It's Coming Along!

I'm so happy! It's coming along and coming together, MOSTLY like I would like. You see, I don't often get as far as this. I usually mess up WAY before this. :-) So, I need to work on my sewing in ends and I REALLY need to figure out how to climb out of rows. It obviously needs blocking and it's only 4 rows out of (hopefully) 14, but here's what I have so far!

Rounds 1 and 2 completed. If you scroll down (or back), you'll see I've gotten this far before. This was as far as I've ever gotten.

Just a little closer.

Row 3, completed! Had to start this one with a chain, never done that before. :-) Gotta work on sewing in my ends though.

Row 4, done! Ya!!! It will REALLY need blocking, badly, I have some wonky parts that didn't turn right, but this is a work in progress, something to stretch me. Can't wait to get more done!

Here We Go Again

We went to the States for Thanksgiving. My brother came back from Afghanistan for good at the end of September and requested that we all be together for Thanksgiving. We were happy to oblige. It's been 8+ years since we were in the States for Thanksgiving.
  While we were there I got a lot of tatting done. I don't have a lot to show for it though. :-( I tried 4 or 5 TIMES to do that Glass Mat by Mary Konior, the one Lace Lovin' Librarian does so well. I have yet to make that right. The pattern is my nemesis! I will come back to it someday, but for now, I have moved on.

This is the first round of Mary Konior's Hostess Set: Centerpiece. I tried it before, got the stitch count wrong on the second row and put it down. I am starting again. I will pay MUCH more attention this time and try getting past there and being able to start the third row on a chain will be a challenge, but I look forward to learning new things. We'll see how it goes. I will not be beaten though! :-) Hoping to update again much sooner than before. Don't you love my shuttle?! I do! I also love my winding stick. Frivole makes the most beautiful tools!!! Looking forward to the new one!

Getting Back To It

I've been absent for a while. We homeschool 3 of our 4 children and that's been keeping me busy. We have a 6th, 3rd and 1st grader this year along with a 3.5 year old! We do weekly nature walks and that leaves little time for crafting. I tried starting a snowflake a couple of nights ago, but I missed my join! I couldn't believe it. I'm going to be trying again soon and hoping to make an order of some thread soon! I can't wait!
  My husband's grandmother passed away yesterday, so we'll be heading to the States to see his parent's on Friday. The memorial service isn't until the last week of the month, hoping the logistics of that get worked out easily.
  Hoping to post photos of something that actually worked out soon!

Been Busy and I have a problem....

Alright, so here it is. I got as far as you've seen on the pink doily, but then I realized as I was attempting to start the third row and noticed two things. First, I can't figure out how to start a round with a chain! So, I need to figure that out. Second, I did the second row WRONG!! You'd think I'd have learned after the bowl fiasco, but no, I didn't learn anything apparently. I made only 2 picots per chain instead of 3!!!! So, I started again with an even BETTER color choice, it looked great! and then I ruined it and have started over again. Hopefully tonight I'll pick it up again and get it far enough along to take pictures.

2 down, 12 to go!

I've gotten the second round of my doily done. Only 12 more to go! I really like the way it's turning out so far.

1st Round Done!

FINALLY!! The first round of my doily is DONE!! It's the Hostess Set from Mary Konior's Tatting Patterns. I'm using two colors (obviously) for it. Mostly because I don't have two balls of ANY color. Hoping to start the second round today!

Biopsy On My Arm Today

I have a lump on my arm. They are pretty sure it's just a fatty tumor. It's quite large. The dermatologist said it's one of the biggest he's seen. He recommended a biopsy just to be on the safe side. So, today I had it biopsied. He said they were going to have to go quite deep because of the size of the tumor and they did. My arm was frozen (well, that part of my arm) and they took a decent size bit out of it and closed it with three stitches. I was doing fine till I looked after only one stitch was in it! Then I got sweaty and clammy and my blood pressure dropped.... I recommend NOT looking into open wounds like that on yourself. :-)  Starting tomorrow, I have to clean it twice a day with salt water and put Rx strength antibiotic ointment on it and change the bandage. I can't take baths or sit in hot tubs and it is recommended to cover it before getting into the shower. I do this for 2 weeks and then go on July 25th to get the stitches out and the results of the biopsy. My arm is quite sore at the moment, so I'm not sure how much tatting on my fantastic doily I'm going to get done tonight.
  On another note, Tuesday is my little Aurora's 8th birthday!! My parents are coming up from Pa tomorrow night and staying till Wed. morning! Can't wait!!! I'll try and take pictures of my tatting soon though, in progress. I have high hopes for this doily!!!

It's a BOWL!!

Well, here it is. The ends still need sewing in, but it's done! In all of it's miscounted splendor! :-) If you caught my last post, I missed 4ds- in each of my chains between my rings and screwed up the ENTIRE things, thus, it's a bowl. It WILL NOT lay flat! those stitches were obviously in the pattern for a reason. I can promise you though, I won't miss those next time! Here's a picture.

My next project (and I can promise you I'm going to pay VERY close attention to the stitch counts on this one!) is a 14" doily from Mary Konior's Tatting Patterns. I'll try and be better about posting picture during construction. I think it's going to be very pretty (if I make it right). :-)

I thought I was paying attention!

I really did. I honestly thought that I was doing it all right, but alas, I was not. I have been tatting the Spinning Wheel pattern and it's been acting more like a bowl and not laying flat, I could NOT figure out what I was doing wrong! Well, I figured it out this morning! I was looking at the Tat-ilicious blog and saw hers and realized as I was looking at it that I've been missing 4ds- on my chains between the three rings! It's supposed to be ring, 4ds-4ds-4ds and I was doing ring 4ds-4ds! HOW COULD I MISS THAT?! I'm nearly done, so I'll still finish it and perhaps turn it into a little bowl? I feel so stupid! Well, it was good practice though. :-)

Quite a day

Well, Mike and I haven't been feeling well lately. Mike found out yesterday that he has Strep. I decided to go to walk-ins today and found out I have a sinus infection, Strep and fluid behind my ear drum. We're both on antibiotics now.
   On a tatting note. I'm over halfway done with Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel glass mat! YA!!! It's coming together really well. I'll take pictures as soon as it's done and blocked. My next project is going to be a doily she has in Tatting Patterns. It's from Hostess Set. It's the centerpiece. I can't wait to get it started! I don't have two skeins of the same color in ANYTHING, so I'm going to need to find some coordinating colors and use them together and hope it looks okay.
  Well, I'm off. Have a couple more things left to do today before I can TRY and get my tatting finished!! Hopefully I can start blocking it tonight, we'll see though, if not I'll be blocking tomorrow! YA!!!!

Still trying

I started a Mary Konior pattern, the Spinning Wheel Glass Mat. I thought I was doing well until I realized I'd done something wrong and now I have to start over. It wasn't really a fixable mistake, so, I'm going to start it again and I have several more things I'd like to get started. I LOVE looking at Mary's books. I have 3 of them and keep finding things in them I'd like to make.

Tatting Class!

I HAVE BEEN ASKED TO START A TATTING CLASS!!!
  I can't even believe it! Another homeschool mom asked me to teach her girls to tat. She said she'd even pay me to do it. She's seeing if anyone else wants to get in on the class or not. Hoping I'm up to the task. I find that I need to work on my delivery or something. I don't always seem to be able to communicate things so that they make sense to other people, even when they make sense to me.

12 YEARS TODAY!!!

Today I have been married to the love of my life, the father of my children, a WONDERFUL father and husband for 12 years! I can't believe it's been that long! I love you Mike!

Just took this picture last week on a trail where we went hiking and saw an old farmhouse from the early 1800s with 5 other families in our homeschool group. There were 10 adults and more than 20 children!

He's Home!!!

My little brother is home on leave from Afghanistan! He's been gone for 8 LONG months, but he's home now for 2 weeks! We're leaving Saturday morning to head to the States to visit him and his family and some other family for a couple of weeks.
  We've been pretty busy here tying up the end of the school year. We have some BRAND NEW homeschoolers in the area, they're here from the States. They are brought up here by the opening of the Target stores.
  I haven't had a lot of time to work on my tatting, but it's coming with me to the States. I'm thinking of making a special notebook to put my tatting in as I make it and embellishing scrapbook pages with tatting.
  We're going to have a REALLY busy school year coming up this fall. We have 4 children. By September they'll be 3 1/2, 6 (in 1st grade), 8 (in 3rd grade) and 11 (in 6th grade). We use a literature based learning system and this means a LOT of work with school. They are learning SO well! We've been trying to get out doing nature walks more often, we've gotten a membership to the Royal Botanical Gardens. We're also going to be spending some time with some other homeschool families going to different events happening in the Niagara region dealing with the bicentennial of the War of 1812. It will be interesting to see this from a Canadian perspective. 
 Well, I'm off. It's nearly nap time for the younger children and there's things to do to prepare for Saturday.

New Shuttle and New Tatting!!

Way back I had ordered two shuttles from LaCossette. I had accidentally given her the address that we used to live in (ironically just across a parking lot from us). I had ordered two custom shuttles, one for me and one for my daughter. The shuttles were sent but never arrived either here or at the other place (my husband has gotten to know those neighbors very well now after all the trips he's made over there asking if they ever came). I felt awful that they never came, I had been looking SO forward to them! I was nearly in tears. LaCossette offered to remake them and send them again, but I felt it was unfair to her to make her not just spend the time remaking them when I'm sure she had other things to do, but to be out the funds for the shuttles when it was really my fault that they didn't arrive. LaCossette, being the amazingly wonderful woman that she is, remade my shuttle and sent it to me! It arrived today. Here is a picture of it along with my latest snowflake (I'm putting beads on it!).

The teal looking rosette is another one that didn't work out. 

Isn't my new shuttle amazing!?! It's the same rose that's in the header of my blog and everywhere else I can put it. 

Thank you SO MUCH LaCossette for doing this.

Sill Learning

I'm getting better at the rose itself, but I screwed up putting the points on it this time for the snowflake! I also had it ready to have beads on the picots on the points of the snowflake, but I make the mistake of not putting the beads I wanted around the ring itself, they were UNDER my picots instead of on the picot itself. However, I spent part of my morning researching what I did wrong and now I can try it AGAIN tonight! Here's a picture of my rose, I gave it to Caleigh, she really likes it. I'll make another rose (I LOVE making roses!) to put the new snowflake together with. Also, I need to cut my ball thread so that my points will be a solid color all around, I only want the rose to be variegated. I have to practice that too.

If anyone has any advise I will listen gratefully.

Got it started!

Well, last night I got my newest snowflake started. I got my beads all ready and hopefully it will work out the way I'm planning. I'll post pictures when I'm a little further along. (Hopefully later tonight or in the morning!)

No New Tatting, but went to a conference!!

I haven't had the time to start up a new tatting project as I'd been planning on. As you know, we homeschool our 4 children. (Well, in all honesty, we homeschool 3 of them and I run a day care for the 4th one) ;-) .  Yesterday was the OCHEC Conference in Hamilton. I went with some other homeschooling friends and spent over 12 HOURS there! I have come back renewed and inspired! I spent more than I should have, but I have as much fun shopping for new school books as I do shopping for new tatting supplies! I'm wiped out, but in a good way. Hopefully I'll have something new to show for myself soon. Thank you for your patience.
 

It's done, I learned a LOT

Okay, here it is. Please don't look TOO closely at it, you'll find a myriad of errors. This was a learning piece. First thing I learned, NEVER (I meant this) NEVER EVER watch Chopped while trying to tat. It's a mistake. I was doing so good and then I noticed that of all my points on the snowflake, only TWO turned out the way they were supposed to! Then, I was about to finish when I noticed something else...... drumroll please....... I put one too many petals on my flower! Now my points don't meet. I'm going to make another one. I'm going to use TWO colors for this one. The center will be variegated and (hopefully) the points will be solid. I'm also (on the advise of a dear lady) going to try putting beads on it! I was going to try on this one, but forgot till it was too late. I'm going to need to switch out my ball thread with a solid color when I'm done going around the rose to a solid, I'm hoping that's easier than it sounds.
  Here's my snowflake, such as it is. It's not been blocked. It's #6 in the Snowflake Roses book. Made from size 20 Lizbeth Raspberry Frappe.

Also, here is my tiny Eva. She's 3. She insisted on getting her picture taken.

I DID IT!!!!!

I did it!!! It took till my 3rd or 4th time, but I did it!!! I started a wild rose center to make a snowflake rose and it actually looks like a rose! YA!!! Here it is.

My teacup shuttle by LaCossette! The thread is Raspberry Frappe by Lizbeth, size 20. I'll be making it (hopefully) into a snowflake. I'm so excited!!! Can't wait to get it done to show off. Looking forward to making more. It really isn't that hard to make, kinda surprising, once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy. Glad I didn't give up.
 Thanks to all of you who read my blog. It's nice to know I'm not just talking to myself. :-)

What a day!

This morning started with school with the kids and then around 10 we went outside to plant the beginnings of our garden. We're planting WAY more veggies this year than last year, hopefully it will produce a great harvest through the end of summer and fall. After lunch we headed out to the Royal Botanical Gardens. There's a trail down by the lake (Lake Ontario) called Captain Coote's Trail. It's in an area called Coote's Paradise. We ended up walking around 2 miles round trip and ended the walk with Mike and the kids chasing each other through a maze of evergreens. They were cackling with laughter, it was so funny! After that we went to the main building, headed through a tunnel under the road and into Hendrie Park. When everything starts blooming it will be so beautiful there. Right now, not so much, but the kids enjoyed running around. We went back into the main building and into a tropical area where the girls enjoyed watching the Koi. We got home 3 1/2 hours after leaving. My feet HURT, but it was good exercise. I'm so worn out, I should have known better than to try and tat, but I wanted to make progress. Silly me. I screwed it up so bad! I don't know what to do. I'll think about it tomorrow after a good night's sleep.  Here are some pictures of our day. The man you'll see is my Mike. Love of my life for 12 years. Our oldest son Sebastian (Sam) 10, oldest daughter Aurora (Rora) 7, middle daughter Caleigh, 5 and youngest Evangeline (Eva) 3.

Aurora, Eva, Sam and Caleigh about halfway through our walk in the woods.

Sam running through the maze.

Caleigh running through the maze.

Aurora running through the maze.

Mike chasing children through the maze.

Eva, slightly distracted by the camera while running through the maze.

Caleigh in an urn in Hendrie Park, Eva is trying to get in with her.

Eva in the same urn after "convincing" Caleigh to give her a turn.

Mike and the girls watching the Koi intently. I'm pretty sure the Koi thought they were going to get fed. If you look carefully, you can see Sam sitting on a bench behind them on the right.

The most handsome man in the world, my Mike. I'm not biased at all, really. :-)  I'm kinda partial to facial hair, so for Christmas he grows out his beard and doesn't shave it till the day after our anniversary in the beginning of June.

My little girls and Sam.

Caleigh (who needs her bangs cut.)

And that was our day. This is my beautiful family and with that I bid you a good night and pleasant dreams.

Started Another Snowflake!

I really need to find something other than snowflakes to tat, but I'm having a hard time finding patterns for things that I know how to do. I think that's my que to learn something new and expand my knowledge base and my abilities, but to be honest, I'm kinda scared to. I know it's silly and I'll never get better if I don't, but I'm not sure where to go from here. I can do rings and chains pretty well, but where do you progress to? There are SO many other stitches to learn, there are so many other patterns that require an amazing abundance of stitches to make them, but I'm not sure what to try next, so any advise on the matter would be VERY much appreciated.
  On the the show now! Here is my latest attempt at a snowflake. It's another from Jon's Elegant Tatted Gems book. This went together much easier than the last one I tried. I'm using size 20 Raspberry Frappe. (It's so pretty, and I"m not a pink person either, I'm more drawn to blue, but I love the colors in this!)

  This picture actually shows it upside down. The point goes at the top. The beautiful shuttles are LaCossette's. They are my favorite shuttles to use. The hook on the end is so useful and I love being able to switch out bobbins as I need to. Beautiful shuttles just make the work that much more pleasant.
 Plan on working on this more tonight. It's hard to work on it during the day, we homeschool our 4 children and that takes quite a lot of our time. My real down time is after they go to bed and by then I'm exhasted! Enjoy it while they're young though, that way when they're older, they'll have great memories of childhood like I do of mine.

It's time to walk away....

I have labored for quite a while on this beautiful snowflake. It's very nearly become an obsession. Sadly though, it's time to walk away. The further I get into it the more mistakes I make, rings missing picots, chains turned the wrong way and the like. Well, I was on the LAST point of the snowflake and realized that I had been doing the entire area wrong! Rather than pull my hair out more, I'm walking away for now. I'm sure I'll try this snowflake again, but not right now. I'm going to grab some different thread and work on something else. Here is a picture of as far as I had gotten.

See how it's so convoluted right around where the threads are coming off? I'm sure that with some effort I could somehow manage to take out everything I need to, but I really think I need to put this up for now and come back to it fresh after something else. 

Pictures!

Here are the pictures I promised earlier.
This is my latest tatting. It's not the greatest, it's actually rife with mistakes, but it's halfway done. It's one of Jon Yusoffs snowflakes from Elegant Tatted Gems. The bag is one of my new ones from Debbie at DS9 Designs. I LOVE IT!!!! The shuttles are two of my favorites (what am I saying, ALL my shuttles from LaCrossette are my favorite!). The two pictures below this one are my blue rose bag from the outside and a close up of one of the BEAUTIFUL roses! (I REALLY like blue roses in case you hadn't noticed).

These books are my three new (new to me) Mary Konior books. I found two of them on Amazon for $20 or less! (used)

These are my threads that I ordered. There are Lizbeth threads here, Olympus Threads (I think it's Olympus), a Flora thread in size 10 and some HDT by Marilee Rockley and some thread samples of Sulky threads from Lace Lovin Librarian!

This is my other tatting bag that I ordered from DS9 Designs. I love it as much as the blue rose one she made me. It was so very sweet of her to make these for me and I appreciate it so very much.

We're Back!!!

We're back from our visit to the States. It went well. We'll get to see my brother when we go down at the beginning of June. Right now he's away in Afghanistan. I got to see his wife and two sons though. They seem to be doing well in spite of his being away. I was able to pick up MANY new tatting things that I had ordered while we were down. I had ordered several new tatting books. (New to me anyway.) I now have 3  of Mary Konior's books! I also ordered a couple by Georgia Seitz and Martha Ess along with several other books. Along with my books I ordered some threads. Most are Lizbeth threads, but I ordered some HDT from Marilee Rockley (beautiful thread!) and hope to order more. I also have TWO new tatting bags from DS9 Designs. I asked her for one with blue roses on it, she gave me several options and I chose two. They turned out SO well! My shuttles still haven't come from LaCrossette. I forgot to change my address on the PayPal thing and it was sent to my former address. They live VERY close to us, I've sent my husband over to inquire about it, but so far, nothing. I'm hoping that they send it back to her so I can have them sent here again, that's if they don't just save it out for me. I ordered two AMAZING custom shuttles. One with the blue rose that's on my header here on it and one with two fantastic Aurora Borealises. Our oldest daughter is named Aurora and she and her father have a fascination with the Aurora Borealis. She loves my shuttles and to watch me tat, so I ordered one that I hope she ends up using someday. In the meantime though, I intend to use it for her (she's only 7). I hope to post pictures soon.
  I have been making some progress on the snowflake that has been aggravating me. I have made SO many mistakes in it, but I don't know anyone personally who would look at it looking for the mistakes and I consider them a learning experience, and have NO intention of starting over again. I received some VERY good advise from Sharon who runs the 25 Motif challenge about what to do when my threads break, and while that hasn't happened this time around, it happened SO many times the last time I tried this that I now have great advise on what to do when it happens again (because I know it WILL happen again). I will try and post pictures of my progress on it (I'm halfway done!) and of my new treasures soon.

Starting it over AGAIN!!

MY THREAD BROKE AGAIN!!! Not that I'm surprised, it kept tangling and twisting and had broken a couple times before that, but this time it broke RIGHT after a ring and there was no way to start it again! This snowflake does NOT want to be made! I could have been done with it twice by now with as many times as I've had to start it over. But I will not be beaten by a pattern! I will prevail. I will start it AGAIN with a different thread.

Here it is!!!

Here it is!! My second snowflake. It's another one from Jon Yusoffs Elegant Tatted Gems. It's #5 named Cintamani. It's done in Lizbeth size 20 named Caribbean Breeze.

It is RIFE with errors. The joining went better this time than last time though. I messed up more rings with this. It was a learning experience. It's not too terrible though (unless you're looking at it closely). I think I'd like to try it in a solid color though. I'm going to have to get some size 20 solids. I have size 40, but I'm not good enough to use it yet. I've tried and nearly drove myself mad. It will come, I know it will.

It's Done!!

I screwed up SO MANY things in this snowflake!! BUT, after learning to undo a closed ring, I decided that the two (or three) rings that I screwed up weren't that noticable, so, it's just making that snowflake more unique! In some ways it turned out better than the last one. I can see where I'm learning and that pleases me. I managed to do all my joins to the beginning this time AND I did the magic thread trick! NO SEWING IN ENDS! I'll post a picture later, promise. I just need to block it first.

So Exhausted!

There was a homeschool book sale yesterday afternoon in our home, didn't do TOO badly, almost no one showed up though. I was SO exhausted by the end of the day, I didn't think I'd get ANYTHING done as far as tatting goes last night. To my surprise, I got a point and a half done on my snowflake! I'm getting WAY better at reading diagrams (ya!) and it's not looking half bad, although, it'll look WAY better once blocked.
 Tomorrow is the much anticipated trip to Sick Kids for Mike and our kids! I'll drop them off at the train station in the morning and have most of the rest of the day to myself! It's so exciting! This NEVER happens. I have no idea what I'll do with myself, honestly, I'll probably get bored after not too long, but maybe I'll make a good dent in my snowflake!

Off to a Good Start!

I DID IT!!!! I started another snowflake last night in size 20 thread and it took! I started it knotless (should have been doing that before) and I got around the first point of the snowflake! It's another one from Jon's Elegant Tatted Gems book. Hopefully the rest of the snowflake turns out as well as it has so far! Here's my progress so far.

I'm hoping to get beyond the second point tonight. My progress seems to be a little over a point a night, I'd LOVE to be able to do WAY more than that! With time I suppose. I also wonder about how tight my tatting is. It doesn't feel tight when I'm doing it. In any craft I do I seem to have really good tension, but on the last snowflake I did I couldn't weave in the ends because I couldn't get a needle through my stitches! I don't know. Without someone around who tats (and I don't know anyone IRL), I don't know how I'm doing really. Time will tell. :-)

Cleaning, Ordering, no Tatting

This has been a BUSY week! Sunday was church, Monday, swimming lessons, Tuesday, Y Kids, Wednesday, open house book sale (here) and Kids Club, Thursday, Y Kids, Friday, grocery shopping and Aurora's Sick Kids appointment (she wants Mike to bring her, her two little sisters AND her big brother!). They take the train and the city bus. They get SO excited! They are always counting down to her next appointment there so they can take the train, the bus and eat at Sick Kids. Saturday is actually a day off before Mike goes back to work for 4 days and then we leave for the States for 5 days and I can pick up about half of my new books for school, some new Lizbeth thread and some new tatting books!!! YA!!!!! That's going to be SO NICE!!! I'll do my happy dance!
 On another note, my new LaCossette shuttles are on their way over the "pond" and should hopefully arrive before the week is out! YA!!! I can't wait!! I'll take pictures and post them when they arrive!
  I'm HOPING to get some tatting done tonight, but for some reason whenever I start something I screw it up partway in and I can't seem to undo my mistakes! So, I'll see if there's anything on, make my chocolate milk and sit down after a long day of cleaning and running around and try and relax and tat.
  Here's hoping!

Getting back to it

I have spent months getting ready to order school for next year for our three kids old enough to be schooled. We have one going into 6th, one into 3rd and one into 1st and then the 3 year old that will just be getting into stuff. I still have our core materials to order on April 2nd, but for the most part everything else is ordered. I got GREAT news today that I'm going to get to go to the OCHEC convention at the end of April! I'm so excited! It's the first homeschool convention I'll have gotten to go to in the 7 years we've been homeschooling.
  On the tatting front, I haven't done a thing since my last post, but I'm planning on picking up my shuttles tonight or tomorrow now that most of my ordering is done. I'm going to take another stab at some snowflakes. I've ordered two custom shuttles from LaCossette on Etsy, I LOVE her shuttles!! I already have 4 or 5 of them and right now I have a blue rose one waiting in her shop and she's making me an Aurora Borealis one now. They are SO BEAUTIFUL! I can't wait to get them! I have 3 of Mary Konior's books waiting in the States for that I ordered online. I didn't pay more than $20 for ANY OF THEM! I saw one of her books, Tatting Lace on Amazon for $16 and change on several of the used sites. Thought I'd get it at that price while I had the chance.
 Well, time to get children off to bed and hopefully get some tatting done.

I did it again.... sigh.

I started my snowflake again last night. Was doing so good..... until...... I realized that I was heading literally in the wrong direction! I rw when I shouldn't have or I didn't when I should have, not sure which, not sure it matters, but that's what happened. So, I started a different snowflake. It was going SO WELL..... until.... I DID THE SAME THING!!!!! How I managed to do it twice on two different snowflakes is beyond me, but, I did. *sigh* So, I took that as a sign that I should put it down and start AGAIN tonight, and pay a little more attention than I obviously was paying last night. One of these days I'll get another one done!

Got something accomplished!

Hello again,
   I managed to get some tatting done last night. I had another go at a snowflake that I decided to stop the night before. I started it over and it seems to be working much better for me. I can't wait to work on it some more tonight. Our son Sam went with my husband to watch TinTin in 3D when it came out and loved it so much that he bought the BluRay version of it yesterday. So, after the little girls were tucked away soundly in bed, Mike, Sam and I sat down and watched TinTin. It was VERY good! I read the books as a child and really enjoyed this interpretation of it. More tatting tonight, maybe I'll take pictures tomorrow.
  Carol

The force is NOT with me

I have found that as I've gotten older that I'm not quite as coordinated as I used to be. Yesterday while trying to poke potatoes for baked potatoes before baking them I stabbed the meaty part of my hand on my thumb. It went pretty deep, but I didn't end up needing stitches. After the children went to bed I decided I'd try and start tatting another one of Jon's snowflakes. Well, after a couple of false starts I decided maybe I should try a different snowflake, so I did. And, after trying that one a couple of times I decided that maybe last night I wasn't meant to make anything, SO, I'll try again today. Those snowflakes are entirely too beautiful to not try again. When the children are tucked away soundly (or elsewhere playing), I shall pull out my tatting again and try again to conquer another project. I will not be beaten by thread (no matter how beautiful it is). :-)

My First Post!

Hi Everyone!
This is obviously my first blog post. I love doing crafty things and thought I needed a place to keep track of things. My first order of business is to post a snowflake I finished tatting last night and blocking this morning. I tell you what, it was a comedy of errors to say the least. I ran out of thread three times, got PLENTY of practice hiding ends and starting threads during the course of the snowflake and royally messed up joining at the end! However, I have (hopefully) learned from my mistakes and will try and NOT make the same mistakes next time. I’m sure there are plenty of other mistakes out there to make and I’d like to think I’ve put these ones behind me.

This snowflakes name is “Nilam”. It’s from the book Elegant Tatted Gems by Jon Yusoff. I LOVE her patterns! I’m hoping to start another one tomorrow. The thread is Island Breeze by Lizbeth in size 20.