So much to do, so little time!

This entire semester has gone by very quickly, and I've found myself in the revision stage of studying for finals. No new tatting at the moment, but I may have some in my next post.

I have a list of things that is insanely long of things I need to complete. I've found that tatting, while it's relaxing to me, is something that I will need to put on the back-burner for a few weeks until I get through with classes. Luckly my classes end the second week of December, but there's so much to do!!

However, I did find some tins for the presents I am sending up to M's family. They are too cute!! I'm one that usually likes the traditional style of tins, but these are a little bit more modern than what I usually go for.

So, my Christmas To-Do List is as follows:
Knitting:

• Finish Kelly's Scarf
• Lace for Mom/Nannie/Grannie?

Tatting:

• Snowflakes
• Some Edgings (for the jellies)

Preserves/Candies:

• Apple Jelly (if I have time.. It depends on how Thanksgiving goes..)
• Candied Almonds (really, they're easier to make than some people think!!)
• Cookies!!

As of right now, I have four different family dinners to go to this week. I am going to make some cookies for them, since I can make the dough in about ten minutes and then get out of my sis and mother's way. What will take the longest is how many cookies I am going to be cooking.. Looks like I'm going to be baking for several hours tomorrow!

Also, next Friday I will be dying again. I joined a thread exchange for this Christmas and want to send more than the 30 yards that I dyed before. Not sure which colors I am going to be dying, though, since I have so many that I like. I think I'm going to enlist help this time, though.. The skeining alone can take several days for as many as I dye at a time!

No pictures today, I haven't had time to do anything since Sunday. If I have time, I'll try to post some things later on this week.

I hope everyone has a happy (and safe!!) Thanksgiving!

List of Patterns

These are the (current) patterns that I have came up with. Each are (or will) be linked to the pattern entries as they are blogged.

This list will grow with time. I just wanted to have a quick list for later.

Moroccan Sun
Medallion 1
Clover Square

Happy Tatting!

New (possible) Tatting Pattern

Been working a lot on school, but I had this idea for a while and wanted to try it out. So, I sketched it out in illustrator, and this is the final result. I'm still working on the pattern itself, since I am only on the second chain of the first round. Here's the sketch as it stands now:



Yes, that is my chicken scratch of note taking hand writing. I will have this posted as soon as it is finished with tweaking. Two shuttle work, and this one was after a false start (closed a ring way too early and couldn't get it back open).

I've also been working on several other projects..

Heart's Desire

Jon's Quaintesque Snowflake

Got some really good shots of the snowflake, even though I ran out of white thread with ONE MORE CHAIN to go. (huff) Guess this means that I'll have a few more threads to hide, huh?

Both of these are tatted using threads that I've dyed myself. The Heart's Desire is tatted in a size 30 red that has a few flecks of darker (almost blood-) red. The snow flake is straight light blue and white (both size 20), though where I had the blue tied is still white. I tied it too tight!!

The blue was a quickie dye job -- I didn't let the dye stay on long; I just left it in the dye and took it out after five minutes. I love the color and these pictures make it look darker than it really is.

The Heart's Desire piece is finished, but I messed up on the last two joins, so it looks lop sided. I'll have pictures in my next post of the finished one, but for now I am going to bed. 'Night!

Gearing Up..

Photo from noaa.gov

This summer, I went and took a spotting class. It was pretty cool - we learned how to tell scuds from rotating wall clouds and what a tornado is and what to do when we see one.

I never imagined that I may have to put that knowledge to use so soon.

I do not live on the East Coast, however I do live in an area that may receive some of the fury of Ida. It's weakening, but even I know that a weak tropical storm can throw out some major super cells.

So, in light of the possibility of horrible weather, I am getting geared up for a long week of sleeping at other family's homes. If we were to have a severe tornado come through (which two years ago, we had a near miss with one forming above my sister's house and touching down a county over), I'd feel much, much safer inside a lovely brick house rather than steel and wood.

My tatting/knitting box from before is getting packed and ready for long nights of watching the news. This is going to be an interesting week!

Motiff 1: Medallion

Giving designing a try.. Here's one original design that I've come up with in the past year. Couldn't decide on a cute name, though. Click on the pattern for the chart.



Tatted in the round, with either one shuttle or needle and a ball. Do not cut thread between rounds

Abbreviations:
R Ring
C Chain
Cl Close
- Picot
+ Join
RW Reverse Work
DNR Do Not Reverse

Round One:
R 5-3-3-5. Cl. RW
C 3-3-3-3 RW.
*R 5+3-3-5. Cl. RW
C 3-3-3-3. RW
*Repeat six times, then
R 5+3-3+5. Cl. RW
C 3-3-3-3, Joining at base of 1st chain.

Round Two:
C 5-5-5. RW
R 3-3+3-3, joining to 2nd P of first chain. Cl. DNR
R 3-3-3-3. Cl. RW.
C 5-5-5, joining between chains of center medalion.
*C 5+5-5. RW
R 3-3+3-3. Cl. DNR
R 3-3-3-3. Cl. RW
C 5-5-5, join between chains.
* Repeat six times, then
C 5+5-5. RW
R 3-3+3-3. Cl. DNR
R 3-3-3-3. Cl. RW
C 5-5+5, join between chains. Cut, tie, and hide ends.

Any feedback is appreciated! ^^

If at first you succeed,,

Dye, dye again! lol.

Spent a good deal of Sunday dying some thread, again! I had more colors to play with this time, and it looks as if I had a Kool-Aid fight!





On another note, today I realized I needed a better container to house the projects that I am currently working on. Since I've been working on them at school a lot, I found this little tin lunch box that is perfect for the job:


I bought it years ago when I was working at Claire's for fifty cents, and then promptly forgot about it! I had two of them, but gave one away to a room mate about a year ago.

It's the perfect size for the three projects that I'm working on at the moment:



And it will even hold my camera! The pencil cases that I was using weren't really practical since I had to stash them in with my books, taking up most of the room I have in my book bag. Right now, it's holding the beginnings of the Quaintesque snow flake as well as an original design that I'm trying to type and chart up.

It was a nice find!

Anyway, I'm thinking about offering up the threads as test threads. I've always wanted to dye yarn and fabric, and now that I've learned how with thread, it should be smooth sailing from here on in (cue the hurricane).

Ochid Update and some Tatting!!

The orchid that I re-potted nearly a month ago hasn't came back from it's sorry state. I'm still holding out the hope that it may live, but it's growing dimmer.

My other orchid has only lost one bloom since the pictures I've posted on the 9th of last month, and has gained another flower with one slowly opening up! Sadly, I think I've been over-watering it, so it looks as if I'm going to have to re-pot that one as well.

I also got a new orchid, this one is purple. Again, pictures will come later.

But, for now, I give you some tatting!

I think I'm getting better at shuttling. These two designs are my own, the second (and wet because it's being blocked) was a whoopsie moment. I had come up with the design and had written it out, then lost the paper! I forgot a 5-ds count on most of the chains, making this look way too cramped. The first one has the right stitch count, but as you can see, I'm not quite through with it. I'll post a pattern for it later, once I get it all ironed out.

Since today is a beautiful day, I'm going to dye some more thread. I have been using the thread that I dyed before, but now I'm needing some other colors for some other projects that I need to do. So, again, pictures to come when I get through with them. The thread is already skeined, too! ^^