Bunches of Fun

Tonight I went to a totally amazing concert by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I don't know if I've ever been to a performance with more energy and enthusiasm. The whole crowd were on their feet more than once. They specialize in Old Time music, especially early African American string band music, but they play many other types as well. Rhiannon sang a Celtic thing (I wish I could remember what she called the style), that was like singing Gaelic for ten minutes without breathing and no discernible repeats of stanzas. Awesome. And she lives here in Greensboro. You may think you've never heard of them, but they are on the Hunger Games soundtrack, so there.

 In the morning we leave on a sightseeing trip that will meander a bit and end in Toccoa on Thursday afternoon for TatDays. I can't wait. That will be so. much. fun.

Easy-Peasy Lanyard Idea

Lots of people like to make decorative lanyards for their TatDays name tags. You could use lanyards for badges at work too, or make a shorter length for a bracelet.

Some people have very elaborate lanyards, either a wide strip of edging or something with lots of beads. If you don't have the time for that, here's an idea for something relatively quick and easy, but more interesting than a simple string of split rings.

To make this, use 2 shuttles with a different color of thread on each.  

Ring: 10 ds, very small picot 10 ds. Close ring. Turn, Switch shuttles

Lock Stitch Chain: 5 stitches, each stitch is one flipped and one unflipped half stitch,  lock join to picot of ring.  (If the ring is in the way, fold it down while making the chain. When I make the lock join, the chain is sort of laying on top of the ring.)

Repeat for desired length.  By turning after each ring, both sides will look almost the same.

If you do not turn after each ring, then you get a distinct front and back side as seen below.  Choose which way you like best.

The inspiration for this came from erroneously guessing how Jane's SSSR and LSCH Bracelet was constructed.  She says the inspiration for the bracelet was from something I had made. What fun!

Another Guy Stuff Day -- Winston Salem Air Show

DH suggested we go to the Winston Salem Air Show. A good time was had by all. Aerial acrobatics, vintage WWII planes, a Harrier hovering mid-air...

Note to self, next time don't forget the sunscreen.

Needing a Break -- Athalia

I was working on a involved project for so long that I was desperate for a change of pace. Fox's Athalia pattern provided an excellent diversion. Both of these are with size 20 thread, the upper one is Tat-ilicious' Harvest and the other is some Lizbeth. I didn't have any filigree doo-dads like the pattern, so I substituted buttons. The upper one is 1/2 inch and the white one is 3/4 inch. Diane at Lace Lovin' Librarian just happens to be having a give-away of just that sort of finding. Better hurry, it's first come,first serve. Many thanks to Fox for sharing the pattern and Diane for giving away doo-dads.

Meanwhile, in the garden, can anyone identify this plant?  The standing up one, not the crabgrass beside it.  A few of these came up by themselves in awkward locations so I might try to move them.

Also, in the garden, or NOT in the garden, I don't have any tomatoes.  I had some just starting to ripen, but one morning they were all gone, except one on the ground with teeth marks in it.  Deer I suppose.  I see do-it- yourself recipes for Deer-Be-Gone, but they all seem to include raw eggs.  Has anyone tried this?  Does it work? Just how bad does it smell and how long does the smell last?

Meanwhile, on the spinning front, the roving I once showed you has been

spun,

plied,

and skeined.  Now to select a pattern.....

Butterflies -- Motifs 11 - 13

Do you ever have a little tatting voice inside your head? Do you ever have a slump where you don't feel like tatting, or maybe you feel like it, but can't pick anything to make? A while back I was in a slump, and as I would sort through my balls of thread hoping for inspiration for the next project, the little voice would say, "I don't want these, I want to tat with some different colors." Which was odd, because, believe me, I have lots of colors. Eventually, I figured it out, I needed HDT. Or in this case, hand-painted thread as Karey calls hers. I pulled out a skein of her "County Fair" thread and a much admired book from the shelf and was back in business.

All of these butterflies are from Tatted Butterflies by Adelheid Dangela. There are quite a lot of good designs in this book. The patterns are all in diagram form, so maybe too hard for a new beginner, but highly recommended for anyone with a little experience, enough to look at the picture and know when to reverse work or switch shuttles.

Ta-tilicious Thread & etc

Jess! at Tat-ilicious has very generously sent me some of her HDT.

This is her "Harvest" colorway, with a nice mix of red/gold/brown in both size 20 and 80.

Here is some "Red Velvet," a very warm rich reddish brown. The other is a skein from a trial run that wasn't what she was looking for, but I like this one more each time I look at it. Sort of grey/yellow/fuschia. I will have to find good projects for all of these.

I am excited to hear that she will be coming to the Palmetto Tat Days this year. It is so much better shopping for thread in person since cameras and monitors don't always capture its true personality, especially for HDT.

The spinning adventure continues. Here is some very brown undyed Corriedale, and some bright hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester.  Before I started this, I thought wool was just, well, wool.  It turns out there are umpteen varieties of it, not to mention fiber from other animals.

Believe it or not, I actually do some tatting once in a while. I made several butterflies last week, but I've been too lazy busy to work in the ends and block them.

But I did find this picture of a piece I made a while back and never showed. This is Karey's Heart of the Rose from her Hearts Belong to Tatting, made with some her own HDT. Since it comes from a book, I can count it toward my own special rules 25 Motif Challenge. I think this comes to number 10 for this round of the challenge. I haven't been doing too well getting this round accomplished.

Tat Days Registration is Open

Registration for Palmetto Tat Days is now open. Click here for a link to their homepage.  You can click on the link there for Sneak Peaks to see the class projects an descriptions.  (The usual pages for teacher biographies and more detailed class descriptions are still in progress.)  I always have a wonderful time with lots of wonderful people.

And here are my completed projects from the classes I took at the Finger Lakes Tatting Convention earlier this year.  You should be impressed.   I have some other class project UFO's that are years old :)

This is Dani the Geek's Celtic Claddagh Heart.  Isn't that braided effect interesting?  If you look too close, you'll see I didn't get the second side exactly right.  Oops, shouldn't have tried doing that one while watching TV.  My colors are arranged a bit different from the pattern since I changed my mind midstream what I wanted to do.

This one is Carolyn Groves' Heart on a Wooden Ring.  When I first looked at it, I wondered how she got the tatting to go round and round the ring since the shuttle wouldn't fit through the hole.  The solution was simple and ingenious and something I would never have thought of.  I like her idea to use wooden rings. They are prettier than the plastic cabone rings and also lightweight.   I think she said they came from FireMountain Gems.