A summer catchup post ~ this will be long

I have gotten some tatting done.
The first is Renulek's Summer Doily 

done through round 5.  The thread is size 40 hand dyed for me by Monica Braxton of NAGstudio on Etsy.  I think it is turning out like I was thinking of a field of wild violets. 

A friend of ours lost his mother last week, so I tatted bookmarks for the family.

The thread is size 20 and the pattern is one I do by memory, I do not know where I picked it up, I have done it so many times over the years.

I also purchased 3 new shuttles the last couple months.  Did I need them?  No, I did not, but I wanted them.  he he,  not really smart money management, but they fed the need.
They are all Elite Creations Slider shuttles.

Top side

Bottom side

from the side.

I really like the Teal and Rose Burl shuttles, they are short and I can go really fast with them.  The cross bookmarks each took my only an hour and a half to tat them. 
The India Ironwood is a bit longer and I poke myself occasionally when tatting at speed.

Now onto other subjects, so if you don't want to read any further, you don't have to.

I have been absent from blogging for a long time.  Some of you know that Farmguy was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer and underwent Prostate removal surgery on April 30.  It was to have been an overnight stay.  well, things didn't go so well, and he didn't get out of the hospital until Jun 28th.  I lived in his hospital room with him, it made his stay go so much better, he didn't have to wait for nurses to come help with much of what he needed. We did nearly lose him once during surgery.  7.5hrs on the table for surgery #2, and 5.5 hrs for surgery #3

During that time he underwent 2 more major abdominal surgeries.  Both caused by complications that developed during recovery, not due to additional cancer.

He is recovering slowly but still has a long way to go.  He came home with 5 drains,  and umpteen pills and shots.  He has been able to get rid of 1 drain, but still has 2 nephrostomy tubes draining his kidneys into bags strapped to his legs, and both and Illiostomy and a Colostomy glued to his abdomen.
During his stay in the hosp he lost 40 pounds,  he now weighs 153 on a 6' frame.  

Last fall he bought a new tractor and a new combine, will the tractor was brand new, but the combine is new to us,

he had a chance to drive the tractor doing some spring tillage and a bit of planting before he had to go to the hosp, but never got a chance to drive the combine.  Wheat harvest will be going full bore in a couple of days so since the tractor was easy riding this spring, he thought the combine might be too, well not so much.  His hopes of running the combine during harvest were shattered today.  He is not healed up enough.  So, he will have to sit on the sidelines at least for wheat and likely next month for soybeans, but is hoping he can help with Corn harvest in  late October/November. 

Because of his recovery, I have received permission to work from home so I can take care of him, and give him his meds, one of which is a shot that he gets 3x's a day.  So much fun to poke a needle in him. 

My garden this year got lost in the weeds while I was at the hosp so you don't get to see that this year.

Our old dog died last year, so this year I decided to get chickens again.  I ordered them before things got out of hand with Farmguy. 
This is what 75 baby chicks looked like on May 16th, when they were 2 days old.

Did you know they mail your baby chicks to you?
This is how they come

And here is what they look like in the box, you can't tell, but there are 25 Buff Orpingtons and 50 White Cross

And 3 months later, this is what they look like now

White Cross Rooster and Hen

Buff Orpington

The White Cross roosters and most of the hens will be headed for the freezer next month.  The Buff's and a few white hens will be a new layer flock. 

This is what my chicken house looks like.  it is very old, it was old when we moved here in 1976.  I think I need to give it a coat of white wash this summer so it will be brighter this fall and winter. 

It is only 12' X10' I am standing in the door and there are 2 windows on the same side as the door, and the one window you see is facing west.  The chickens spend most of their days outside in the pen, we can't let them run free range, there is a fox den out in the pasture not too far from the yard.  If they ran free the fox would eat them.  And there are eagles nesting near the river a mile north, they would eat good too, so they are confined to the house and the pen. 

Well, this is long enough, but gives you a bit of catch up on me for the past couple of months.
Happy Tatting.

Summer Doily

      

Many talented tatters around the world have or are tatting Renulek's Spring doily.  It is very pretty.

Now Renulek is posting her Summer Doily.

I am going to do this one.  I don't know how large this one will get, some of her doilies have been very large.

I had in mind the way I wanted this doily to look and needed some new thread colors.

I really enjoy the early spring violas, Johnny Jump Ups, wild violets and pretty Pansys.  So I thought that a doily that brought that out would look very nice.

So, I contacted a thread dyer with an etsy shop - NAGSTUDIOS that I have become familiar with on FaceBook - Monica Braxton.

This is what she was able to come up with for me.

I think this is going to look very good.


on another note, I have been absent from online sources for a while now, and that might continue sporadically.  my husband had cancer surgery last week, it turned out well, but was way more involved then originally hoped.  Now he needs to heal and that is going to be a very slow process.


A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
Please remind your male family and friends that a simply PSA blood test for Prostate cancer will make their lives much easier when it is caught early rather than late. 

some catchup

This has been a very cold winter. 
My office at work has a huge north facing window - it used to be a school.  The chill coming off the window even if I am dressed warm enough, has bothered my hands.  So there has been not too much tatting this winter.

I did get a few things done.

This is Frivole's Snowflake Celeste. 

Last November I shared the start the Clover Leaf Doily by Linda Davies. The links to her patterns are in the right hand column of her blog.

Looks great here doesn't it. Well, This is what it looked like when I finished the 2nd round .

I pulled and pulled the joins, but the picots are just too small.  So, I will have to start over.

I did a bit more on the sock machine as well.

I made my first pair of socks. 

The weather has suddenly gotten much warmer.  A couple weeks ago we are still having temps below zero and not just at night.  Now today it was 58 F and sunny.  Still very windy.  but the snow is disappearing and the ground is starting to dry out. 
I think spring might actually get here.

Have a good day tomorrow and count your blessings.

Bookworm and a Giraffe

Farmguy was able to finish the combining last week, so we took a few days vacation and went hunting with some good friends.

It took about 10 hrs + driving time to get to SW Nebraska.

I don't bird hunt, my job was to do the cooking for 8 adults and 1 near teen.  I was in charge of the evening meal and helped with getting breakfast done at 4:15 am. Noon meal was eaten out in the field.

While the hunters and the dogs did their thing, I stayed at the campers and tatted. 

A week or so ago, I participated in a riddle game on Facebook.  If I got the answer to the riddle wrong, I was to change my profile picture to a Giraffe.  Well, I got the answer wrong.  The Giraffe picture I used was from Jane Eborall's Tatted Giraffe pattern. 

It is about 4.25" in Lizbeth size 40.  I think the colorway is Mountain Breeze #134.  I did goof a join on the last leg and had to untat 4 split rings.  I could have cut it off, but I am stubborn and like to be able to go from start to finish with out adding in thread unless I run out.

I filled 2 Aerlit bobbins with about 11 yards on each.

Anyway.. once I finished, I decided to see how far the thread left on the bobbins would go so I tatted another Bookworm

I think I twisted the left side of his head when I put him in the scanner.  That is a 6" ruler in the picture so from tip of tail to tip of tongue he is about 6.5" long. I used up the thread on 1 bobbin and added in the 2nd one and when I finished, there is still about 2 yards or so left on the bobbin. I finished the Bookworm on the drive home.

I did some more tatting on the drive home..
I had started this Merriment Doily  by Jon Yusoff a while back, but hadn't taken the time to finish the 8th repeat.

 I was able to tat the outer section of the repeat, but the last clover leaf set I ran out of thread on my shuttle.  The drive wasn't the smoothest as the pickup I was riding in was pulling a very large, long camper.  So I decided not to deal with adding in new thread on the drive.  The thread is Jess! Foster's Kaleidoscope Bright size 40.  I have Kaleidoscope Light as well and will do a coordinating pair.

 I then started the Clover Leaf Doily by Linda Davies. The links to her patterns are in the right hand column.  I was able to get the 1st round and half of the 2nd round before I had to stop.

The thread is possibly an HDT by Zarina called Orchid Garden size 20 however, I have lost the label so don't know for sure.  The solid I am using for the chains is Lizabeth Olive Dk size 20.

Now I have to finish some snowflakes that are promised, I don't carry beads and findings with me on trips.  Too easy to drop them so I only work with them when I am at home. So I didn't take them with me.

Today's tatting practice

I was able to complete several tatting goals today.

First, I have completed round 8 of the teal doily that I showed a peek of last week.

he he,  same peek. 
There are a total of 14 rounds to this doily. right now it is about 8" in diameter.

The other 2 goals I set for myself was to practice my cluny leaves so I wouldn't forget how, and to lean Interlocking Rings

Here is my Cluny Practice.

They turned out pretty good.  I wish I had made a note of a tip I ran across on the net, it makes it really easy to get the thread loom right which makes it much easier to do the weave.   You start by wrapping the thread around your hand just as you would a ring.  Then set your shuttle down to the back of your hand.  Don't hold the pinch too tight, and grab the thread between your ring finger and your pinky and pull that down around your thumb and catch it in the pinch. Then take the shuttle from behind your hand and run the thread between your pointer finger and your middle finger,  wrap it several times around your pinky to hold it in place.  Then use shuttle 2 to do the weaves.

The Interlocking rings turned out really well I think.  I had to tat the last ring twice to get it right, but this is home it turned out.

I was pretty pleased, but I do have to give credit where credit is due.  I watched Karen Cabrera's video and printed Jon Yosuf's tips and tricks on tatting the last ring.

We are having another Sunday night into Monday blizzard. Will have to wait until morning for sure, but as of right now, it will be another day when I won't get to work.  Oh well, snow days are tatting days.

Have a fun week tatting.

More then my Lace Mat and a Trio of FunGuys

This will be a long post with lots of pictures so if you want to take a minute and get a cup of coffee or tea go right ahead, I'll wait.

The frame work for the hoop house, and the tarp we have been using to cover it, but it needs it's clear plastic cover and the ends need to be enclosed.  Right now, we need to take the blue tarp mostly off in the mornings once it is above 40 degrees so the tomatoes can get some sun.

 The hoop house is 15' X 36' measured over the top we needed a minimum of 21'. The plastic we bought is 20' wide, so we wanted to use 2 lengths of 25' welded together, that would give us a sheet of plastic 25' X 40'.  Enough to overlap at the ends and tuck around some 2x4s and bolted to the frame to hold it down on the sides.

But how do you weld plastic together you ask?  Duck tape will only hold so much and it needs to be a good complete seal to hold out the cold.

Well, I will tell you.  I was not able to find any info online other then to buy some fancy epoxy, but I have a neighbor who put a lot of years in working for the Navy and he told me how.

You need 2 sheets of aluminum foil and an iron.
Place 1 sheet down on the floor overlap the edges of the plastic, then place a sheet of aluminum foil over the top.  Heat the iron up to the cotton setting and apply heat.

Below is my sample.  You can see the seams, but you can not pull them apart. I used a 10 second time with pressure, then moved the iron to overlap half way and another 10 seconds with pressure,  that way the seam got a total of 20 seconds of heat and pressure. I laid this all out on the concrete floor of the quonset, open to the cool air, with no sun on it, so if it is a nice warm day and the floor that you use is warm, you might only need 10 seconds because the floor isn't draining heat from the iron.

Here you see 25' of aluminum foil flanked by 2 25' sheets of plastic

I only overlapped the edges about 1"

I unrolled the top sheet of foil as I sealed the seam so I could be sure that the edges overlapped.

You can see the seam here as I am removing the top sheet of foil.

Yeah! it fits with enough at the sides so once we get a chance we will staple the end of the plastic to 2x4s then roll them up to the base of the frame and bolt them together.  Still using the blue tarp because we haven't had the time to build the ends yet. 

you can see the seam to the left of the hoop in this picture.

And why do I want to go to all this work?
Here is why

 I just picked these this morning.  and there are lots more out there. These are Striped Heirloom tomatoes they don't get really red, in the lower left you can see alternating stripes of orange and blush.  These are sitting on a 10" dinner plate.

I had to measure the big one - nearly 5"
Wish I could eat one, but I am allergic to tomatoes, but they sure look good.

This past week, I wasn't able to do much tatting, instead of sitting  in my chair with my feet up, I was sitting in this helping farmguy harvest the corn crop.  The cart holds 900+ bushels. A Bushel of corn is about 54lbs.

for size reference, here is a pic with me in the summer, I'm 5'2"

 This past Sunday, I motored to a small town about 35miles from me named Rutland.   They were holding their 28th annual Uff-Da Day.  A celebration of all things Scandinavian, Romegrote, Lefse, Sandbakkels, Rosettes, Krumkake, and other yummy stuff to eat and see.  They also celebrate vintage and classic cars, many pioneer crafts such as Tatting, Spinning, Knitting, Crochet, home made by hand Ice Cream, buns and bread baked in a wood cook stove in the pioneer house and many other things.

I got to sit for about 6 hours Tatting and talking about Tatting in the Baptist church along with the lady who spins and knits and another who crochets and all the gorgeous quilts that fill the pews and walls of the church..  Yeah, I needed the day.

This is a picture of the beginning of the parade,
it is the Aberdeen South Dakota Fire Dept BagPipe band. They traveled about 2 hours to come play,  it was in the 50's for highs and yet they wore their kilts..... brrrr

looking down the length of Main Street, I am standing on the steps of the 1890 Baptist Church

The Old Parsonage is across the street.  It is now a store selling handwork, eclectic collectables and consignment items.  During Uff-Da Day, they were hosting a wine tasting for North Dakota wineries.  While I was unable to get there for the wine tasting, I have had some very good home brew wines from around the area.

No self respecting North Dakota parade is complete unless there are horses.

just one of the many vintage and classic cars on display.

I found this in the Old Parsonage for $5.50

This doily is 21" in diameter.  It looks vintage doesn't it? Tatted in Ecru.  The gal at checkout told me that these are done by a gal who spends a good deal of time, waiting at the end of fields for her sons so she can shuffle them and their equipment from place to place and she does this to while away the time. 



I was able to finish Round 2 of my Lace Mat

I also showed several people how to tat, sold 4 Learn Tatting with Lacet booklets, told several about Marilee Rockley's Tatting course on Craftsy and taught 2 how to do the flip.

It's about time for the FunGuys don't you think?

#1

backside of #1

#2

another view of #2

#3

my garden gloves to show the size of these guys.

I don't know what variety they are.  It has been very dry here for the past 4-5 mos.  #1 is just outside the pasture gate and #'s 2 & 3 are just inside the gate.

I have never seen anything like them.

This is long enough.  Hope you weren't bored.
Have a great tatting day tomorrow.