Tat Days 2020

     It's over. Tat Days 2020 is history. But, man, was it a blast! This has been a successful several days for me. First, I now have a road tested car that previously had only been out of town once. Performed like a charm. Second, I learned something in every class I took. Third, there is nothing like seeing old friends. And young ones too. Haha.

    This is the first piece from a class I have finished. It is Martha Ess's block tatted rainbow. It used encapsulation to hide ends. I haven't done that before so it was really of interest. If you know me, then you know I really like finding new techniques and this one was pretty cool. I was able to finish this in class by staying "after the bell" an extra 10 minutes. We had an hour until the next class anyway. I think it turned out pretty well.

I will talk more about Tat Days in a few days. I want to finish all my projects, so I have at least 3 more posts coming, but first I have to tat them. Please stand by!

My Gizmo

     By now most of you know that I like tatting with King Tut thread. I buy the spools, not the cones, though it may be cheaper in the long run. I do use a lot of it off of a 500 yard spool. One of the things I try to avoid, like all of us, is twist in the thread. I got the idea that if I would take the thread off the way it was put on, that is, unwind the spool instead of just pulling it from the end, then the twist would be a lot less. And it is. The problem is keeping control of the thread.
     
    Here is my solution so far. I used a 4" piece of 1"x4" white board and turned it to a 3" circle. I added a couple of grooves for decoration and to make it easier to pick up. Then I drilled a 3/16" hole in the center and inserted (glued) a 2 1/2" long piece of 3/16" dowel that I found at WalMart in the craft department. I think that should be enough information if you want to make one. Oh, 1x4 is actually 3/4 thick, not 1. It's just called that.
    You need a lathe to do the round, or you could use a scroll saw or band saw and sand it. You could use a router for the groove if you want. Also use a router for the rounded edge on top. It is heavy enough that when I pull thread from the spool it lets the spool turn without scooting across the table.

A Comedy Of Errors

    I finally got the 5th round done on Beatrix. You've seen that before. I was test tatting it for Jane Eborall. I got the testing done  but I still want to finish the doily. Right now it is about 6 1/2" across. Of course I am using King Tut thread. One more round to go. The color is a variegated green, King Tut # 988, Oasis.

    Finishing this round was, as the title of the post says, a comedy of errors. I got to the end and found I had joined the last outer join to the wrong picot, one on the inside. That meant that if I went ahead and connected the last chain, then it would cross and twist and make a right mess. I got a little irritated and cut it from the ball and shuttle with an extra foot of thread on each, then put it down over night. This morning I picked it up to fix it.Since the place it joined was all chain, it was simple to undo, just pulling the core thread back out. Where the thread was really kinked I smoothed it with a fingernail. 

    Next I pinched the core thread in a Pop-A-Bobbin shuttle with no bobbin, just letting the pin lock it. That was easier than finger tatting this much. I recreated the chains and about halfway realized I had the thread coming out the wrong side of the shuttle. OK. Deal with it. I got to the end again and it still didn't look right. I was supposed to have 4-4. I didn't. I had used the wrong chain counts. There are two alternating counts. I had to undo that again and finally tat the correct chains. Now it is done. The extra thread I had left just guaranteed that I had enough to work with. Once it was sewn it, it came out pretty good. On to the next and final round! I wonder, how I can mess up that one?

In the Mail

     You know, lately, our mail has gotten worse and worse. When I moved here 15 years ago it came at about 10 a.m. A few years later it got to 11 a.m., then 2 p.m., then 5 pm. In recent months it has come at 6 and 7. Once they even skipped delivering on this street. I know. I was watching. Last evening I checked the mail at 6:45. Nothing. And I know there was supposed to be at least one letter. I do use informed delivery and it shows what is in the mail. I went to bed about 7:30. I don't know what time it arrived.

 

    I got up this morning and went to get the paper at about 5 a.m. It was in the box, as usual. I reached into the mailbox to see if anything was delivered at all. The letter was there. And something I was not expecting just yet. I got 2 new shuttles! Pop-A-Bobbin, of course. If you have seen the Tat's Heaven blog you know that they got hold of some yew wood. That made the mail worth the wait. I am glad I thought to check it. Aren't they beautiful?

     I have to get some thread on them and play. See ya later!

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.