Making Little Hearts for Valentines Day

 Inspired by all the other tatters, I've been tatting hearts too.  First up is Heart's Desire by Susan Fuller.  The pattern can be found here and Frivole of Le Blog de Frivole has made a chart to go with it which can be found here.  This is one of the first pieces of tatting I've ever been able to scan and it shows up so much better in a scan than in a photo.  You will notice that I left the ends hanging - I had a good reason for doing that which will become obvious very quickly.

This lovely little tatted heart is Butterfly Heart by Irene Woo.  The pattern for it can be found here.  Both these heart patterns are pretty easy (or I couldn't have done them) and they are both lovely.  Both hearts were tatted using Lizbeth Size 20 thread in Medium Azalea (620) and Dark Boysenberry (644).  I love these two colors together.

 After I finished tatting these hearts, I thought about what to do with them.  I could just leave them laying around.  I could stiffen them and hang them somewhere.  Or, I could knit up a couple of my Little Hearts (pattern top right of this blog - free) and attach the tatted hearts to the knitted hearts.  Guess which option I chose?

The Boysenberry thread almost matched the pink yarn exactly, and the tatting didn't work well on that heart, so I embroidered a little flower on it.  Those of you who are better than me at embroidery (or who just want to take a little more time with it) could make something really pretty.

I love this idea!  Think I know what Girl Far From Home is getting for Valentine's Day!

Teresa

Oh the Fragrance!

The Daphne odora is blooming and my entire backyard smells just delightful!  I do wish I could bottle the smell or somehow put it on the blog like people put music on their blogs.  

It has been so warm here that things are growing and blooming all over the place.  I do wonder what is going to happen when winter comes back in full force.  It's supposed to drop down into the twenties tonight.

Teresa

Blocking!

 I finished my Sothia Shawl.  I did use the rust colored Socks that Rock yarn for the accent color and it looks lovely.  I decided not to knit it on the edge as well as the eyelet row so the rest is all the coral color.  It's bigger than I expected it to be.  After it dries, I'll take pics of it in action.

Faithful sidekick helped me - she always helps me with whatever it is I have to do.  

Tomorrow, pics of the Sothia off the floor and maybe pics of the tatting I've been doing.

Teresa

Taming Tatting Shuttles?

Since my shuttle collection is increasing, I had to find a new place to keep it.  It was just November when I put them all in a tackle logic case (see it here).  The thing that worried me about it was the soft sides and the fact that it was getting overstuffed.  I was afraid some of my shuttles would get squished and break - especially the wood and ceramic ones.  So I looked online and in stores and here and there.  I found this little goodie in Target.

The individual bins come apart and the bottom one has these two little dividers with individual compartments in them.  Each of the two has it's own lid.  I bought one set of the Medium size snap ware and then looked online for additional divided compartments.  It seems that they do make them and Joann's used to carry them but I couldn't find anywhere that currently carries them.  I emailed the manufacturer and they never answered me so I just went back to Target and bought another full set thinking that I could use the storage elsewhere.

I figured out that if I put one of the divided compartment things in any box then the other half is just a bigger compartment.  Since I have tons of unblinded sew mate and clover shuttles, they can all go in one large compartment.  So can all those old metal ones with bobbins (except the one that was Mom's) and there are two wooden shuttles that are too big for the smaller compartments - the ends don't close so I don't use them much anyway.

One tub without compartments is perfect for the tatting in progress and upcoming project thread.

And then, since I had all the extra tubs, I put some of the thread that I think I will be using soon (or that I had planned to use around Christmas) in a tub.  They will really hold quite a bit - this one would hold more if the balls weren't in their bags and were placed in neat rows and columns.

The cool thing is that since this is snap ware, I can snap as many or as few as I want or need together.  If we are going to the beach, I can take the work-in-progress, extra thread and one or more of the extra shuttle tubs, snap them together and head on out the door!

And the work-in-progress tub fits nicely down the side of my knitting bag so it can go along with me in case I decide 

I'd Rather Be Tatting!

Teresa

Can I drive?

Ha!

This is my first attempt at the Butterfly Heart from Frivole's diagram.  I was doing just fine but I got used to tatting the joining picots small for later joins and just carried that on to the second side where I actually needed to be joining them as I tatted them.  So the second side is laying nicely in the scan but those rings are not actually joined to each other.  I also ran out of thread on the B shuttle - but now I know how much I need to put on each shuttle.

The really exciting news here though is that my darling daughter - That Other Girl, the techie daughter - has managed something nobody else has been able to manage.  She got the scanner that Mom gave me several years ago to work on the old Dell computer (the nine year old computer that I replaced with a Mac but still hold onto because there are things it will do that no other computer will do).  Even Crazy Cousin Jon tried to hook up the scanner and couldn't get it to work.

So now I can scan my tatting!!!  Seriously cool.  Of course, the scanner doesn't work well, and there are NO bells and whistles - you get what you get.  But I have a scanner.  (I might have to consider buying a newer model that actually works and has options.)  Right now I think I'm going to go load my pretty new shuttles with some more pink thread and try this heart again!

Teresa

You snooze you lose - Get with it Girl

Tatting Shuttle Tuesday

Yes, I still plan to get some tatting done today but when this box arrived in the mail . . . well, I just had to open it right away.  These are my beautiful new shuttles.

The one on the left (one side in each picture) is ripple shell veneer over wood.  It's much prettier in person than these photos because it was very difficult to photograph.  The center shuttle is paua shell veneer over wood.  The one on the far right is paua shell - not veneer, the blades are paua through and through.  It feels like glass.  All three are absolutely gorgeous in person.  The center one is large - 2 3/4" long and will hold a lot of thread.  These are going to be fun to tat with - starting today!

These three are from the same maker - from left to right:  Zebra wood, Curly Bubinga and Macassar Ebony.  The grain on each of them is spectacular and I fell in love with them.  They are smooth and warm in my hands.  The zebra wood is the largest, again at 2 3/4".  I might share some of these with girls . . . maybe.

The maker calls this one a 'figure eight' flat shuttle and it is made out of dymondwood.  That Other Girl was looking over my shoulder when I was buying these and there was one she wanted.  It turns out that this wasn't the one she wanted, but after saying it once, she refused to tell me again so I guessed (wrong).  She says she likes it just as much anyway.

This is made out of Mahogany with an inlay stripe with two other woods.  I think it is beautiful and very well made.  

I love these new additions to my shuttle collection.  Now I have to go wind some thread on several of them and get tatting!

Teresa

Decided!

Thanks so much for all the opinions.  I agree with everyone.  Any of those colors would look great, but I went with the rust and really love it.  I'm nearly done but so far from done at the same time.  Each row now has about 700 stitches and I have one more increase row and then a small section after that.  I think it is going to look great when it gets done - and it needs to get done because I need to knit sleeves on my blue sweater.

Tomorrow is tatting day though - because I've been knitting and not tatting for a while.  I've already printed out a bunch of patterns - something easy and maybe something a little more challenging.

 This is my daphne odora bush - it's actually two bushes, but the small one is sort of behind the big one.  This baby is more than waist high - 3 1/2 feet tall or more and wider than it is tall.  I've only ever seen one other that was this big.  It's absolutely covered with buds and when they all open, my entire back yard is going to smell divine!  I can't wait (wish I could capture the smell to share).

 Bad closeup of open flowers . . . I'll do better another day.

Success

I am very proud of myself.  99% of this was done with a broken ankle.

But I did it.

Opinions please?

This is the shawl that both Dena and I are knitting right now.  We decided during a phone call today that we want an accent color between the two sections.  So, That Other Girl and I went digging through my stash and found six hanks of yarn that might work.  We quickly narrowed it down to three colors but we disagree on which should be The One.  What do you think?

 Gray

 Pale Sage Green

Rust

That Was The Week That Was

My hubby took time off work to help me get a bunch of stuff done around the house.  I am sure some things got done but nothing that was on the list.

Bedroom painted - not quite

Bathroom painted - not even

Bathroom fixtures, mirrors, lights replaced - well we did look at a couple of stores to see what we wanted

Kitchen cabinets redone - move everything off the top shelves that I can't reach - no way

Go through closets and purge LOTS - door didn't even get opened

So what did get done?  Here is a video of hubby working hard.  This is what he accomplished the first day.

The next day we did go get a ton of hay.  The alpaca have a new best friend.






















And this is what hubby did the third day - repeat of first day but it won't let me load another video

The fourth and fifth days were appointments all day long but he still found time to make the dogs jump on me by holding their toys over my head.  Here I have left but they continued on.

So on the sixth day we went to find a girlfriend for Quackers.  Here is hubby and his friends Quackers and Henrietta.  I was told that they were my ducks but I have my suspicions.

Hubby is back at work and I can get some things taken care of.  It seems to be easier without all of his help.

Dena

Special Scarves

In 2009 the folks in Boise, Idaho wanted to provide a welcome gift to the athletes participating in the Special Olympics held there.  A call went out to knitters across the country and scarves started pouring in - they asked for 5000 and got nearly 60,000 from all over the world.  Red Heart has sponsored the Special Olympics Scarf Project ever since.  That Other Girl's school textile club chose this for one of their community service projects and these two scarves are my contribution.

This is the table with the rest of the scarves that were donated on it.  The kids in the textile club did pretty good!