Shhh, it's a secret

 Okay, not really a secret. But I try not to post my finished State Fair entries until after the judging, so you won't see them until next week. 

However, I do have 3/5 done. I would like a display card for 2 of them, but other than that the ornament and the mixed media jewelry pieces are done. The heritage craft one is done and it turned out to be multicraft (tatting, sewing, lucet braiding, and I even crocheted a chain). 

My frame piece is mostly done. I've finished the tatting, but I still need to frame it. I cleaned the glass yesterday. I also need to get back fabric and cut it to size.

My last entry is about half done (2 of the 4 art trading cards). But it also needs a sleeve, and I plan to get that on Saturday (the same day I turn them in). 

Saturday, we had our local tatters meeting. 5 of us in all made it, including one person who is learning. One of our members (who sadly hasn't been able to attend meetings recently), had gotten someone's destash of craft supplies. There was 1 good-sized box of needlepoint kits (including a couple purses), plus 6 boxes (think boot boxes) of other supplies, including one that had 3 c. 1967 student knitting manuals. I think the original owner taught knitting. They were also very organized as all the boxes were labeled. 

Turns out that one of the balls of size 10 was the perfect color to make the drawstring for my reticule. I could have used the ecru I had on hand, but this was perfect. Nothing to buy, I just used what I had already plus that one ball of gifted thread.

Carolyn brought 2 new books she bought. The bookmark book by Robin Perfetti is gorgeous. I'm going to have to get it at some point. Gretchen showed off this pretty wreath ornament she made. She said it's a free pattern online, and I'm going to have to find it.

Oh, and here's my year in thread ornament. I have some threads to add to it but this is mostly it.

Oh and on the way home from the meeting, I saw 2 deer grazing on the size of the ~8 lane highway. Luckily, they decided to stay on the shoulder.

Progress and Plans

 Tri-Tatters met today. Only 4 of us made it, but we had some visitors stop by. I made progress on the carnation boutonniere.

 

carnation boutonniere in progress

I got my Covid and flu vaccines on Wednesday. 12 hours later my body reacted, "We've been invaded!" I went to bed with a fever. By the time I woke up, the fever was broken, but I was exhausted. I took off from work (yay, sick days) and slept for 6-7 hours (with a break in the middle to think about lunch). I skipped gaming because I was still not up to par. 

Quick post

Through January 24th

2024 TTAL through January 24

 I almost forgot. Tri-tatters met yesterday. Lovely meeting, not 100% successful for me. 

Got 1 day of my shawl done, then realized I had loaded the wrong color for the subsequent day. Worked on it t today. Still had issues, but progress was made.

2024 TTAL progress (Jan 25+)

That is the wrong placement for Jan 25

Didn't have the loaded shuttles to work on Richard's helix bracelet.

Didn't have the pins to block the bun cover.

Suddenly realized I had joined in the wrong place of round 9 of the Handsome Hat. Have to retro-tat 9 chains and 9 lock joins.

Tried to make a pair of earrings. Last ring went cattywampus.

Did untangle size 80 thread barf.

That center mess is thread barf (size 80)

All untangled

State Fair season

 The NC State Fair opens at midday on Thursday, October 12th this year. So by the time this posts, the judging should be over.

First, my only entry in a tatting (plus) category, framed non-threaded needlework, which includes tatting, bobbin lace, etc.

My original design in the mixed media jewelry category, Solar Flare. I need to write this up so I can submit to teach it at Palmetto Tat Days.

Heritage craft, tatting edging on a vintage, embroidered hankie. I also added the butterflies (to cover holes in the hankie). This is before I washed and ironed it.

And ornament, tatted snowflake. I have to find where I got this pattern because I don't remember.

Tri-Tatters met/demo'ed at Mordecai on the 4th. We had 1 new person join and another tatter we hadn't seen in ages was able to tat with us. After, Anitra & I went by the fairgrounds to drop of entries (mine & Martha's). 

I have 2 projects now; another hair bun cover (like my failed doily) and writing out the pattern for Solar Flare and tatting another one. 

Oops, Been Absent Again

 Time got away from me and I didn't notice I hadn't posted to my blog. I finished a grey alien, to go with the 2 green ones, and Anitra gave me black beads for the eyes of another grey alien.

Tri-Tatters had our first meeting in 3 years, 2 months, and 1 week (so Anitra called it the Boom meeting). We did a demo at Mordecai House. Only 7 of us were able to make it, but 1 of those is a brand new tatter. She had her shuttle loaded and ready to go, just needed feedback on what was going on and how to recognize what was going on.

The banner Caroline K made and my 2019 temperature scarf

I started a new button bag (from Karey Solomon's Bring on the Buttons). And made Gina Butler's hair elastic button. I'll need to take a picture of the latter.

I went to NC Regional Lace Day and took Gretchen's butterfly pendant class. I happened to have beads that almost matched the enamel on the butterfly blank (need a picture). Then I found the seasonal earring kit I bought at Palmetto last year but couldn't find the pattern. Gretchen sent it to me and I made those (although I need to neaten both).

 Since I had the opportunity, I turned in the 2 books I had borrowed from the NCRL library and checked out Tatting with Beads by Rosemarie Peel. I've made 3 of the samples/project from it.  

1st project, sprigs but I didn't use wire

I made a keepsake penny for a student I know who's going home. I found a penny minted her birth year and used Jane Eborall's magnet bookmark as a starting point. I had to adjust the stitch count. Alas, I forgot to get a picture.

The 5e game continues. 1 of the PCs who thought this was a wild goose chase has been convinced by her goddess that this is what we need to do. Lots of roleplay but the last session ended mid-fight. We managed to spook off one component of the fight (opportunistic animals) but that leaves the rest. And unfortunately, 1 PC set off an alarm in the hostile city so they know someone is here. We have to finish the fight and skedaddle before reinforcements show up.

Our Pathfinder game also progresses. Unfortunately, scheduling issues meant we had to cut the session short. We could finish the fight with less than our full roster, but the fall out needed more players than we had at the table. 

A sewing/craft YouTuber mentioned this site (Thrifty Notion) as a source for inexpensive sewing supplies and fabric. I'm going to get some buttons (for Karey Solomon's patterns, etc), and maybe some fabric.

I went and picked up some fabric (100% cotton) at the Dollar Tree a couple weeks ago. I had seen this tutorial for a 5 square drawstring bag (video link) and had to try it. The 1st one went well but the 2nd one required some hand sewing as I missed a seam and didn't notice until the end. My choices were hand sewing or ripping out a number of seams to resew the problem one.

 

My long cotton gauze shawl has a tear in it. I am going to mend it but since it will not be an invisible mend, I decided to cover it. This is beading No. 32 from Tatting with Anne Orr. I used the same thread I used to edge the scarf. Now that the edging is made, I need to mend the scarf and sew the tatting over it.

 

And below are some samples I made.

Cream silk heart (handspun yarn from a friend), red lace weight linen yarn butterfly, & black linen Londonderry 50/3 butterfly & beading/insertion, all tatted. The black is also Beading No. 32. I got the black linen thread from a vendor at the NCRL spring lace day.The red is the linen I got at the Carolina Fiber Fest.

Gillian's Election Bookmark in Lizbeth color way 156. This may end up being a bracelet.

And finally, a rainbow. Just because.

Carolina Fiber Fest 2023

 Fiber Fest at the State Fairgrounds again (in the nice, large expo hall, yay). And once again, shared parking with 2 other events. One, if someone hadn't told me they were there, I wouldn't have known about them. OTOH, the other group has a subset of 'we have an RV, who cares about parking spaces'. 

Most of them with RVs are not like this. They park in the camping area, which admittedly is not particularly close to their event location. There's some though, that take up 2-10 (and no, that is not a mistake, I counted) parking spaces. Which again, is okay if no one else is using the lot. Like someone who parks their car over 4 spots at the far end of a lot where it's completely empty, if it's not disrupting other people, then who cares.

And that is why my friend and I arrived at 7 am for an event in which the doors open at 9. We did need to be there enough before 9 to get our tables set up, but if it weren't for the parking issues, we would have aimed for 8 am. 

 We were towards the back, near some of the classrooms. We were also near this display about flax and flax spinning (picture is only part of display).

There were 2 spinning wheels, some fabric (both recent make and vintage), sample of linsey woolsey tape, 3 linen stricks,  and flax in different stages of processing. There were also brochures for a book on homegrown flax and cotton.

I also bought a couple mini-skeins of linen yarn to try it for tatting. I bought some burgundy and black. I'll need to be careful of slubs, but it tats pretty well. The hanks are DK weight, so about size 5 for tatting, I think.

 Here's the edging sample I did.

 Pattern from New Dimensions in Tatting by To de Haan-van Beek

I saw lots of fiber friends; other members of Tri-Tatters, Sir Walter Lacers, weaving group, machine knitting, etc. I also saw Danielle, who I haven't seen since she moved to Texas. I also met her wife, Jen, who I only know from Danielle's FB posts. They've moved back to the east coast.

I also bought a nalbinding needle and then won some wool yarn! How about them odds. I only bought 1 ticket in the drawing. And funny enough, while I was up there getting my 'here's the cert for you to claim your prize', the vendor came up to see if the prize they'd offered had been claimed. I didn't have to search for their booth, they lead me right there.

I finished Jane Eborall's Tat It And See, although I used 2 different colors. I want to do this in light green and in grey, too. For reasons.

 

I've also been playing around with Mandala by Nami Art Patterns

You can't tell from the pictures, but the top one is size 20 and the lower one is size 40.

I also took some of my bits to mend a skirt. It's cotton gauze, so I stabilized the holes and then sewed tatting over them.

 And of course, glued flowers, etc to a card.

We play the Pathfinder game again this weekend (crossed fingers) and our 5e game continues. 

In the 5e game, we learned what poisoned our oldest sister (cousin for 1 player). We did some local investigating to see if there's a cure available locally and tried to get some information on who created the poison. We did learn a few things, but we had to go to another town, on the recommendation of someone we contacted, to someone who might know more. 

Cousin (PC is 16, player is my age) continues to underestimate my PC, possibly because of jealousy. My PC went to college in the capital, is beautiful, and cosmopolitan. She (PC) is the smartest and most beautiful person the room; she says so. 

Please note, the player is a good friend and it's all in fun.

I can't believe we had sleet/snow yesterday. Last year, we had snow (no accumulation) as we were leaving the Fiber Fest. And it's supposed to freeze tonight.

Much Improved

I have the occasional cough and that's it. I am so much better now.

I volunteered at a blood drive last week, but due to my lingering cold symptoms I didn't donate. I have now made an appointment to donate platelets next week. Wish me luck.

I had a dental appointment next week, but then remembered a meeting that same morning so I cancelled it. I need to reschedule.

The big news at work is the removal of the Silent Sam, aka Confederate monument, pedestal and the BoG firing the chancellor. Frankly, not even letting her finish the semester makes them look petty.

The Federal Government is still shut down. #45 is throwing a temper tantrum and Mitch McConnell is aiding and abetting his tantrum.

I made it to the Tri-Tatters meeting on Saturday. The library rooms weren't available this month, so we met at a Starbucks. They only let rooms for 2 hours, so we had a short meeting. I got there late because I just felt meh. The cold rain didn't help. I handed out some of the size 10 Alisa got from her friend. One ball went to a new tatter and the other 6 to the woman who was leaving as I arrived and let me have her seat.

Someone brought in a couple of extra vintage tatting books. No one else got this one, so I did.

The only tatting I've been doing is small projects to use up some vintage thread. The thread was wrapping around a ball of paper, and it's not continuous. It's been a little frustrating. I went ahead and loaded two shuttles and I've gradually been tatting them down.

I'm still working on Mom's shrug. I finished the shoulders and the 2nd skein about the same time. Now I'm on the 2nd sleeve and the 3rd skein. I'm also working on A n' S's washcloths. I have 3 of them done (and given them 2) but the last one is being very slow. It's a moss stitch and should do quite well.

I did have a close call. I was moving the shrug around (as I hunting up where I'd put the 3rd skein) and some of the stitches popped off the pegs. And some of the purl stitches came out. I managed to get the stitches on the edge back onto pegs, and got loops of yarn (pulled stitches) and stitches back on. Then I purled the loops back into place. Whew. All saved.








first sleeve almost done here








A friend has asked me for a long scarf, kind of like my temperature scarf. But he wants blue, black, purple, etc quasi-Dr. Who scarf. I think I can do it in cotton. I shall have to check the sales to get the yarn cheap enough. He's willing to pay, but it's going to take me a long time to make.

Sunday, Chris and I went to pick up my (much) belated birthday present. Apparently he's been looking for this present for months.

It needs some cleaning and stuff, but it's an old table Singer sewing machine. I got a picture of the engine, but not the serial number. It's in storage now because I'll need to make a place to put it. It's probably c. 1959.

The social media site, Google+ is being closed down. It really makes me sad. I've made some good friends and contacts there.

but here's a pretty sky

Gillette has a new ad out. It tempts me to buy my next razor from them. There are some who consider it a company profiting from a political movement, and yes, it is. But it's also calling on men to stand up, to other men and against toxic masculinity. And I'd rather the company take that stance than the opposite view.

I got sick (and Merry Christmas if that's your thing)

I started getting a sore throat on Wednesday, but thought it might be a response to the changing weather. I went to donate platelets, and they suggested I wait, as I wasn't well. And then I got worse.

I canceled my plans to go to the Tri-Tatters meeting. I didn't go do my last-minute shopping. I didn't even go to my Dad's and K's house (or anywhere else) for Christmas. I stayed home, rested, drank hot tea, and finished my knitting projects. At least I could handle those (they're presents so no pics until next week).

I've gotten a start on wrapping, but there's more to do. I gave C his present and he gave me mine. Needless to say, I don't feel very festive this year.

I am going through my hot tea stores. C went to spend Christmas with his family, so he hit the store first to get me soup, etc. I was going to be with my family, so we had pretty much cleared out the fridge of leftovers.

Here's the snowflake I made for the Tri-tatters' exchange (Lizbeth metallic, silver) and the one I gave our next door neighbor (size 40 silver grey Lizbeth). It's a free pattern, Editha.

silver

silver grey cotton with beads

More Tatting

Our group demo'ed at Tri-Tatters on Saturday again. It was very cold so not many people came by, but we did get a gent whose grandmother tatted. A bit later two women stopped to talk to us. Then a group of young women visiting the US on a cultural exposure (or something) trip. Some of them talked to us, too.

And he had some of her work and her shuttles. I went through the quilt blocks for Palmetto Tat Days scholarship quilt to decide on what tatting I'll do for them. I've only done one so far. I have another three blocks and one strip. I realized the strip is much longer than I realized. Then I found an edging I'd done ages ago that's perfect for it. Yay! I added a contrasting motif on one end as 'anchor.' I need to block the edging though. Really need to block it.

I got a good start on a gecko (Jane Eborall's pattern). I finished it on Sunday. I did a flower (from be-stitched.com) for another block. I have an idea for another motif (from Jane again), but I need to clear my shuttles.

Mom fell and possibly fractured something this morning. I may end up running to see her tomorrow instead of work. I will call her facility tomorrow and see if I can find out more.

Deadlands on Thursday is off. GM has to take care of some personal stuff.

My date night with Carry is canceled, she has the flu.

It's been a long day and I'm off to bed.

Another week, another post

Thursday was Deadlands again. We had another combat and my character, Alis got in some good shots, and got poisoned. It was fun to use her magic gun to shoot the bad woman's bow out of her hands (hey, she used it to shoot Alis with a snake arrow).

I'm still working on my Blue Rose character. I am reading the world background to fine tune her. I think I will end up changing a couple things, make them into goals instead of accomplishments. I do have most of her family plotted out and her immediate family have names.

my mom crocheted the dice bag, yes there's a metallic filament

 Saturday was Tri-Tatters. Leigh (of somethingunderthebed.com fame) had the second newsletter, with my article about the Bath Tatting Book. I hope someone who reads it finds it helpful. We had 12 people at the meeting, including two people who are learning to tat. One of them brought some of her grandmother's lace. She had some lovely hairpin lace, crochet lace, and a bit of tatting.

I finally figured out TotusMel's pattern she's letting me use. The problem isn't with her pattern; it's that it works really well with needle tatting and take some adjustment to make it work with a shuttle.

However, I cannot find my pink squares for Belgium. Argh! I know what container they're in but I can't find the container.

I haven't started on the 2018 TIAS yet. I've been distracted by my other projects (including CD's scarf, up to 20"+ now).

Sunday it was chilly and rainy so I didn't work on my car. I hope I'll get something done on it, soon.

CD and I watched a movie with Herman's Hermits. He likes the band. The movie was kind of 'meh' but it had some good music. However, quite nicely, it did not have a villain. It was very nice.

Today was part 1 of of a training, Mental Health First Aid. It was mostly what to look for and some of the risk factors for depression and/or anxiety. Tomorrow is part 2, practice and practical.

There were snow flurries this morning. And my neighbor's Bradford pear is blooming. And I think I saw a cherry tree blooming, too (it was pink blossoms and a tree).