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.

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.

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.