A Bookmark

    Just a simple bookmark. That's all. But in a metallic thread. I did this to remember why I don't like metallic thread. I signed up for a class at Tat Days and later found out metallic thread is required. OK. I will do it, but I won't like it. To me metallic thread is just aggravating to work with. It won't stay wound on the ball, you have to hold things together, and it tries to come off my little finger that I use for tension for chains. It feels "sticky" to work. To top it off, one ball unwound and several "ends" popped up. The thread is fragmented. 

 

    On the plus side, it is pretty. That's all. Pretty. I will do the class at Tat Days, then put this away somewhere. In someone else's stash, hopefully.

    Meanwhile, about 50 of us are attempting to do Tat Days this year. We are going overboard to try to be safe. Class sizes are very limited, we will wear masks, keep away from each other, and have a closed campus. We are also taking temperatures and filling out medical history forms. Well, maybe not a full medical history, but some questions like "have you been ill?". It should work. I will let you know. And I will say "Hi" to everyone for you.

    It has been interesting  the last couple weeks. I watched the IOLI UnCon speeches. They were pretty good. One about the speaker touring Europe and meeting bobbin lacers was the one I liked the most. And yes, I am a member of IOLI. I don't bobbin lace though. I have thought about it, but I really like my tatting, knitting, crochet, ham radio, 3d printing and woodworking (to name a few). I don't need another hobby right now.

    Just like at most "conventions", ok - Tat Days - , they had some free patterns available for the convention goers even though it was all on Zoom. Mimi Dillman, the cluny expert, had one in the collection that I have to try, so here goes. (As if I don't have enough UFO's right now.) She has a heart pattern that is really nice. I will show it here when I finish it.

So far I have made just a few tallies from it to get back into doing clunies. I see that somehow I have a thread in the wrong place so I will just try again. You may remember the looms I made by 3D printing a few years ago. I am trying that and I am trying to do it on the hand. When the arthritis acts up, I use the loom. I finally can relax my "dead spider" enough that I am not stressing my hand so I find I can do it that way sometimes. It may take a little while to finish this though.

Testing Done For Beatrix

    You know, sometimes my own level of stupidity just amazes me. I have been working on testing this pattern for Ms. E. for a while. There are 6 rounds total. For some reason, I feel like I have to finish every round to prove the testing. The other day I realized I don't. I don't even have to do entire rounds at all. Of course I will, though, because I want to finish the doily, but for testing it is not actually necessary.

    I am almost done with round 4. I took a couple of other shuttles, tatted a bit of round 5 onto round 4 in a color that is easily distinguished from round 4. OK, that round pattern is good. Cut and tie off so it won't unravel and try round 6 on top of that. Round 6 pattern reads correctly and works as intended. Testing done. Now I can remove the testing and continue making the doily without the pressure of having to get it done for the test.

    Why did I not think of this before? I suppose it is part of the perfectionist in me, wanting to complete things. All I can say for sure is I am glad it was not the monster doily that I was testing. That one took me about 18 months to complete, but I only worked about an hour a day on it.

    I have not been blogging for over a month. Sorry, but I got busy with other things. Life happens. I think the biggest reason was I wasn't tatting a lot. Arthritis in my thumbs got to where I almost could not hold a pen to sign my name. It is better now. A friend suggested a cream call Blue Emu. I am not endorsing it, but it seems to have helped a bit. The pain is still there, but not as bad. Hopefully I won't be as far between posts now.

Almost Too Busy

    I know we all need something to do, but this is getting ridiculous. I have a lot going on almost too much! I am working on the Serweta 2 doily. I have round 5 completed. There are 11 rounds. Some of them go pretty slowly. That is because they are composed of individual motifs, therefore I have a lot of ends to sew in. One round does not use the same motif. It uses 2 different ones, alternating. I may do all of one, then do all of the other, just to get some rhythm. They do join, though, so I will have to try that and see what might be easier.

    I also have another doily going. This one is a test tat for Jane Eborall. It is another one of the dutch doilies. She has already blogged it so now she has given me permission to do so also. I am using King Tut thread, of course, #988, Oasis. I haven't done anything in green for a long time, possibly since the Monster Doily, so I am glad to be back to my favorite color.

    Okay, ask me why I like green. Go ahead. Want the answer? "What's in YOUR wallet?". And no, I don't mean credit cards. Hehe. Well, at least in the USA we call money "long green" or "greenbacks". And to tell the truth, it seems to me to be a more calming color than blue or red.

    I am also working on the house, the yard, some wood projects, a computer project and a few more things. Yes, I will be returning to the other projects I have. I switch between the during the day to avoid boredom, but so far I really like this doily pattern so I will probably finish it pretty quickly.

A Class In Size

    This past week I have been in class. Picotsnkeys was holding an online class through the The Lace Museum of Sunnyvale, California. It was mostly beginners but I was able to contribute a little to the conversations. The pattern she was teaching was the Sonata Doily she taught at Tat Days last year. I was not able to make the class at Tat Days so I enrolled in this one to sort of make up for it. One thing I was able to do was show size difference between 2 threads.

    Now you probably know I like to tat with King Tut threads. I had already done the doily in King Tut so this time I decided to use size 20 and demonstrate the difference in using a larger thread.

    This photo shows the difference quite well, I think. The top one is in King Tut thread and the bottom one is in Lizbeth size 20 thread. They both look great on my tables.

    I did enjoy the class. Thanks to all involved for allowing me to join in the fun!

Serweta 2 Round 3

    I finally have round 3 done on Serweta 2. This is really letting me learn this thrown ring method. It's like trial by fire. Actually, this is not something difficult to do. The rings are thrown from the "back side" of a split ring. Looking through the book in the instructions, though, I do not see where he designated the symbology for a split ring. I do like his designs but if you do them, be prepared to figure out how to tat some of it. He is not explicit on methods.

    The big reason I was so slow getting this round done is mostly that my shoulder started acting up again so I stopped tatting for several days. It is repetitive stress syndrome and arthritis and bursitis all at once. Now it has subsided for a while. I will see how long it takes to act up again. Oh, well, the advantages of getting old, hehe.
    Did you notice the title again? I'm learning Polish. One word a year. Now, I have to learn the whole language before I die. Is that an insurance policy, or what? And after Polish, Japanese. I should be around forever! How do you say "round" in Polish? As in round 4, coming up.

Another Serweta (2)

     I hope everyone is OK. I am fine, just trying to stay busy. I get to tat a lot more now. I have been working on a few things that I cannot post because they are part of the TAT program. I did decide to do a couple other things lately though.
    The last one I posted was Serweta 1, that tan doily I finished last month. I have started another one of the Stawasz doilies. It is Serweta 2 from the same book, Tatted Treasures. (The red covered one.) This is a photo scanned with round 2 just done. On to round 3 later today. In King Tut thread, of course.

    This one will take a while also. It should be about the same size, though I am not sure. It says 41cm in the book. That's 16". It says size 20. I think the first one was about the same in size 10. I will just have to see what happens.
    Do you see the "technique" needed to do this one? How do you throw a ring from a ring? It comes off the second side of a split ring. That is round 2. Round 3 is the same but the thrown rings will interlock with the tiny picots on round 2. Like I said, it will take a little while to do this one. If I have to stay home, though, I can't think of a better way to spend time.
    Oh, by the way, I was challenged to do Jane Eborall's Medina in King Tut. Here is the bow. I dont have a picture of it with the "angels gown" yet because it needs pressed and I just have not done that yet. I did ask what size this was in #40 Lizbeth. It was 4". Mine is 2 3/4" in King Tut.