Ready for some green

Can you believe it’s almost March already? We haven’t had a hard or bad winter here in Kansas – so far – with more mild days than bad. But I’m still looking forward to spring, with growing things popping up everywhere. A few green things are popping up on my shuttles already.

Something green

The plan was to start making green bookmarks for several friends in March. What came off my shuttles is NOT a bookmark. My fingers decided I should do something else. I’m not sure I like that green button in the center, but I liked the size. I’m already on to another round on this. It looks like I’ll be starting the bookmarks later.

My hand is starting to feel better, which makes me more inclined to tat. For a while there I did not want to pick up a shuttle. I ended up reading a few ebooks instead of tatting. I started a series from Sherry A. Burton, The Jerry McNeal stories. They are good enough that I started the series on February 16 and am now on the 10th of 13 books. They aren’t very long and are quick reads. Not much else has been done.

I did have pancakes on February 21, which was Shrove Tuesday. I had been reminded about pancakes on the news that day because of the pancake races in Onley, England, and Liberal, Kansas, USA. There is a fun rivalry between the two towns, seeing which one will beat the other. This year Olney won. I had nothing to do with the races other than seeing the results later, but pancakes did sound good.

Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday 2023

We’ve had several days of temperatures in the 60s F, but today we’ll be lucky to get to 32°. We do have sunny skies, which is a blessing, considering all the nasty weather people to the north are getting the last few days. We are supposed to get a lot warmer here Sunday, but with that comes the possibility of severe weather, such as hail, strong winds, and a chance for tornadoes. We go from one extreme to the other.

I’m going to go back to my shuttles now, and see what I can accomplish. (My dog is telling me I should pay attention to her, so we’ll see!)

“Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.” E. B. White

Queen's Crown Edging

Queen's Crown Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015

I'm going to be adding edgings to several table runners soon.  As usual, I seem to need to make up new patterns instead of using already existing ones.  I started this one day on the way to work (as the passenger!) with something else entirely in mind, but it just came off the shuttles like it was meant to be.  I had very few places I even had to change stitch counts to make it work.  I had one edging done in a couple of days. Made in size 10 Lizbeth #693 Linen Medium five repeats are about 11 1/2 inches long.  I asked my daughters for suggestions on the name; Queen's Crown was quickly agreed upon by both of them and my husband, so there you have it.

I thought drawing out the pattern would be harder than it turned out.  It was a little more difficult writing out the directions than drawing it. At least I think so. Most of it isn't that hard but there is a lot of switching shuttles involved.  The one tricky part is a picot that is on a turn where you change directions and shuttles at the same time.  It seems to work best with a lock stitch, and it comes out looking like the other side where there is a join to an existing picot.

Test tatting my pattern I used two shades of blue, Lizbeth #658 Ocean Turquoise Light and #657 Ocean Turquoise Dark (I think, I lost the label) in size 20.

Queen's Crown Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015

I really like how this turned out!  For any that are interested, I've added it to my patterns page.

Here the two edgings are together for a comparison of the two sizes of threads.

Queen's Crown Edging © Wanda Salmans 2015

Now I just need to buckle down and get a few more edgings done.  And then the hard part - attaching them to the material!

Today is Fat Tuesday (mardi gras), or Shrove Tuesday, which is the last day before the Lenten season begins.  Traditionally some people celebrate it by eating pancakes before restraining from eating rich foods for Lent.  I even remembered to make pancakes today!  I had to improvise a little bit - the recipe called for milk and I don't have any.  I used more butter, an extra egg and water instead and they came out mighty tasty.

I just realized that today is a fitting day to introduce the Queen's Crown Edging as there are many places that choose Mardi Gras royalty.  And they wear some fancy crowns!  

"A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in."

Frederick the Great

Scissors Keeper

What, no hearts?

This last week I have indeed made more heart earrings, both for my self and family and friends, but other than a color change they are pretty much the same, so no pictures. 

What I have spent the most time on is a scissors keeper.  Lately I put something down and I loose it, just that fast.  My mind is obviously not paying much attention to these details.  Which means I put my scissors down and then spend 10 minutes looking for them.  Same goes for my crochet hook, the pen I was writing with, the bill I was paying - you get the picture. (I wish I could loose the dirty dishes as easily).  So I have been putting my scissors on a badge reel with a retractable cable.

I got these from Discount Embroidery Blanks but I know they are available other places. On this site they show them with a button or other decoration in the center, but up until now I've left mine naked.  

The plan was to make this layered, to raise up the center a bit because of the indented center.  Things did not go quite as hoped.  Instead of joining two layers together one is glued on top of the other.  Sometimes my ideas don't work out quite as hoped.  But it I think it still looks pretty good. The thread is LBH size 40 but I can't find the color number anywhere on it.  

Now I'd like to make a cable for the scissors in the same color.  It's taking a little longer as I haven't liked what I've done so far. I was hoping I'd have time today to work on it but it's looking less likely as the day goes on. 

Today is International Pancake Day, which is always on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.  I wrote about the race between women of Liberal Kansas and Olney, England here.  The women in Liberal have to deal with about an inch of snow this year.  The city cleaned the streets up for the race, but will it be enough to beat the women of Olney?  I know the race in Liberal is over but haven't heard which town won.  I planned on pancakes today in honor of the day but ended up making biscuits instead (I was in the middle of writing this post!).

One more thing before I go today - the 2013 TIAS is done. Jane did a wonderful job this year keeping most people guessing for more than half of it.  The end result was a cute baby buggy (pram, carriage).  

Thanks, Jane, for another fun pattern. 

"Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts." 

Arnold Bennett

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Tatting Tea Tuesday, Pancake Day

Welcome to Tatting Tea Tuesday. Remember to take a little time for yourself, make yourself a cup of tea and pick up a shuttle even for a few minutes. A little chocolate might be good, too.

February is the month we celebrate Valentine's Day, usually with hearts and pretty cards. This year it also has Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the beginning of Lent.

In Liberal, Kansas they also call this day Pancake Day, and have a four day celebration that includes a pancake race with the women of Olney, England. Woman in both towns compete wearing a head scarf and apron and carry a skillet with a pancake in it. They race over a curving 415 yard (about 380 meter) course and must flip a pancake once before they start and once after they cross the finish line to show they still have the pancake. The woman of Olney have been running this race since 1455. The woman of Liberal having been doing this since 1950 when the local Jaycee president saw something about the Olney race in a publication. He contacted the town of Olney and asked if they would like to race again the woman of Liberal and they have been doing it ever since.

The story goes that it started when a woman was busy making pancakes to use up cooking fats, which are forbidden during Lent, when she heard the church bells calling everyone to service. Grabbing her headscarf, which was required in church, and still with with apron on and pan and cake in hand, ran for the church. In the following years other woman took to doing this as well, making it a race to see who could get to the church the fastest.

This year's race was won by a woman in Liberal with a time of 63 seconds, beating the winner of the Olney race by 4 seconds.

Liberal, Kansas is a little more than 300 miles (485 kilometers) west and south of Wichita, Kansas and about the same distance south and east of Colorado Springs, Colorado (it's pretty much in the middle of no-where). Olney is almost 60 miles (93 kilometers) north of London.

If you'd like to see a little more about this race you can see an older website from last year here and a current one here.

I didn't have time for pancakes today, but it does sound good!