County Fair

The County Fair was different this year -- like it was only half there. Fewer entries, fewer vendors, fewer animals...you get the idea. The database with previous exhibitor names and addresses was either lost or ignored, so nobody got a postcard reminder of the fair dates and entry times. The Fair was also held earlier than usual, by about a week. Apparently, the people in charge of the exhibitor areas (not animal exhibits) are not the people who have been in charge for the last fifteen years. Those people decided to retire. They apparently either didn't train the new bunch, or the newbies decided they had better ideas. (Nah, I don't think they were really better ideas.) There were no comment cards this year, either. I miss those! It's always good to know where someone thinks your work needs improvement.

Anyway, I entered ten items and received three second place red ribbons:

Konoir edging, Original pattern ornament, Morgan Mouse Bookmarks

and seven first place blue ribbons. 

Renulek's Spring Doily, Original Pattern Doily, Halloween Card, Flowergirl Headband, Time & Again Earrings

Baby Afghan

The little crocheted stuffed animals I made from  the book Edward's Menagerie (#edwardsmenagerie) also got a Judge's Choice ribbon.

Edward's Menagerie Elephant, Zebra, Rhino, and Hippo

Bit of Lace

Yes, a bit of lace from "Tatting With Visual Patterns" by Mary Konior. I made a mistake, so there's a picot missing. I was going to put this on a pillowcase. After making the mistake I decided it was a good thing. This is size 20 thread. I've remade the edging in size 40, which is much better for the purpose. I finished it and joined it together last night. Now I have to wash it. No matter how many times I wash my hands when I use white thread it just looks grubby to me. Once it's washed and dried I'll sew it on the pillowcase. This is a first for me. I don't actually know why anyone would want to put lace on a pillowcase. However, it's one of the categories for entry in the State Fair and one I've not entered before. This piece might be re-purposed into a headband for a flower girl, because "wedding item" is one of the categories in the County Fair. If I use the picots as attachment points and put little beads there, nobody is going to know there's one picot missing -- there will be a bead after all.

For those of you on galloping horses, okay, those who don't have the inclination to stare at every picot on this bit, here's the error:

Bugs

Yes. Bugs. I made some. Jeanie Schekel, the chair of the Ogden Bonneville Tatters group, held a class on Riet Surtel-Smeulders Daisy Picot Butterfly last month. I didn't finish in class, so my attempt at hiding the wire was not as easy as it probably should have been. There's wire in the wings so they can be shaped and hold the shape without stiffening. I did not choose the threads wisely either -- really should have selected three plain colors to get a proper contrast. Still, I do like these and I like this pattern. The top butterfly is size 20 and the bottom is size 40. Now I need to try it with size 80.
The other bug is a dragonfly designed by Leesa Kramer, the Bonneville Tatters chair this year. It only takes about two yards of size 20 thread, four dagger beads and two big eye beads. I want to make more of these!  Of course, before I make more, I should sew in the ends of this one. 

Moving on!

Renulek's Spring Doily has been all over the 'net -- here included. I started on March 18th and finished tatting (YES!) on May 1. It took me until the 5th to get all the ends sewn in, and last Thursday I blocked the piece on my large board. So, it took me less than 3 months, but not much less.

It amazes me every time I finish something like this. It is a very simple pattern, rings and chains in ordinary configurations. It's how those ordinary configurations are organized that gives the pattern it's beauty, and once it's all put together, it looks complex. There are other renditions that look even more complex than this one, simply because of the color choices. It's so interesting how each piece worked looks just slightly different from the others. 

Here's another difference in each piece -- blocking. Not everyone likes to spread things out as much as I do! Mine is done is size 20 thread, so it's large. As completed it measured 18 inches across, but, after blocking it is almost 20 inches. 

This one is destined for the Fair this year. I don't know what the judges will make of it -- but I like it.

I still have to make a list of colors (I'll add that in later just in case anyone is interested), but I do like my rainbow:

Missing Fox?

Have you lost Fox at Tat-ology?  Yesterday all I could get was a 404 error. Her web host apparently was not nice and a BAD company, so she's moved to blogspot. If you follow Fox (and who doesn't?) you'll need to update your bookmarks or clickable lists or whatever you use to:

http://www.tat-ology.blogspot.ca

TIP for International Tatting Day

In the waiting room at the clinic in an almost comfortable chair, I did my tatting in public. Too bad International Tatting Day, April Fool's Day, and my least favorite day of the year all fell on the same day this year. Of course April Fool's day and International Tatting Day are fixed in time, but my annual physical floats around. There's nothing dignified about a visit to the doctor, and my tatting covers more than the gown and sheet! Why is it doctors talk to you when you're starkers? They should get all that poking around business out of the way then let you get dressed for the discussion. Oh, I'm getting carried away. I did TIP. I finished the rest of round 8 of my Renulek Spring doily and started on round 9. The ends for round 8 still need to be hidden and the back is looking generally thready -- lots of ends need to be clipped when this is finished!

Cascade

Sometime in February I started working on "Cascade" from  Blomqvist and Persson's Tatting Patterns and Designs. It has been finished for almost a month, but really needed blocking. I could tell it was going to be a torture block -- the doily needed to go on the rack. Here it is all stretched, and I do mean stretched. If you don't look close, it looks pretty good.  A critical eye would notice the stressed bits, and those places where somebody couldn't seem to count.  Oh, well.  It actually is a very pretty pattern, but I have to wonder how it would look with fewer picots and larger rings right there in the center.

Tag -- That's Me!

Last month at our regular meeting of Bonneville Tatters, we made name tags. I made one with my name and one with my real name (no, it's not Bizzilwix - it's also not a big secret). 

Mine is made from white Lizbeth size 20 thread. What? Oh, you've noticed that it doesn't look very white. No, it's not from dirty hands. My sister dyed that thread for me and I like using it (check out my pram, heart, and decoration) — rainbows are happy things. Besides, it will match everything. Yes, it will, even patterns — everything! 

I've got a plastic thingy with a magnet attachment that is supposed to go on the back of it, but I don't know the proper way to put it there yet. We are supposed to learn that next month. *sigh* I won't be at the meeting next month, so I will need remedial help in May, I suppose. 

It was such fun putting these little beads in the middle of split rings. I used Jane Eborall's method and it worked slicker than ...ummm... slick things. I tried doing it another way, using the thread from the second half of the split ring, but kept getting a weird lump and loose looking thread on top of the tatting, so I had to give that up. I know it works (because other people used it) but it had me baffled. However, Jane's method was so successful, I now want to put beads in the center of lots more split rings. I need to find a pattern with lots of them and put beads in — just because I can. ☺

Round 7

Still working on Renulek's Spring doily. I'm out to round 7, but I left off the decorative picots in round 8. Can't say why, except laziness, probably. The next round will be like the green row, but in red and pink. I've got it worked out so it will end in the dark and light purple. Unless I discover a goofy bit when I get around to blocking it, I'll probably keep it to enter in the Fair this year. They need color, Color, COLOR!

On the Bandwagon

All over the 'net -- in the blogs, in the tatting group on Facebook, at InTatters -- people are doing Renulek's latest doily:  Spring Napkin 2014. I have to play, too!  

I started Tuesday night, so I don't have much completed yet -- I'm just at the beginning of round 3. I was going to work it in size 40, but couldn't find all the colors I wanted to use in my stash. My stash did contain all the colors I wanted in Lizbeth 20 (except the red, that's Manuela because I couldn't find any Lizbeth red in my stash -- gotta go shopping!). 

For the first center I did, I worked the joins so the color blips didn't show, but I didn't like it. It was too tight and the chains didn't have enough curve. Having the little pink color blips looks better to me and so does the chain shape in this one. I'll have to block the other one and add it to this post so they can be compared. That was its other problem -- it really needs blocking.

In case it's not obvious to everyone, this is going to be a rainbow-- "roygbiv" (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet), but with the addition of the pink, and I don't really have blue and indigo -- I have blue and darker blue. I don't know how it will look when it's completed, but it will certainly be cheerful! All those loose threads are woven-in ends or tatted-over tails. I never cut them off until after the piece is blocked. There's less chance of something coming un-woven or completely undone that way. Sometimes the hairy ends get in the way, but if they're snipped to about three inches long, they're not too bad to deal with.   

Thread Ends

Very rarely do I have just the exact amount of thread on my shuttles that I need for a project. I like to wind my shuttles continuous thread method and full. That could be wasteful, you know. All those thread ends have to end up somewhere. Some I just toss away (that's the wasteful part). Some I scatter all over the house (not intentionally -- it just happens -- more waste).  Some I make into bugs and flowers and hearts (hooray! useful!).  


What gets made depends on how much thread is left on the shuttle. Lots of thread gets turned into big butterflies or hearts, medium sized left-overs get turned into small butterflies or dragonflies, small bits of thread end up as caterpillars, spiders, flies or flowers.  Right now I have a box of bugs and flowers and a tin of hearts.

 What do you do with your thread ends?
(I take all these things to the tatting demonstration at the fair and give them away.)

Tat it and See Finished...

Thank you, Jane Eborall, for this year's TIAS. I love these things -- especially when people ask me what I'm making and I get to say, "I don't know. I'll find out when I'm finished." It just tickles me that they look so confused. If they don't ask for further information, I don't tell them about the TIAS and how it works. 

My sailboat is rather bright -- it must be running two spinnakers instead of real sails (due to be dumped in the drink). Keeping that mast painted turquoise must keep the crew busy full time, ya think? 

It's all Lizbeth size 20 thread, the sails are Rainbow Splash and the rest of the boat is ...um... not. I can't remember the name of the thread color but it was the remains of a ball of thread I got when Lizbeth first came out. Wow! That thread has improved.  This ball wanted to split, and twist and it had a little knot in one  ply that was miserable to get pulled through the ring. I was determined not to cut the thread as I was working on the mast by then.

Not just 2014 TIAS, but 2013 TIAS, as well:

Yup, I finally found my pram and the thread that matched the wheels at the same time and finished it, too. As you can see, I like to use bright colors for the TIAS! This is Lizbeth size 20 that my sister dyed in rainbow colors. It looks a lot different than the Rainbow Splash, doesn't it? The wheels and handle are a Manuela size 20 that I thought was red, but it certainly looks more hot pink than red!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day -- here ya go:

Got all of my threads in a row,

      Just doin' my thing

      By tanglin' up string.

A heart for my favorite beau!

Work in Progress

 Look, look, quick -- it might get away! Well maybe not, but I think they are the big Blob and a little Blob and the big one now has a skateboard! Can't you just see them oozing out of a movie theatre's projection loft? Hmmmm. No, that's probably not right either. Jane has me totally stumped with this year's TIAS. That's not unusual, though -- she has me stumped every year (like the year I was making a blue kiwi, and it turned out looking just like everyone else's goat).

The other thing I've been working on is "Cascade" from Blomqvist and Persson's Tatting Patterns and Designs. Someone in the Tatting group on Facebook asked about where it starts and in which direction it flows, so I thought I'd see if I could figure it out. What I figured out is that one of the first six chains is actually a ring. What I haven't figured out is how to count. There's a chain in there with too many rings, and the piece that runs out of the picture is a chain I have to retrotat because I forgot to join it. The thread is Lizbeth size 20 -- it happened to be sitting right there in my tatting bag. It's the same thread that happened to be sitting there when Jane said we needed a contrasting color for the skateboard (er...she didn't actually say skateboard).

Unsettling

As in not being able to settle down and figure out what I really want to tat.  I've been doing Jane's Tat-it-and-See, but it only keeps me entertained for little bits of time. Other than that, I've been doing a bit of this and a bit more of this and some of that. Lots of little pieces and lots of hearts and butterflies using left over thread have gone into my heart tin and butterfly box.  I haven't been interested in blocking things either. 

I'd show some of what I've been doing, but Blogger doesn't want to let me post any pictures.  It was okay earlier this month, but now it has decided to not play nice. How good is your imagination?

Imagine this:  Four snowflakes in bangles, some hearts like the ones at the top of the picture in this post; an angel I've never done before, and some really beady earrings.  Oh, and a Rainbow Splash TIAS piece.  *sigh* 

Okay, it apparently IS my computer, not Blogger (sorry!).  There's no problem adding the picture from work (but it doesn't show the earrings):

First of the Year

Marilee Rockley (Yarnplayer) has a new tatted jewelry book finished. (Hooray, hooray!) It's available as an e-book and in print. I couldn't wait for the printed version. These "Time & Again" earrings are the first things I've finished from the book. Of course, they're more interesting in the book -- Marilee designed them in two colors. I couldn't resist the silver and clear beads though. The way the large beads are put into the center of the ring is the easiest, cleverest way I've ever used. 

These are made with Oren Bayan silver thread, clear size 11 seed beads and two sizes of faceted glass beads.  The earwires are nylon instead of wire. I think the clear hooks look good with the silver. I can actually see covering these with lots more beads -- but it would change the delicate look.  These already have beads on the joining picots that weren't in the design -- really I'm almost as bad as Fox when it comes to beads!

Trees and some more trees

Trees from Jane Eborall's patterns: Christmas Tree on a Button and Christmas Tree - No Button.  The two green trees and the white one are all size 20 with nice big shirt buttons and decorative top buttons (I like the star buttons, but had a hard time finding any.)  The metallic trees are all made from Oren Bayan gold thread.  The red buttonless tree suffers from inattention to the pattern, but it still looks okay.  
The size 20 trees will probably join a few others as gifts for friends next year.  The smaller metallic trees are for my dad's little Christmas tree.  It's only about 2.5 feet tall so it needs little ornaments.  This is part of what I was doing during December.  
The rest of December's tatting is done and gone with no photos!  I made three pair of earrings for my bosses, one pair of earrings for my great aunt; two pair of earrings for my sister's co-workers and one pendant for my sister's co-worker who doesn't have pierced ears.  I didn't get a picture of any of those -- they were all too quickly wrapped and gone.
I also made a bunch of little hearts and butterflies to add to my give-away box.  One of these days I should dump some on the scanner and show off what a nice collection I have for the next fair.