Tatting for little boys

I have two grandsons and have been thinking of things to tat for them.  Little girls are easier I think.  You can do things for their hair, their dresses, their socks (Fox has done some really cute ones), all kinds of things.  But boys aren’t usually into the frilly things, and my grandsons aren’t old enough to really appreciate bookmarks.  I’ve thought of several things, like pillow cases with critters on them (haven’t done one yet) and maybe things to hang on the wall (haven’t done that yet, either).  One thing I was going to do for Christmas but didn’t have time for I have finally gotten around to: insulated cups.

This is “Paprika the Dragon” by Martha Ess, in Lizbeth #122, Caribbean,  in size 20.  There is one opaque black 8/0 bead and 12 opaque rainbow 10/0 beads.  The cup/glass is one that you can decorate an insert for. I don’t remember where I picked this one up at, but Hobby Lobby and Micheal’s have carried ones similar to it. 
The flowers, bird and butterfly were made when finishing off shuttles and are a mixture of threads.  I have a baggy (and a few other containers here and there) full of things like this that are great for putting on cards and letters.  And now, cups! Tatting Paprika was fun and didn’t take much time.
Here is the insert before I put it in the cup.
I was very pleased at how this came out. I gave this to one of my grandsons the other day and understand that it has been well used already.  He hasn’t drank out of anything else since he got it.  He says his “grandma made it and it has a dragon and flowers on it.”☺
Now I need to make one for the other grandson. 
I’m calling this #24 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.  I keep forgetting when I make something to count them!  
Let’s not forget the TIAS!  
This is Day 5. I have no idea what it could be.  Day 6 will be out Wednesday (Jan 25), maybe that will help in figuring out what it might be. 
“Boys are found everywhere on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around or jumping to.  Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them and Heaven protects them.” 
Alan Beck 

TIAS Day 3

Jane’s TIAS has started.  This is mine up to day 3.  It actually looked better but it curled a little and I tried to flatten it out which deformed the SCMR a little bit.  I can live with it. I have no guesses as to what it might be.  Last year she had us flying in an airplane and the year before crowing with a rooster, so this could be anything! If you haven’t started the TIAS it’s never to late to start.  She is going to post day four tomorrow (January 19).

If you don’t want to participate you might still go over and check out all the different shuttles people are using on this.  A lot of participants have taken this opportunity to show off some pretty nice looking shuttles. I haven’t shown mine – I chose to do this in Lizbeth Victorian Red #670 in size 20 using Clover shuttles in green and orange.  The green doesn’t look too bad but the orange clashes badly. Hey, they were the two shuttles that I found that didn’t have any thread on them. Most of my other shuttles either have projects on them or little bits of thread that I would have to do something with before I could start. None I found had enough for this project – Jane said you will need two shuttles filled with thread.

Anyone remember this post? Trayna asked for that pattern awhile back and posted about it on her blog recently.  As I have been working on updated and sharing some of my older patterns I thought this one would be the next one up.  My previous post showed it with the arms joined at the picots and with beads but the pattern doesn’t reflect that.  I don’t think it will be hard to figure out how that was done, but if you have questions please feel free to contact me. My contact information is on my profile page.  The pattern is up on the sidebar.

Has anyone noticed that I missed Tatting Tea Tuesday?  I’ve been working some different and very long hours this last week so was just too pooped to post.  But it’s only late by a day – not too bad. Back to normal today, so I have a bit more enthusiasm.

“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.” Bo Bennent

January is National Hot Tea Month

Did you know that January is National Hot Tea Month? This article is from 2009 but the link is still posted on the front page of TEAUSA.com.  It has a few things that are nice to know, especially if you like tea 🙂

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m drinking a cup of Strawberry Misaki from Teavana, a gift from Tabatha.  It’s a blooming tea, which means it comes in a ball that when steeped in hot water blooms into a flower. Pretty cool!  I was going to take a picture of my bloom (I’ve heard of this before and always wanted to know what the bloom looked like) but I forgot and drank the tea before I got the camera out.  Mmmm, strawberry tea.  It’s a very light flavored tea, but I like it.

Have you read Trayna’s blog post from Sunday?  She was so nice as to tat one of my snowflakes 🙂 She had seen it in one of my posts and asked me for the pattern.  She did a lovely job on it, too.  It’s part of her 100 snowflake challenge – to make 100 snowflakes in a year(!).  Knowing she was making snowflakes I sent her the pattern of another snowflake, which she was so sweet as to test tat for me (good thing that she did!). It is the snowflake I had decided would be my Christmas snowflake one year, which I posted about in December 2010.

This one.

 
If you like it and would like to give it a try, I’m adding the pattern to the sidebar.  I’m touching up the pattern for the one that Trayna made and hope to add that pattern soon as well.

Don’t forget, Jane’s TIAS starts today!

“May you always have walls for the winds, a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire, laughter to cheer you, those you love near you and all your heart may desire.”
Irish blessing 

Something New

for the New Year.

Okay, I made it at the end of December, but just barely!

I had two shuttles loaded with Lizbeth Blue Ice #163 in size 40 and had a thought, basically on a variation of one of my other patterns.  “What if I tried this…” And this is what came about.  As you can tell by the Clover shuttles beside it, the star is pretty small made in size 40.  It didn’t take too long to make and looks good in that color, don’t you think? (I had a hard time photographing it. I tried it on a black background and it was way too bright so showed up fuzzy and stark white.)

And guess what?

I have it diagrammed already!  It didn’t take too long to do that, either.  I guess practice does make things easier. Check the sidebar, I’m going to be adding it there.  How soon depends on if I have trouble or not 🙂

I’m using the new blogger changes and still getting used to the way it looks.  The one thing I definitely like is how it adds the pictures.  It doesn’t add them all at the top anymore, where you have to move them down if you’ve started adding text.  Some of the rest of the changes are still debatable on whether I like them or not, though I suppose that eventually I’ll get used to them.

Have you heard?  Jane is having another TIAS (Tat It And See) starting on January 10.  Check it out here.  I did the one last year and it was a lot of fun. My piece from last year is actually hanging on the Christmas tree as an ornament – my grandsons thought it was pretty cool.

I started this Tatting Tea Tuesday with a cup of Zen green tea by TAZO, a gift from Tabatha.  (Thanks, it’s very good!)  I didn’t really tat yet but I did work on the diagram for the star – does that count?  I do plan on getting a little tatting in today sometime, somewhere.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to the New Year.


“Every day is a fresh beginning. Every morn is the world made new.”
Sarah Chauncey Woolsey

It must be Wine Wednesday

It seems I’ve missed Tatting Tea Tuesday so it must be Wine Wednesday.  I haven’t had the wine yet, but the day is young.  I haven’t gotten any tatting in today, either, but I plan to do that next.  I did get tatting in yesterday and I drank tea, I just missed posting.
Yesterday I was working on Angels. Not these – these have been sent off already, but one just like it.  Though  I tatted for several hours I didn’t even get one little angel finished.  This is my design and I’ve been making them for years, but now I’m trying to revise the pattern to make it with only one end.  Unbelievable, I know, but all these years I’ve made them with multiple ends to hide. Why I’ve never thought of trying it other ways I don’t know, but the lightbulb did finally come on. Now the problem is making it work. I worked on it all day and never got even one Angel completed. The problem are the wings – they just don’t work starting from the top. I’ve tried different stitch counts, but nothing has really worked. Unless I plan on changing the wings entirely this may just have to have several ends whether I like it or not.
Did you all have a wonderful Christmas?  We did.  We were able to get together with both sides of the family and see both of our kids and their families. And then we were lucky enough to have both of the grandsons stay over Christmas night.  They kept us quite busy. I can sure tell I’m not used to having little children around that much anymore. By the time they left, I was tired. We did have fun while they were here though. We played games, strung beads and cut out paper snowflakes then they helped me on the placement of the snowflakes in the window.
I love Christmas. I love the season. I love the weather getting colder with maybe some snow. And I love the giving of gifts. Getting gifts is fun too, but I just love trying to come up with just the right things to to share with each of my family and friends.  It was a bit different this year. This year, when I went to the store I actually had a list of things I wanted to get – no impulse buying!  I made quite a few of the gifts this year, and not just tatting.  Actually, I didn’t get much tatting done this year, not as much as usual anyway. I guess I’ll have to start a lot earlier  for next year. I guess I’ll have to start a lot earlier for next year 🙂
Now we’re getting to the new year. Do you have New Year’s resolutions? I try not to make them, or at least any more than I would on any other day, because I have a terrible time keeping them. Today I’ll leave you with a quote from Hal Borland.
“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the 
wisdom that experience can instill in us“

Let it snow

I’ve been so busy doing, well, lot’s of stuff, that I haven’t had much time to tat.  Every year I try to tat snowflakes to put in Christmas cards.  This year only a lucky few will be getting them in their cards.  What you see is pretty much all I’ve gotten done this year snowflake-wise.  They are simple and quick and pretty small.  Three are made in Lizbeth white size 20, the other two are in Lizbeth Blue Ice size 40.
This doesn’t mean I won’t still be making snowflakes, it just means they won’t get them this year in their Christmas cards 🙂
I’ve tatted a few angels done as well, just didn’t get pictures yet.  I’ve been working on the pattern for it, too, trying to work it up with fewer cuts and ties.  It’s a lot harder to write it out than it is to tat it!  
That’s it on the tatting front. I did get a cup of tea in today but no tatting on this Tatting Tea Tuesday.  Busy again.
My husband and I did take a night off from everything to go to a concert last week. We went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Wichita.  It was great! What a show – lights, lasers, electric guitars and a string orchestra.  We enjoyed ourselves tremendously!  If you like Christmas music done by a rock band you’ll enjoy them, too. 
This is a song by them without all the lights and lasers, but I like it. Check out YouTube for more videos. 

Getting ready for Christmas

I’ve been busy trying to get things made for Christmas. I found coasters – at JoAnn’s I think – that had Aida cloth and a cross-stitch pattern in them that I thought would look good with tatting instead. It came out well I think. The snowflake is one of mine, seen in this post from January 2009 and is made in size 40 Lizbeth Blue Ice #163. It was a gift but she has it already so it’s okay to share.

I bought these little composition books at the Dollar Tree, three for a dollar. They are about three inches tall, one green, one black and one blue. I had a thought that they would be cute with scrapbooking paper on them – and I was right. The paper went on smoothly and they actually came out looking better than I expected, yea! I’m definitely going to have to do this again. They make a great little gift, along with a cute pen. Quick, easy, cute and inexpensive – can’t hardly beat that.
I’m doing an Advent exchange with Tabatha at Crafting with Tabatha. We did this last year through Ravelry and had such fun we decided we do it again this year. She does a great job on decorating the packages and coming up with neat gifts! One of the things she sent me this year was some Fray Check which I’ve never used (I have used similar things) but am glad to have. And she made two of these cute crocheted tree ornaments. Up until this last Sunday they were the only Christmas decorations I had up.

Tabatha also sent me this wonderful case of interchangeable head crochet hooks. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Isn’t it great? I won’t have to search for just the right size hook when I change thread size and need help with joining (or whatever). As I said, she comes up with some great gifts :-).

I was able to visit with my daughter last week and do a little crafting. She had been given some exotic bird feathers and we played around with them: this is what we ended up with. We didn’t know what we were doing when we started but had a lot of fun doing it. We are calling this an angel : )

Hoping you are all looking forward to a marvelous Christmas.

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Words: Charles Wesley
Music: Roland H. Prichard

Museum Stop Part 2

Now, back to Roebke Memorial Museum in Holton, Kansas…
They certainly justified the theme of “A Lacy Christmas” – there was lace and textiles of many types throughout the house. One of the front rooms showcased the work of one woman, Evelyn DeGraw.

Isn’t this display amazing? And this is only part of it!

These items were donated by the woman who lived across the street from the Roebke house The entire room was of Evelyn’s work.
December 26, the day we stopped by, they had three demonstrators in: a spinner, a weaver and a quilter.

This is Marty Mavrovich, spinning llama fiber as sock yarn. She likes to use as much local fiber to spin with as she can. She didn’t buy her spinning wheel new but thinks it’s either German or Canadian made. She made this look easy, but somehow I think that’s because she’s been doing it awhile.

This is Barbara Beyer weaving on her 8 shaft table loom. It can be converted to a floor loom if she needs it to be. This loom is from New Zealand. She was working on a tunic/vest similar to the one in the magazine behind her (which I didn’t take a picture of…).

Here is Donna Tudor hand-quilting a baby blanket. She likes to keep one or two on hand for new arrivals as they take a little while to finish. Her work is lovely. I hardly sew at all but I can appreciate the skill that it takes to do this.
These ladies were fun to talk to. It’s not often I get to talk to people who enjoy their craft like this, even though each of us had a different one. But I’m such a bad reporter that I forgot to ask where they were from!
I even got to take out my shuttles and sat with them for awhile.

Somehow I don’t think I’d pass as a Victorian lady, do you? I very much enjoyed my visit with these ladies and Margaret Utes.
I’m not sure if you can tell, but we were in the kitchen of the house. Miss Doris Roebke lived in the house after her parents so it was modernized as all lived-in house are sure to be. It was interesting to see some of the older furniture next to the older.
Upstairs the bedrooms were also decked out in Victorian style.

This room was done up as a child’s room.

In the hall upstairs there was a display of embroidery. Lovely pillowcases here. On one of the beds there was an cover/quilt with a lot of embroidery, also.

These lovely creations were the graduation dresses of the three Roebke daughters. Can you imagine wearing one of these? Just wearing one of these would make you want to act like a lady.
I put a lot of pictures in today but there is so much more there to see. On another of our trips to or from Omaha we’ll have to stop in again.
Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I tried Candy Cane Lane tea, made with peppermint. It is yummy! Didn’t get much time to tat today, but it’s not over yet.
Wishing all of you a wonderful Advent season.
“The advent of our God
Shall be our theme for prayer
Come let us meet him on the road
And place for him prepare”

Museum Stop

Did everyone have a happyThanksgiving? Ours was wonderful, spent with one of our daughters and her family. I didn’t even have to do any of the cooking! We’re very lucky that our daughter married a wonderful cook. We spent a couple of days there and then headed back to have Thanksgiving here with more of the family.
We took a slightly different route on the way home this time than usual because of an e-mail that I got from Isdihara. A few weeks ago she sent an message letting me know about a museum asking for tatters to do demonstrations in Holton, Kansas. I’m not exactly sure where she heard about it (it was in the Topeka Capital – Journal, a long way from the east coast). I told her I didn’t think we’d make it being it’s about three hours from home but I was glad of the information. But the timing was right: on the way home from Nebraska we were able to stop in. This time of year they’re usually closed except by appointment but they’re having open houses Saturdays through the 17th of December for a few hours celebrating “A Lacy Christmas.” We just happened to leave Nebraska on Saturday morning and were able to stop in about an hour before they closed.
This is the Roebke Memorial Museum, a block or so from downtown Holton, Kansas. Holton is a picturesque town, with quite a few old buildings and tree-lined streets. The original part of Boebke House itself was built in 1876 and added on as the family grew in numbers and prosperity. The displays are in each room are furnished in Victorian era style and changed periodically with items donated mostly from local people.
We were met as we walked in by Margaret Ute (pronounced ‘Oot‘), a lovely lady who gave us a personal tour of the house. Here Margaret is standing next to a Christmas tree decorated with crocheted ornaments done by one lady.
Following the theme “A Lacy Christmas” there was a lot of lace everywhere, as well as other textile exhibits. In case you are wondering around on your own there are easily read description plaques with information about the exhibits.
Check out this player piano! Okay, this picture mostly shows the tatting display, but the piano itself is beautiful! And it really works. And it looks very fine with that cloth with all that tatting on it 🙂 Margaret told me that when they found this cloth in the attic it was all brown. She soaked it several times and the stains started coming out. There were also some places where the tatting had come apart (maybe age-weakened thread?) and were repaired by Margaret’s mother.
I’m not sure you can read this, but there is a short explanation about the life-style of the Victorian age. It also talks about some of the items in the room, including the tatting.
Isn’t this blouse gorgeous? Can you imagine tatting this then carefully stitching it to the material? This would take an amazing amount of patience. But with such a beautiful result.
This is a child’s petticoat decorated with tatting.
I wish I had taken a better picture of these tatting shuttles. The one on the left was found in the house and the one on the right belonged to Margaret’s mother.

There were three ladies doing demonstrations there that Saturday, one spinning, one weaving and one hand quilting. I will share more about that next week, along with a few more pictures of the beautiful items on display.
I highly recommend this museum if you are ever in the area.
This morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday I enjoyed a cup of Cinnamon Apple Spice tea while looking over pictures from Thanksgiving – a nice way to spend the morning.
If you would be interested in hearing what a Victorian era song sounds like go here.