No booties this time

This last week we went up to see our daughter when they had the new baby baptized. Our granddaughter wore the same baptismal gown that her brother had worn but not the booties he did. Her brother was several months old when he was baptized so I had to make the booties to fit him. I also didn’t think to make her a pair – where was my mind for the last 6 months?? – so I decided to do something a little less complicated. I decorated some socks.

Even this simple little motif gave me fits. First, I used size 80 thread, DMC # 604, which I rarely even try to tat with. Second, I was tatting these in the car then trying to finish them off in the hotel room. They ended up taking more time than I want to admit. They also don’t quite have the same stitch count – I finished one kind of late and made the second one kind of early the next morning. After I’d almost finished I realized I had changed it up a bit. And, you know what? I just left them that way. My husband and daughter looked at them and couldn’t tell the difference. Besides, with the baby wearing her long baptismal gown you couldn’t see the socks anyway. So someday, if the socks survive very long, someone will look at them and maybe notice that Grandma didn’t know how to count – and I’m okay with that 🙂

I then proceeded to decorate a second pair of socks (the socks came on a card containing two pair) almost but not quite the same. I didn’t add any decorative picots to these. I figure these might be worn a couple of times and picots don’t always look so good after washing without a little help. These actually came out looking pretty good – and they do have the same stitch count – though I made them while distracted by the new born and a two-year-old. And I have never claimed to be good with a sewing needle: they are attached in a manner that they shouldn’t come off even if it’s not pretty 😛 I used DMC size 80 again in #107.

Babies are a grandparents’ best reward

We bring them home and spoil them

Then return them to their parents

And leave them to their mayhem

Wanda

This weekend I drank a lot of iced tea, though today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I returned to hot tea. There’s just something about having a hot cuppa first thing in the morning that I like better than having a cold glass. Of course, it’s not summer yet!

For those here in the USA, I hope you had a wonderful Memorial Weekend. We flew our tattered American flag in wind that almost tore it off the pole but didn’t make it to the cemeteries. That had been on my agenda, but with the visit to the grandchildren we didn’t make it. We drove by a few cemeteries decorated with flags and flowers, very beautiful, and in church we recognized those that had been in the military, giving us a chance to say “Thank you for your service”
Though I’m a day late, I’d like to say “thank you” to all of you out there for your service to your country, and to me and my family. Your are greatly appreciated. Though this was written several years ago I wanted to share this poem with you.
Memorial Day 2007

What’s in a name?

I finished the test tat of my diagram of the heart bookmark. I found out that I had forgotten several chains in the diagram, but added them in where they should have been. I made several other changes, too, like joining several picots together where the diagram indicated to join to only one. I just thought it looked much better that way. There are a couple of not-so-pretty spots where I made a mistake and you can tell it’s a correction, but as this is a trial anyway I went on anyway. There are also a few things about the heart at the end I want to change to make it look more like the rest. Over-all I am very happy with this bookmark, and found that, barring my missing chains, it tatted up pretty much like I expected. For this attempt I used Lizbeth Ocean Turquoise Dark, #657, in size 20.

Design © 2011 Wanda Salmans

The main problem I have now is I’d like to have a name for it, to put on the pattern when it’s done. I’ve never been great at naming my patterns, they’ve always been things like “Fall bookmark” and “December 20xx snowflake”. So I thought I’d have a little naming contest. As I just thought of this I have no idea what the prize will be, but if you would like to make a name suggestion on this post I’ll choose the one I like best and send a little something as a thank you. As the next week is going to be pretty busy I’ll announce the winner in two weeks, so you have that long to make a suggestion.

The tea for today’s Tatting Tea Tuesday is a cup of Tazo Refresh tea with a little bit of honey. I haven’t had mint tea with honey in it since I was a little girl visiting my grandmother. Somehow sugar has become the sweetener of choice, leaving honey on the shelf. It makes for a nice change.

For all that I got some tatting done this last week was busy as well. Last week one of my daughters had a daughter herself, so I’m a grandma again! The tatting for today will be in pink.

“No one likes change except babies in diapers.”

Something forgotten

I went to visit my daughter this week and even took my laptop so I when I had a few minutes I could work on the cross bookmark pattern. And guess what? I had saved the pattern to an external hard drive at home but not on the laptop. So no cross bookmark pattern. Oops.
Not that I had all that much time to work on it anyway. You know how it is when you get around family and two-year-olds, right? I did get a little time after his bedtime to tat a little, but not much, though I did finally get my bookmark for the Tatting Forum’s bookmark exchange mailed off.

Instead of working on the cross bookmark I got some work done on the heart bookmark. Okay, very little, but some 🙂 I’m trying the second design out, finding out if the drawing can be tatted the way it is or if changes have to be made. It’s interesting figuring out the best way to tat what was drawn, can it even be done, and in one pass or do you have to cut and start in a different place?

My first attempt at the second version. I see a few changes are in order.

I didn’t have tea this morning for Tatting Tea Tuesday but a cup of coffee instead, flavored with French Vanilla La Crème, which I tried for the first time at my daughter’s house. Mmmm, very good. I also tried the Cinnamon Vanilla La Crème, which is scrumptious, too. They have been added permanately to my grocery list ♥

“Funny, I don’t remember being absent minded.”

Designing Practice

This week I sat down at the computer and tried drawing an idea I have.
I’m getting much better at it. Each time things come a little easier. Some of the things I learned in the Design-Tat class suddenly comes clear. I have these “A-ha!” moments as I’m working, as what was in our lessons finally make sense.
Align Center
This is a mini bookmark done as a sample to see how well I could tat the drawing I made. There are a couple of things I plan on changing, but overall I very happy with it. I’ll have to try a full-length version next.

I’ve also been working on diagramming the heart bookmark. It’s coming along very well. I’m at the really hard part of it – adding the stitch counts and notations for ring directions and such. I’ve never thought so much about the placement of such notations before! It’s a bit more complicated than Elcie was.

For Tatting Tea Tuesday I had a glass of iced Peppermint tea as the temperatures have decided to be summer-like, as in, hot! It was okay, but not as good as it is hot. Of course it might have something to do with me cutting down on my sugar. I’ve gotten used to hot tea with less sugar but iced tea should have lots! No, I’m not from the south and here in Kansas the restaurants have just recently started advertising they have sweet tea. But I grew up with it. My dad and his family always drank sweet tea and that’s what I expect. Trying to cut back on sugar doesn’t mean I don’t add sugar, just a lot less. I’ll see if I can keep it up.

“Do you really think God wants us to live a vanilla-bland life when He’s made a thirty-one flavors world? God wants us to color our world with rainbow colors and Willy Wonka flavors. Sure, playing it safe can make things easier (and duller), but branching out – even a little – can make life fuller (and more fun).” Rachel St. John-Gilbert

Bookmarks

My tatting this week consisted of making a couple of cross bookmarks. I started with the one on the right, with an idea of how I wanted the ends to look. I started several times because it didn’t work quite right. I did this in tatting instead of with computer software because I had more time to do it that way. I would have liked to do it with software but it’s a little harder to take my laptop everywhere than it is my tatting. That’s one of the great things about tatting, isn’t it? The portability.

I am pretty happy with the result of the first one. I used a SCMR on the ends of each arm and one in the center as well. I did have a little trouble making up my mind about the tassels on each end, trying several different things before I decided that the spiral tails looked right. The entire pattern is straight forward and easy which will make it an excellent bookmark to make quickly give for special occasions.

There were a few things I thought might work better done slightly differently so made another one. On the second cross I made the end SCMRs a little bigger and each of the thrown rings a little differently, too. I had planned on doing the center the same way as the first cross but I made a little mistake that I didn’t notice ’til I came around the next time. I thought it would work, so continued on with that change. I actually like this center better than the first. I did plan the tassels a little better this time so I didn’t have to start over and over and over. Using a software program might have helped a little here also, to decide on the size of the rings compared to the rest of the cross. I definitely need to take some time to utilize more of what I learned about software designing in the Design-Tat class.

Both crosses are made with Lizbeth size 20 threads, center in #633 dark purple, outside in #127 Butterfly Breeze. These are #19 of my second 25 Motif Challenge. I am working on writing out and diagramming the pattern for these – again, need computer time to get it done. I’ve got a good start but still have a long way to go.

I’m still drinking hot tea on this Tatting Tea Tuesday. The weather has been rather cooler than normal this spring so it’s still more appealing yet than iced tea. Today Cinnamon Apple Spice really hit the spot. I think I’ll make another cup and work on my next project.

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” Pat Riley

Tatting Tea Tuesday April 26, 2011

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter. Ours was wonderful – time off from work, time to visit with family, and time to worship with our Christian family.

I’ve been tatting this week but most of what I’ve done I don’t want to show quite yet due to them being gifts that haven’t been given yet. Then there’s the tatting that hasn’t quite turned out the way I want it so has been started and restarted several times.

There is also a list of tatting I should be doing that I didn’t do this week. I have several things I have planned for friends and family that I have been somewhat behind on even starting. I give myself the excuse that it’s been a busy week, but I’ve found time to just laze around and not do anything, so I’m not sure that works even for me.

So instead of tatting today I’ll sit here with my cup of tea and contemplate the endeavors I plan for the next week.

“I know now why Franz Schubert never finished his Unfinished Symphony. He would have written more but the clock struck four, and everything stopped for tea.” John Baldrey

“Elcie” pattern is available!

For all of you that have been patiently waiting for the pattern, “Elcie” is finally here! Thanks to Fox for a little help on getting it to my sidebar. That was one of the difficulties yesterday, but by no means the only one! But, finally, success!

“You’ve got to go through turmoil to get to success. ” Tony Battie

Technical Difficulties

Due to technical difficulties Tatting Tea Tuesday is postponed until tomorrow.

Okay, maybe not. It’s still Tuesday and I did drink tea, but there have been problems with my posting today. I was planning on posting the pattern to “Elcie” but I’ve had some difficulties with putting it up. If things go better tomorrow I hope to post it then.

“Life Affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.” Samuel Johnson

A bookmark for Tatting Tea Tuesday

Flowery SCMR Bookmark © Jane Eborall
This week I tried my hand at Jane’s Flowery SCMR Bookmark, found on her free patterns page. Search for Jane Eborall.
I used Lizbeth Butterfly Breeze #127 and DMC Cébélia light green #955, both is size 20. I thought they went well together and they do, but a bit too well. The green DMC is almost an exact match for the green that is in the Butterfly Breeze, so there’s not as much contrast as I’d like. But I went ahead and finished it anyway. I may have to do this one again in different colors.
If you know how to do split rings this isn’t really a hard pattern but I kept having trouble with it – not on the self-closing mock rings or the split rings, but on the way which the split rings went after each of the SCMRs. It’s not the pattern’s fault, it’s just me trying to make things hard. The second side, which is the “leaves” weaving back and forth around the “flowers,” was much easier. Jane has a nice way to go across the first side, which I just couldn’t get until I slept on it, then it was, like “Oh!”, the light bulb came on. I don’t have the tail on yet but I don’t anticipate any problems from it. It’s also not laying very flat but a day or too in a book will take care of that. I’m counting this in my 25 Motif Challenge as #18.
I haven’t mentioned tea lately on my Tuesday posts, but I always try to have at least one cup of tea as I prepare my post, or while I finish that last bit of tatting before taking pictures. Today I had Rooibos again. I must thank Isdihara for introducing me to Tatting Tea Tuesday, which inspired me to try different kinds of teas. I never was very adventuresome with teas for some reason, but now I enjoy trying different flavors. Now that the weather is getting to be warmer again I may have to start trying different flavors of iced tea.
Thank you everyone who has been reading my blog. I’ve not had as much computer time lately so I’m way behind on replying to comments and on reading other people’s blogs. Though I don’t know what the future will bring, I’m hoping it brings a little time to do all that soon.
There are many methods for predicting the future. For example, you can read horoscopes, tea leaves, tarot cards, or crystal balls. Collectively, these methods are known as “nutty methods.” Or you can put well-researched facts into sophisticated computer models, more commonly referred to as “a complete waste of time.” Scott Adams

Storks and not much else

Jane Eborall’s stork pattern

As predicted this was a very busy week. We had family here over the weekend, a baby shower and a family picnic. It was a lot of fun but my time was spent with the family with little time for tatting.

The only tatting that got done was this cute stork. This is a pattern by Jane Eborall found for free on her tatting patterns page. I had a lot of fun tatting this and it works very well on the photo album book, which was a gift to my daughter at her baby shower. The stork is made with Lizbeth white size 20 and DMC Cébélia ecru in size 30. Due to the size difference I had to adjust the stitch count a bit with the ecru. The Cébélia is also softer than the Lizbeth which was also something to get used to again. The baby’s sling is made with Lizbeth # 621, Dusty Rose Lt, size 20 . The baby is in DMC Cébélia #437, which is a gold color, size 30 . When I chose it every body that saw it on the ball had doubts about it for the baby, but once it was done and on the pink background it looked more like the color we expect the baby to be. It would work for the big brother so I thought it would work for the baby. It certainly shows up better on the pink background than a very light pink would have! I would have had to choose a different book to put it on. Again, it being a size 30 I had to adjust the stitch count and I added an extra split ring to each leg to make the proportions look right. And, yes, I put a green bead for the eye instead of a blue one.

Thank you, Jane, for the wonderful pattern! If you know how to do split rings this is an easy pattern. In fact, a friend of mine just recently became a grandpa again, and a neighbor is expecting a grandbaby soon. Hmmm, maybe a few more are in order.

The weather was great this weekend, though windy – it’s Kansas, I really don’t expect it otherwise. Saturday the temperatures were in the upper 70s and Sunday in the mid to upper 80s (degrees Fahrenheit). We were able to do a lot outside, including an Easter egg hunt for the little ones. One of my daughters won’t be able to be with the rest of the family over Easter so we took advantage of the chance to do one. All the little ones are just two years old – they were sooooo cute! It was a great day.

Wind around here is expected but sometimes the humidity is so low that we have fire weather warnings. That’s when you have high winds and high gusts with low humidity, which means any fires that start will be hard to contain and will spread rapidly. I think we’ve had fire weather warnings every day for more than a week. I haven’t heard of any major fires close to us lately but Sunday in Haskell County a town of 1,200 people had to be evacuated due to a grass fire that ended up covering 10,000 acres. Thankfully the only injuries there were a couple of people with minor smoke inhalation. Three families lost their homes to fire but the rest of the people of the town were able to finally return to their homes. We are thankful there was nothing worse, but I must say I’m glad it wasn’t close to my home.

I was so busy this week that I basically missed International Tatting Day on April 1st. I had thought to take time to tat and eat chocolate this year but I was too busy. I did read about some fun stuff about it on Isdihara’s April 1 posting over on Ambitatterous. If you haven’t been over to read it yet it’s not too late. April 1st comes once a year, so there’s time to plan for next year.

This last picture is of the tatted stork and a stuffed stork that were used as decoration, and gifts, at the baby shower.

“ It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money. ” ~Elinor Goulding Smith