Back to Work!

The foyer - love the window seats!
 

Vacation is over...for awhile.  We've just spent a lovely week of leisure pursuits, including a couple of nights at the Simmons-Bond Inn, in Toccoa, Georgia (US).  It's our favorite getaway spot - we wish we could go more often, but time is usually the deciding factor!  Toccoa also has a great museum - one of the best I've ever seen - on the military.  It covers the Revolutionary War through Afghanistan, with a fantastic (and huge) section on Easy Company (Band of Brothers), including one of the actual stables they called home while stationed in England!



Our room - this trip - the Benjamin!

We didn't get to visit with Karrieann this time, but on the way back to Greenwood we stopped by Panera Bread in Anderson and had lunch with Marie Smith and her hubby, Rick.  It was David's first time in a Panera Bread - now it's his new favorite!  Wish we had one in Greenwood!

I've not tatted a whole lot lately - I did one 4-point star for the Starbursts class, in order to make some notes on how much thread is needed for the 4-point and each successive Starburst - determined that and passed it on to the Palmetto Tatters for test-tatting.



Sounds like a fun club!
 

Toccoa is a nice town - great place to visit, and we always hate to leave.  The Simmons-Bond Inn is right there in town, so it's a very easy walk to restaurants and antique shops.  They have a really nice used bookstore, where we found a few books we'd been hoping to find somewhere, and I noticed this sign on the way out.  (In case it's too small to read easily, it says "The Toccoa Literary and Chicken Pot Pie Society: A Writer's Group of Book Lovers - New Members Welcome!"




Once More With Feeling!

Can you stand one more picture of my many, many variations of Mark-My-Words?  Here, I've substituted lock stitch chain for the midsection of the bottom arm of the cross (2 vsp 1 [lc total 5 1st half DS alternating with 4 2nd half DS) 1 vsp 2).  This is the one I like best, and the one I'll keep tatting (for now!)

The Palmetto Tatters met 10 days ago, 5/18 - and I got to be with them!  Due to some software upgrades at work, I didn't have to work - - in fact, my boss encouraged me to go to "my event!"  I had such a wonderful time - I have really missed attending the meetings and enjoying the company of fellow tatters.

I had a question today about the brooch class I'll be teaching at Palmetto Tat Days in September - Beth asked what size button to get.  It's really the size of the shank, more than the size of the button - here are three buttons, all with the same size shank.  They all fit the tatted backing, and the shanks are the same size, so they will all go through the metal split ring that is at the center of the tatted backing.  More on the classes and prep later - we're packing up to hit the road for a day or so! 

As Promised!

Here is Mark-My-Words in Purple Splendor - with another twist!  I've replaced the center ring of each trefoil with an SCMR and thrown a ring off in place of the third decorative picot. 

I started in the same place as the previous cross; in finishing, I had two SRs to tat before tatting the chain.  Which cross do you prefer?  Or do you prefer the original?

The teacher list is up at the Palmetto Tatters website!  Yes, I am on it, and I have very distinguished company:

Tatting the Afternoon Away!

Per my new work schedule, I'm off on Wednesday afternoons.  The trade-off is that I work Saturday mornings.  "Someday" I'll be eligible for Saturdays off, but it's going to be quite a while.  In the meantime, today being Wednesday, I came home after my co-worker (she's my backup and I'm hers, and we can't both go to lunch at the same time) got back from her lunch.

I've been tatting and watching Downton Abbey - Amazon makes it available for free for their Prime customers (along with some nifty other benefits) and it's cheaper than Hulu Plus (nyaaaah, Hulu!).  Today I tatted one of Mary Konior's crosses.

This is Mark My Words, found in A Pattern Book of Tatting.  I fudged it a bit; if you look closely, you'll see that it's not exactly as written:

• The center rings in the trefoils aren't as large as given in the pattern; I only tatted 4 DS between the join to the previous ring and the first decorative picot, and there are only five instead of seven.
• The outer rings in the trefoils aren't 2-6-8; they're 2-7-7.  Same overall DS count for the rings, but I think they fit better at the joins this way.
• The long chains are now lock chains (first half flipped, second half not flipped); the equivalent of nine DS for each chain, and they're nice and straight.
• I started with the third ring of the top trefoil and worked around to the other side of the trefoil - after tatting that ring, I tatted a split ring to exit from the top; I'm working on the chain now, and haven't decided how to finish it.  I can do a tassel or a mini-cross (and have ends to hide) - and I'll need to decide soon, as I see that I'm running out of Scottish Thistle on the blue shuttle.

I like to pair up unlikely threads, just to see how they look together; these are Sea Island Citrus and Scottish Thistle.  I rather like them together!  I realize now that black, while it makes colors "pop" in real-life, can increase glare in a photograph.  I'm planning on tatting another of these, and I'll try to get a better picture of it.

Still Around!

-- And I'm looking at the light at the end of the tunnel!  This is the third (and final) week of working 8am - 8pm, Monday through Friday.  The schedule will change back to something more "normal" the first full week of May.

Hasn't time flown by!  I have been tatting a little, usually at lunchtime, and resting when I get home.  I still read the "funnies" every morning (and Dear Abby too, as reading her column is a tradition at our house). 

I wrote the above last week, and had more to say, but got too sleepy to say it!  Starting this week, I should be back on a more "normal" schedule - for me - 7:15 through 4:15.  Yes, it's early, but it's also back to a mere eight hours per day as opposed to the twelve I've been averaging for the last month.

I'll also be working Saturday mornings for a long time to come - long story which I won't bore you with here - but as a trade-off, I'll be off on Wednesday afternoons, and I won't have to work until 6.00 PM on Fridays. 

I haven't been tatting as much as I'd like, but I've gotten in an angel here, a butterfly there, for the SC State Fair giveaway in October.  Tatting at lunchtime hasn't been happening as much as before - many times I've been asked to clock back in to deal with one thing or another.  I've been able to tat yesterday afternoon and today, but I've also read today - until the Kindle informed me that it was about out of juice - so it's on its lifeline, slowly recharging. 

I've written up a new pattern and plan to tat it by my instructions this evening - probably with a movie on the computer (my idea of multitasking).  Pictures will be coming as soon as I get the camera batteries recharged and get some time to take the pictures!  That may be tomorrow - I'm an optimist!

Thanks for hanging in with me - - :-D

Almost forgot!

... to tell you about the lovely green variegated thread I'm using for the edging!  It's a size 40, hand-dyed thread by Jess! of Tatlicious.  She's got the prettiest colorways - I have several, and it's lovely to work with.  Do stop by her shop and browse when you have a minute - she's also on Facebook, for those who have a Facebook account.

Thanks, Jess!, you were absolutely right about the subtle greens working well with the hanky!  Can't wait to finish so I can post it!

On the Edge!

It will be, eventually - the edge of a handkerchief, that is!  More about that, later...much later.

What edging should I do?  I dithered for months  - I'd wake up one day and decide on one, tat a sample, then decide it just wasn't what I wanted.  I'd put the edging on hold and work on other projects, then I'd come back to it...still undecided.

David had put away several of my tatting books - in a safe place - and it was extremely safe, as I had no idea where he'd put them.  Neither did he!  He began a search for them, and after several days, he found them and put them on the bed where he knew I'd notice them when I got home from work!  The missing books included all four of my Mary Konior books!

I'm now deeply into the edging - from this book, one of my favorites, by one of my favorite designers - the one, the only - Mary Konior!  If you look at the edging closely, you can see that she lifted one of the elements and used it in her "Queen of Hearts" motif (in Tatting With Visual Patterns).

I LOVE "Queen of Hearts" - I have it memorized and can tat it without the pattern in front of me (and frequently do!).  I decided to do this edging - but almost immediately noticed a roadblock: it didn't have a corner!

Hankies have corners; sure, you can tat a couple extra elements and work them around the corner, but with an edging like this, you really need to find a way to tat a real corner.  I used the mirror technique: I held a pocket mirror at a 45 degree angle and slid it over the picture of the edging until I saw exactly what I wanted to see - a corner!

Someone, somewhere might want to tat this edging - with a corner - so here is how I did mine:
following the pattern, start the Ring B at the spot where you want to turn the corner.  Tat the chains and Rings C and D, then repeat the last chain and Ring D again.  Continue with the pattern.  You'll have two free picots in the corner element, as opposed to four free picots in each of the side elements.