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!

Oops Doily

"Oops" because I really like this one and there's a join into the wrong picot right in the most open, visible part of the doily. This is another see-where-the-shuttle-goes doily made with split rings and chains. It's a pretty good size -- larger than 9 inches -- because it doesn't fit on the scanner. I am about to start a new one to see if I can get the joins right and if I can actually write down the pattern while I'm figuring out what I did. This was my first choice for fair entries -- until I blocked it and discovered the oops. I'll have to report on progress, that might keep me working on it! If it really gets finished I'll photograph it instead of disrespect it enough to just chuck it on the scanner.

Round and Round and Round it Goes

Here's another doily with no pattern. (This is just on the scanner -- and it's too big, but you can get the general idea.) See? It's got the same center as the blue one, but the bigger it got, the more changes I made. Not a very efficient way to create something! The color change allowed for better placement of some elements, but it still got difficult to move from one row to another and started to overlap. I rather like it, but never blocked it because I ran out of the light-colored thread. I think I've ordered more since this one was stuffed in the drawer. I'll have to look and see. If I've got more then I can finish this round. Then if I hunt up some of the dark thread, maybe there's a good starting place for another round there somewhere.

Swirl Bookmark

The thread Marie sent for the shuttle exchange was completely used up making this swirl square bookmark. The Swirl is a pattern I made up more than a year ago. It has more rounds than this one, but I didn't want to use up all the thread before I got the tail made, so I only did three rounds. The tail is pearle tatted. I like doing that because it's a chance to just fiddle with the thread. No rules, and any pattern or non-pattern will do.  OH -- I forgot to say this was also made with my new hand-carved shuttle from Marie.  It really holds a LOT of thread!  It's just the right size for my hand and even though it's smooth, it doesn't slip out of my fingers.  It's lovely!

This one might go to my niece's teacher for Christmas. I offered her one of the Christmas mouse bookmarks, but she's pretty certain her teacher doesn't like mice.

This is also the same motif I used for Diane's doodad challenge. I said then I'd post the pattern. Uh-huh. It's been more than a year, but I do have a .pdf of the file. I've put it in Keep & Share but I only have a trial account, so I hope it works.  If anyone is interested better get it soon.  ☺

*sigh*  It has been pointed out to me that I uploaded the .psp file instead of the .pdf file.  I fixed that, so it should be okay now. Ooookaaayyy--apparently I'm doing something wrong.  I think it's fixed so anyone can download it now.  If someone would try it and leave me a comment if it works, I'd appreciate it.

Blocking is Magic

Okay, it's not magic, but sometimes it's really necessary! Margaret suggested blocking the rumpled mess I posted earlier. I didn't think even blocking would help, and ordinary blocking wouldn't. So...I did not do ordinary blocking. If blocked wet, most of the time cotton thread will stretch without breaking and enough pins will hold chains in unnaturally arched positions to shrink the size of some elements. Yeah, this thing had pins everywhere! I should have taken a picture of the blocking process. I started in the center, and as it stretched, I moved the pins out -- but there were still two boxes of pins in the outer round waiting for this thing to dry. It would not stretch enough in the center to accommodate the too-much-thread elements in the last couple of rounds. I'm wondering if a bit of a steam press will help, but probably won't bother finding out. After seeing it spread out, I don't think it's worth trying to figure out a pattern for the whole thing. I still think the center out to about the five ring arch is worth keeping, so maybe a pattern for that bit would be worth writing down.

TIAS Bonus!

Purple Picadilly Express.  Thanks Sherry!  If you didn't tat Sherry's TIAS you really missed out on a lot of fun ... and on this cute little train. Now I think it needs coal for the tender and a little guy waving from the caboose (which we don't have any more on trains around here -- very sad). Oh, if it needs a guy in the caboose, then it also needs an engineer in a cap! Hmmm....perhaps I shall keep it as a ghost train with ectoplasm energy. That's appropriate for the season.
Drat.  I just now realized I hooked my coal tender to the wrong place on the engine.  Mine isn't the Picadilly Express, it's the Oopsadaisy Express.  *sigh*