A late night last minute entry before I hit the hay..............

I started the hind end of the elephant this evening. Got the leg band done and a section of 6 rings/chains - which will be 8 when I attach it to the leg band. I have a bandaid on my thumb for a little split that keeps opening up. It makes the slick thread even more slippery. And I had trouble even getting the stuff to knot. I think I'm going to use the metallic black floss for the elephant toes and eye. That might be a little tricky which I change threads.

I told Mary I had the lace for her bonnet done today and am just waiting for the hanky. She was thrilled. She commented that this baby was special - the mother had lost other children - she didn't elaborate and I didn't ask.

Another ebay win arrived today. A book from Germany, from another Regina.

It's a very old tatting book - Schiffchenarbeitl Frivolitaten bon Emmy Liebert. I have trouble reading those letters. Some designs I think I've seen in reprints, others I haven't.

I started typing the butterfly collar out. I'm maybe 1/4 of the way done. I'm typing it as is, but I can see it needs to be reworked. I found a beading website today that has a tutorial as well as more extensive instructions for sale on how to make diagrams with MS Powerpoint. I contacted the owner and asked her how she thought it would work with tatting diagrams and she was so helpful! I had given her the links to some sites to show examples of diagrams and tatting, and she wrote up a walk-through for one of the patterns. I started it it, just to test if I could do it and it was going along pretty good untiil I got to a curve and I couldn't figure out how to use it. After I deleted what I had done, I think I figured it out. LOL! I might have to give this more effort.

The skeins I soaked are all dried now and waiting to be wrapped into balls. A few of them seem to have some darkish areas where the ends were exposed. Those would be especially good for dying or hand painting.

This is such a busy week - next week is much much calmer! Oh, I just remembered someone asked a question on the group site that I didn't answer.

And I need to get to sleep!