Wednesday, May 21, 2008


Isn't that a beautiful rose? My youngest son and his fiance gave me flowers for Mother's Day. It was a bouquet of assorted flowers and they are still going strong more than a week later! I took several photos at the weekend and this is one of them.

In spite of being behind in just about everything I'm doing at the moment (but catching up fast!) I tatted the ornament from Vida Sunderman's book, Tatting for Tomorrow, on page 41. I just happened to have these two colors sitting on the table next to me (both Altin Basak, size 50) and decided to try using both to see the effect on the motif. I really like it. I decided to make it into a bookmark but had trouble deciding how I wanted to make the tail. I made about three false starts before I settled on this one - a set stitch of 5-5 (5 1st halves, 5 2nd halves) in series of 6 sets, I think, before changing colors. It felt like a weak ending though so I switched to split rings, increasing the size of each ring as I went down and switching the sides of the colors in the split rings. I was really pleased with how it turned out.

I returned a purchase to Walmart this evening and got to talking to the young man processing my refund. I noticed on the board that they cashed checks, sold money orders (only 46¢) and transferred funds up to $500 internationally. That last one surprised me so I asked him if they did much business with that and he said yes. Then he went on to say that a lot of money went to Africa. Scams. I looked at him and grinned - yeah? He got this mischevious look and said, oh, did I say that? LOL! I was just floored. We laughed and talked about how obvious they were. Or at least it seemed that way to me. He said they are mostly women. They go online (the personals, I'm sure) and think they get a boyfriend and that they are getting married.

Now...I know this is off topic, but it's something that really pushes my buttons. I've done my share of online personals. It's not hard to be careful. It's not hard to screen the duds and the scams. So what is the deal here? I hate seeing people who are lonely hearts, usually desperate and suffering low self-esteem, being targeted and taken advantage of. So if you or anyone you know frequents the online singles, take note of this. IT'S A SCAM! Most of it comes out of S. Africa. They target men and women alike. They claim to be trapped there, without money or friends. Or they are trying to finish school and need money. I don't care what the story is, DO NOT SEND MONEY. Or anything that can be sold for money. DON'T.

There are lots of perfectly wonderful people who use the online personals. I've met some good people. But I'm pretty good at sorting them out too. Use common sense. Don't give out personal information that identifies where you live. Take the time to get to know them. Get to know their friends. I belong to a lot of yahoo groups. I've met a lot of people I got to know through those groups, but in every case, other people had also met them and talked about them and we all talked for months, often years, before meeting. They were not people I met last week. I knew them pretty well by the time I met them face to face.

Okay...off my soapbox.

9 comments:

  1. First, that rose have a beautiful tinge of pink.

    Second, your bookmark is beautiful. You gave me an idea on making tassels but I think I'll stick to mine. Simple and yet easy to use.

    The scam, here is M'sia there were news about it but the destination is to developed countries. You can read a blog journal here: http://www.kakteh.blogspot.com/

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  2. Thanks for that link! Scams can originate anywhere. I've gotten offers inside the US and many from Canada that I just deleted. They appear to be especially aggressive from Nigeria but I've heard of a few other places that are just as bad, so I don't mean to say they only come from one place. Just be aware!
    :-) Gina

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  3. Beautiful Rose Gina! Happy Belated Mother's Day!

    I like how you finished off the bookmark. I don't have this book, but I'm going to check if my Mom has it. The motif is very nice. What is the size of the motif done in the Altin thread?

    Happy Tatting!

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  4. Lonely hearts aren't the only target of scams like that - try funeral home directors!!! I am a supervisor at an answering service that handles calls for over 100 funeral homes and a very common scam is for overseas callers to take advantage of free Internet-based relay call services for the deaf (they type in a prearranged script - two obvious benefits are that no one will hear their foreign accent and also that Internet-based relay gives them free access to international long distance). They try to buy funeral-related items with stolen credit card numbers they have purchased online, notably, the big gold lockets with little crystal bottles inside made to hold the ashes of cremated loved ones. Ugh! We can get a dozen of these canned relay calls a day sometimes! Most of our funeral homes just have us say that we do not ship items overseas due to customs issues.

    Another version is that they claim (via Internet-based relay) that they want to transfer their deceased relative to our funeral home but they have to pay the originating funeral home in England a transfer fee first. They want the funeral director to charge $10,000 to their credit card and wire it to the "funeral home" in England. HA. I have lost count of how many aunts are lying deceased and uncollected in England...

    Andrea

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  5. Andrea - I never would have dreamed scammers would attempt something like that. But then, funeral homes are in the business of showing compassion and sensitivity so they would be considered "easy targets".

    Carol - thanks! Vida states 2 1/2" across in white Knit Cro-Sheen, which is size 10 thread. Altin Basak is more between 20 & 30. Mine is probably closer to 1 1/2 to 1 3/4". I don't have it with me right now but I know it was smaller than what hers was.

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  6. I can almost smell that rose. Scams of any sort are one of my biggest pet peeves. I hate seeing people being taken advantage of.

    Oooh and nice tatting also (as usual :)

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  7. The rose is beautiful. How nice to be remembered on Mother's Day.
    Your bookmark is great! I love those colors together and it looks like a little arrow for a bookmark. I like the way you switched up the colors on the split rings.

    As far as scams go I always thought they were pretty obvious, too, until I met someone, a friend of mine, a beautiful intelligent woman who gave $25,000 (her life savings) to her "Finacee' " online that she had never met. I was FLOORED!!! I couldn't believe SHE would be so gullible. It is sooooo sad. She's a single mom, too. Oh, it turns my stomach. I am a big safety gal, you cannot be too careful online.

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  8. Beautiful rose, beautiful bookmark, great information! If only everyone would be so careful!

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  9. Great color combo for the bookmark. Very summer-y. Altin Basak is probably my fave thread to tat with, too. Can't get enough of the stuff, especially now that I found an eBay seller whose prices are $2.10 a ball. And I agree with everything you've said about online scammers and meeting people. Couldn't have said it better myself.

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