Getting ready for Christmas


… and I’m still very busy. I have quite a few things yet to tat before the big day arrives. I did take a little time out from all that to make this bookmark for The Tatting Forums’ bookmark-a-month challenge, just for fun: ) It’s made in Lizbeth color 625 size 20.

I was thinking how busy I’ve kept myself the last several weeks, and though it’s been fun it’s also getting to be a bit stressful as the day gets closer and I don’t have everything done. So I took a little time out for a different kind of fun. With a nod to Isdihara of Ambitatterous, famous for her twisted lyrics, and an apology to Clement Clarke Moore, sit back and enjoy a cup of tea this Tatting Tea Tuesday while I leave you with a poem that I – hmm, adapted – from Mr. Moore.

‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the house

I was still stirring, and I think so was a mouse.

The stockings weren’t hung, the mantle was bare,

I sure wasn’t ready for Christmas to be here!


Patterns of lace were strewn all over the bed,

While visions of things undone danced in my head.

With thread on the table and a cat on my lap

I couldn’t settle my brain on one thing to tat.


When out in the hall there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter.

Hanging down from the table a part of my stash

Caught me off guard, I went down with a crash!


The glitter that fell from the table like snow

Gave quite a shine to my head down below.

When, what to my watering eyes should appear,

But a miniature person in fancy foot gear.


She was dressed all in lace, from her head to her toes,

And her clothes were all covered with lots of picots.

An array of bright thread she had clutched in her hand,

And she looked very lovely, in fact very grand.


Her eyes – how they twinkled! Her tresses, how lovely!

Her cheeks were like roses, her stance very queenly!

Her red little mouth was drawn up like a bow,

The dress she was wearing was as white as the snow.


She spoke not a word, but went straight to her task,

What she was doing I had no thought to ask.

And plying the thread, not seeming to bustle,

She made gorgeous lace with a bright silver shuttle!


Her hands flew through the thread, this lovely small elf,

And I laughed as I watched her, in spite of myself!

Each piece as she finished she laid on the table,

Fine tatting she made, her face very tranquil.


When her tatting was done, when finally she finished,

Then as quick as she’d come she suddenly vanished.

But I heard her exclaim, ‘ere she faded from sight,

“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good knot!”


Based on “Twas the Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore


PS Real quick – did you see the lunar eclipse last night? Pretty cool, wasn’t it?

It’s white all over

Snowman and snowflakes, all in white, at least inside my house. (No snow on the ground here, and I can live with that.) Working all in white is what I’ve been doing all week. The cute snowman is something I saw on line and decided I just had to try. It’s made from an old, inside-out sock (it was washed!). I gifted it to one of my grandsons yesterday. Well, actually, I gave it to his mother to put out on a shelf for decoration because my grandson really liked it when he saw me working on it the other day. I had to do a few things a little different than the directions called for, but I think it turned out well.

The snowflakes are ones I’ve come up with this last week trying to decide what I wanted for my 2010 Christmas card snowflake. After making all of these I’ve decided the one I will consider this year’s snowflake is the one at the top right.

Speaking of snowflakes, did you see what Kathy did with one? She hung it from the inside a clear plastic ball ornament. It looks great! I’ve got to try this. I know I had some clear glass ornaments somewhere but I can’t find them. If I don’t find them I’m going to go get some! I just love this look. Great idea, Kathy!

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m enjoying a cup of Raspberry Royale tea, a gift from my Advent swap partner on Ravelry. I wasn’t sure I’d like it because I’m not that fond of the taste of raspberry, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s pretty good: ) In the spirit of TTT I’m trying a new technique (to me) I saw online yesterday. Who knows, if I really like this, and I can do it, my snowflake for the year may change.

For my Advent gift today my partner sent me a cute little crocheted stocking for the tree and a ball of hand-dyed thread from Crochet 4 U 2 Dye 4 in “Mistletoe”, size 20. I’m looking forward to using it. Isn’t she the sweetest swap partner ever?

I hope you are taking the time to enjoy the season, without getting too stressed. Take a few minutes for yourself, have a cup of tea and tat a few minutes this week – a gift to yourself.

A busy busy elf

That’s how I’ve been lately, very busy! I’ve been working a lot on Christmas things, both for swap partners and for family. But I can share a few of the things I’ve been working on now as some were for an advent swap and have been opened.

Something to brighten the evenings

This is a candle jar that I decoupaged with red tissue paper then added small tatted snowflakes. There was also a candle tucked inside. I had never done decoupage before I started adding a little bling to my shuttles and now I can think of so many things I could do with it. In fact, I have all kinds of things in mind for Christmas gifts now that include a little decoupage. Now if I only have the time!

A little sparkle for my partner to hang on the tree.

Napkin rings to add a little Christmas cheer to the her table.

A stocking for the mantle with a little chocolate inside!

I had such fun thinking up all kinds of things to send. It couldn’t just be snowflakes, I needed a variety! I’m hoping she’s having as much fun opening them as I had putting them together.

I have also received some wonderful gifts in return. These are just a few of the great gifts I’ve opened so far.

Kooly the Koala

This is a Kritter Craft Case from Clover. Isn’t it cute?! It’s a semi-hard case that will be just perfect for a tatting project.

A little something to dress up my dish soap!

A dishcloth, a notepad and a size 12 crochet hook

And today the cutest hot pads!

This advent swap has been so fun! There is talk of doing this again next year and I am seriously thinking about it already! I will certainly start making things much earlier, though: )

In the midst of all this crafting I’ve also been trying to find time to put up my Christmas decorations. The tree is up but not decorated (it’s one that already has lights so it doesn’t look too bare) and that’s about it so far. Maybe this weekend…

Speaking of decorating, did you hear? Sharon has won Isdihara’s decorated chocolate box contest? If you haven’t seen Sharon’s box you definitely should check it out. Check out all the others, too, the links are on Ambitatterous, Isidhara’s blog. There are some very cute decorated chocolate boxes! This was a fun competition. Congratulations, Sharon! You had an awesome entry.

I’m enjoying English Teatime tea this morning that was in the box of gifts from my swap partner. I’m fortifying myself for another busy day of playing elf. I have a long list of things that I would like to get done before Christmas though I keep telling myself if I don’t get them done it won’t be the end of the world – no sense in stressing over doing things that should be fun!

Wishing all of you a blessed Christmas season. Take a little time for tea and tatting, and maybe a little time to reflect on the reason for the season.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

My Secret Santa, crazytatter, from the Intatters exchange sent me some really cute stuff!

The little guy on the top left is a giraffe paperweight, very cute! The two little boxes have paperclips in them, one regular sized and the other large. There is also a large-eyed needle taped to the inside top of one box, and when I say large-eyed, I do mean large. I’ve never seen a needle quite like it. There is also some neat little stamps for scrapbooking or what ever, a Christmas-y bookmark that she tatted for me (very nice!), and a journal to write in. Wasn’t she generous? Thank you, crazytatter!

I also joined an Advent Swap on Ravelry. You make/buy/use-from-your-stash gifts for every day of December through Christmas. This is the first of three boxes from my exchange partner, Medictabs.

Look at all the presents!

She also put in a few little things for right now. I wonder how she knew I’d like these?

Tea!

It was just in time for Tatting Tea Tuesday, so I’m trying the Cranberry Apple. Yum! The CD with the snowman on it is a mix of Christmas songs! I’m taking it to work to listen to tonight. It has a few of my favorite songs on it, isn’t that great?

A lot of the tatting that I’ve been doing was made for these exchanges and now that they’ve all been mailed I’ve actually got a little bit of tatting done that I can show. And guess what? They’re snowflakes. Surprise! Okay, not really.

The top one is a pattern from a few years ago but I added glass silver seed beads to it to give it a little shine. The larger one on the right is the center of one from last year but with a different outside round. I’ve got a look in mind that I’m trying to achieve, so tried something a little different this time. It didn’t come out quite like I had in mind – not bad, just not quite “it”. The other two are variations on a theme, so to speak, one with six points and one with five. Again they didn’t come out quite like I envisioned, but they still look pretty good. All of these are headed to the center this year’s Christmas cards – cards I need to get busy with very soon! All of these snowflakes were make with Lizbeth white, size 20.

May you all have a wonderful week, with a little tea and tatting somewhere in there!

Making wreaths and wrapping gifts

I got up on Tatting Tea Tuesday and had a cup of Cinnamon Apple Spiced tea and tatted for a couple of hours – with a lot of interruptions. The whole day was full of interruptions and re-dos, actually. My tatting was a couple of wreaths, which aren’t hard – if you just follow the directions! I started the first one three times because I didn’t pay close enough attention to what I was supposed to do! My own fault; there were just too many things going on that kept pulling my attention away from my tatting (one is about three feet tall and gets into everything! Very cute though.)

Chain Christmas Wreath by Susan B. Taliaferro

I’m counting the Chain Christmas Wreath as #14 of the 25 Motif Challenge. Considering how much trouble I had with these I can definitely say it was a challenge. I like this pattern well enough I’ll be making more for this Christmas – the shuttles are already wound anyway, might as well 🙂 Susan has the pattern posted on InTatters if you’d like to try it. I’m not sure of the thread, Handy Hands tucked it into an order I made back when Lizbeth was new. It’s a green with a slightly blue tint, but it looks very nice as a wreath with red beads.

I have been tatting like mad the last week, but everything is for gifts, so I can’t show them until I know they’ve been opened. Other than that I’ve been wrapping said gifts. In fact, most of my day has been spent wrapping gifts, in between running after my two year old grandson that is staying with us. His mother had to go on a short overnight trip and my DH had to work, so it was just the two of us – oh, boy. He gets into absolutely everything if you don’t keep your eye on him constantly!Secret Santa gift from xstchntat

Look what I received in the mail! Look at all the goodies! These were sent to me by xstchntat for the Intatters Secret Santa Exchange. The bookmark was part of a group that won second place at the Arizona State Fair – it’s lovely. A ball of Christmas Delight, 116, Lizbeth thread, size 20 (but it’s labeled Mocha Brown Dk, 692!). Three balls of Coats and Clark thread, size 70, variegated pink to white, variegated green to white and variegated pink, blue, white. A skein of pink Lola color 135 Rayon thread from EdMar which looks a little finer that size 20. Two cute little mittens that would look good on stitch markers (strivers), a Clover shuttle and…

Handmade Podauk Shuttle and striver!
a handmade striver and a handmade shuttle! The shuttle is made from Podauk wood and is very light. You can see it’s smaller than the Clover shuttle. I think it will work very well with the size 70 thread she sent. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but I’m very much looking forward to giving it a try. I know I’ll be using the striver soon as I have another project I need to do this week that needs several.

Thank you, xstchntat, for the wonderful gifts!

May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving this week, and take a little time out for tea and tatting if you can!

Tatting Tea Tuesday with Chocolates


Have you heard? Isdihara, from Ambitatterous is having a contest, to decorate an empty box of chocolates with tatting. The one she likes the best will win 25 balls of Lizbeth thread of your choice! 25 balls of Lizbeth! For that I have to at least try!

Okay, how do you decorate a box of chocolates? I was having a terrible time coming up with a theme or idea, so I went with what I was working on. Snowflakes. I don’t know how good an idea it is, but I came up with something! The box didn’t show off the snowflakes very well so I covered it in brown paper, which shows off the white thread very well. Then I tried laying out snowflakes on the top in different arrangements. That looked way too busy no matter what arrangement I tried them in, so I reduced it to just one larger one. I’m not sure about this, but it’s what I came up with. I hope you like it at least a little bit, Isdihara!

I have been very busy, both with tatting and with other crafty things, but they’re all for gifts so I can’t show them yet. I’m in a Secret Santa exchange on Intatters and an Advent swap on Ravelry, besides having projects to make for family and friends. As the Internet things have to be sent out first they’ve been first on my list to do. I’m getting close to being done with those – I think! I have done a few things I’ve thought about for awhile but never got around to trying and I’ve been pretty happy with ’em. They’ll be shown in future posts, after I’m sure they’ve all been opened.

I’m still working on snowflakes today as I enjoy a cup of peppermint tea. I keep humming Christmas songs which helps keep me in the gifting mood. “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!”

May you all have a wonderful week with a little tea and tatting if you can!

Fall Housekeeping

So, I was trying to get a little more organized (don’t laugh, it could happen) and cleaning out my “tatting cabinet” – an old dresser that sits in our living room and holds most of my thread. As I was going through all the balls of thread I kept finding shuttles, all holding at least some thread of one sort or another.
The problem, of course, is I don’t know what the threads are. I’m sure I have most of the colors/sizes somewhere, but is it worth it to try to figure that out with the (usually) small amount of thread on them? I think I’ll be making a lot of butterflies and flowers to try to empty them out. I’ve got a lot of Christmas tatting to do and I could use a few empty shuttles:- )

Speaking of Christmas tatting, I did get a few snowflakes done while on the trip back from Washington, D.C. I figured I needed a lot of snowflakes for the Christmas cards, and if I only took one color of thread it would take up less space. And maybe I wouldn’t get too sidetracked and start something else!
The one on the top left was supposed to be like the one on the top right, but I knew before I started the outside round that my stitch count was off and it wasn’t going to work, so it was modified a little. The one in the middle and the one on the bottom left were supposed to be the same, and again, the stitch count changed just a little. But it will work. I made the small ones – they are about an inch across – for project I’m working on. It was fun trying to come up with very small six-pointed shapes. Okay, some have more points than that, but they’re snowflakes if anybody asks, and all are made with Lizbeth white in size 20.

For my trip I took my tatting in my new tatting tin. It’s an Altoid mint tin that I decoupaged (I keep finding things to cover!). It holds two shuttles, the short crochet hook, the scissors, the necklace they attach to and the needle book. It fit very nicely in my purse and looked great while doing it.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m sipping hot Cinnamon Apple Spice tea I found at the store the other day. It smells and tastes yummy! I’m not sure how much tatting I’ll get done today though – I’ve been neglecting the house since I’ve gotten back from D.C. I really need to get things done before it gets too out of hand.

I hope all of you have a wonderful week.

On the road again, meeting new friends

Me and Kathy

I took another trip this week – back to Washington, DC to my daughter’s. Her husband has been stationed back to Omaha but there has been some issues with getting all the arrangements made for the move. My daughter got tired of all the run-around and decided to come back now instead of waiting on the movers. So I flew out on Saturday so she wouldn’t have to drive all the way back by herself. We started the drive back on Sunday, she and I and her almost two year old son. Our trip took us up into Pennsylvania then across to Kansas.

You remember that I had a drawing last week? Well, Kathy Niklewicz, the winner, lives up there! We made arrangements to meet in Washington, PA on our way through. I emailed her our plans and she checked into a place to meet. It was great – she even got online and checked out how easy it would be for us to get on and off the interstate. And then called the restaurant to make sure that was accurate!

Kathy with her prize (or part of it!)
We met at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant and ended up visiting for over two hours! It was so fun to be able to give Kathy her prize in person. The anticipation of the gift giving was as great as if it was Christmas! It was so much fun to see her get the Pumpkins on a Vine bookmark and all the other little things, too. Check out the pendant Kathy was wearing

Kathy and her husband were so nice. And she brought me a present, too! There was a small Steelers football for the boys to play with and a cute Steelers Christmas tree ornament (we were in Steelers country) and some cookies (these didn’t last too long!).

And the most special gift was a paperweight with a patriotic motif in it – Sue Hanson’s 5 point Celtic motif. It was the same motif that I had been inspired to make because I saw it on Kathy’s blog a year ago. It is so special to have this connection between us. Thank you, Kathy!

Not too far from Pittsburgh

If we had to make the drive we chose a great time to do it. The trees along the way were beautiful. We took our time and stopped for two nights along the way, getting out every couple of hours to stretch and eat or just walk around. I think that helped a lot, no one got fussy (much) and we could enjoy the ride.

I’ve been trying to post this for the last three days but I’m not used to a two year old running around everywhere: -)

Thank you Kathy for meeting us. It really was fun. We’ll have to do it again sometime.

A Givin’ and Gettin’ Tatting Tea Tuesday

Today’s the day! Are you ready?

And the winner of my anniversary drawing is…

** drum roll**

Kathy Niklewicz!

Congratulations Kathy! Email me at the address in my profile with your address and I’ll send you your wonderful prize package!

Thank you to everyone that stopped by and entered the drawing. I have really had fun coming up with what to put in the prize package. The biggest problem – from my end – was when to stop adding stuff! I kept thinking “this would be cool to put in” or “that really fits the theme” and a few hundred other thoughts. I finally had to tell myself “enough already!” LOL! Kathy, I hope you enjoy the package as much as I have enjoyed putting it together and givin’ it out!

I’ve also been enjoying making my next bookmark. Last week I asked for a suggestion of a good one to make. Gina suggested using ‘Pumpkins on a Vine’ by Heidi Sunday for a fall themed one, and Isdihara gave me the link to the pattern, so I gave it a try.

I think I got a little carried away – it’s like “Pumpkins on a Tangled Vine” now. This is definitely a one-of-a-kind bookmark. The outsides are per the pattern except that I added the turns to come back down. Then I had to figure out how to connect the two sides together so I started adding the pumpkins down the middle. That made it look kind of like a pumpkin ladder so I started a little free-form tatting up and down the sides. Then I had to come up with a bottom that didn’t look like it had just been whacked off at random. Just look at the pumpkin patch that grew up out of all that! I’m very happy with this. It’s a bit three-dimensional because of the way the vines climb around, very textured. I stayed up late finishing this because I just had to see how it was going to end. Thank you, Heidi, for the wonderful pattern, and Gina and Isdihara for the inspiration and help finding the pattern. This was fun!

Oh, it’s made with Lizbeth size 20 in 694 (Harvest Orange Med) and 684 (Leaf Green Med). I’m counting this as #13 of my second 25 Motif Challenge. How appropriate for October, hey?

Now on to the gettin’!
About a week ago I was on the Handy Hands website admiring all the books – okay, drooling over some of the books – and I mentioned to my husband that I really would like this book. And he replied “Why don’t you get it? Birthday, Christmas – something’s coming up pretty soon.” So I did.

This is a wonderful book, full of enough pictures of gorgeous shuttles to make any shuttle-tatter drool. Pam has done a lot of work looking into the history of shuttles and shuttle making and put it together for the rest of us. Wow! If you are interested at all in the history of shuttle making, or would like to see a lot of ways people have added “bling” to their shuttles, and you get the chance, check out this book!

But the gettin’s not done! I also picked me up a few Clover shuttles – as I was making an order anyway, right? And then of course I had to personalize them a little bit. It seems everyone is dressing up their shuttles right now – and it’s such fun! Of course, the new book has a lot of inspiration in it, too!

This blue one was pretty easy – I just added a little fingernail bling*, then sealed it. Makes for a fancy-looking shuttle in a very quick time!

And then I touched up one with material. Cutting out the shape of the shuttle was a little bit of work – my scissors seems to have developed a dull spot, just where I cut the most! But I succeeded! I think it came out very well! These are pictures of both sides of the same shuttle.


Here I thought I wasn’t much of an orange fan – but I’ll take this shuttle anytime!

Over the next few weeks I suppose I’ll be working mostly on snowflakes and other Christmas goodies. Can you believe it’s almost November already? And I realize that I’m way behind on all those things I try to do for Christmas gifts. I have quite a list of things I want to do and my time is getting short. So I’ll sit here this Tuesday morning, sip a little hot tea (mint!), wind my pretty new shuttles and get started on more of that givin’ stuff.

May all of you have a fun and safe Halloween and find a little time for tatting!

*Fingernail bling – those little decals you can get to jazz up your fingernails.*

On Bookmarks and Following Directions

Welcome to fall! Here the leaves are starting to turn though the temperatures haven’t gotten all that cold; the nights make you think “fall” without being too cold. Getting into the season I made a bookmark for the Tatting Forums’ Bookmark a Month Challenge in Lizbeth Falling Leaves and black in size 20. Now I need to start one for November. What pattern should it be??

Fall is the harbinger of the winter to come, including the Christmas season. It reminds me that I should be getting all those snowflakes done that I usually include in my Christmas cards.

Okay, so only one of these is a snowflake. They are both out of DMC’s ‘Tatting for Today’ copyright 1980. The one on the left is motif #5 and the other is motif #22, and this is the one that is alluded to in the title. This is not what the tree looks like in the book because I just couldn’t read the pattern correctly. Fortunately I have enough skill to adapt as I go so I didn’t have to scrap it and start over. The rings around the edges are not per the pattern and the ‘trunk’ is too long, but overall the impression is the same as the pattern in the book.

I bought this book probably about 1990 when I had been tatting close to ten years. There was no Internet in those days to share information on books or other tatters. What patterns I was finding were in Workbasket magazines and how-to booklets, you know the ones – “How to knit, crochet and tat” types, with a few descriptions of how-to for each craft then a couple of patterns of each. I remember being pretty excited when I found ‘Tatting for Today’. It had good pictures of each pattern and the written pattern wasn’t the long wordy type from Workbasket. Looking at the patterns now I find they have something to be desired as they have all the directions in a paragraph making it hard to follow. I usually re-write them, having one element per line instead of everything in one paragraph. I think that’s why I had trouble with the tree motif, I didn’t write it out first. Still, it came out acceptable, just not per the pattern : )

This weekend I tried my hand at adding a little something extra to a shuttle – decoupage. I thought the napkin would really look cool on this Susan Bates shuttle, but it didn’t come out quite like I had envisioned. It’s okay, for a first try I guess. And it still tats okay, which is the important part, right?


I would like to thank everyone that’s stopped by to check out out my old-fashioned doily in last week’s post. You are all so very kind. A big “Thank-you!” to TattingChic for sharing it on her blog and sending people my way. I get such a kick out of sharing something that I’m so excited about. And tatterjil, I’d share with everyone what I was giving away in the drawing – except I don’t know just exactly what’s going to be in it. Okay, some of it’s planned already, but not everything! It will just have to be a surprise – for everyone. I’m having a lot of fun coming up with what’s going to be in it. Come back next week when I announce the winner.

This Tatting Tea Tuesday I slept in and haven’t accomplished much since I got up. I had a cup of green tea and thought about tatting. I didn’t get any done until I was on the way to work (don’t think I tat and drive – I was the passenger!). Just trying to get another snowflake done, as I have a lot of them to do.

Remember to stop back by next week when I announce the winner of my anniversary drawing. Until then take a little time for tea and tatting if you can, and have a great week!