FYI

I have started a new blog.  I am not leaving this one, at least not for the foreseeable  future.

it is located at Tatted Lace . 

If you remember, I asked a question of fellow tatters a post or 2 ago about starting one hosted by a large metropolitan newspaper near me in the hopes of broadening the exposure of Tatting.

WordPress is a very different platform then blogger and will take some getting used to. 

Mostly I will do dual posts, so you won't miss anything. 

Lest you think I bin a slackin'

I haven't posted for a bit, but I have been doing some tatting.  I will show you some progress pics as well as a test tat I did for someone. (wow, this turned out to be a long post)

I tested a pattern for a ZigZag Hair Slide by Sue Draney. The pattern will be available on her etsy store in the near future.  What is a Hair Slide you may ask?  it is a doily style tatted motif attached to hair combs to cover up a knot of hair similar to a snood.

This picture was taken before I attached it to the hair combs.  The thread is Lizbeth Vineyard Harvest size 20. The chains in the first 3 rows are lock chains ~ 1st half DS flipped 2nd half DS unflipped ~ which makes for pretty chains when using a varigated thread.  This pattern does require a tie and cut after the 2nd round.  I hate ends, and I know it is a bit arrogant, but I didn't follow the pattern exactly,  I did a lock stitch split chain so I could climb out to the 3rd round.

when you make a normal split chain, you leave a bit less then the length of the chain as it tends to stretch just a bit.  When doing a lock stitch split chain, you leave about 1/3 - 1/2 extra, because instead of simply encapsulating the bare thread, you will have to "pop" the half stitch to transfer it so it becomes a lock chain.

I have been sitting in the car a few times as farmguy did the driving and have been able to get more of my hanky edging tatted.  Here is an update

The thread is Krystle's Wisteria Lane in size 40.  I have completed 3 corners, and have 3 repeats left on the 3rd side, and then the 4th corner and another 13 repeats for the 4th side.  I will then have to attach it to the hanky.  The pattern is Mary Konior's Beauty Spot from Tatting with Visual Patterns.

Last month on my trip to Manitowoc WI, I started Linda Davies Star Attraction Doily using Jess's  Peacock and DMC green from my stash both in size 40. Here is the post from the end of my trip with the progress on the doily at that point.
This is as far as I have gotten now,  round 5 is finished.  The ends are still there, because I never trim them until the item is complete and has been dampened and dried at least once.

Going good so far.  I have broken a tatter's cardinal rule for joins with this doily.  I started out doing the normal up and down joins depending on if I was on the front or back side.  I tat fs/bs automatically.  but was not happy with the little color blip.  I know that several people have posted various ways to avoid the dreaded color blip, Jane Eborall's Blipless join and Lily Morales Larks Head Picot Join are just 2 but I have found the LHPJ method that Krystle has devised very easy and have switched to doing that style of join.  So if you enlarge the pic you will notice color blips for the first 3.5 rounds, after that I used Krystle's version to avoid the color blip. 

Can you stand more?

I have one more pic to post about.

Georgia Sietz has been asking for help with tatting for the Scholarship quilts for the Palmetto Tatter's Tat Days convention. Isdihara over at Ambitaterous has posted links to pattern and requests for tatting.  So I have started tatting a long row of Josephine Rings.  I have used up about 1/2 of a Aero Bobbin of size 40 Olympus in deep green and will finish the bobbin before sending it,  may get another bobbin done as well, as there is other tatting I want to do. We will see. 

 

and one more thing,  

I live not too far from Fargo, North Dakota, the daily newspaper there, The Forum, hosts an online community of bloggers from all walks of life.  They feature various blogs in the paper and online every now and then.  They put out a call for crafty people to blog about their art.  I contacted the person in charge to see what they were looking for as it occured to me it might be a good way to get more people introduced to tatting.  Their blogs are hosted on WordPress.  I would not want to run 2 blogs, and I was told that I would be able to migrate my past content from here on blogger.  It would mean an address change for my blog.  I would also have to learn a new format.  

I would appreciate any advice you can give if I should or should not pursue moving my blog. 

Any pros or cons to WordPress would be welcome. 

nearly midnight again, and I need to get to bed.  

See you all tomorrow.

PIF

 A several weeks ago, UminTsuru hosted a PIF.  For those who don't know PIF is simply Pay It Forward.  to participate, you agree to host a giveaway on your blog if you win.  For this PIF, the rules require 3 winners, and they host a giveaway for 3 winners.

I won, and WOW did I win.

 These are gorgeous.  I took them outside for a photo, and hung them on a Holly Hock. It was nearly dusk, and the colors are a bit dark. The crystals actually match the purple but look blue in this pic.  You can get another look at them on this post of  UmiNTsuru.

These earrings had a bit of difficulty in getting to me. They were wrapped very well in bubble wrap, but one of the large crystal dangles was broken during the trip.  Wendy very kindly offered to replace the broken crystal and I took her up on it as I didn't have anything that would be appropriate with this pair of earrings. Thank you Wendy for the additional service. 

Now I will be racking my brain to come up with my own PIF. Stay tuned, I should have it figured out soon.

on another note....
Arial over at Tatting Faerie has discovered she has 4 duplicate tatting books in her stash. To resolve this shocking circumstance she has decided to hold a tatting book exchange. To participate,   Go to her blog to read her post to find out what she would like in exchange.

Finished!!!

Yeah, I have finished my Tischband Challange sponsored by Umi & Tsuru.

It isn't all that hard, I just didn't have enough time in chunks to get it done. The flowers are easy, but the leaves took me about an hour each and I had to follow the pattern very carefully to be sure my stitch counts were correct and that I was in the right place.

The Blute 1(Flowers) are done in Marilee's Rhubarb Pie size 40.  Blatt 2 (Leaves) are Jess's Camo-licious in size 40

The scan looks like it sits flat, and maybe it will after wetting and blocking, but it still is a bit wonky.

I only tatted 5 rounds in the flowers as opposed to the 6 listed in the pattern, but the pictures that accompany the pattern only show 5.  I also watched the video made by Frivole, but still feel that my construction is squished a bit.  If I do this again, ( not likely) I would join into 2 of the flower picots that are closer together.  By joining into the middle picot in each set, they flowers are trying to push the leaves.  If I had joined to 2 picots in the same set, or at least 2 picots closer together, it would have positioned the flowers further into the corners, and would have allowed the leaves to sit in a more natural position.

If I use this as a "mug rug" I will need to back it for support.

have a good night all. and happy tatting tomorrow

New Shuttle, post #2

Be sure and check the previous post just below, in case you can help me out.

but this post is because I received my new shuttle today. 
woo hoo!
It is a LaCossette shuttle. 
I have admired those owned by Diane, Fox, Umi & Tsuru  & many others.
I have checked her etsy shop occasionally, and the other day I saw this one.  Wild Rose.   Wild Roses are the North Dakota State flower, and we have some that grow wild here on our farm so just had to get this one.  This is the first aero style shuttle I have, I love bobbin shuttles, just have not had an aero style. 

so without further ado .......
Here are pictures of my new shuttle.

I took these outside on a HollyHock leaf.

Thanks LaCossette

Mystery Plant

 I have a mystery that I hope someone can solve for me. 

 The company we use at work for the majority of our office supplies sent us a plant a back a few years ago (2008?) .  It was very small, so they could mail it in a small box.  no more then 6" tall and the pot was maybe 2" in dia.

There was no literature with it, so I didn't know what kind of plant it was or how to care for it.
My office has north windows, and set it on the counter by the window.  It has been there summer and winter since I got it.

I repotted it last year into a larger pot.  and took some pictures to a greenhouse, but they weren't much help.  It was thought it was a bamboo, but it ?????

 So I decided to take some more pictures today and ask all of you if you know. 

I held up some of the leaves so you can get a look at the stems, this is the first year they are starting to look a bit woody.  there are small plants starting every so often

I took a close up of the leaves in hopes that would help.

 

Here is a look at the top of the tallest branches, just in the last couple of months, they have started to branch out.

Another look at the branching

You can see how tall it has gotten,  it is about 30" now.

 If anyone knows what this is, I would appreciate it.

thanks

Farm Style Ingenuity

A week ago, we had trouble one morning with the phone and internet.  Called the local phone company which is a rural Co-op.  They sent a repair man out later that morning to see what he could find.  He discovered a gopher mound near/over where the cable runs underground between the road and the house.  Deducing that the gopher sharpened his teeth on the phone line, he decided we needed a new one.

 The local phone Co-op is in the process of installing fiber optic cable here in our area of North Dakota, but in the way of these things, one company will dig in the underground cables, one company will have the contract to hook up the houses, and the local repair person will finish the installation.  All this takes time.  The underground stuff has been done, and in fact was done last fall, they haven't come around and hooked up the wires into the new box they installed on the side of the house, and the interior wiring hasn't been done yet either.

So I thought I would show you how we do things out here on the farm  when you need an interim solution.

The box on the left is the original, the box on the right is for the fiber optic,  as you can see the fiber optic cable is coiled on the ground.  The wire you see coming out of the small box and heading up to the right is our jerry rigged phone line,  I thought you would be interested in seeing how this runs....

out of the box, up to the right and twice around the living room window. Then to the left ...

across the front of the house and on to the left across the yard...

to the apricot tree, can you see it??.....

another view as it goes....

twice around the trunk of the tree.....

and on across the yard to the pine....

wrapped around the branch on the pine and passed the trunk...

and headed across the yard to.....

the clothes line....

through the eye bolts that hold my clothes lines up.....

then once again across the yard to the box elder...

Through the branches of the box elder, I drew the line in red so you could find it easier....

continuing on between the trunks of the box elder....

further across the yard to the corner fence post. The post is a corner of the cow pasture, and  it is now getting closer to the ground....

around the fence post.  we will have to get this up on top of the post so the cows don't get a hold of it.  They like to lick and check things out, they are curious creatures so one of them is sure to take a bite....

I drew the line in red again, as you will not be able to see it in the grass as it goes down the driveway.  That is farmguy in the  tractor and corn planter on the road.  He was planting some late corn after baling the old alfalfa field.  We started a new alfalfa field last fall.  .......

A close up of the end of the driveway,  the dust cloud is from the tractor,  anyway, when the phone line gets to the end of the drive,  it heads to the right down the ditch to the phone hook up box further down the road.  

And there you have it,  the phone company doesn't want to take the time and expense to dig in a new phone cable when they would be replacing it soon anyway.  So far we have had good phone and internet connection so I have no complaints, but I get tickled anytime I think of it. To me this is hilarious.

I have been tatting, but it is testing someones pattern so can't show you.  I have also been working on the leaves for my Tishband. and I have a pattern swirling in my head I just have to get some time to deal with.  Also I still want to tat the dragons, and I have 6 more doilies to get done before Christmas.  I really need more tatting time. 

Hope you have had lots of time to tat.