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.

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