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.