I Was Uncle Festered

    Its been an interesting few weeks lately. I really don't think I talk too much about my life outside of tatting, maybe I do, I don't know. But I have been dealing with sciatica for a while now. It started the 19th of December and really got bad. I finally got to a doctor. He put me on painkillers until I could see a neurosurgeon. Then I have had to do physical therapy for a few weeks. Finally, yesterday, I was Uncle Festered. You don't have any idea, do you? You remember the Addams Family probably. The old TV show. One of Uncle Fester's lines was "Shoot him in the back!" Well, yesterday they did that to me. The doc gave me a version of an  epidural. She (yes, she) put some kind of concoction into my back but did not penetrate the spinal cord, like a spinal tap would. The objective, in my understanding, is that it should make the bulging disc shrink back down off the sciatic nerve and numb that nerve for a while. I get to see the surgeon again in a few weeks. Hopefully it will do what he wants and I won't need surgery.

    Meanwhile, I have been tatting. I now have round 6 of the Spring Napkin done. I will start round 7 tonight. It should be interesting. I am climbing out of every round. This one comes into a sort of butterfly arrangement so I have to figure the path to develop it and be able to proceed with the rest of the round. I  think I already have it. Probably not as hard as it looks at first. I just have to try.

The Spring Napkin Round 4

    I managed to finish round 4 yesterday. It's a good thing I had the day off. Round 4 ended in a similar manner as round 3. That is, split chain, split ring, start round 5 with split ring. I like this doily. It will be a nice break from making horses for my carousel.
    I was afraid that the size 100 was going to be hard to work, but after round 3, I see that it is not. It is not a lot smaller than size 80. That is a good thing because I spent a good part of round 3 untatting. There are 2 different rings on round 3 and I kept getting them confused. I would catch myself after about 4 stitches, which meant take out 2 stitches and add a picot, or take out 2 stitches and remove the picot. I finally got it right. Undoing a few stitches was not particularly difficult.
    Another thing I had to manage was when I started a ring or chain. Getting the first stitch to snug up to the previous element was sometimes a minor challenge. Of course, if it left a gap, I took that out and fixed it. The real fix, for me at least, is to start that part with a 2nd half stitch. Take for instance, at a thrown ring. I stop the chain, loop the 2nd shuttle thread to make the ring, and the first thing I do is make a 2nd half stitch. I do not count it. I make my ring, then change shuttles to continue the chain and make a 2nd half stitch, then finish the chain. For some reason this keeps things tight, no gaps. I don't think the extra half stitch affects the count.

    Round 4 is done. Round 5 should go pretty fast.

Renulek's Spring Napkin

    After replies about working in small thread I took a look around Handy Hands and found some DMC in size 100. I ordered 2 in white and 2 in ecru. I like those for really involved patterns and they always go with any color scheme anywhere. I wound a couple of shuttles, CTM, then put the amount on the CTM thread chart I am doing. I can get 30 yards of size 100 DMC on an Aero bobbin.
     Next, the pattern. Not being artistic enough to invent one of my own, I started looking around. I thought about some of the old patterns from the turn of the century. I thumbed through the Priscilla books, Julia Sanders, and others. Then it struck me to see if maybe Renulek has a new spring napkin out. It turns out she does. Now I am told she posts a round at a time on her blog, but being impatient, and needing to know what the next round is, I bought the pattern pdf. It is only $7 and well worth the money when you think about what has to go into creating one of these.
    So now I am set. I am working on round 4 as I type this (February 3). The reason I wanted the complete pattern is that I like to work continuous method when I can. I think it makes you pay a bit more attention. The shift from round 1 to 2 was only a split chain, and from 2 to 3 was the same, but 3 to 4 was a 10 stitch split chain with a picot in it, 5-5, then the offset split ring that was a thrown ring everywhere else, then  a split ring to start round 4. Easy peasy thanks once again to Marie Smith. If you don't know what that means, look here and get the Fast and Easy pdf.

Round 2 done

Round 3 split chain

Round 3 split ring added

Round 3 finished

Too Small or Just Hard to Work?

    I tried it. I really wanted it to work, but I don't think so. Too bad. I have such nice colors, too. But it just isn't worth it. What am I talking about? I have about 60 or so spools of embroidery thread on a rack on a wall. I love the color selection and it does do nice embroidery. So I got the bright idea to see if I could do Jane Eborall's "Twirly Doily" with embroidery thread. Ha ha foolie.
    I wound the bobbins and started in. 4 times. This stuff is just plain hard to work. At least for me it is. It fought me constantly. I tatted over tails. I put the thread through the loop and it pulls itself back out. I make a ring and the picots are almost too small to connect to. You have to hold it tight to keep it from unravelling. I finally got what you see here done in about an hour. And 6 more rounds of fighting this? Nope. Ain't gonna happen. Now I know, though.

The hook end on the shuttle is 5/16" (8.2mm) this round in 20 would probably be 1 1/2" to 2". This stuff is tiny and hard to see. But it is not hard to undo if you make mistakes. It tries to come apart on it's own.

Staying Amused

    Since I seem to be in and out of doctor offices lately I needed something to do. This is the Amusement Doily by Celtess. I have made this doily before, but in size 20. I am moving more and more away from 20 and towards size 80 thread, so I did it this time in size 80. I think the color is Caribbean. Lizbeth #122. I had some already wound so I used it for this. It will reside under my phone stand in my office. You know, the stand I 3D printed.

 

    In other news, for anyone who isn't aware of it, Jane Eborall has her game going again. I mean, of course, her yearly TIAS. This is the last one, so get in on it if you are not already there. I am even going back and finding the previous ones and making those. I may post the results later, but for now I will work the 2018. 

A Horse of a Different Color

    This is the second horse for the carousel. I only have one side done. This thing has fought me all the way. I don't know why. The blue one was easy. This one - well, not easy at all. I think I started the saddle 6 times. I kept messing up. Then I would work along adding the white part and something would go wrong. Several times I had to un-tat to fix problems. It took me a while, but I finally got it. Maybe it's the meds I am taking for the sciatica. That would be my best guess. I hope the second side is not a fight. I am tired of fighting something that I should be enjoying.

    One of the problems I had that was easy to fix was that I forgot to make a join. I made a picot there instead. Then I tatted a few more rings and chains. Nope. I'm not gonna undo all that just for a join. So I did it the old fashioned way. I tied it and hid the ends. Unless you really look for it, you won't see it.

Repairs to the 3D Printer

    I got my package today. I had to order a new cable and bed heater board for the 3D printer. The board was $63 and the $12. Shipping was $14 making the total $89. Still a lot cheaper than buying a new printer. This one was $999 plus tax and shipping. No, wait. I think the shipping was free. The printer is a Flashforge Creator Pro. I think you can get it now for $799.
    Anyway, I got the box and spent an hour installing the new board and cable. Then I put the machine back together and turned it on. Nothing. It did not start, nothing showed on the screen. OK, all I did was swap a couple of parts, nothing major. It was starting properly before. It just would not heat. I opened it up again and checked one of the connections. I think I had it on wrong. I pulled the plug, put it back and hit the on switch. Success!! It came right up. I closed everything up and Started the preheat on the bed. It started working properly immediately.
    In the photos, you can see what happened. The cable plugs at the heater board got fried for some reason. I have no idea why. One of the connections even had the solder melted off. Must have been too hot.