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.