I won a little wicker basket with sewing stuff in it recently and when it arrived, I finally got to see the contents which had been hidden in picture and described as a mystery. It was kind of a fun bid and didn't go high so I was hoping for a special surprise.....like a shuttle. LOL! Nope, no shuttles, but there was a little pouch that contained two thimbles - one so corroded I almost threw it away. Obviously, I didn't. I took a scrubber to it and it shined up nicely - this lovely antique brass thimble is the result. I still haven't gotten the inside cleaned out. I'm going to get some brass cleaner and see if that will make it easier.


Our new secretary at work is Russian so I brought in my Russian tatting books and showed them to her. She offered to help translate anything I needed help with (not the whole book!) so the other night I was going through the one pictured below, looking for a few special patterns I might ask for help with.

I had found the diagrams totally comfusing and wasn't sure I wanted to do anything at all in the book. Near the end, I found this motif....and as I examined it and the symbols and Russian text below it, I suddenly got the meaning. It was telling me elements 1, 3 and 5 were all the same kind of rings - 5 picots divided by 3 stitches. Then element 2 was a chain of 4 picots separated by 3 ds and element 4 was a chain with 5 pictos. Element 6 was a chain with 3 picots and then....and this part confused me because it looked like it was saying to make the clover with chains. I understood how many picots in each part, but I could not find the symbol for a ring anywhere within it. So I made it a clover with rings anyway. LOL!




This is the capelet I'm crocheting. Not my favorite color but the gauge worked out and I think I have enough.....I can always give it away when I'm done! I was looking at the instructions again today. I had skimmed the end before and Rows 24 and 25 are at the end and in BOLD BLACK PRINT so I figured it had 25 rows. I've just finished row 9 and as I logically computed this in my head....it was sure going to be a shortie! LOL! When I read the rest of the line....it repeats until row 42! So I'm only about 1/5 done. Going to try to get a row in before I go to bed.