Juneau

Tatted buttons on Alaska cruise wandasknottythoughts.com
I took two balls of thread, Lizbeth #130 Island Breeze and #122 Caribbean in size 20, and a handful of buttons to decorate with me when we left for Alaska.  I figured that buttons are small, easy to do, don’t take a lot of thought and would be easy to give away if the opportunity came up.   These four, plus the one I mentioned a few weeks ago, are the buttons (okay, and one doodad) that I made while we were on the cruise.  The ones on the top and the left I made first using only one shuttle.  The one on the right didn’t come out like I was hoping but I may find a place to use it.  The bottom one was very frilly until I blocked it.  I’m not sure how it has eleven points but I like it and am not worried about it.  If I try it again I’ll probably figure it out 🙂
The rest of today’s pictures are from our stop in Juneau.  I thought I was going to have a few pictures from the ship, too, but somehow they didn’t make it.  Probably next week.
Trees in Glacier Gardens, Juneau, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
If you’re ever in the Juneau area I highly recommend visiting Glacier Gardens, they are absolutely gorgeous!  There are these lovely dead trees (yes, dead trees) that are in the ground upside down with beautiful plants in the root systems.
Flowers in Glacier Gardens, Juneau, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
Everywhere you look are lush plants.  It is a rain forest.
Beautiful trees in Glacier Gardens, Juneau, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
A lovely, lovely place to visit.
Visiting Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
Just outside of Juneau is the Juneau Icefield, the start of Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls, which is fed by the glacier.  We didn’t think we had time to make it to the falls, which was a mile hike both ways (we didn’t want the bus to leave without us).
Visit to Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
The glacier as seen through the long lens of our camera. It is several miles away from where we were.  There is nothing over there that you can compare it to for size.
Nugget Falls at Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
But you can see how large Nugget Falls is when you see the people at the foot.  This picture is with the long lens of our camera.
Tatting at Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska wandasknottythoughts.com
We visited so many places and there were so many things to see and do that I didn’t get a chance to tat at all of them, but I did remember here. It was a bit chilly and damp so it really was only a few stitches.
The ship was only in Juneau for a few hours so there were many things we didn’t get to see.  We’d really like to go back, but it will have to be a few years down the road.  If you get the chance to visit, DO IT!
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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A lot of knitters!

We sailed on the Norwegian Pearl from Seattle, WA for our cruise of the Inside Passage of Alaska.  Something we noticed as we were going through the boarding process (which is similar to going through security at an airport for almost 3000 passengers) was a boarding line with a small sign saying “Welcome knitting group.”   We wondered what that was all about.  It didn’t take long after boarding for us to see why there was a special line just for them – they were everywhere!  They all wore purple lanyards and some had canvas bags and/or sweatshirts with “Stitch and Sail” on the them.  Found out they were all part of the group from “Stitch and Sail to Alaska with Debbie Macomber“.  All 300+ of them. I’m not sure if that number included the non-knitting spouses or not, though there were couples where both were knitters or at least worked with fiber.
And yes, Debbie Macomber was on board, though I don’t think I ever saw her.
Stitch and Sail on the cruise wandasknottythoughts.com

Throughout the cruise you would see individuals as well as groups of knitters in all areas of the ship.  They had classes going on in different locations during the cruise, and, I understand, special events just for them.  Like me some would bring their work with them while they waited for a show to start or while listening to some of the live entertainment that was available, as well as just relaxing around the ship.  For some reason a lot of people thought I was with the group, I suppose because the uneducated couldn’t tell what I was doing other than something with “yarn”.

Crafting on the Alaska cruise wandasknottythoughts.com
Having breakfast in the Garden Cafe. Check out the lady behind me.
Knitters on the Alaska cruise wandasknottythoughts.com
I met Priscilla and Linda, both from the state of Washington (different cities), and asked about the many knitters aboard. We had a nice chat out on the deck about knitting, the cruise, and tatting. Both ladies do many of the fiber arts.  Priscilla’s mother taught her knitting, embroidery and crochet, then she learned needle tatting later when she had her own yarn shop so she would to be able to answer questions about it.  Linda’s grandmother taught her to knit when she was a child.  She has made items from fiber she’s carded, spun and knitted (pretty much doing everything right from the sheep’s back except to actually sheer it).  She also knits very fast.  A special yarn and shawl pattern were made just for the cruise, and only a few days out Linda was already done with her shawl and was now on to other things.
Knitter working on baby afghan on Alaska cruise wandasknottythoughts.com
I met Andy one evening in the Atrium.  Both he and his wife knit and came on the cruise together.
Knitter with baby afghan on Alaska cruise wandasknottythoughts.com


He was working on a baby blanket for a grandson due in a few months. He and his wife are owners of “All Strung Out,” a yarn shop in Ontario, Canada.

Tatting in the Atrium on Alaska cruise wandasknottythoughts.com

The Atrium was a nice place to relax and people watch.  There was usually some kind of entertainment going on at one end, customer services had desks at the other end, and a lot of people going through from one place to another.  I think I spent some time there almost every day, usually with tatting in hand and usually not the only one working with fiber of some kind.  I really enjoyed having all those knitters on board and felt a kinship with them, even if I don’t knit.

“When people see me knitting, I tell them I’m a knitter.  Not the sort of knitter they may have run into before, but a passionate, constant, deliberate knitter.  I knit everyday, all the time, everywhere I go.”
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
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Seattle

 My husband and I flew to Seattle a day before the cruise so we could see a few of the sights there. We had never been there before and it is a lot different from any city we have been to.  Here are a few pictures (of the many we took) of what we did that day.  (There are no tatting pictures today.)
Seattle, WA light rail station wandasknottythoughts.com
We were told the least expensive way to get to town was to ride the hotel shuttle back to the airport then take the Light Rail.  This is one of the light rail stations, We rode to Westlake, which meant we rode from one end of the rail to the other.  From this station it is an easy walk to Pike’s Place and the fish market. This is early in the day, later there will be lots and lots of people here.

Original Starbucks in Seattle, WA wandasknottythoughts.comI’m standing outside the original Starbucks in Pike Place (in the purple jacket).  This was as close as we could get at the time.  There was an acoustic group right outside singing to a large crowd and later there wasn’t such a crowd on the outside but still very full inside.

Doc Maynard's Public House in Seattle, WA wandasknottythoughts.com
This is the bar in Doc Maynard’s Public House in Pioneer Square.  This is the start of Bill Speidel’s Underground Tour.  If you ever get to Seattle and like history at all I recommend you go on this tour.  They share some fun facts and sights of the original Seattle.  Why is it an underground tour you ask?  Some of Seattle used to be a lot closer to sea level than it is now.  The tour tells you how and why it’s not anymore.  You hear a lot about plumbing, which we don’t think about much when it works, but when it doesn’t – well, it becomes very important!
Bar in Underground Tour in Seattle, WA wandasknottythoughts.com
This is another bar in the tour in the underground that was utilized again during prohibition.
Jack in a tunnel on the Underground Tour in Seattle, WA wandasknottythoughts.com
My husband in the underground.  There is a lot of junk down there from the 1949 earthquake. They thought it was a good place to get rid of debris.
Underground Tour guide Rose giving us direction wandasknottythoughts.com
This is Rose, our tour guide, trying to make herself heard while waiting at a traffic light.  In the back on the left is the pergola that was built for the 1909 World’s Fair.  The entire tour takes about 75 minutes with a lot of walking but it is all in a few blocks of the start. Rose in the Underground Tour visitor center and gift shop wandasknottythoughts.com
Rose answering questions after the tour in the gift shop.
The decor of the ladies room in the Underground Tour gift shop wandasknottythoughts.com
This is the ladies room in the gift shop.  Isn’t it beautiful?
One of decorations in the ladies room in the Underground Tour gift shop wandasknottythoughts.com
Decoration in the ladies room.  If you go on the tour you’ll understand the connection 🙂
Space Needle in Seattle, WA wandasknottythoughts.com
We took the mono rail from Westlake center to the Seattle Center where the Space Needle is located.  The mono rail, which was built for the 1962 World’s Fair, only runs between the two stations and is a cheap way to get there.  I didn’t realize what all was by the Needle – lots and lots of things, mostly aimed at kids.
Street performer at the Space Needle in Seattle, WA wandasknottythoughts.com

There were a lot of street entertainers working for tips, mostly music of some kind, playing and or singing.  But there were a few other enterprising people doing other things  The stormtrooper is a live person but Darth Vader is not.  They were letting people take their pictures with them, for tips of course.

One of the things we didn’t find in Seattle was rainy weather.  We had been warned it would be wet at least, but it was pretty while we were there.
We took the light rail back to the airport then the hotel shuttle back to the hotel.  While at the airport we actually met the rest of the family, who had just arrived.  It was an enjoyable day though there were a lot of things we didn’t have time to see  I wouldn’t be opposed to going back some day.
Even if they have the kind of weather we’ve heard about.

What’s the definition of a Seattle optimist?
A guy with a sun visor on his rain hat.

Cruising

My husband and I tried something new last week – we went on a cruise to Alaska.
This trip was taken with several of my husband’s family, making us a group of eleven.  My sister-in-law and her husband are the only ones to have been on cruises before in the Gulf of Mexico, and none of us have ever been to Alaska.  It was a week of new experiences all around.
My husband and I flew out to Seattle a day early so we could see some of the city before we sailed.  We spent Saturday doing a lot of walking, trying to see as much as possible in the time we had.  That was fun! We spent some time in Pike’s Place at the fish market and the shops down there.  We took a picture of the original Starbucks from outside for our daughter (there were so many people we couldn’t go inside) and stopped at a couple more for coffee.  They really are everywhere up there!  They make great places to stop and rest for awhile. 
Everyone else arrived Saturday evening. We all stayed at the same hotel so we could all go together to the ship on Sunday.  It is quite a challenge to organize even that many people to be ready to go at the same time.
I’m very glad that tatting is so portable.
You notice how dressed up I am?  My husband and I figured we were going to Alaska so we would dress comfortably and fit right in 🙂
I couldn’t think of any patterns I wanted to work on during the trip so I just made sure I had a some thread and several shuttles.  I didn’t tat a whole lot for the first few days – there were so many things to do on the ship!  But I had it with me all the time.
To start with I decorated a few buttons and did an short edging to put on the card holder on my lanyard.  I wore this all the time on the ship.  It had my room key, tatting, crochet hook and scissors, the schedule of events on board for the day, receipts, a pen and cash for when we went ashore.  You see that it was the last day of the cruise before I realized I didn’t have a picture of it.
I gave this button away to one of our servers who had been very interested in what I was doing.  The server was very happy with it.  I hadn’t realized that the schedule I used as the background was from day six instead of seven until later.  
Be fore-warned: there will be a lot of pictures from our vacation in the coming weeks. It was a great week with many, many beautiful things to see.  I haven’t even gone through all the pictures yet , but I’m looking forward to enjoying our vacation all over again as I do.

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”
Anonymous 

Mandy in Autumn Spice

I don’t usually make the same pattern more than once at a time, preferring to go on to other things or change it up in some way. It’s true this time, too, mostly.  Yes, this is ‘Mandy’ again – without any changes except thread color! – and this post is right after one where I talk about ‘Mandy’ in orange and brown.  But I didn’t tat them one after the other, I just finished sewing them to the table runners one after the other. 
‘Mandy’ Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015
Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice in size 10
About the only things I sew are table runners, but I love shopping for material. I have quite the stash to prove it, too.  I usually have at least a vague idea of what I would like to tat for each material when it’s purchased whether I ever get to it or not. When I do get to making the edgings I try to match the pattern to the material as well as the thread. Sometimes this takes a while and sometimes everything just falls into place.

‘Mandy’ Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015
Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice in size 10

The edging for this runner kind of came as a surprise.  I had another thread and another pattern in mind for it, this one was actually for something else. But when I laid this edging close to the material I couldn’t believe how well the colors went together.  Plans changed right away. In a good way!
This table runner is the same size as the other one, 12 inches by just over 40 inches. I don’t know if you’re into roosters or not, but this runner looks pretty good!
“As with anything creative, change is inevitable.”
Enya
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Mandy in orange and brown

A couple of months ago I made this ‘Mandy’ edging in orange and brown.  I finally have it stitched on the runner.
‘Mandy’ Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015
 Lizbeth #694 Harvest Orange Medium and #692 Mocha Brown Dark size 10
The picture doesn’t show very well how good the thread goes with the material – lighting? angle? background? – but in person the two are a great match.

Here it is again showing a bit of the material that is the backing of the runner. It shows it off a bit better than the other background. 
The runner is 12 inches wide and a little over 40 inches long. I’m very pleased with how this turned out. 
I also finished adding ‘Finn’ to the runner I started last week. That took a lot longer to sew on than this did.  I like both patterns but I like this one much better when it comes to sewing it down because it went so much faster.  But if I had a choice between sewing by hand or doing any kind of housework the sewing would win hands down!
“I’d rather be stitchin’
than in the kitchen!”
Author Unknown
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Odds and ends

It has been a busy week, both at home and at work. At home there are several things coming up that I have to get ready for – including a craft show – and I’ve been putting in a lot of overtime at work.  Evidence of this can be seen at my house (it’s a mess!).  After a while a person gets tired, body and mind, and it’s hard to keep track of what needs to be done.  Or have the energy to do those things you know needs to be done!
In spite of being tired I’ve actually gotten a lot of tatting in – as the passenger in the car, sitting in waiting rooms – but none of my projects are at a place I want to take pictures and share.  But I like posts with pictures in them so I’m sharing a doily I made a long time ago.  I can’t honestly say who’s pattern this is, whether it’s from some book or other or one of mine. Anyone recognize it??  (Please let me know!)  I think the thread is size 30 but what color or brand I couldn’t tell you. The cup and shuttle were found in antique stores, the cup just recently, the shuttle several years ago.  I don’t try to tat with the shuttle as the points have something to be desired.  Let’s just say it looks very well used (but I couldn’t resist buying it anyway).

In the midst of all my busy-ness, several things happened this week that I am pretty excited about.  One of them is the prospect of giving tatting lessons in a month or so.  There is a quilting guild (club?) that meets in the fellowship hall of our church once a month.  I needed to pick up some things from the hall this week while they were there and one of them asked if I would be interested in giving lessons. (!!☺!!) Several of the ladies showed interest.  Now we just need to agree to a date and time.
The other thing I got excited about this week was tatting I saw on a shirt.  There was a lady in the waiting room at the doctor’s office wearing a shirt that was covered in tatting.  It was all the way around the collar, all the way down the front with the buttons, it was across the top of a pocket.  And then there were four (?) large butterflies in various places. I asked the wearer if she had tatted it all but, no, she had picked it up at a garage sale. (!!)  I wanted to take a picture of it but the lady was filling out paperwork and I didn’t want her to think I was trying to steal her information, so the opportunity for a picture was lost.  But it was an impressive display of tatting. 

These bookmarks are not the impressive display of tatting as I wanted them to be. I had this idea to decorate these cards with scrapbook paper roses but also with some tatting.  Nothing I tried seemed to work, nothing looked right.  So I added the thread at the top and gave them to my mom and her sisters for Mother’s day anyway.  There are only so many hours in a day and I ran out of time (and imagination).  But I do have more of the rose paper and plan on trying again another day.
Now back to being busy.
“I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process.”
Vincent Van Gogh
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Finn on the edge

Now comes the hard part – sewing an edging to the material.
At least it is for me.
The fun is in the tatting – and the end result when it’s completely on the material.  The actual sewing-on is slow.

‘Finn’ edging © Wanda Salmans
I had trouble making up my mind which side of the tatting would be ‘up’, or sewed to the material.  Originally it was supposed to be the other way ’round.  I took a picture of it on my phone both ways  so I could quickly go back and forth to make the decision.
‘Finn’ edging © Wanda Salman close up
When making the edging the rings with only one picot were going to be attached to the material.  Having decided the other side looked better put me in a bind as to how to sew it on.  Laying the rings on top of the material instead of at the edge looks great but it also means sewing each picot down as well as a stitch right at the edge of the material.
Having to flip to the back-side for every stitch to make sure the backing didn’t get caught is a real pain.  It will be worth it but makes the stitching go even slower than usual.
It will be worth it, it will be worth it, it will be worth it.
If said often enough will it make it go easier and faster?
I have a bag with lots of doodles (okay, all over the house I have doodles….) from the tail end of projects, those little bits of thread left on a shuttle that I hate to throw away but isn’t enough to do much with except make butterflies and flowers out of. I was trying to come up with different ways and places to use them when I had a thought.  I don’t know that it was a good one but I have so many of these doodles that will never get used that I’m not wasting anything except maybe my time.
The idea is to make the tatting look like it is part of the wood or metal. These are wooden pieces but I thought maybe it could work on metal as well.  I have some plain metal picture frames that I thought would look cool to have ‘metal’ tatting on them.  I’m not there yet but I’m going to try again.  
If nothing else it’s a fun experiment.
What do you think?
“I love fools’ experiments. I am always making them.”
Charles Darwin
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Happy on the edge

Yes, after taking a break and working on other things I’m happily back to working on edgings.  One day very soon I’m going to have to start attaching them to the material part of the runners, but I’m so much happier tatting them than sewing them down!
‘Finn’ © Wanda Salmans 2015
‘Finn’ was made with DMC #437 Tan LT in size 10 (it always looks more gold to me than tan).
The pattern is actually one I came up with a few years ago to edge a Christmas stocking I made for an Advent gift exchange. I changed it up only by adding another row to make it a deeper edging.
I posted about this here for a December 2010 Advent swap

The stocking edging was made in white size 20.  I liked it but never jotted it down anywhere because I was in a hurry getting things made for Christmas.  I thought of this pattern a week or so ago and decided to try it again.  Yes, I plan on writing out the pattern but, no, I haven’t yet.

I’m actually pretty happy with myself lately.  I’ve actually been using patterns I already have instead of starting from scratch on new designs every time.  Not that I haven’t made changes to about every one of them in some manner or another, but I’ve based them on patterns that already existed.  I say happy in that designing from scratch usually takes more time than using one that’s already been done, and I really need to put the time into the tatting instead of the designing.  Now if a pattern just comes to mind that’s great and I go with it, but right now I just need to get some edgings done.

But I really need to start sewing them down soon. Happiness is a finished table runner!

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
Jim Rohn
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Experimenting with lapel pins

Funny how things happen when you get in a hurry. 
Today I was in such a hurry to get the pictures uploaded that I posted instead of saving. 
So, here are a couple of my experiments with lapel pins. 
The pins seemed very long so the first one I tried I bent a bit and added beads. 
Not too bad for a hat/lapel pin. 

The next one I left straight and made it a bit more simple. It is pretty long.

I think it looks nice but I think I need to do a little more experimenting. 
“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
Albert Einstein 
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