TIAS day 8

Jane Eborall posted Day 8 of her 2012 TIAS today.  I'm thinking it's looking like a goat, though with Jane you never know until the end!  Saturday when day 7 came up I had no guesses - until I was over on Miranda's blog and saw her day 7.  Looking at hers it suddenly looked like a goat, or at least the back end of one.  

(from http://www.supercoloring.com)

Then with Day 8 I'm seeing horns!

I've gotten a little bit of tatting done recently, some I'm not quite ready to share,  but here are the ones that I'm ready to.  

 I made this cute little bell from a free pattern that yarnplayer has available.  It really isn't hard and turns out very nice. Mine bowed just a little from the size of my picots I think, but it's a bell, and hanging on a Christmas tree it wouldn't be out of place and not nearly as noticeable as it is laying flat. 

I was given "Tatted Snowflakes Collection" by Jon Yusoff for Christmas. I just recently took the time to make one.  I first spent some time looking through the patterns, enjoying Jon's lovely work. The one I decided to try first was 'The Twirly', #14.  I did make a mistake on one chain, adding one extra repeat of picot and doublestitches - oops.  Much as I like this colorway, I don't think that Lizbeth "Caribbean" does this pattern justice. Blogger has done a twisty on the picture - originally the words were on the bottom!

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I enjoyed a cup of Teavana tea, 'Weight to Go & Sakura Allure'.  I was fortunate to have Tabatha gift me a sampling of several teas recently.  A couple of days ago I had 'My Morning Mate'.  Both have been very good.  I have several more to try - yum!

"Don't approach a goat from the front, a horse from the back, or a fool from any side." 

Yiddish proverb

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