ends where I was not working. This has been going on for years, but I am a bit slow. I have never used them before because they are called point protectors and I keep my needles in cases, therefore I thought I did not need them.
    I dropped into JoAnns and bought 8. They stay on well and keep my knitting on the needles. I use 5 needles. As I get to the next one, that cap comes off and goes to the needle I just finished with, sort of rotating them around as I work. And these do work. One more minor problem fixed.

A Charming Charm.

    At Tat Days 2018 I got to meet Vicki Clarke. A charming young lady and an excellent tatter of course. Unfortunately she could not make it to Tat Days 2019, but she did send a small project for everyone. This is her Honey Comb Charm.

    The kit had about 5 yards of yellow thread, size 20, and a hex shaped piece of wood. Mine has a gem glued to the center. I suppose they all did. It is on both sides. There is a small card with her web address instead of instructions. That is fine. I copied the instruction and made a print. I put it aside to finish my class work for Tat Days first.
    Yesterday I was reading Bernice's blog and saw she had finished hers. It looks a lot better than mine. This spurred me to go ahead and do mine. Since I am knitting a hat right now, I wanted a break. I am a slow knitter, much faster at tatting.
    It took me 2 tries to do it. Well, I said it came with yellow thread. The blue I used came from a ball laying on my desk. Why? Because, as usual, I screwed up the first try. I made one whole side before realizing I had forgotten a join, all the way around. Oh, well. Toss it and do over.So now I have a blue one. Back to the needles. You may also notice another "difference", but now it is done.

A Ride to Tat Days

    I told Jane Eborall that the car she designed could take her to Tat Days next year. Well, I don't know about crossing the pond. The sea bottom is probably too rough unless you have 4 wheel drive.  I like her car design, though. I have done a couple of them already. Cute and quick to make.
    If she can get to South Carolina, then I have one for her to drive to Tat Days. Remember, it's her car. But "painted" in USC colors.

    I do need to add doors and windows. I may try that. Does anyone else think this reminds them of cartoon cars from many years ago?

More Coriolis-es

    I went to the state fair yesterday with the Palmetto Tatters Guild. Upon arrival I helped set up for the day. Once people started coming in we got fairly busy talking, sharing stories and demonstrating tatting.A lot of people remember Grandma had tatted lace on something, a doily, a collar, a tea towel.
    I didn't really make anything there, just some rings and chains for demonstration purposes. Nothing to keep. Others were making and handing out small items. I did display the Juliana Doily. A lot of people liked that. I also got a lot of compliments on my tatted Dr. Who Bow Tie that Anita Barry designed and taught at Tat Days a couple years ago. I mounted it on a tie clip. The old photo of it is here.

    While I was talking to Theresa, she showed me 3 of her Coriolis motifs she had done in 3 different sizes. She had them in sizes 20, 40 and 80 thread. She said something about being told I would do size 120. I suppose that is close enough to King Tut thread.
    I tried to start it, but with all the visitors to talk to, questions to answer and demonstrations of stitches, I just did not have time. I did bring home what I started, though, and this is the result. The one on the right is in size 20. The left one is King Tut quilting thread. You can see easily the size difference. It really was not that hard to do. I just like doing fine work, I suppose.

More Patterns

    Now that I have almost all the stuff from Tat Days done, I need to work on something else. I have a couple projects that I need to finish. If you look down the side you will see my Artisan badge from the T.A.T. program. I am working on the Master's level, but have not had time to finish it. I think that will be next on my list. I will have to do other little things in between the articles for that, though, because I am not allowed to post program projects online. Sorry, but it keeps the integrity of the program.

    What to do between? Well, I just got this in the mail yesterday evening. I have all the CDs of patterns from all the Tat Days that are available. This one is for the years there was no CD. The guild has finally made it available. It was probably quite a chase to get all the permissions needed. Now I can do some of these in between the T.A.T. program projects. These I can post here.
    OK, back to work (tatting). Oh, by the way, if you want a copy, you can get it here: Order CDs.

Double Dip Braid - Class Fourth and Final

    Sometimes I like to take classes, not for the article, like the coin purse, but for the techniques involved. This was one of those. I saw the braid and asked myself what is the path to make this one pass and did not see an obvious answer. It is intended to be something like a lanyard, but I do not usually use those. I wanted the technique.

    Since, once again, I could not stay for the class, when I got back I did my classes at home. It has taken me several days as I have other things to do too. You all know how life happens. I finished them in the order that I would have done at Toccoa.
    I began this one and got to the fourth ring, which happens to be on the second row. You make the first two rows first. I saw a dilemma. How to add the chain back to the first row and still end up at the top of the chain. Erin Holloway-Moseley taught the class, but was not here to advise me, so looking at the instructions it says connect and wrap backwards. I thought about that for a moment and decided to do this:
    I put the hook through and pull up a loop, pass the shuttle through, pull it back under, making sure it lies neatly, put the thread over and pull down a loop, pass the shuttle through and pull back up, tighten to the first part and you have a DS. It's a split chain without the split, sort of.
    Erin, if you read this, tell me if I got it right. I do know that for some reason my rings don't overlap like hers do, but I think I figured out the technique. I also see I need to make it neater.

Butterflies - Class Third

    My third class at Tat Days was to be the Butterflies In Flight by Jane Eborall. Now I have it completed as a small bookmark. She suggested using it as an edging, bracelet or bookmark, so bookmark it is. One thing I really like is the way the lock chain adds to the leading wing edges. Really pretty.

     This is not too hard to do if you understand SCMR's. The hardest part for me was starting it. I have a habit of avoiding knots when I can. I did not follow her instructions to begin with a weaver's knot. I laid the threads where I needed them, then tatted over tails with a bit of a pass through. If you want to see something similar, Jane is preparing to add a technique to her pages that will demonstrate it. It is not exactly the way I started this, but close. I did start with two separate threads and made the SCMR immediately. (You have to pay close attention to which thread is which.)
    At the end, I decided to add a spiral and then fray the end. I did not get as much fray as I would have liked, but it will do fine for my books.

A Man's Purse? Tat Days, Class Second.

    I doubt I will carry it, but it was fun to make. Oh, wait. That was going to be my last line for this post. Well, it was fun to make. And quick, too, actually.
    This was to be my second class at Tat Days this year. When I started it, first thing I did was read the pattern. The second thing I did was e-mail Sharren.

    Sharren Morgan designed (I think) and taught this pattern. It is her Edwardian Coin Purse, and that is why I asked, "A Man's Purse?". The kit for it was simply the clasp. You can find them online pretty easily. Then I chose gray for my thread. Well, you didn't think I was going to carry pink, did you? Actually, I probably would. I am too old to care what people think. The only thing I can think of that might improve this would be to add a silk liner, but I am not going to.
    I don't know if she is making the pattern public, but it is on the CD from the Palmetto Tatters Guild for Tat Days 2019 HERE.

Coriolis Success!

    At the Palmetto Tatters Guild meeting a couple weeks ago I started the Coriolis motif that Jane Eborall was teaching, then I posted it here to show that I failed the class. I am happy to report that I have now passed. This time I got the starting chain in the correct place and did not add an extra chain.

 

    I did change the color scheme slightly. This time  I have the gold at the outside and green as secondary. That was probably why I failed the first time. I had the colors all wrong. Yep, that was it. Uh-huh. Had to be it.

    It looks a lot better when it is not lop-sided.

Tat Days Lesson One

    I signed up for 4 classes at Tat Days this year. I could not stay, but I did get the patterns, so I am going to do them. The first one I was scheduled into was the Sonata Doily, taught by Melanie Cervi. I could not stay for the class but I did make it a point to see and talk to her. I had been wanting to meet her, so now I have. Very nice lady, interesting to talk to. I wish I could have talked music with her more. I do enjoy the classics, particularly opera.

     This doily was to be made as we discussed music. The piece she suggested was by Bach. I listened to that one, but I did switch to another one that I really prefer, which is not to say that the first was not good, just preference. She explained in her literature with the pattern how she relates her tatting to music. Interesting, really and truly. She also had a couple of helpful "handouts" to go with it.
    I did this in gold for the first 2 rounds, then white for the second two. It is King Tut thread, Old Gold #976 and Temple #993. Tatting it was not difficult. Sewing ends may be for some because of the thread size. I just use a very fine sharp needle. I also use a magnifier sometimes, but not always.
    I am not sure about copyrights so you may want to check with her. She goes by "picotsnkeys" and has a blog by that name, http://picotsnkeys.blogspot.com/ . She also comments here so you can follow her link from her name if you prefer.
    Now for the next class project!

Test Completed

    You know that I am doing the test tat for Jane Eborall for her Julianna Doily that she developed (Lord know how!) from a photo in a book from 1953. Yes, there were some errors, though nothing really major. I have submitted them to her and she may publish the pattern soon, though I really do not know that for sure.

    Here is the completed doily. It took a while mostly on round 9. There are 88 of the little flowers and as you tat them, they do not connect to each other. Do you know what that means? As you are working them, the previous ones always try to get twisted into the thread you are working with and you have to stop and untangle a mess.
    I got through it and round 10 really pulled it all together. It ties all the flowers together and makes "bouquets" around the outer area. I think it is a nice effect.
    Now I have to figure out what to do with it. I think I will show it at the state fair, though I will not enter it into competition. Too late for that. I was not sure I would complete it, so I did not enter it. Then I wanted to put it on my dresser, but it is too wide (16"). I may give it away or let the guild sell it. We will see what happens. Perhaps I should send it to Jane to reside with her blue one.

Hand Safety

    An unusual topic, this time. Something we should think about, but probably don't very often. Hand safety. It is important. It is hard to tat without hands. You need to take care of them and keep them out of harms way.

    This photo shows a small sore spot on my finger. I did not have on my gloves the other day while out in my shop and I was cleaning something on a wire wheel. My finger hit the wire wheel, which is very abrasive, and it scraped off a little skin, just enough to expose the raw area and slightly bleed. It is healing, but slowly.

    What does this have to do with tatting? Well, look where it is. When I make a join, I pass the hook through the picot and it hits my finger about where the sore spot is. It is still touchy and it stings. For the first couple of days, I had to wear a bandage to keep the blood off my thread. It is hard to tat with a band-aid on my index finger, too!

    This is a minor injury. What if it had been worse? Then I possibly could not tat for a while, and if it were bad enough, never tat again! Take care of your hands. You need them!

Coriolis Attempted

    It's been about a year since I have been able to attend a meeting of the Palmetto Tatters, but last Saturday I did. I had a great time catching up with people and met a couple of new friends. While I was there our lesson was given by Jane Eborall. She taught her motif, the Coriolis Motif. I think she said this one was not yet on her website.

    I have, in the past, worked block tatting, so I thought I would have no trouble. Look at the top of my motif. Blatant, very obvious mess-up. That chain sticking out from the center with the picot on it just stands out, but that is not what is incorrect. I have tatted, in green, an extra chain, just off the previous one. I was supposed to have done that one in gold and attached back to picot that now stands alone. The rest of the arms are correct, though they need a little "adjusting".
    That is what I get when I am distracted talking to people. I lose my concentration because I am chatting away. It was worth it, though, to get to talk my friends and acquaintances again. Now I am home, I can make another. Correctly!

Shuttles From Tat Days 2019

    I went to Tat Days this year. For a few hours. I could not stay long, so I did what I could while there. I wanted to meet some people, say "hi" to some people, pick up a few things. I am not happy that I could not stay, but life happens.
    One thing I did get was Dreamlit shuttles. Lisa from Tatting Corner was our vendor again and she brought a lot of them for sale. I really like Lisa. She is just so helpful. By the way, she was being assisted by Kaye Judt. I had never met her before, but, well,she is a wonderful lady to talk to. I did get her new (signed) book. I bought one of each color shuttle (5 colors) and a matching set of bobbins for each.
    Back to the shuttles, lets take a look. I had tried one while there and it feels good and has a good weight. Not heavy, not light, just right. In the photo you can see it pulls apart into 2 pieces with an oval bobbin. The pins either side of the magnets slide into each other snugly. The magnets are quite strong, but do not require Samson to separate them. This shuttle is very stable and solid. Please notice that on the bobbin is a small round indent in the top left corner.

   
I ask you to notice the indent because I decided to use it. Most of the bobbins I use have a small hole that I pass a thread end through to hold with a finger until I get the thread wound on it a bit. This new bobbin does not have a hole, but the indent looked like it would punch out. I used a needle on it and sure enough, it went through very easily. This would be a good place to do this because the plastic is a bit thinner here. On the inside, the plastic was sticking up so I used a utility knife and cleaned it up. Now I could pass the thread through to hold it. I roughly measured the thread I was winding on it to add to my thread chart. This thread is King Tut. I will do the other sizes later.

 
     I found couple things about winding it.

1. It will not work with my Side Winder. The hole in the center is bigger than a standard bobbin's hole.
2. The holder for the bobbin will trap the thread you passed through the hole so you do not need to hold it with your finger.
   
3. As you fill the bobbin, watch that the thread does not try to go between the bobbin and the holder.
   
4. If you find the thread twisting as you wind, usually you have to put the bobbin in shuttle to let it hang and unwind. With this, you can slip the thread between the bobbin and holder and let it hang. Even with thread as thin as King Tut, the holder was tight enough not to let the bobbin unwind if you do this.

    All in all, I think this shuttle is going places. It feels good, looks good, works well, seems to have been well thought out. I think I will like using it.

Tat Days Is Coming

    Tat Days is coming and I am ready! No, I didn't prepare for it. I mean I need the break. This has been a busy summer. Getting the yard cleaned up, replaced part of the ramp at the deck, Wired my shop. I am digging a trench for the power cable by hand. I am too cheap to rent the machine for $200. Anyway, ready for a break.

    I have almost finished the Juliana doily that I am test-tatting. I think it may go on my dresser when all is done. I saw where there was going to be a class by Jane Eborall to teach her llama, so I made this one.

    This is a really good lesson. You will learn to do an SCMR, but I think the biggest take-away will be the join in the "second half" of the split ring. Some people have a bit of trouble with that. This will be a good project to learn it, even though there is only one place it occurs.
    Know what was nice? I have been making the Juliana doily in size 20. I did the llama in King Tut. I do like my fine threads!

The Round TUIT and More Juliana

    Yesterday, Jane Eborall said something about a bracelet when she gets a roundtoit. So now I have to show you this.
    This is my round TUIT. It is made of lead. I use it for a paperweight. I forget where I got it. I have had this one at least 35 - 40 years.

    On the bottom used to be a paper that has long since worn off. It read: "This is a round TUIT. Now that you have it you can get to all those project that you said you would do when you got around to it." I suppose I don't have that excuse any more.

On the tatting side, I am on round 9 of the Juliana doily that I am test tatting for Ms. Eborall. I have a bad habit of getting caught up in a mistake and then spazzing out for a bit until I think it over and see where I went wrong. Once I get over that, everything seems to come out pretty well.

New Threads

    I have finished round 8. It was pretty simple to work. The instructions were fine and it went fairly quickly. Now I am starting on round 9. This should be interesting. There are these "flowers" all around it and they are not hooked together so they will be flopping, making it a little more difficult to handle. I shall persevere, though. One thing I found that will make it more interesting is there are lock chains used. It will provide a bit of change and cause me to look at it a bit closer as I work. I have not ironed it out yet.

    Last round I had to add new thread 3 times. I bet this one will take 6 times. I am keeping wound bobbins ready. I do not tie knots to add thread. Instead, I try to end at a ring, sew in one end, then pass the new thread through the ring, pull it up and tat over the tails. How far? Well, it depends on the new ring or chain. Often i will tat over tails for the entire ring or chain to give it a more even appearance. Sometimes I only do it until the first or second join or picot. It's all a judgment call.
    On round 8, I had to join in the middle of chains. Most of it was chain, join, chain, join and so on. I made a join, then sewed that thread back into the previous chain. Then I passed the new thread through the join and continued, tatting over tails. It works for me.

A Little Better

    In the photo you can see my new desktop. On this folding table I use as a desk, the surface had deteriorated over years of use. I had tried using a tablecloth, but kept pulling threads and snags. I then tried that black plastic picnic tablecloth, but that eventually tore and the fuzz inside kept getting on everything. Finally, I bought this contact paper at Lowe's. I had already done one table with the same pattern and it has held up very well. Now I have done this table. I like it. It does not show the white thread so well, but I do use a lot of colors that should show easily. We will have to see.

    I purchased some blocking mats from Amazon. Not the expensive ones. I needed to block Juliana a bit so I could keep it from becoming a tangled mass. I laid it out yesterday evening and pinned it out, then hit it with the starch. I think it did just what I wanted. I tried to find all the twists in the chains and picots and straighten them. I got all but a couple, I think. Still, now I can see the pattern a lot better.
    I think I can start round 8 today. If not, tomorrow. I don't think it will be nearly as complicated as what has already been tatted.

Close Call

    You have to love it when this happens. I have just a couple of rings and a few chains to finish the round. And then I notice I am almost out of thread on the primary shuttle. Looking at it, do I continue and see if I can make it or go ahead and change shuttles, having to hide ends by tatting over tails.

 

    I can see the center of the bobbin showing thru. I decided to push on and see if I have enough. I got the next ring and a half and the thread let go of the shuttle. I needed to finish the ring and make one more chain. I finger tatted the rest of the ring, then rewound the bobbin with what I could to do the chain. It is the core thread, so I only need a couple of inches on that.

 

     I was able to finish the chain just before the thread let go again. You can see what was left. About 12" of thread. Just enough and I did not have to hide extra ends. I hate having to hide ends, don't we all?

 

    At least I was able to finish round 7. I am going to have to press it out before I go any further, just to be able to handle it. You can see it is quite unruly. I will probably block it out a bit this evening. Then hit it with a light starch.

Testing 1, 2, 3

    Some of you may have already guessed this, but Jane Eborall needed a test tatter for the Juliana doily pattern that she figured out. I checked with her after a bit and she had no takers so I volunteered. Being recently retired, I figured I would have the time. Of course, that is a fools statement. I think I work more now than I did when employed.
    I did not mention this before because I knew, as you did, that she was finishing it and sewing it down and was going to have a reveal on her blog. Now she has told me I can blog what I am doing with it. Thanks, Jane.

    Jane never fails to amaze me. That she could pull all this from a poor photo is almost unbelievable. But she did it. There are 10 rounds. I am working on round 7. I have found a few minor mistakes, but nothing to really get excited about. Mostly things like stray picots in the diagrams and that sort of thing.
     I did get my knickers in a twist in round 6. I thought that she was doing a DNRW and SS where it was not needed. It took me a while and several contortions to realize she was exactly correct. I had just not really understood the reasoning behind the method, but it worked so well once I did understand. I felt the fool and I did apologize for the aggravation.
    The doily as shown in the photo, using size 20 thread (not King Tut, as I am wont to do) measures 19" long and 10" wide. I have not ironed it out yet. There are 3 rounds to go. It's going to be big. I hope to finish soon. I want to take it to Tat Days. More as I progress.

Logged Off

    Yes, I know it was Sunday, but that was the only day the tree people were able to get time to squeeze me in. They arrived yesterday at about 11 am, driving about 90 miles to do the job. Seems they work here and in Columbia area. They said they had a big job going but since the weather called for rain, they would do it then.

    The first thing I had to do was move Malibu, the neighbor's cat. She liked sleeping under the fallen tree. She is 18 years old and we would like to keep her around a bit longer.

    I am still amazed that the air conditioning unit did not get hit. I had the service man here that morning to work on the unit and he checked it, cleaned it, pronounced it in great shape. Then the tree fell. One of the first things I did was check the unit and the tree had fallen all around within 6 inches but didn't hit it. Talk about luck!

 

    It took all day but they got the logs off the house and were able to put the tarp over it. The edges of the roof at the corner and up the side were destroyed and there is about 2 feet of roof  that is now a hole where the tree hit. There is a puncture up the roof a ways about 5 feet from the edge. The tarp covers all that well so I should not get any leaks.
    I still have a little brush to pick up, but that won't take long. Now to find a roofer that will do the repairs.
    Oh, by the way, one of the tree guys had his wife with him. While they worked, I demonstrated tatting to her. She seems interested and lives close to where the Palmetto Tatters have their meetings. I told her that. Maybe she will drop by sometime.

Here We Go Again

    Last fall I finally got rid of all the stuff from Hurricane Matthew. It only took a bit over 2 years. I even put a new shed out there to replace the old one. Well, yesterday evening we had a 10 minute storm. This is the result. I have several old gum trees in the front yard. This one decided to commit suicide. It broke about 10ft up. The wind in this short storm was probably hurricane force. I suppose it might have been a microburst.

    I just cannot win for losing. At least no one was hurt. The insurance man might get his feelings hurt though. I am ready to move to the desert.

Finished Rainbow Bookmark

    This is a fun tat. I started it Saturday and finished today. Mostly because life happens. Had a few things that needed taking care of, as we all do from time to time. Tatting is a hobby, after all.
    I had the red stripe done yesterday evening. This morning, about 6, I started on the rest of it and it is now 2pm. Considering that I did go out to my shop and did a little wood work between the rainbow and the cloud, that's not too bad. The cloud took a little over an hour.

So here is the finished bookmark. It was done in the pattern using size 30 Cebelia. I used Size 20 Lizbeth. I wonder how small it would be in King Tut?

A Rainbow

    I am starting another pattern today, well, yesterday. I hope to finish it today or tomorrow. Should not take too long. It is a simple pattern, but I am learning from simplicity.
    Nancy Tracy has a book out, 'Tat's Where I Stopped', that has wonderfully imaginative bookmarks in it. I have decided to do one of them. These are themed to the months of the year so there are 12 patterns. I am doing March. It is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Here is my pot of gold. The red ring is the start of the rainbow. I will post that when I get it done, probably tomorrow. In Nancy's pattern, the shamrock is green. I wanted a pot of gold, not a pot of green, so mine is gold. I just happened to have the Lizbeth gold color on hand.

    Lesson 1. Sorry it is a little off kilter, but not that bad. I am starting to remember to scan these instead of photograph them. You get truer colors and it is easier to set up without reflections.
    Lesson 2 is at the top corner of the pot. There are thrown rings on chains. Now, when I see a pattern with thrown rings, I wind up 2 shuttles. In her book she says she does not care to use 2 shuttles all the time and to just use a shoelace trick to reverse the threads. I had never thought of doing that. Pure genius! It works a treat and I only had to use one shuttle and the ball.
    Lesson 3. I need to remember that if it is only rings and chains, don't cut the thread from the ball. Now I have to reattach the thread and that means tails to hide. I have to remember CTM more! Too late for this project, but next time.
    Now see! I am learning.

Alternate Threads

    As I said last time, now I have time to try new things. Here are more samples from the Alternate Threads book. I am working straight through the book from front to back and I want to do each sample as presented. I think Randy and Gary have it in a pretty progressive order.

     I am starting to get the hang of doing this. I still have not figured out how to get the picot gauges in there yet, but one thing at a time. I did, though, decide to make it a bit more difficult. At Tat Days last year I purchased 4 of their shuttles. I am learning how to use them as I work through the book.

    They are fiddly at first, to say the least. I keep having to work that screw to get thread. Like Randy said, though, it's practice. It is getting to be a bit easier each time and I am developing my own technique. Later in the book he talks about the double bobbin shuttles. That should really get interesting!

Learning a New Technique

    Ah, retirement has it's perks. One of them, and probably the one I like most, is more time to do what I want instead of what the company wants. Freedom to choose. Time at home with family.
    One of the things I am doing with the time is trying to learn new methods and techniques in my tatting. I have time to practice now. At Tat Days last year I took Randy Houtz's class on Alternate Threads. I am using size 20 for this, not King Tut!
    The first thing I see I have to come to grips with is not the concept, it is the hand position. I have now done the first 2 pages of examples he gives. I just separated most of them by chains of some sort to see them easier. I think I am starting to get used to the hand position pretty well, though occasionally I do drop one of the threads.

    Here are a couple of scans of the samples I have done. I see that I need to work on tension, but that will be later, when I am more comfortable with process. I think the front/back difference is interesting too.  These two pictures are the same thing, just flipped over. I really want to get the hang of this. It has a lot of possibilities. For some reason, this is reminding me a bit of pearl tatting. It is probably in how the thread is carried around each set of stitches.
    In other news, no, I have not finished blocking out the crown. Judith Connors suggested that I put a ring in base to help hold the circle. I looked in my drawer of "tatting supplies" and found a 4" ring that will fit. I just have to decide how I want to attach it. I could wrap with ribbon, wrap with thread, not use it at all, or re-tat the crown and use it like a cabone ring project. At least I have time to decide.

Finished Tatting the Crown

    I have finished with tatting the crown. It took a while. There have been some changes here so I had to deal with that. I retired. I have been repairing things at home. I am taking more care of the wife. I installed Windows 11. OK, there is no Windows 11. Anyway, I am just busy, busy, so it took a while.

    You can see the tatting is done, but I still have to block it out. I have given it a light pressing with a craft iron so it will start to have shape. Next I will find a pot and probably some clear glue mixed with water. Probably not today.

    About the Windows 11, I have been threatening to do this. There is no Windows 11 yet, but I am sick of Windows 10. It downloads updates behind your back, won't let you refuse them, reboots the computer when IT wants, even if you are in the middle of something. On top of that it sends loads of information back to Microsoft. So, I did something about it. I am posting this on my Linux computer. I installed Linux and removed Windows. It is faster, only updates if I want it to, and there is no "company" to report my information to. It is different, but not that hard to learn. I have it working pretty well now. If you are interested then Google Linux Mint.

Coming Along With the Crown

    My crown is coming along. After restarting a few times and especially restarting this round 4 times, I am finally getting it. I kept doing stupid stuff like leaving out stitches in the chain that have to be there or it looks lopsided and cannot join. Instead of untatting it, it was simpler to start over. This is the furthest I have gotten and now I am in the swing of it, getting it right.
     The hardest part lately is getting time to work on it. I try to do it in the mornings, before work, but often I have other things that need doing. Life definitely happens!
    Thanks to Jane Eborall for teaching the vsp in her TIASes (Is that correct?). My vsp's are just barely big enough to get my #12 crochet hook through. It looks better though.

    I have three repeats done. There are 11 total. then there will be the nightmare of blocking it and stiffening it to stand upright. I think I will put this one on display at Tat Days this September. Other than that, I have no plans for it. I just always wanted to make it.

Starting the Crown Again

    It has been a really lousy six weeks. I got some kind of crud that settled in my chest and would not let go. I was wheezing and what I would call chain coughing, where it just goes on for 15 minutes. The really bad part was it was not productive at all, so the gunk just stayed there. Now I am finally getting over it, after the third round of antibiotics. That is why I have not been tatting a lot, especially on the Faith Crown project.
    I kept looking at that crown. The rings are not even, there is a place where I joined and got in a hurry that looks terrible. I was just not happy with it, even though I wanted to use it to find errors and difficulties. Ok. I think I did that. I now have restarted it. I used bigger shuttles to do the first round so there would be no joins needed that would look unsightly. I think this is much better.

 

    For some reason, the white thread looks pink in this light. I did not bother to correct the image. Please bear with me.

    The second round has something that I find interesting. It is not in the pattern. I have been playing with a technique, but I am not sure what it is. In the closeup photo, you see I am putting a chain across the rings. 

    When I join, I make the standard down join to make a lock stitch. I then put the shuttle hook up through the picot and pull the shuttle thread back down through and pass the shuttle through the loop like an up join. This effectively makes a larks head knot. The reason I wanted to do this was to make the join balanced and even.What I see is a bar going across the join, the ball thread still on the left and the shuttle thread exiting a larks head knot. Now I need a picot here so that makes it all the easier to do. The question I have is, is this a standard stitch, like maybe a Catherine Wheel? Or something like that? I just don't really know. It does balance out my joins, though.