I haven't been tatting

I've been doing this instead

The ruler is in there for perspective. I should probably add a couple of small flowers around the outside. I've got 3 squares done, another butterfly and a bird. I was thinking of doing a quilt. The embroidery is the easy part. Having to stitch it all together doesn't sound like fun. So I may have to think of something else to do with a handful of embroidered squares. It always amazes me how heavy a little square feels when it's been embroidered.

Stunning Silver

Busy, busy, but I just have to show you what was sent to me recently.

Aren't they gorgeous? So delicate that they look like a puff of wind would blow them away, but so sturdy they could stand up. These, of course, are silver tatted earrings made by Alan aka Joyful the clown. They are simply elegant and something I shall certainly treasure. Now, what can I wear to go with something this beautiful? They are definitely not blue jeans and sweatshirt attire. Although, come to think of it, if you wore these with blues jeans and sweat shirt, you'd definitely be dressed up.

We have internet! O drat, we don't have water!!

Wednesday our brand spanking new modem arrived. It didn't work, but it arrived. Just in case (not likely, but you never know) hubby installed it on his computer using the also new Cat 5 line we just strung through the walls. To be doubly sure that there is nothing wrong with the Cat 5 two strands were used instead of one to make the connection to the, also new, jack. After which hubby couldn't even log into the modem program to set it up. So he called the IP yet again. After some lengthy attempts the IP advised us they were going to check things out and call us back, which they did. After several tries it was determined that some settings in our internet browser were interfering with the operation of the modem and that the initial address we had been advised to use wasn't working. An alternate was suggested and after the preliminary handshaking the internet roared back to life.

I am so deliriously happy to be able to connect to the internet again and not lose the connection 2 minutes later. I can send and receive email, I can upload pictures to Blogger, I can even send files through the internet! Hooray!!!!!

Of course, this morning, I have a new problem. Remember this in 2008?

In October we had this.

Christmas morning as I got up to put the turkey in the oven for our afternoon feast, this was trundling past the bedroom window headed for yet another  little spot.

This morning we have this.

That makes 3 water main breaks in 4 months, none of which are covered by the city because a condominium townhouse is private property and we, it's illustrious owners, will have to cover it ourselves. Mommy! I want to move.

Not right, Not wrong, Not working

Lest you think I haven't been tatting at all, this started out to be a necklace that came to a point in the middle, but obviously I wasn't thinking clearly because what I have at this point resembles a collar rather than a necklace. I planned for the first row and the last row to have beads, and if I'd had beads on the last row I would just call it quits, but I didn't and now I have something that I have to add a row to to add the beads, except that it's already too wide and adding more will make it wider. ARGGHH!

Next question, what do you do with a project that isn't what you want it to be but isn't garbage either?

On the internet front, a second modem was sent to us express. This one was new in box and should just plug in and run, but it didn't. We have been told that the phone line into the house is fine and that although our purchased modem is functioning, it isn't an "approved" modem meaning that it will probably work with the system, but it might at times have issues. The new modem just received is approved and should resolve all of our problems. If it doesn't then the problem might be with our server's network. Hubby is currently wiring in the new Cat 5 cable to the demarcation point. With the new cable in and all of the phone lines disconnected at the demarcation we should have new line, new modem and the internet should sing.

If it doesn't the issue isn't with us, our equipment or our phone line and heads will roll. Hubby has more tenacity than a pit bull. He's brilliant about a lot of things and he knows when he is right. Don't argue with him, you'll lose.

2011?

2011 is set up to be a good year. At least considering how bad it's been so far, it can only improve. Our internet connection died on January 1st. We have spent 6 to 8 hours on the phone trying to sort it out. There seems to be a combined issue of a dead modem and something problematic on the line. January 1 we told the IP that the modem was bad and to ship a new one. January 5th they advised us that they hadn't shipped it yet because they were waiting for a report back from Bell. So finally they got the report from Bell and sent the unit which was supposed to arrive yesterday. It finally came today, in a box, without packaging just rattling around loose. We plugged it in, reconfigured it (we're getting good at this, we've done it about 50 times since the beginning of the year) and nothing. Just to verify that it's the modem and not a problem with the internal phone lines, we plugged it in at the demarcation point where the phone line enters the house and disconnected all of the phones. Sure enough, it's dead as a door nail.

We've had issues before, so we actually bought a backup modem for times like this, but even with our fully functional modem we've had issues We have download access, so I can view web pages and receive email, but I can't send files or email and periodically my connection fails altogether. Doing things like the 25 Motif Challenge has been a "challenging" experience. Between loosing connectivity and getting kicked off my computer while the modem gets reconfigured again and again it has been difficult to view the blogs. Of course once I view them, I have to upload the pictures to the challenge blog which is an interesting experience when your upload speed is slower than dial up. Last Saturday I spent 12 hours trying to do the blog post.

Don't even get me started on the nightmare of trying to upload files for the Design-Tat course. It took 2 days just to get 1 file uploaded. It would look like the file went through and then it would suddenly disconnect. Over and over again. The file was so large I couldn't even use dial up to send it, but finally after repeated attempts it went through.

Unlike most homes we have a single dedicated line for the DSL service. When we went with DSL a few years ago it just made sense to run a separate line for the modem so there is one phone line from the demarcation point, which in our home is the basement, straight to the modem on the second floor. So a lot of the typical comments that "it's your phone line" are highly unlikely. However after the 3rd Bell phone technician was here insisting that it's the new (it's only been in 5 years) heavy gauge wire that is responsible, we went out and bought a reel of Cat 5 wire and we are now in the process of re-wiring the line to the modem. Anyone who has fished lines through a house can appreciate what this is like. Last night we brought it from the basement through the wall up to the second floor. Now all we have to do is run it under the floor to the wall and we can create a new junction up here and split off all the computers.

On top of all of this, since my computer is the one closest to the modem, it means that all of the configuration of the modem and the router have to be done on my computer. While my computer is being used I switch to working on the laptop. Except that when we need to connect to the demarcation point, it is necessary yo use the laptop. So since the beginning of the year I have begun and trashed endless emails and tutorials as I'm kicked back and forth from desktop to laptop computer. At one point the tech support person insisted that it was necessary to reset the computer's internet browser back to factory setting to fix the problem. Of course, the tech was an idiot and it did nothing to repair the issue, but all of my customization is completely gone and I'm left looking for things that no longer exist.

As frustrating as I find it, it's nothing to what my dear sweet honey is going through. He's the one who's having to deal with idiots on the phone, writing copious emails and repeating endlessly the explanation of what has gone on before while trying to get people half a world away to respond in an efficient and timely manner.

11 days and counting and we still don't have internet.

From our house to yours - Recipes for yummy cookies

These are some of our favourite cookies because they not only taste yummy, they look good on a plate. The round balls are Chocolate Carousels, a peanut butter ball full of fruit and nuts topped with chocolate. No baking and simple enough for kids to make. The white looking Lemon Squares are a shortbread base with a lemon topping that can be thrown in the blender whirred and poured over the crust. I keep a bottle of lemon juice on hand so I can whip these up whenever necessary. The pretty mincemeat poinsettias, are a twist on the usual mincemeat tarts that make a festive addition to a cookie plate.

Chocolate Carousels

1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon soft butter
I cup icing sugar
1/2 cup (scant) chopped dates
1/2 cup chopped pecans or filberts (filberts were used)
1/2 cup drained maraschino cherries chopped
Cream together the peanut butter, butter and icing
sugar and fruit and nuts and form into 1 inch balls.
Melt 4oz of semi sweet chocolate and drip over balls.

Lemon Squares

Base
1 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup powdered icing sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
Cream butter and sugar together then add flour until
thoroughly mixed and press into a 13x9 inch pan.
Bake at 350 F 20-25 minutes until just starting to
brown as it will be returned to the oven when the
topping is added.

Topping
Beat together
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice (fresh or bottled), if using fresh
add the grated lemon zest for extra flavour.
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup all purpose flour
I do the topping in the blender adding the ingredients
one at a time as it's running, finishing with the lemon
juice as the blender starts to have difficulty working.
Return to the over for another 25 minutes or more
until the top is set. I time it for 25 minutes and start
watching until the centre is set and firm to the touch.
Sprinkle with icing sugar, cool and cut.

Mincemeat Poinsettias

1 cup margarine
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
bottle of mincemeat
maraschino cherry pieces
Cream together butter and cheese. Beat in eggs and
vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder. Stir into
mixture. Form a stiff dough. cover and chill. Roll out
half of mixture into 1/8 thick rectangle. Cut into 3 inch
squares, slit from corners. Put a dollop of mincemeat
in centre, and fold down alternate corners and press
a cherry in centre. Return excess dough to
refrigerator. Repeat with second half.
Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes.

Guaranteed to add on pounds, but it's a celebration and now and then, we're allowed to splurge. By the way, the holly in the corner of the placemat is a larger variation of the pattern for the skates done in size 10 thread.

A gift for you

This year I decided not to send snowflakes in our Christmas cards and I tatted ice skate ornaments instead. Eight pairs of teeny tiny skates were made. One thing I've noticed with tatting is that the details can often take as much time as tatting the whole project. Tatting skates takes a whole lot more time than a snowflake, mostly because we have 2 feet and need 2 skates. I thought I'd make these skates wearable instead of as ornaments, so I added a tiny pair of holly leaves to hide the bar fastener behind them. An extra pair of tatted holly leaves with red beads for berries and an itsy bitsy bell. I would have rather used 2 bells so that they jingled more and I could have put them on the skates, but I didn't have enough bells and couldn't find a store that had more of them that tiny. (I'll bet that after Christmas I see them everywhere I go.)

I expect these to be worn, maybe on a coat and they may get wet, so I thought the usual paperclips that form the blade of the skates might rust. When I found these red plastic coated paperclips, I thought they were perfect. Making tiny blades for skates, lacing up tiny little boots, tatting minuscule holly leaves and sewing on the bar fastener took almost as much time as tatting the skates, but finally they were done. TA DA! Tatted ice skates.

I thought you might like to tat a pair of your own, so here is the pattern. The whole thing is mostly rings of 4-4 and chains of 2 except for the chains at the toe and heel on the first row, and at the toe on the second row; which are 3.
Corrected pattern

An experienced tatter probably doesn't need anything more than the diagram, but some people might find a little more instructions helpful especially with the shaping of a 3D object. The first 3 rings at the toe all join into the picot of the first ring and when you are finishing and inserting the paperclip blade, that's where the paperclip is inserted, so make sure the picot isn't too small I used all same size picots. The three rings at the heel are made the same way, so make sure that picot isn't tiny either. Then when you make the second side of the sole of the skate the rings are joined to the matching ring on the first side. End with a shuttle join, and split ring to climb into the second row.

On the second row join each ring into the base of the ring on the first row. End with a shuttle join and split ring to climb into the third row.

The third row shapes the top of the foot. After the split ring, (no chain) tat another ring joining it to the base of the ring at the tip of the toe, then tat a third ring joining it to the base of the next ring. Think of it like a clover leaf. Then tat a chain of 2 and one ring joined to the base of the ring on one side of the foot and switch shuttles to tat the ring on the other side of the foot. Chain 2 and tat the next pair of rings, one on the left and one on the right. Then chain 2 and continue tatting ring and chain around the top of the shoe finishing with chain 2 shuttle joined between the last pair of left and right rings.

Row 4 begins the boot with a split ring. This split ring marked with an asterisk is the new front of the boot. Chain 2 and tat the next ring joining it to the base of the ring along the side of the boot. continue working around the boot ending with chain 2 shuttle joined into the top of the front ring. You should have 10 rings and 10 chains.

Row 5 and 6 begin with a split ring and are just a repeat of rings joined to the base of the ring on the previous row and chains. Make sure that you have 10 rings and chains on both rows.

Finish by breaking off the excess part of the paper clip and insert the remaining overlapping section one end in front and one end in back. Then use a strand of contrasting thread and lace up the front of the boot and tie a tiny bow at the top. Repeat for the second boot and tat a chain of about 30 stitches to join the two skates together.

Just an additional note, these were tatted with size 20 thread and measure about 1.25 inches.

The holly leaves that were used as an excuse to hide the bar pin at back are just cloverleaves joined together. You tat the first cloverleaf and do a shoelace tie before doing the next ring or you end up with a wreath shape instead of holly. Tat the next 2 rings, one with each shuttle and the last ring as a split ring. If you want to add 3 beads between the leaves the beads need to be on the shuttle before you start. They're tiny leaves that take only a small amount of thread, so you could unwind the shuttle and add them on in the middle. Slide the beads into place and do another shoelace tie, then tat the split ring starting the second leaf and tat one ring with each shuttle, joining the 2 leaves together at the side, followed by another shoelace tie and a final cloverleaf joining the last ring to the first cloverleaf of the second leaf. This same design can be made larger just by increasing the stitch count to 3,4, 5, 6 etc. and it still seems to work.

It must have been fate

When you "have your finger in too many pies", there comes a time when you really have to sit yourself down and give yourself a good talking to. There are just so many hours in a day and when you start avoiding things like sleeping, eating and carrying on normal conversations with your other half, it's time to realize that not EVERY challenge to tat something new and interesting has to result in a finished project. So when the Fringe Element, tatting exchange for something from The Place I Call Home I reluctantly realized that I just didn't have the time. Then there was an online challenge to make a set of earrings and pendant and again I closed down the web site and kept plodding along with the "jobs I had to do". I even resisted IsDihara's challenge to decorate your chocolate box with tatting, or I sort of resisted, until this happened.

I was pulling some coin rollers out of the top shelf of the closet and this fell on my head. I couldn't manage a full size box, but what harm would it do to make a little something for such a tiny box? So first I covered it in pink paper.

I had visions of doing something Victorian in deep red and yellow, but was prevented by my lack of yellow thread. I have some yellow, but not the deep dark yellow-y gold colour I was imagining. For that matter I didn't have the dark red in my pallet either. So knowing that I really didn't have enough spare time to play with possibilities I turned to the boxes contents and thought I might see if I could make some lace chocolates for my box. That's when I realized that brown is another colour I don't have. I turned to my embroidery threads, but splitting skeins of thread wasn't something I wanted to do for any but the tiniest of projects. So I almost gave up until I remembered that I had been given a mixed bag of size 10 crochet cotton which happened to include a ball of brown. A little brown cloth and a little bit of tatting and I had the contents taken care of.

Then I turned my attention back to the box. With the box covered in pink I had effectively cut down some of my options and since I didn't have a lot of ideas percolating in my head, I settled for plain old white since it would let me keep my other options open. I made a simple ring and chain band to go around the side, but it looked skimpy. So I turned my attention to the top and began to cover the lid with more ring and chain tatting adjusting for the corners. It wasn't too long before I realized that I might end up with something weird happening in the middle, so I switched to doing rows of split rings.

That gave me a very uninspired box covered in plain white lace. It needed something to finish off the outer edge so I added a border of gold chain which finished the edge nicely and then I though a matching gold ribbon would be just the thing the box needed. One band of gold looked off balance so I tatted a second to cross in the other direction. That gave me a plain white box with a gold ribbon, but that wasn't really what I had been imagining so I took a look online at Victorian chocolate boxes and when I saw the flowers I knew what I needed to do.

Delicate violets with yellow gold beads in the centres. A single leaf and matching stem and I had the topping that my little box needed. I removed it from the box so that you can see it better here, although neither shot shows the gold edge along the bottom.

At least this was one challenge I didn't have to forgo entirely, but now that it's done I need to hurry up and get my Christmas card tatting done. I know my hubby, the first Christmas card he gets, he'll be wanting to send out ours. My niece has a habit of sending hers out in November, so we have this ongoing battle about when is the right time to send cards. I'd rather it were later to give me more tatting time. He'd rather it were sooner so that they don't arrive late. I'm off to tat snowflakes.

One more picture to show you a view of the gold border along the edge.

I had to share

I received an email from Coletta when she ordered the Tatted Flurries book, and attached to it was a picture of her entry in the Great Gulfcoast Arts Festival. She's the only tatter and her work was judged against the other heritage artists and she took the 2nd top award. I wrote and asked permission to share the picture with you:

The basic pattern is the tulip pattern from Linda Davis which she had memorized after making two of the four petals. The other flowers were from the same tulip pattern. She made two flowers from the basic pattern and  set one inside the other at an angle. The top part was a simple ring with chain work going round and round with lots of double stitches and picots to make the fluffy center. One of the leaf patterns was from Linda Davis' page but she's not sure about the other.

The Tsumami silk rose buds and two other buds were already done from when she used to do Tsumami which is the art of folding squares of silk. Each flower petal, buds, and leaves are separate squares going through 7 - 9 stages of folding. It dates back to the Edo Era of Japan about 1640.

She had a few stems already but had to do several more as she didn't have enough for the flowers. There are no wires in the stems - the stems are made by rolling the inside material with a glue/paste mixture and then rolling the outside material over that. The outside stem material has been dyed to the color needed and she still had some stamens made from years ago.

The arranging and tacking down took about four hours as she kept re-arranging the flowers. None of the tatting is glued down. She took a push-tack and push the tack into the mat board. Using a large needle with monofilament line, she took the needle from the back to the front catching a picot and going back down in the same hole.

The threads were DMC pearl 8 and Lizbeth thread but she doesn't remember the size. (I'd guess 20 as that seems to match the perle 8) She wanted to do a presentation bouquet that would lay on a table but then
remembered that people love to touch. She had two old frames an oval and a round one and decided that the round one was the one for the look that she wanted. What she liked the most was the different textures that were achieved from the two fiber arts.

I think Coletta created a wonderful work of art with her tatting It's the kind of thing anyone would be proud to hang on their wall and it just goes to show what can be done with tatting. I love seeing people push the envelope and do things with tatting besides making doilies.

And the winner is................................

There were 80 people who added their comments,with awesome ideas of what to do with snowflake patterns whether they are done in white or in colours. Several people reported problems with commenting, but I included them too. Since I thought everyone might like to see the ideas I put them in a list.

Join together as a choker or necklace
bracelet
earrings
brooches/pins
headband
barrettes
Hang on tree, in door frame, IV pole, ceiling, in window
make dreamcatcher
make bookmark with joined snowflakes
make flowers
mobiles
coasters,
ornaments,
hanger for earrings
doily or mat
make purse
appliques on sweatshirts, coats, purses, Christmas tree skirts, quilts, scarfs, little girls dresses, cummerbund
zipper pulls or fobs
cards
decorating quilts with snowflakes
tree covered only in snowflakes
decorate book cover
invitation for a winter wedding
snowmen
angels
gifts
doily
gift tags
garland
runner edging
suncatcher
border a skirt
pincushion
Santa's hat
pill box
compact
line with fabric for a purse.
ornament drape
centerpiece when placed on satin balls and placed in a clear bowl or vase
scatter them randomly on your holiday table
use the smaller ones on your place cards at dinner
on lamps shades, ceiling fan pulls
in live or artificial plants
Arrange them in the shape of a tree on a wall above a table so that it looks like it is sitting on the table
frame
clock face in place of the numbers
decoupage them on plates or tins and fill with cookies to use and give as gifts
decorating a holiday wreath for the front door
holiday place mats
hostess gift
edgings on pillows and on pockets
made 2 alike and put a bit of tulle with potpourri to put in lingerie drawer
tacked to the walls of cube at work
tatted snowflakes in the "V" on shirts
decorate a picture frame

There were so many great ideas, I think I may have to tat all of the designs over again in colour just to try out some of them. If I'm going to do a blitz of snowflakes, I think I may as well join the 25 Motif Challenge again just to keep track.

Add of course, the thing you are all waiting for..........the winner of today's draw. The names were all printed and put in a hat and hubby pulled out a name. The winner is:

Rose Anne B

Please contact me with your address so that I can mail your book out to you. If I don't get a response, another name will be chosen.

When is a snowflake, not a snowflake?

Answer: When it's an ornament cover.

Like this Peek-A-Boo Daisy done in size 20 thread over a 2.5 inch ball. You can do this with any snowflake just by tatting 2 of them and joining them at the tips of the points. You can measure for a snug fit - and it does need to be snug - just by tatting one snowflake and laying the tips along the seam of a plastic ornament or from the hanger to the navel on a satin ball. If the tips just touch along the seam or opposite points just reach top and bottom, them you have chances of a good fit. If the snowflake overlaps the seams or top and bottom points, look for a smaller snowflake or a larger ball.


OR

When it's flowers.

Like Polly done in size 20 Lizbeth Violet Pink Dk #635 and Violet Pink Med #634; Inverted Heart done in Raspberry Pink Med #624; and Phaedra done in Raspberry Pink Lt #623. Each picot on the outer edges of the snowflake has been sewn down. I expect that fabric glue would work, but might not wash as well. The "stems" are green ribbon and the leaf is one from one of my earlier pattern books, but it could have been made with ribbon too. Another alternative would be to use fabric paint.

OR

When it's a shooting star.

Like Starburst done in size 20 Lizbeth in Christmas Red #671 and Red Burst #147. Each picot on the outer edge is sewn down. Since I used 2 colours I had 2 starting ends and 2 finishing ends. I ran out of thread just at the last outer point and had to add more thread in, so I had some extra thread ends. I was trying out different things with the snowflakes and when I saw the way it looked with all the trailing ends I thought I'd just leave them. so a did a crocheted chain on each end and then sewed them down. The ribbon with the gold edges was added for some extra pizazz. You could just sew the ends in and use fabric paint for the trail.

OR

When it's a bookmark.

Like Phantom Star done in size 80 DMC in green and red. A split ring tail was added and a tiny matching ring and chain motif at the end instead of a tassel.

Do you have other ideas of where to use tatted snowflakes? Don't forget to add you comments to the entry below for your chance to win your copy of Tatted Flurries

I was asked earlier for pattern names on the pictures which I have provided on the initial posting below

Win your own copy of Tatted Flurries

This is a snowflake standing on it's tippy toes. Yes, it really is STANDING on the picots.

I don't usually stiffen snowflakes, I just wet block them and leave them to dry. If they get droopy I wet them and just roughly block them again. The picture is crappy because it was taken in late afternoon light and my camera battery was dying. The blob it the middle is a heart shaped crystal and the little copper section at the bottom is the edge of a penny that wasn't as close to the snowflake as I thought, which was put in for perspective, but only about half of the penny shows. This snowflake got blocked and kicked around a lot before I got around to taking it's mug shot and it wilted, so I had to block it again.

Blocking 3D snowflakes is a bit of a challenge and I didn't want to have to do it a third time. So this time around I wet the snowflake thoroughly and then took a bottle of white, washable school glue that has a pointed nozzle and went over the snowflake, mostly along the bottom side of the stiches so that I didn't get lumps of glue in the picots. I expected it to be stiff. I didn't expect it to be able to stand on it's own. It isn't something I'd recommend doing to lace and I have no idea if it will wash out or not. Considering that the reason I used it, was so that I wouldn't have to block this sucker again, it will probably be a long time before I find out whether it really is washable or not. :-) This is the Magnus snowflake from the book Tatted Flurries and it's 5 inches across from point to point.

This time of year I always end up tatting a lot of snowflakes and because it's winter and I have snow on my mind I tat them in white to hang on a Christmas tree or give them away. When the weather warms up I tend to tat the same designs in colour to put on T-shirts. There are lots of things you can do with snowflakes. What are some of the ideas you have for using snowflakes? Just to give you an incentive to think of ideas, I'm going to have a contest. Add your comments to this blog post for a chance to win your own copy of Tatted Flurries. The contest will run until November 15th when all of the names will go into a hat and hubby will pick a winner. (Note, if you have already purchased the book, I'll refund your money just to be fair.) Get your thinking caps on, What can you do with a snowflake motif?

Just some additional information. This is Harmony, Magnus's little brother. This snowflake can be tatted several ways. The blue version shows it tatted with a centre motif. The white version has the centre motif and an encapsulating round that holds the one inch rhinestone in place. Magnus doesn't use the centre motif or the rhinestone and it has some connecting rings that bive it more stability, even when it isn't stiffened.

TATTED FLURRIES

It's finally here! After more delays than you can imagine, I've finally got my latest book done and I'm ready to take orders. If you want a tree full of snowflakes, this is the book for you. A month of snowflakes. Thirty-two designs. Four 3D snowflakes. Everything from little 2 inch snowflakes to large 5 inch snowflakes that can be used as small doilies. Eight of them can be tatted so that a one inch rhinestone can he held in the middle for some extra sparkle.

As a beginner, it frustrated me to see a pattern that I liked, but I couldn't do them because of the way it was written. All of the patterns use visual format with instructions for climbing from one row to the next, but I've also included the alternate written instructions on how to tat it one row at a time. So experienced tatters and beginners alike can make these designs.
I'm not satisfied that the pictures do the snowflakes justice, so the cover may get changed because even after several tries what looked good on screen didn't print the way it was supposed to. I expect it has something to do with the printing equipment darkening the background, so I may change print shops and see if different equipment makes it look better.

Hubby hasn't been feeling well, so it's taken quite a while to get things done. The page with the order form isn't up yet and I'm still thinking about whether to do an e-book. At the moment I can send you out a PayPal invoice if you want the book. The pricing in Canadian currency listed below includes shipping.
CAN      $21.50
USA       $23.00
INT        $26.00

Setting up the web page for downloading an electronic book in PDF format has to wait for a day when hubby is feeling better, but the file has been created, so it will be available electronically soon, maybe even this weekend. It's been done and the E-book is now available.

PDF E-book $19.00   
Anyone interested in ordering the book please email me and let me know if you want the printed book or the E-book. If ordering the printed book, please let me know the country as shipping is included in the price:
 

Soon

It's coming.

It's almost here!

Just a little more tweaking. Aren't I a tease?

A honey of a day

Today I was really pleased with my progress on the snowflake book. I have a few pictures to take of 3D snowflakes and 2 more to get into the book, before I do the final proofread and make sure it's OK to publish. I was hoping to have it all done except for pictures tonight, but due to unexpected events, that's not going to happen. I had a couple of snowflakes I was going to include, but I've decided to scrap them instead.

This afternoon's mail brought a lovely surprise. Well, not too surprising, since I knew it was coming. I am the fortunate recipient of Ann's delightful tattting press and she even included extra fabric so I could make a matching bag. She already displayed this one on her blog, but what doesn't show so well in the picture is the absolutely perfect workmanship. I can't believe how precisely this is made. I think the soft inner flannel may be hand stitched, but it's so precise it might be machine done, although I can't think of how it could be done on the machine. I have sewn clothes, but my corners and joins where multiple sections come together are always "iffy". If I'm lucky, they work first time, and if I'm not, I give up. I could retrotat 20 minutes worth of work without any problem, but I can't stand to rip and re-sew seams. Which explains why most of the patterns I used were super simple.

I was reminded that I hadn't added any pictures, which was because the light was too poor to take any yesterday after the fiasco with the honey. Although it's cloudy today, I still took some shots so that you can see how pretty and functional the press is. The bow unties to open the press. On the outside I have 2 shuttles tucked in on one side, and on the other side I have my chatelaine with scissors, needles for sewing in ends and a wickedly sharp tiny crochet hook which I normally stuff in my pocket. They fit right in, but I left them peeking out so that you can see them. I am forever getting stabbed in the leg with the hooks on the Aero shuttles and the hook on my chatelaine. They can't stab me any more, and until I get the piece finished and blocked, it will stay neat and tidy closed up in the press. What a brilliant idea! Thank you Ann, I love it!!!

Before I got to do much more, hubby reminded me we needed to make a quick run out to get baking soda from Bulk Barn. It's the store with all the bulk baking supplies and we buy a couple of pounds of baking soda at a time so we can use it for washing and neutralizing acid. We popped into the store and grabbed the baking soda and hubby reminded me that he wanted an oatmeal cookie. They sometimes have the really big 4 or 5 inch cookies and he likes to grab a big cookie to munch on. So we walked around to the back of the store and WHAM I hit the ground smacking my hip and elbow.

Someone had opened the spiggot on the vat of liquid honey without putting a container under it. Liquid honey poured all over the floor and one of the staff had just moved the "caution wet floor" sign around the corner and out of sight while they went to rinse off the mop. I slid through the honey and got soaked from head to toe in the stuff. My shoes and jeans were wet and sticky with it as was my jacket, my purse and my hair. My elbow took the brunt of the impact and to a lesser extent, my hip. I think the layers of jeans and jacket helped to cushion it a bit.

Consequently, now that I've done laundry to wash my jacket and jeans, taken a shower and washed the honey and dirt out of my hair, I'm feeling too bruised and battered to do anything but put my feet up and vegetate.

A bookmark and a half

I haven't really dropped off the planet although you might think so is you were reading my blog. I haven't done much tatting either. I had plans to tat bookmarks for my siblings and send them out on their birthdays. I managed 2 out of the 8 so far, gave one to my sister, when it wasn't her birthday, just because so I did a frame picture of tatted flowers instead (which I still haven't given to her because she was away for the summer. The next birthday was in September and I forgot about it until it was too late and I was busy sewing tatted edgings on placemats for another gift and just didn't have time.

The 8 edgings were completed before I had the placemats and had to be shortened by one pattern repeat to fit. That required cutting off part of the last repeated and retro tatting enough of the design so that the ends were long enough to re-tat the edge and sew in. Tedious and time consuming. And after it was all done I forgot to take a picture!

Before I got distracted by that little episode I began a bookmark in 2 shades of pink but I cut off the shuttles because I was too lazy to run upstairs and get another one for the edging repair. Now so much time has passed that I can't remember what I was doing with the pattern and I'm too lazy to stop and count stitches to find out what it ought to be so I can tat the other side. Before you judge me on this, it's harder than you think. I was designing on the fly and started with what I thought would work, but I could tell that it probably wasn't going to sit straight even with blocking so I know that somewhere along the line I modified what I was doing. So now I have 2 ends that have been apparently cut off and without counting the stitches in the pattern repeats at both ends and comparing, I have not way to be sure where I was going with it. and I'd still have to do something more to it to make is wide enough to be a decent bookmark.

So I started over again in a solid and variegate blue. It too wasn't wide enough but I wanted to use more than just blue anyway, so this one has a band of yellow down the middle. I'm thinking of shipping this one off with a belated birthday card, or not. I haven't decided.

Most of August was shot trying to get things sorted out in the garage. It's one of those situations where things weren't what they should have been and things had to be redone so that you could safely work out there. Over the years my sweetie has repaired almost everything in the house, but that often means needing to take it out into the garage to work on it. 30 years ago he built a bench with 16 drawers in it to hold all the bits and pieces he uses. To fix some things we needed to get behind the desk, but it's too heavy to move full, so we had to empty things out, move the desk, work behind it and put it back. While it was out the drawers sat on the floor, so the car sat out in the driveway and we picked our way around the clutter within. It's amazing the number of jobs that you just can't complete without making a trip to Home Depot or Canadian Tire for a 50 cent part. It's especially amazing that you didn't know you'd need that 50 cent part the last time you were there.

August was a good month, health wise for my sweetie. The weather was good and he was good able to do things. So he did, while he could. September the weather got colder and he's back to feeling miserable. He's spent the last week hardly able to get out of bed. It's so frustrating for him to feel like being up and working one day and feeling barely able to stand the next and never knowing from one day to the next which it will be. So needing to do what could be done while we could, I took my usual place as a lamp stand or third hand. That of course meant that I was needed to tag along for every trip out for a 50 cent part and every few minutes I was needed to hold said 50 cent part while it was assembled into whatever it was.

Not a lot of tatting got done and I was too tired to concentrate much on getting this snowflake book going although I did manage to reformat it. Now I just need to get my nose to the grindstone and get it finished. I did manage to keep the 25 Motif Challenge page updated and the new Design-Tat course is up and running, so I guess I have been doing some things tatting related. Too bad this eating and sleeping stuff has to interfere so much ;-)

Slow, Sluggish, Stagnating

That's kind of how I feel. Summer is a great time for getting lots of things done, except, apparently not tatting or tatting books. I've done nothing at all on the snowflake book for over a month. It has been mostly too hot to work in my office for anything other than the immediately necessary jobs. Then there have been "issues". Irritating things like computers not working properly. Frustrating things that have required my attention elsewhere. Annoying things like necessary power outages for some necessary re-wiring. Creative things like not liking the whole "tone" of the book so far. Drastic things like the possible re-formatting of the entire book.

Here's a minor issue. I was doodling and this snowflake appeared. On the first one I neglected to join one of the clunies to the central motif so I just tied it on after the fact so that I could see what it should look like. Then I thought I might include it in the book too. I re-did it in colour using a variegated Valdani thread matched with a solid burgundy that looked like a good pairing in the evening light.

In the cold light of day it seems a bit off to me. Or maybe it's me that's off. I started it again in white and on the first cluny the thread broke. I contemplated just attaching more thread and continuing, but opted instead to do it right and start over. The second time it waited until the 8th cluny before it broke. If it's going to be included in the book I need it done in white. which I can't do because for the first time in my life I'm all out of white thread.

Changing domains

We are slowly but surely changing over to our new domain and the GageChek domain is about to be removed. That means that anyone who has bookmarked the old address with the tatting demos and tips and the link to the tatted headpiece that I did are about to disappear.

My old web page used to be http://www.gagechek.com/slb but it's new address is:

http://www.rsbriggs.com/slb

Clicking on the link will take you to the new page which is exactly like the old one. If you haven't visited the page you might want to take a look through it. There are pictures of the tatting I did for my wedding veil, useful information in the tatting Tips including a page on How to Read a Pattern which you are free to use for teaching purposes, and of course there are a variety of how to demos. Even if you have seen the page before, clicking on the link will help to register the new address with the search engines so that new tatters can find the demos.


The new address also included the information on FilePick which is the software my sweet hubby wrote to help keep track of patterns and other things. I found that when I had created a lot of drawings, it became hard to find the one that I wanted. If you make one heart it's easy to find, but if you've made a dozen over the course of several years, it may be harder to locate the one you want and it sure is tedious opening up one pattern after another trying to locate the right one.

FilePick will let you list the pattern or the PDF file or the CAD file and link the name to a picture. It doesn't have to be a picture of the diagram, it can be a picture of the finished product. It sure is a lot easier to scroll through thumbnails of things to find just the right one.

If you have a minute, I'd appreciate it if you clicked on the 2 links above. It will help to establish the new addresses in the search engines so that people can find us again.

Jingle, Jingle, Jingle

I picked up some tiny bells the other day because I thought they were cute and could probably be used with tatting. I should have included something for size reference in the picture. They're smaller than a quarter of an inch across or about 7 mm.

I sat down with some black Opera size 20 and some size 20 Lizbeth Turquoise and tatted a row of edging adding in the tiny bells as I was going. I had an idea that tinkling little bells around the ankle might be kind of cute. After the first row I had intended on just making a chain across the top, but I could tell that would be too skinny so I thought of making a mirror row along the top and replaced the bells with tiny gold beads. I didn't like the space that left between the large rings top and bottom, so I added in some iridescent black dagger beads to fill the gap.
Overall, I like the effect and the bells do make a nice little jingle when you walk. I'm not the kind of person to wear ankle jewellery. Actually I don't wear much of any kind of bling. I have a diamond engagement ring, but I don't wear it. My ears were pierced and I used to occasionally wear earrings, but I'd gotten away from it for so long that the last time I tried to put them on I had to poke a new hole because it had grown over. I've decided though that I like this one. I think it might even make a nice choker.
That brings me to an interesting question. Do you wear one anklet or two? Earrings are generally worn in pairs, but you don't often wear bracelets on both wrists. So what about anklets? Ankle bracelets are usually only worn on one leg, but I've seen designs for ankle wear done in pairs and I've seen singles. Of course maybe I'm only seeing one displayed but there are actually two. Does it matter? Does it depend on the design? I was all ready to whip out a second anklet when I decided that I only want to wear one. What do you think?