Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all 

and a very 

Blessed 

and  

Happy New Year

Melissa over at Green Girl in Wisconson,  is an amazing writer. I recommend taking a few minutes and reading her post about the Reason for the Season .


I have a bit of tatting that I can show you, and some cute crocheted earrings that I received from a dear friend of mine.

The pattern is by Elizabeth Zipay, and I posted about it several weeks back, I changed the thread that I used, this is Cebelia size 30 and the small beads are Mill Hill antique Glass Beads and the larger center pearl is a 4mm glass pearl from eebeads.com

aren't these earrings darling?  a very dear friend of mine sent me these.  they are so cute, as soon as I received them (at work),  I had to change the ones I was wearing  to wear these. 

the final picture shows both pairs on a small Christmas tree that I picked up for displaying tatting items. 

when I was down in South Carolina last month, I saw some Charlie Brown Christmas trees offered for sale at $25.00 each.  way too much for my pocketbook.  but I got to thinking, and did a search online the saturday after Thanksgiving, and found an online store offering Charlie Brown Christmas trees on sale for $9.99 normally $15.00 and with free shipping, so I got 2, one for my office at work, and one to use for displaying tatting at various venues. 

so you will occasionally be seeing this tree as I won't put it away for only Christmas. 

Have a great time with what ever Holiday you celebrate.

instead of tatting

I have been doing something other then tatting for most of my spare time the last few days.  and this is it....

36" of crocheted beading lace,  need 7-8" more

a length of crocheted beading lace for the neckline of the camisole I am making. the thread is size 30 ecru  Daisy brand made by Lily Co., an antique thread from my grandmother.

I am not going to take the time to do the armhole lengths right now.  I want to get the sewing done first then see how much time i  have.  what with working,  several weekends are booked with stuff and the quaquicentenial is at the end of the month.  and sometime in the middle, our 10th grandchild will be born and I will be there to help for a few days.

I have done some work on the hanky edge,  and here it is...

this is just past half way on the one side.  so, this will be a work in progress as it goes.  yes, that is a pop-a-bobbin shuttle i am using.  I like them very much.

I got the rest of the garden in after work today.  yeah! very wet ground, but needed to get in.
6 All Season cabbage
8 White Vienna kohlrabi
2 Black Diamond watermelon
3 Sun Sugar Watermelon
3 Honey Bear squash
3 Carnival squash 5 tomatoes ~ 1 Celebrity, 1 Bush Beefsteak, 1 Early Goliath, 1 Black Krim, 1 Lemon Boy ~ The red tomatoes are for farmguy and canning to use for him during the winter as I am allergic to red tomatoes, but I can eat yellow in moderation.  don't know why, but I get hives in my mouth if I eat fresh red tomatoes.  The yellow don't seem to affect me as badly, so am going to try this and see if I can actually have a BLT.  I haven't had one of those for about 30 years when I gave up trying to eat red tomatoes. 

another how you hold your thread story

On the Here-Be-Tatters group and on the tatting groups I was part of previously, we have often had discussions on about how to hold the thread around the left hand and the pinch, thumb and first finger - tatting hold

(this picture found on the website)

or thumb and middle finger - crochet hold.

(This photo found here)

Whichever way works for you is just fine as some have said that they find it difficult to transition from the crochet hold to the tatting hold.

well, here is my story.

I have tatted on and off for 50 years, the past 10 years more tatting the anything else. I have also crocheted for almost that long, many afghans, sweaters, scarves, rugs ..... you name it, I have probably done it.

I use the crochet hold for crocheting and the tatting hold for tatting and never had a problem with either. When wrapping my hand with yarn for crocheting, I don't go around my little finger as you would for tatting with thread, I simply weave in and out around my fingers as that gives me the right tension for yarn.

Well, I decided that I need a shrug to keep me warmer at work when the Air Conditioner blows on me.

I found a nice pattern and got the yarn and started Monday evening.

tonight I was having trouble getting a good rhythm going, couldn't figure out what was wrong until I took a good look at my left hand. I had wrapped my left hand as I would for a tatted chain and was holding the pinch in my thumb and first finger.

(this picture found on this website)

Goes to show where my mind was at.

The website with where I got the tatting pictures is a good one for tatting instructions. I have used them for teaching tatting.

Jeanne (ladytats) NATA #39
in tatting the knots make sense

Antique Booklet, crochet

Just the booklet tonight, The last of the Crochet pages numbers 14, 15, 16, 17 & 18