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.

Holiday Greetings!

Happy Holidays!

We did our inside decorations today. We always wait until after my niece's birthday before we decorate -- one celebration at a time! This year we have a new fake tree. It's tall and slim so we put it in front of the fireplace so we didn't have to move any furniture. I love that! The chair in which I usually tat (the large overstuffed rocker you can see in the picture) is one of the pieces that gets moved and I get all discombobulated. We have a lot of ornaments that are sentimental and lots from trips (we buy fridge magnets and ornaments when we travel!). The rest are tatted. The earliest ones are from sometime in the late 1970s. They are really plain little gray stars. I don't think one is visible in the picture. In fact, I think there might be only one still around. Don't ask whatever possessed me to make gray stars. Maybe I thought they looked silver. If I was going to make them now I'd use metallic thread and make them silver. The thread choices were much more limited in "the olden days."
Tomorrow we are going to tackle the outside lights. We are not supposed to have snow, and the temperature is predicted to be 21ºF (-6ºC).  That's better than the 9ºF (-12ºC) it was last week, so I hope we don't freeze getting it done.

Oops Doily Double Split Chain

Here's that double split chain I was going on about in the last post. This round ends with a ring of 2+2+2, then a chain of 6 ds, a bare thread large enough for 6 more ds, a ring of 2-2+2-2, and another bare thread large enough for 6 ds, then it is joined to the small ring which began this round. (That's the first picture) Then "split chain" stitches are worked back along both bare threads to the point of beginning the next round with a split ring (That's the second picture). Clear as mud, right? 

I really should mention that I do the split chain using Marie Smith's method, which can be seen being worked and explained by Frivole here.

Split chains were NOT my favorite activity until I learned to do them this way.  It makes so much sense and is easier than the method I used to use (sparingly!)

Update on Oops Doily

The pattern is written down to this point, but, like always, I changed it a bit while reworking. The four small rings on top of the large floating rings are attached at the picots. It seems to give the doily more stability and there aren't a lot of weird little picots floating around that will have to be blocked. The split to climb out from the round I haven't started (oh, yes -- that's very clear) is a strange one, so I have to think carefully about how to write it down. It involves leaving a bare thread, doing a ring, leaving another bare thread and making one more ring, then doing "split chain ds" back over the bare threads to get to the next starting point. Except for hiding threads, it would probably be easier to cut and tie. If I remember, when I get to that point I'll take a picture (or scan) and post it.

Oops Doily Explanation

For all of you who can't see the error -- yes, you are right: it is small, not very noticeable, and I made an effort to disguise it when blocking. I could probably give it as a gift and the recipient might not ever notice -- but I think a judge at the fair would have. Anyway, here's a close up:

The circled ring has three picots, just like the corresponding uncircled one, but the first small ring is attached to the middle picot instead of the first picot. When I blocked it I squished the first picot over onto the ring and spread the others apart so it would appear to be the same if it wasn't closely inspected. 

Nit-picking errors isn't something I do all the time, but for something to enter in the fair, I do!