Trial and error

I continued on with my bookmark trial from last week. I'm using it for trying a few different ideas, seeing how a few things work together. This would probably be a good exercise for using a drawing program though I didn't take the time to try it. It might lay a little a little flatter and be more aesthetically pleasing without all the thread if I had. I have learned a bit, though - like, it's easier to tat the inside first, then the outside (like I didn't know that already!). The other way 'round is a little trickier. I did the outside first, trying to find a shape I liked. I'm not exactly happy with this shape but I didn't want to cut it off and try again, so I started trying ways to stiffen the shape a bit by adding additions in the centers. I like how some of them look, just not necessarily together. There are still a couple of things I want to try as I'm this far with it. Might as well get as much out of it as I can.

A little trade
Isn't this picture pretty? I'm not sure if this is crewel or tapestry work or exactly what. I was given this in exchange for some tatting.

For my wallpaper on my computer at work I have a picture of Crosby, the Norwegian Flying Dragon. The other day a friend and co-worker was in and commented on him. The next day I came into my office shortly after the start of work and found a large frame in my chair, positioned so with the picture was facing the back. It's a beautiful piece of work in a beautiful frame. There was absolutely nothing to say who put it there or why. So I start asking around. My friend said his sister had made the picture but, for whatever reason, he didn't want it anymore but he would like a dragon. If I liked the picture he'd give it to me in exchange.

Anne B has stated that she doesn't want the dragons sold, but trade is acceptable. She had mentioned thread to make the dragon in exchange for it, but I thought this trade was in keeping with her wishes, so I agreed. Now I have to find the just the right thread - he said he likes blues and greens. Hmmm, maybe peacock colors....

Tatting Tea Tuesday
This has been a tea-less Tuesday, but for a good reason. We have been encouraged at work to stay healthy or try to get healthy and they've done some of that encouraging by offering money to have a health check done. They brought in a company this week to take our blood to check for cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose, take our blood pressure, height and weight and give us our BMI and body fat numbers, all in just a few minutes. They gave us a monetary incentive - we might as well take advantage of it, right? As both my husband and work at the same place we went in together this afternoon before work to have our fingers pricked. The down side in this is that you are not supposed to eat or drink anything but water for eight to twelve hours before the appointment - there went my tea. And no trip to IHOP, either.

We planned our day to go in about ninety minutes before work so we could get our fingers poked then go to lunch. We went to a nearby Applebee's, which worked out well except then I was ready for an after lunch nap by the time work started. What we go through for our health :-)

"In the future we'll all have 15 minutes of fame and 15 minutes of healthcare" Nicole Hollander

"A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time - pills or stairs" Joan Welsh

"In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties" Henri Frederic Amiel

"To insure good health: eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life" William Londen

A little distraction

This is all I have to show for tatting this week and it's not even done. I had a little distraction this week, which I'll get to in a moment, and what I've been trying to tat hasn't worked out quite the way I'd like.

I started out with an idea to utilize my new knowledge and skill of SSSRs (single shuttle split rings) on, maybe, a bookmark. I had a pretty clear idea what I wanted to do and how, so loaded up a couple of shuttles with Lizbeth size 20 in Lilac Dk. #641 and started. It actually went really good, putting my shuttles just where I wanted. And then things didn't happen quite like I had imagined.

I knew from doing the dragon's bodies that SSSRs didn't behave quite like regular split rings - obviously, there's just one thread instead of two - but it didn't really hit me just how different until I had the first row of SSSRs done exactly how different they are. They were kind of, well, wimpy. Some of it could be that I'm new enough at it that it was my stitches that were the main culprit, but whatever the reason, I did not like how it felt and reacted, though it looked like I wanted it to. So I cut out the offending rings (it's not easy to open a SSSR after it's closed!) and tried something else.

In the Design Tat class Sharon is teaching us that using drawing software can be quicker and easier to use in testing out some designs than actually tatting them. And I'm working on it, but I'm not there yet so it was back to the shuttles. I should have tried the software, because I didn't like where I was going with the next try.

So this is where I'm at. I like the start, I just need to re-think what I want to do next.

That little distraction I mentioned earlier: it started when I decided to take advantage of an offer I heard when I was listening to Pandora radio on the internet. It was for a couple of free audio books from audible.com. The first book I chose was Jeff Dunham's All By My Selves Walter, Peanut, Achmed, and Me read by Jeff himself. I loved it! It has a lot of laughs in it. If you don't know who Jeff Dunham is or would like to know more check out jeffdunham.com and this.

Okay, I can tat and listen to audio books. But then I started looking for a second free book and I saw a Lois McMaster Bujold title I didn't recognize. It was a new Miles Vorkosigan book! Oooo, I was so excited! Bujold is one of my favorite authors and the Vorkosigan books are the greatest - if you like space opera (as Ms. Bujold has described it). I of course had to get it, but should I get the audio book or the printed version? I hurried over to Amazon.com to see what they had. They had it listed, of course, but did I want to order it or go to a local store to get it sooner? Audio or printed? Getting my hands on it sooner and printed won out and to the bookstore I hurried.

It is only out in hardback yet but that didn't matter, I wasn't going to wait for paperback or the library. For the next couple of days I got almost nothing else done that didn't absolutely have to be done. Even sleep was something of an option, at least for as long as I could keep my eyes open, then it was up and at it again as soon as I could the next morning. Ahh, I love a good Miles story! Then it was back to other things, all that I had ignored for a couple of days including tatting. The book lay on my table, finished but not yet ready for it's home in the bookshelves.

I had noticed when I bought it that it had an announcement on the front about a CD-ROM in it and had found the sealed envelope in the back but hadn't opened it yet. I finally took the time to find out what it was. And, oh, wow! It contains the new book, Cryoburn, and the entire Vorkosigan Saga in multiple formats - that's all 14 novels for free! It also contains all the cover art, pictures, essays - all kinds of stuff. And you can do almost anything with it you like, including make copies and give them away. The only thing they don't want you to do with it is sell copies of it, otherwise it's yours to do with as you like.

This is well worth the price of the hardcover. I already have all the books in one form or another, but I love it anyway. If I ever get a Kindle or other digital reader I can read the books on them, too. This is a really sweet deal.

Well, next week I shouldn't have such a distraction and I'll try to have a bit more tatting done. I do have a list of things that I want done...


"Eloquence consists of persuading people of things they desperately want to believe." - Miles Vorkosigan, Komarr

"Aim high. You may still miss the target but at least you won’t shoot your foot off." – Elli Quinn

Adding to my 25 Motif Challenge

I hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day Monday. I had every intention of posting this weekend but time got away from me again. I was working on this heart, writing and diagramming the pattern and I didn't get it done! So I decided to post it today. February has Valentine's Day and is considered American Heart Month, but I think hearts are appreciated any time. This one is made from Lizbeth size 20 in #147. This is #17 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.

This last week Tabatha, from Crafting with Tabatha, asked for some help with 'Angels in the Snow' by Miranda Rensberger. Tabatha is very new to tatting, having started just this year. This is a pretty ambitious pattern for one so new, made with two shuttles and SCMR, but she is doing an amazing job tatting already so I think she should be able to make this. I'd seen this snowflake on Miranda's blog and other places where others had made it, but I hadn't yet purchased it. Tabatha's questions gave me a good excuse to buy the pattern and help Miranda raise money for the Brain Injury Association of New Mexico at the same time.

Angels in the Snow © Miranda Rensberger

I made this in Lizbeth size 20 in #662 Turquoise Lt. and #657 Ocean Turquoise Dk. While I didn't find this difficult I have been tatting quite a bit longer than Tabatha and I still remember when this would have been a problem. I started this again, taking pictures as I went to help her understand what she was supposed to be doing. I checked her blog this morning and she's made a good start. I'm naming this #18 of my second 25 Motif Challenge.

This is 'Triana' by Megzaela, one of my classmates in the Design Tat class. I test tatted this in Lizbeth size 20 color (?). This was an interesting challenge. None of the elements were that hard but you have to pay attention to which way's up and where you join. I found I had made a join incorrectly after I was completely done so it has not been fixed. Apologies, Megzaela! This will be #19 of the 25 Motif Challenge.

'Triana' © Megzaela 2010

While I was blog surfing this week I happened upon Peachtree Cottage Creations and noticed that one of the bookmarks she had made kind of looked like the one that I had designed last fall. And it was! If you haven't been over there you might go check it out. In this particular post she was trying to decide how best to stage a couple of bookmarks for a photo. She has a lot of really nice things she's done on her blog, well worth a visit.

On this Tatting Tea Tuesday I'll leave you with a couple of quotes in keeping with a month dedicated to hearts and love.

Poetry is the song of the heart, molded by the mind.

- Roger W. Hancock –

The thing about falling in love,
is that if you do it right,
you never have to hit the ground.

- Kendall Lepitzki -

Dragon visit and snow

This is Crosby, another Flying Minor Norwegian Dragon (as designated by Anne Bruvold). He stopped by to say "hi" to Jarek but didn't stay long. He found a couple of frames he liked and tried them out. He liked the first one but decided it just wasn't "him".

He liked this one a lot better. He thought it went better with his coloring (black and #147, Lizbeth) and he liked that it was a map.

Crosby was on his way to help my boss celebrate his birthday. He let me take a few pictures then continued on his way. He did let slip there might be a few more flying through in the not too distant future.

Well, the 2011 TIAS by Jane Eborall is over - or at least she's published the final day of the pattern. If you've started and aren't done it's not too late to finish and let her know about it. I think she surprised just about everybody by not making it some kind of critter. It turned out to be an airplane! It was a lot of fun to make and not too hard to follow, if, of course, you read it correctly! I made a couple of mistakes, most of which I fixed. On the first wing I switched shuttles where I shouldn't have so just repeated that on the other wing. I think it looks just fine. I might just have to go back and finish Norman from last year now! And of course wait until next year for the new one.

I've been drinking a lot of tea on this Tatting Tea Tuesday, 'Cinnamon Apple Spice' and 'Black Cherry Berry', both by Celestial Seasonings, very yummy! I'm drinking so much mainly because it's snowing again, and this time we're actually getting a lot, at least for this area. We have drifts all the way down our drive that were 10 to 15 inches deep. That was several hours ago and it's still snowing hard. My husband and I decided to take vacation today, which is good. I'm not sure we'd have made it out the drive when it was time for work and I really doubt we'd be able to get back in when we got home. We did make it out awhile this morning, before the drifts got so high. I thought I would share a few of them with you.

This is the water tower in a town about 15 miles away. I tried to take a picture of a water tower in another little town on the way home but you couldn't make it out because of the snow!

We saw these horses on our way to town.

These are turkeys we happened to see when we went to town. I don't think very many people had noticed them even though they were close to the road and we were still in town. They did get a bit nervous when we stopped to take their picture.

We don't get snow like this very often around here.We think a lot of snow is maybe 2 or 3 inches so we aren't really prepared when we get this much. And it's not over yet! I think I'll sit here inside, sip my tea and tat a bit.

And give a little thought to: What do you call a group of dragons?

Maybe as they're tatted it should be a Ring of Dragons?
Some names I found on-line
Westerns: Rage
Easterns: Tatsu
Furs: Clan
Wyverns: Wing
Lizardus: Lounge
Dinos: Pack
Pteros: Flight
Felis: Pride
Darks: Dignity
(A Dignity of Darks... Has a nice ring to it!)
Weyr: Foxed used this for her Seahorse Dragons

Dragon sighting

This little guy flew in on the Arctic wind blast that gusted in yesterday. My boss thinks he's an Ice Dragon due to his coloration. I haven't gotten much out of this small dragon, mainly his name, which he says is Jarek. He does seem to be attracted to my earrings that I had laid on the table - they don't look too shiny here but the picture doesn't do them justice.

When he first arrived he and I had a few problems. He twisted and turned and generally was a bit of a pain and wouldn't lay down, making me feel quite ambisinister. He finally settled down a bit when he saw my earrings. He looks to be a Flying Minor Norwegian Dragon, in shades just like Lizbeth #142 Turquoise Twist, as described and patterned by Anne Bruvold, though I haven't seen his type described yet. While trying to get information of where he's from he indicated that there may be one or two more dragons flying in soon. How exciting!

Something not quite as exciting, but definitely intriguing, is Jane's TIAS. I still have absolutely no idea what it might be. I think Isdihara's suggestion to it being a skink is the closest so far, but that thought may easily be changed as we get closer to the end.

My version of the TIAS through day 7

I'm sure there are lot of you out there that are being effected by the really nasty, cold, icy, snowy weather that's happening on the eastern half of the United States. Here in Kansas, in the middle (where I am) we didn't get much in the way of ice and only a little snow, but the wind and cold are definitely letting us know it's winter. At 2:30 PM it's 7° F, wind gusts up to 44 miles per hour, creating a wind chill of -13° F: translates into, it's cold! I know there are places that have it much worse and/or will be getting it much worse, but it's still cold! Good news, my boss called a little bit ago to let me know they canceled work tonight - yeah! I don't have to get out in this! Whoopee!

I'm enjoying multiple cups of hot tea this Tatting Tea Tuesday, which are definitely helping me enjoy being inside instead of out! Now that my day has opened up I'm hoping to entice a few more dragons inside. Do you think if I raid my jewelry box they might show up faster?

"The Lenox Globe (in the collection of the New York Public Library) bears the phrase 'HC SVNT DRACONES' (i.e. ' hic sunt dracones ') on the eastern coast of Asia,
'Here Be Dragons!', they warned ".
taken from draconian.com