Putting them all together.

Don’t ya just hate it when you know what pattern you want to make but can’t find where you put it?
I have that problem especially when I print patterns from the computer.  That one or two pieces of paper are fine for a while then they just disappear!  I think there is a secret place somewhere in my house where loose patterns go to party and I’m not invited.
This even happens with my own patterns.  I have written out and shared patterns here on my blog plus I have some that I’ve not finished writing out or diagramming yet and once in awhile I actually want to tat them again.  I go looking for those printed sheets and can’t find them anywhere (I think I hear them snickering at me as I search for them.) Yes, I could just reprint them but I hate to do that when I know I have them printed somewhere!
I started thinking that if they were all together in a folder or notebook that they would be harder to lose.  Think about it, it wouldn’t be as easy for them to slip between the seat cushions or fall behind the end table, or find other ways to sneak off to their private little party.
I began by printing off the patterns I’ve posted here – they are the most complete.
Putting all my tatting patterns together in one place wandasknottythoughts
I printed them in booklet form, reducing the patterns from the original size of 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper to be half that size.  A few of them ended up being on two pages but most worked okay on one side.  The print is a bit smaller of course, but mostly can still be read easily.  The finished size of 5 1/2″ by 8 1/2″ makes it a nice size to take with me if I want – this size will fit in my purse.

Putting all my tatting patterns together in one place 2 wandasknottythoughts

I did not make any changes to the way the patterns show on-line except for the size.  Each one still has their own definitions instead of one page at the start of the booklet.  The pictures are still the same.  I printed on both sides of the paper.
This has given me a lot of respect to anyone who self-publishes, whether it’s patterns or any other type of book.  This was quite a bit of work – trying to get patterns with two pages to face each other instead of back-to-back, putting them in the order I want, and trying not to miss any.  They are mostly in alphabetical order except for a couple that needed to be on facing pages which caused them to be a little out of order.
As I finish up new patterns I will probably just put them in new booklet instead of trying to add to this one.  Having done this one I have some ideas on how I would do it differently the next time.
This was a fun exercise.  And maybe these will now be a bit harder to lose. They will just have to miss the party, ha!
“I’m writing a book. I’ve got the page numbers done.”
Steven Wright
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Hanging Basket Edging

Hanging Basket Edging - shuttle tatted in Lizbeth size 10 in Ecru and Fudge Medium
Hanging Basket Edging © Wanda Salmans 2012
I’m working on another runner edging in Lizbeth size 10 #603 Ecru and #698 Fudge Medium.
I’m doing my Hanging Basket Edging that I have on my patterns page. When I designed it I made it in size 20, the size I usually work in.  It lay nicely without a lot of blocking.
This time, with this thread, it just isn’t looking quite as nice as I thought it would. I admit I made a mistake, making one ring smaller than the pattern calls for, but I repeated the mistake consistently, making that the pattern all the way across. I didn’t think it would make much difference. I don’t know if it really does make that much difference or it’s just the thread size difference, or something else entirely, but I’m not liking how it hangs very much. I’m going to finish both runner ends and  block them well and see how they look.  It might look better when finished.
I guess if I’m not happy enough with them to take to a craft show I’ll have a runner just for me.
I guess a mistake wouldn’t be a total loss then, right?“Mistakes are proof you are trying.”

Spider Web Snood

I’ve finally been spending a little time on Craftree.com finding out more of what it has to offer, discovering more of the helpful things that are being added all the time.  There is a large library of books and patterns you can look through with descriptions of the books, what kind and how many patterns in each, and other facts about the books you might find helpful. These books can be added to your personal virtual bookshelf which makes it easier to find a pattern when you don’t remember which book it’s in.  And just keep track of which books you have so you don’t buy duplicates. 🙂
This weekend I went through most of my books and added them to my virtual bookshelf there.  I found several I forgot that I had!  One of these forgotten books was from Dillie Delights, “Twinkling Stars and Small Tatted Gifts” by Marsha Brackner.  I haven’t thought of this book in years.  Looking through it I remembered I had made (and still have) a snood sized for a doll.  I went looking for it and actually found it!
"Spider Web Snood" © 1986 from Twinkling Stars and Small Tatted Gifts tatted by Wanda Salmans
“Spider Web Snood” © 1986 from Twinkling Stars and Small Tatted Gifts
tatted by Wanda Salmans
I made this snood with size 30 DMC Cebellia thread, though the book recommends either size 10 or 20.  I don’t remember exactly what year I made it must have been either in the late 80’s or possibly the very early 90’s.  It was before I started tatting exclusively Front side/Back side, I just don’t remember when I started that.
"Spider Web Snood" © 1986 from Twinkling Stars and Small Tatted Gifts another view tatted by Wanda Salmans
“Spider Web Snood” © 1986 from Twinkling Stars and Small Tatted Gifts
tatted by Wanda Salmans
The book has several snood patterns that are suggested could be used as bags and pin cushions.  I only remember making the one snood out of the book even though my daughters were young and had long hair at the time.  I have no idea why I didn’t try making at least one for them.
Besides the snoods the book includes patterns for two stars, a snowflake, and a candy cane.  There are also suggestions for ways to use tatting.  I would consider most of the patterns good for beginners as there are few advanced techniques used.  There are no tatting instructions included but does have definitions of how to read the patterns in the book.  For technique help it refers to several other Dillie Delights books.
I’m sure these patterns wouldn’t take very long to make.  I have granddaughters now, I wonder if they would wear a snood?
“How can I control my life when I can’t control my hair?”
Author Unknown

Random tatting

The zipper pulls on my purse are wearing out.  The purse has fake leather pulls which last okay, but the material that actually attaches to the zipper do not.  As these pulls are used a lot something needed to be done.
Original zipper pull on my purse
The plan was to get black grosgrain ribbon to go on the ring and tat around that.  The problem was there was no black grosgrain ribbon to be found anywhere in the stores I was able to check, including Hobby Lobby.  There were spaces on the shelves where this ribbon usually is but every place was out of the black.  There were a lot of other colors but of course nothing that matched or coordinated with my purse.
Except white.
White ended up the only other choice.  All the thread colors worked okay with it, but I think the black would have been better.
Tatted zipper pull on my purse on wandasknottythoughts.com
The pull is longer than the original, but that isn’t a problem.  The tatting is doubled so it looks the same on both sides, so no matter if the purse is open or closed the pulls hang with the tatting visible.
Thanks to Marilee Rockley for tatting only partway around a do-dad.  I don’t know why I never thought of that.  I wanted a pair of earrings to go with a blouse but didn’t have a lot of time to make them. I was inspired to make these even though I would have liked to add beads as well.  When I’m in a hurry beads are not a good idea.  Check out Marilee’s cute little earrings on her blog,  they are very pretty.
Simple tatted earrings on wandasknottythoughts.com
I’ve just finished tatting the center for my Craftree Round Robin doily.  After several starts at tatting it I finally did it without mistakes.  Now I need to write out the pattern and get everything sent off in the mail.  I think I’m the last one in the group to get their center done.  I’m looking forward to seeing every one’s doilies.
I’ve also been working on an edging but have gotten frustrated with it.  One of the colors keeps twisting so bad the rings are hard to close.  Yes, Fox, it is Lizbeth thread.  It’s only one of the balls but that is more than enough!  I’m going to try to finish anyway as the thread colors go well with the material.  Wish me luck 🙂
lolsotrue #2009
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Round Robin

I am participating in a round robin doily on Craftree. Each of us are designing the center of a doily then sending it on to another tatter to design each consecutive round until each person in the round robin has done a round on every doily then it is sent back to the original tatter.  In the end there will be five unique doilies.
I’ve started three times on my center for this.  The first two weren’t bad just not what I have in mind for this project. I’m finally happy enough with the third try to send it to someone else to see what they will do for the next rounds.
Okay, I’m happy with the pattern but I have to actually finish tatting it to send it on 🙂
Start of the Craftree Round Robin 2015 on wandasknottythoughts.com
Round Robin start 2015
I looked for a thread color that will set off this doll-sized tea set that I found in an antique store on the way to Colorado earlier this month.  It has six tea cups, tea pot, creamer and sugar bowl, all like new.
With that in mind I’ve decided to make this doily in Lizbeth size 20 in a shade of pink.  The label in the center of the ball says it’s #617 Magenta Med, but it looks a lot closer to #608 Coral Pink Med on the computer monitor.  I wonder if sometime when using this thread I got the labels mixed up???  I’m going to have to have a ball of thread to go with the center of the doily when I send it so I was going to order thread anyway, but now I’m going to have to order both colors so I get the right shade.
Someone twist my arm.
Like I’ll only order one ball of thread at a time anyway.
Except for this doily there hasn’t been much tatting done lately.  I’ve been distracted.  I found a book series that I just couldn’t put down.  There are five books in the series and I read all of them in less than a week and a half.  If you like fantasy stories I recommend The Legend of Eli Monpress series by Rachel Aaron.  It is a lot of fun to read.
(I was not compensated in any way for reading or mentioning these books.  I just enjoyed them a immensely!) (She also wrote Nice Dragons Finish Last, which is also a fun read.  I’m waiting on the next book of that series which is due out soon! I wasn’t compensated in any way for reading or mentioning this book, either!!)Now that I’ve read the entire series I can focus more on tatting again. I’m sure the other members of the round robin would appreciate it 🙂

“The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.”
Audre Lorde
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The opposite of small

I had several ladies recently ask me about teaching them to tat. **happy dance** We set up a date and I started organizing things that I use to teach with.
I still have a lot of the Boye shuttles from the bag of seconds I bought a while ago.  While watching TV over the course of a few days I sanded three down then decorated them a bit.  They weren’t very elaborate or really all that pretty but each was unique.  I also wrapped cardboard pieces with two colors of size 5 thread for the students.  I like my students to be able to really see what they are doing before going to smaller thread.  I had the thread already so I didn’t have to buy a large thread though I rarely work in this size.
One of my teaching tools is a large example of tatting to make it easy to see the construction of the knots.  Somehow since the last time I had a class I lost my piece of tatted cord.  Even the balls of cord are missing.  I found some 3/16 inch twisted poly rope at Wal-mart in pretty colors that I thought would work.
Tatting class preparation on wandasknottythoughts.com
It worked out well – other than being nylon and hard to keep the knots in place as they were made.
Working with such large ‘thread’ creates several issues, the foremost is how you can manipulate the shuttle around the thread.  My usual working space between first and second fingers is a bit small for the ‘shuttles’ carrying the cord so an alternative had to be devised.  In the past I’ve asked my husband for a bit of help but he wasn’t available at the right time so I had to make do with something else.
My foot worked.
An alternative way to tat with large thread on wandasknottythoughts.com
 It was kind of awkward but got easier as I worked.
The first class was this last Wednesday.  All three ladies were doing well making the double stitch.  It will be a couple of weeks before we have the second class due to vacation schedules (not mine this time!) but all of us are looking forward to it.
Now back to using thread that’s a little smaller…
 “Aim high. You may still miss your target but at least you won’t shoot your foot off.”
Lois McMaster Bujold

 

Vacations

Vacations this year were a lot different than usual.  We try to take a long weekend with our daughters and their families sometime during the year, usually early summer, then a week in September for us.  This year, due to scheduling done by others than ourselves, we had two week-long vacations almost back-to-back.   We went to Alaska with extended family at the end of May, then to Colorado with our daughters the beginning of July.
We had a lot of fun in Colorado and did a lot of things.
The Big Stump at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado on wandasknottythoughts.com
 We visited the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and saw the petrified giant redwoods. Yes, like the ones now in California, except petrified.  This one is called the Big Stump.
Tatting at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado on wandasknottythoughts.com
We were so busy this is the only picture we took of me tatting on this trip.
If you are interested in this sort of thing I recommend you stop in and see it if you are in the area.
A visit to the Denver Downtown Aquarium on wandasknottythoughts.com
We took a drive one day and visited the Downtown Denver Aquarium.
The kids loved it!  It is a pretty cool place to visit.
Butterfly seen at the Butterfly Pavilion in Denver on wandasknottythoughts.com
While in Denver we also visited the Butterfly Pavilion. You can go into a room with a 1000 butterflies flying around. There are some very exotic ones there.
View from Pike's Peak, Colorado Springs, Colorado on wandasknottythoughts.com
And what is a visit to Colorado Springs without going up Pike’s Peak? We drove up instead of taking the Cog Railway.  The elevation at the top is 14,114 ft.
Visit to Cave of the Winds, Colorado Springs, Colorado on wandasknottythoughts.com
We visited Cave of the Winds, too.  They have a ride there called Terror-Dactyl.  My oldest daughter and I were brave and rode it. What a thrill!
We also went fishing a couple of days, took the kids to The North Pole on the slope of Pike’s Peak and did a little shopping in Manitou Springs. We were busy every day of the week we were there.
I got very little tatting done this week.  With all the places we went and four grandchildren there just wasn’t time or energy.  There were a couple of evenings I had time but was so tired from the day I didn’t feel up to tatting.  I did take it with me everywhere.  On one of our outings my ‘spare’ thread got wet (thread I had along just in case I needed it).  Good thing I didn’t need it!
The project I took with me I started while we drove out there.  As it was the 4th of July weekend I thought I’d tat in patriotic colors so wound a red, white and blue Flora size 20 thread on my shuttles. I can’t tell you the name of the color because they marked the label in a bad way.  I had brought white thread along to use as the ball (or ring) thread, but the white in the Flora was not the same white; it would have looked really odd if I’d used it.  I wish I would have found time to find a plain thread that would have worked.  I do not like how this came out at all.  It’s hard to even make out the pattern!  I suppose I’ll have to try again with different thread.
A little vacation tatting on wandasknottythoughts.com
This was going to be a trial for a doily center for a Round Robin I joined in Craftree.  I think I need to start again.
Though I wasn’t that happy with the tatting project I was very happy with the rest of the trip.  Everyone had a good time and are talking about what we are going to do next year.
I’m ready!
“Are we there yet?” Hunter, age 6 (one of my grandsons)
“Have we reached our destination?” Mercutio, age 6, (the other of my grandsons)

A little delay

We had a little delay on our way home from our cruise.  Our flight had a stop over in Denver that was only supposed to be a few hours.  It turned into more than 24 hours due to no flight crew for our plane.  They said the crew was delayed due to some issue on the east coast.  Great!  The airline did put us up at a really nice hotel and gave us some vouchers for food.  I would have preferred staying at a Comfort in or something instead.  Absolutely nothing was free – neither the wi-fi nor the breakfast.  And the vouchers they gave us only covered not quite two meals and we needed three.
They did have lovely lounge areas, which was nice as we had to check out of our room by 11:00 a.m. and we didn’t want to take the shuttle back to the airport until 1:00 p.m.
Tatting in Denver on wandasknottythoughts.com
Hotel tatting
During the wait at both the hotel and the airport I was able to get a lot of tatting done (surprise, right?)
Hotel tatting, bookmark made while delayed in Denver on wandasknottythoughts.com
Lattice bookmark © Wanda Salmans 2015
This one I mostly like though I’m not too sure of the tail end.  I didn’t get a picture of this until just before I gave it away to our church organist for her retirement.
Hotel tatted bookmark version 2 on wandasknottythoughts.com
Lattice bookmark © Wanda Salmans 2015
I made it again with both ends the same and no tail.  I think I like this better.  I think this pattern in a plain thread will really show the pattern better than the Lizbeth Caribbean I made it in, but this was the thread I had with me.
The delay was a good thing in that I got a lot of tatting done.  I would rather have been home and tatting.
“You may delay, but time will not.”
Benjamin Franklin

A little red, white and blue

Tatted buttons of red, white, and blue on wandasknottythoughts.com
In honor of the 4th of July I thought I’d tat something in red, white and blue.  This started out to be a bracelet with three white buttons, each decorated with a different color thread.  The red and blue threads worked great but the white thread kept breaking.  I finally gave up on trying to tat around the button and went around the other two buttons instead.  I’m still deciding how to make a bracelet out of this.I’m not giving up, just changing the plan a bit 🙂

Enjoy a safe, happy and red, white and blue Independence Day!

William Faulkner: “We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”

Ice, wildlife, lumberjacks, and totem poles

We’ve been very busy since coming back from our vacation and had to get back into our normal routine, but I’m still reminiscing about our cruise to Alaska.
Alaska tatting - tatted bookmarks made while in Alaska on wandasknottythoughts.com
Besides decorating a few buttons I made a few bookmarks while on the cruise.  They are also in Lizbeth #130 Island Breeze and #122 Caribbean in size 20. I wasn’t following a pattern, just going where the shuttles took me.  Okay, on the first one in Caribbean. The second one was similar to the first with a few changes that I thought I’d try.
At Glacier Bay in Alaska on wandasknottythoughts.com
We spent a day in Glacier Bay.   With all that ice close by it was the coolest day we had on the trip.  The glaciers are spectacular!
Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay on wandasknottythoughts.com
This is Margerie Glacier, which is at the end of the bay, almost into Canada.  The ship gets pretty close to it then slowly spins in place several times so that everyone, no matter which side of the ship you’re on, will get a chance to see it.  It calves small pieces of ice (relatively small) pretty frequently but you have to be looking in the right place at just the right time to see them go.  This glacier is huge and quite high.  While we were in the bay they had two park rangers aboard to explain what we were seeing (over the loud speakers) and to answer questions (in person).
Sea lions seen while on Alaska cruise on wandasknottythoughts.com
 There are a lot of small islands that we passed that had sea lions sunning themselves.  I took these pictures with the long lens of the camera.  From where I was on the deck I couldn’t make out for sure what they looked like but I hoped they would be visible when viewing on my computer – and they were!
More sea lions seen while on Alaska cruise on wandasknottythoughts.com
There were a lot of them!
I didn’t see any whales as I was never looking in the right direction at the right time but others did see them at a distance.
Beautiful view on Alaska cruise wandasknottythoughts.com
The scenery all around was breathtaking.  We spent a lot of time out on the observation decks just enjoying the world go by.
Lumberjack show in Ketchikan, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
The next day we were in Ketchikan.  We went to the Lumberjack show there, which was a lot of fun!
Totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
There are a lot of totem poles in Ketchikan, and beautiful gardens.
(Check out the yarn store in the background.  I understand Debbie Macomber stopped in for awhile.)
Top of totem pole in Ketchikan, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
It was hard to get the very top of the totem pole in the picture.
Chief Johnson Totem Pole sign Ketchikan, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
This sign explained this particular totem pole.
 Tatting on a rest break while touring Ketchikan, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
We walked quite a bit while we were in Ketchikan.  I stopped for a few minutes on our way back to catch my breath. That’s our ship, the Norwegian Pearl, behind me.
Leaving Ketchikan, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
Ketchikan, Alaska as we were sailing away.
I’d like to be sailing back 🙂
“John Muir, the famous naturalist, wrote in his journal that you should never go to Alaska as a young man because you’ll never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live.  And there’s a lot of truth to that.”
Tom Bodett
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