Happy New Year And..

What the heck have I been doing?

I have been tatting, just a little.

This is an earring set done for a friend, my own design. The HDT is Coral Reef size 40, by TatsKool.

I've been working like crazy at my new job. It involves a lot of contact with folks hither and yon, such as London and Cape Town. (Really!) One of the benefits of my new job is having my cell phone set up (on the company dime) so that I can call any place short of the moon with no special charges. It's great!

But talking to folks hither and yon means dealing with them in their time zones. Mine is GMT plus 5 hours, or Eastern Standard Time. So I have to talk to people at odd hours.

Here's a picture I took of the sunrise - taking while I was both driving to work and on the phone with the London office. It was lunchtime in London.

(Don't worry, I use a headset. I have a very excellent driving record.)

Anyhow, I've been working my TAIL off! Lotsa hours! Working on weekends! Video Skyping with my developer in Hyderabad! Conference calls with people in Brazil and Paris and Toronto! Working through lunch! Staying really late! On the phone with London before 7 am!

In short, not much time for other stuff. Like tatting. Sad face.

But - the folks at my company are super nice and the office is in a great location. And it pays really, really well! Woo-hoo!

I have had nice holidays - all the Stooges were here for Thanksgiving (tho Larry couldn't come for Christmas). Thanksgiving was fun and restful. Larry is doing well in Florida, seems happy. He's been enjoying Growing Facial Hair and came home sporting a goatee that dragged his chest. He got spaghetti sauce in it immediately when he came home - yuck!

 

This week Larry sent me a picture of himself. The goatee was longer, and he's now sporting a Mohawk. The caption of the picture was "I pity the fool"!

Pretty awful.

Moe and I traveled some during the Christmas holiday, driving 500 miles each way on various interstates. We noted several things on the road.

• Most folks living in Ohio seem to own RVs. 
• Lots of people from Ontario do too. 
• There are rude drivers on the road - and those of us from the South are generally not part of that group. 
• Some of the RV drivers from Ontario want to OWN the road! There was one (driving an enormous late-model RV & pulling a car) that seemed to be going 80 mph most of the time.

Moe drove part of the time. He did ok - only tried to kill me once. That was when he took BOTH hands off the steering wheel to eat a hamburger, allowing us to lurch across the center line on I-75. I made him pull over immediately. New rule for Moe - no eating and driving.

Lily liked Christmas. She was very excited about the mess. (That's Moe's stuff.)

Santa Paws brought the Kittahs a present. They love this.

Hope your holidays were happy....

Woven Rose done

I have completed the Woven Rose motif. This is a pattern by Jaquie Teal, and you can find it in the May 2013 issue of Tatting Times.

This one is tatted in Lizbeth size 20 with 10/0 beads. Fox tatted her version here - it's very pretty.

Because of the way I added the beads (a la Jane), tatting this was a bit cumbersome. But I persevered!

In other news, I went to my tatting/knitting/crochet group recently, and found an interesting and inexpensive way to get custom dyed wool.

One of my group goes to thrift stores and looks for nice quality plain wool sweaters, like Lands End ones. She especially like large men's sweaters. "If it looks like a dress on me, then it's perfect!" Then she takes the seams apart and flattens each piece out - and she hand dyes them!

This is a sleeve of a gray Land's End sweater, bought at a local thrift store. (She buys these sweaters for $5.) She took Wilton cake dye and added a little vinegar to it to make the dye permanent, and then she splashed it on the sweater until she was happy with the color, and set the dye.

Here's the shawl she's knitting, pulling yarn directly off the yarn in the sleeve. Is this not COOL? You have to make sure each piece of the thrifted sweater is knitted continuously, not cut out of a large knit fabric. Otherwise the yarn of that piece will not be all one long continuous thread.

What a great thrifting idea!

BTW - registration at Tat Days is open! I'm teaching, along with a ton of talented folks! Sign up - join those who've registered!

The Twirly has been tatted. Thank you for a fun tat, Jane!

I love the Twirly! It's tatted in Jess's Queen Anthias size 20.

And Fox has beaten me to my assigned tat of the Square Motif in the May 2013 issue of Tatting Times. Darn. But - Fox is no longer a working gal, and so she had more time to tat. Unlike me. I am undaunted. I'll finish this soon. (Tatted in Lizbeth size 20.) I'm trying to do this all in one pass, no cuts until the bitter



I also found this wonderful item Monday - actually recorded and filmed by astronaut Chris Hadfield aboard the International Space Station.

Upon request, the furry guys:

 

My gorgeous and dignified Cisco,

And the not-so-dignified Vader.

BTW, Vader's original owner, Curly, has been retrieved from the poky. He seems to be repentant of his sins, or so he appears. We shall see...

 

Tatting the Twirly

I'm tatting Jane's lovely Twirly pattern. Jane has the nicest patterns - so clever, and a real pleasure to tat!

This is done in Jess's HDT called Queen Anthias. I'm sorry for the color on this - it's taken by my cell phone under fluorescent lights. The thread is really a bright pink, yellow, and purple. Oh, and the top shuttle is one I blinged a long time ago.

Here's another bit with the same HDT. This is my own Dainty Heart pattern.

Here's what's happening on the home front:

Curly is getting Out Of The Pokie on Monday. I have to retrieve him early in the morning, and will be taking him to see his probation officer immediately afterwards, before I come home. And Curly says he wants to take his meds regularly, so I have an appointment for him with his psychiatrist on Wednesday. I hope Mr. Curly has changed his ways. He turned 21 yesterday, while incarcerated.

Larry has moved out! He is now living with roommates in Florida, having taken an enormous pile of crap out of my house. I hope he finds it satisfying and is happy. He tells me that he is a better cook than any of his roomies, so I feel I've accomplished something!

After Larry moved out, DH and Moe cleaned out his basement area, and lots of things were discovered. So that's where all those forks and plates were! Also discovered: a leaky water heater. Sigh. I purchased a new one last week and Moe and DH have installed it. At least I don't have t worry about that appliance...

I am seriously job hunting. No raise in 6 years with the cost of benefits going up exponentially takes a toll on me. Makes it hard to pay the bills, much less feel good about myself. Fortunately, it seems my skills have real value again. I've been doing phone interviews, and I have a face to face interview this afternoon at a company I'm excited about. This is for a full time position and the commute would be better. Cross your fingers for me!

Lily continues to be silly and to be her own bad self. But she's so cute!

Tatting Heart's Desire

I got to meet Susan Fuller this September while I was teaching at Palmetto Tat Days. She came to our room after hours, so Isdihara and I got to chat with her. She's an interesting person, and I enjoyed our time together. For those who don't know, this Susan Fuller is the very Susan Fuller who designed a favorite Tatland pattern, Heart's Desire. (Yet another reason to attend tatting conferences - meet designers!)

It's been a while since I've tatted Heart's Desire. As I had some lovely HDT, I thought I'd take another run at tatting this classic pattern.

Here's my progress so far, tatted in Yarnplayer's gorgeous Roses in size 20. True confessions here - there are two mistakes that I just continued so it would be consistent.

I'm enjoying tatting this again. It's a wonderful pattern and this thread is simply scrumptious. It's a fun tat! I've needed something to divert my attention - I've been laid low with a cold and I have some medical tests coming up. Heart's Desire fits the bill.

I got another diversion in the mail this week - my own copy of Vicki Clarke's "Tatting the Stone"! I had test tatted some patterns for Vicki, who's a sweet lady and a good designer. So I'm excited to see this and I hope to have some fun with this book. Plus, she added in some of Karey Solomon's HDT and a few fun beads. Thank you, Vicki!

What are you working on?
 

Winner, winner

Jess of Tat-ilicious made me a winner!

Yup, I won her recent giveaway, and she sent me some cool stuff.

Some of her gorgeous hand dyed thread - yum! The green and purple one is called Purple Mountain Majesty, and the other pinky gold & burgundy one is big ol' hank of Torch Lily! (I need to keep Miss Lily away from this. Don't want her to carry a torch for it - or carry it off!)

Plus Jess sent me a buncha beads and neat findings! Wow - I'm a happy camper!

I'm doing a bit of tatting for a friend, a present for her since she has a new grandchild. My friend makes custom christening gowns and asked for some tatted edging for the top and sleeves. So I'm making the top edging here, some that Jon diagramed. Oh - the shuttles are ones I picked up at Tat Days, done by Shuttle Lab Trends.

It's a bit cooler here and some of the leaves have started to change. These are dogwoods, which produce berries that the birds feast on. The leaves will get much redder before they're done.

We've turned off the air conditioning and have the windows open night and day. I love fall!

Cisco is trying to ignore Vader making a fool of himself hiding under my ottoman.

Visitors plus quick Tat Days update

I've had company. Some of you may know who it was - but now you all know that I had sisters Jane Eborall and Sally Kerson visiting from England.

Sally and Jane, in my kitchen!

 They are loads of fun. And really really nice, delightful house guests.

Jane is a card. They had fun with me for a few days, then we went up to Tat Days. Before we left, I did have to do a counting of my cats to make sure all three were there - the sisters threatened to kidnap Lily!

Isdihara and Anita mug for me

Palmetto Tat Days is the most fun! There were lots of folks there. One hundred and one tatters, plus spouses and vendors. It was phenomenal.

One of my student's work in progress

There was lots of tatting done. I taught 3 classes, all my own patterns.

just a few of the items...

We had a silent auction and a big live auction. The auctions all are for scholarships so that folks can attend Tat Days who might otherwise not be able to afford to, a terrific cause. For many of us, Tat Days is respite from our regular stressful lives.

Arlene, Carol, and Marsha working away in my class

There was more tatting....

Hand dyed thread from Jess! Good enough to eat.

And lots of things to buy. My bank account now has a hole in it.

This ain't all, folks

It was over all too soon. I came home with tons of purchases, plus - swag galore!

I'll update you later with all the details. Can't wait 'til Tat Days 2013!
 

Current doin's at Chez Crazy

I was so jazzed about my visit with Jimmy that I forgot my dental appointment on Monday morning. I remembered when the phone rang as I pulled into my office parking lot, a half hour after the appointment. (I'm rescheduled for Thursday morning. It's a replacement crown. Ugh.)

I'm tatting a cross as a thank you present for the former Prez. I spoke to Miss Jan, and she's going to get it to him. This is my own Simple Cross pattern, done in Tuscany HDT by Lady Shuttlemaker.

Moe is at a Boy Scout Camp for the week with his troop. It's his favorite thing to do - he looks forward to it all summer. I'll pick him up on Saturday.

Curly has waxed his eyebrows. No, I don't know why. It's best if I don't ask such things.

Larry, AKA the slug who lives in my basement, is turning into the world's biggest grump. And he's not  cooperative in doing his chores. "I hate cleaning up other people's messes!" he grumped to me on the phone. "I wiped your bottom for years," I replied. "Yeah, but you signed up for that - I didn't!"

I hung up on him and wouldn't take his calls for some time. Perhaps it's time that Larry found another basement to live in - and grow up. (He is healing, BTW.)

Vader has been enjoying my suitcase, now empty from my last week's trip.

Tatting and some sad news

I've been tatting.

This is Birgit's Romantic Heart, done in HDT by Tat-ilicious in size 20. The color (it's Pink Sunset Queen Anthias) is prettier than shown here, and the heart wants blocking, but it's cute. Since I made a minor mistake that I just wasn't willing to retro tat enough to fix, I made the mistake symmetrical.

I have some sad news to report. My lovely little white cat, Sophie, is missing and probably gone for good. She went missing in the confusion right after Larry broke his foot and hasn't been seen since. Someone let her out during the day, not an unusual occurrence. And she never returned.

I fear the worst, as we have coyotes out here that are very bold, even in the daylight. Sophie was a tiny cat, about 6 lbs and inches shorter at the shoulder than my other kitties.

Sophie always liked a box. She was a good kitty who loved me a lot. I miss her.

In other news, Larry is home recovering. He's going to his internist today to get his Coumadin levels checked, so hopefully he'll be at school tomorrow. He still hurts a good deal, but he's getting better.

I spent Saturday sewing patches on Moe's extra Scout uniform, plus lots of running around. Sunday I drove Moe way out in the country to NYLT camp where, when they opened the gates for registration, he was the very first kid (out of some 100 or so) to get to the registration area. Moe LOVES Scouts. He'll be back Friday night.

 

And we have plums...

 

Larry's Lousy Luck

Friends tell me I should write a book, 'cause stuff just happens at our house.

You remember Larry, my oldest Stooge. About six weeks ago, he screwed up his left knee at work, dislocating his kneecap. Last week he broke his right foot. The left knee is still in bad shape and pretty sore now since he's having to use it as his good leg.

It ain't over for Larry, poor guy.

His right leg has been hurting a good deal after he broke his foot. His leg - his foot hurts, but not so bad as the leg. And yesterday we found out why.

Poor Larry has acquired three clots in his lower right leg, probably as a direct result of the broken metatarsal. A clot like this is a deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. This is BAD. And it hurts - and can be deadly without treatment. A clot like this can move to your heart or your brain.

Larry and I spent the day going from one doctor's office to another. We got the diagnosis about 1:30 pm after spending all morning at the orthopedist then the vascular MD. We were finally sent to the ER, thinking that Larry would be admitted for 2 days. Fortunately, this was not the case. Our very nice ER doctor (he was cute too!) got Larry some injectable blood thinners and Coumadin and sent him home. Larry's to take the blood thinners until his Coumadin levels get to the right point, then take the Coumadin for at least six months.

He should be OK after this. Thank heavens.

He's been through a lot, has our Larry. He's a good kid, not accident prone, generally cautious and responsible. (I practically lived at the ER with Curly.) So this has really thrown him for a loop, and he's been pretty down. The ER doc told him he can go back to school as soon as the Coumadin levels are right, which should be Tuesday. The thought of going back to his paramedic classes on Wednesday cheered him up a good deal.

Whew. I could use a break from the crap. Maybe I should write a book.

And while we were out and about, I tatted a bit. This bit is done in the new thread I got from Tat-ilicious, her Pink Sunset or Queen Anthias. The colors are much more vibrant than show here. A cell phone and green fluorescent lighting tend to mess with colors.

Please God, no more issues for a while, m'kay?

 

More on Butterfly Garden

Some folks asked about the thread I used to make the Butterfly Garden Bookmark and Edging. The green is Lizbeth 638, and the variegated thread is an HDT by Tatskool, Gina's Tequila Sunrise. Both are size 20.

I loved using this HDT and I think it's gorgeous. It worked up beautifully for my pattern, and the thread feels great.

Tatskool did some test tatting of the pattern in her own HDT. Two are done in size 20 and the other is size 40. What do you think? Tatskool does some fine work - and isn't her thread lovely?