Hi Y'All! Remember me? I can't believe it's been nearly a week since I posted!

Life has been chaotic, some good, some not so good, but ultimately it will all be good. I've really had very little time to tat - or rather, didn't have tatting with me when I did find myself waiting somewhere. It's probably just as well. I wondered this morning why I'm going through Sharon's book when I could be finishing up my T.A.T. Artisan phase, but I know why. I have to really focus on what I'm doing with T.A.T. while with this, it's just in bits and pieces and not something I'm turning in for evaluation.


Here's the week's accomplishment. Darned little, huh? I didn't even have time to get my stuff into the fair or go to Frankfort and see Carol Amich's stuff. I love to see her fair entries, not just the tatting but the photography and rock painting. Carol is a highly talented lady!


This first motif is actually supposed to be an edging, a cloverleaf edging, which is part of Sharon's progression from rings and chains into simple motif bookmarks and now edgings. I left off with edgings in my last post about this and this is the next step.

Why is it not an edging? LOL!

Well, I could have blocked it into an edging and that was my intention but I didn't like the way it stretched the chains out - and this is also a record for me, when I tat things from this book again. This is an example of how different people's tension has an impact on the pattern. In the photograph in the book the chains ARE stretched out a bit, but when I tried to do that, it ruffled my clovers. I may have tatted too tight or I may have snugged up my chains too much. At any rate, if I use this pattern for an edging, I'll know to add more ds's to my chain segment.


This one is called the vine edging. Sharon talks about using one color or two colors. I opted for two colors because I like the contrast of rings against chains and felt the flow of the pattern would show up more with two colors instead of one. She also talks about using two shuttles with this pattern or creating the same effect with a shuttle and ball (one color).

I didn't start this intending to make it a book review, but if you're seeing elements that you think you'd like to try, contact Sharon for a copy of the book. One thing I'm seeing is that Sharon uses icons to stand for the abbreviations we often see in other books. For instance, a shuttle shape indicates "shuttle" - that's easy, right? But if more than one shuttle is needed, she has that number of shuttles. There are varying smiley faces to tell you how difficult you can expect the pattern to be and a glossary near the front defining those icons.

Okay, back to the tatting part. In case you haven't picked up on it by now, so far we've covered a lot of the basic elements of ring and chain combinations. You'll find these same patterns or very similar ones in all the old publications. Sharon's stitch count is her own, of course, but if you look back at old patterns, you should be able to recognize many of these same basics. The vine edging, for instance, is the basis of some beautiful bookmarks. Well, pooh - I was trying to find one in particular but the search feature doesn't seem to be working well today and a manual search had me sidetracked looking at old stuff in my blog. I have to admit I love looking through my own blog. It's so easy to forget all the stuff you've tatted!


This one is called a chain link edging. You tat the rings and one side of the chains in one segment and then come around and tat the chains along the opposite side. I don't remember where I bought this thread - it was online and not one of our known suppliers of hand-dyed thread. The dying is well done but it's a 3 cord thread and broke on me once, has a tendency to fuzz, and I've found very small slubs a time or two. I'd have to try some other threads by this person before I would recommend it.


This is where I stopped this morning. I've moved from edgings now into insertions and this is a simple ring insertion. You tat one side of an "edging" and then tat the same thing on the opposite side. I made an error in the first side by forgetting to join the small rings together in pairs. When I tatted the opposite side, I just joined in two rings at once and that fixed it. This also makes a pretty bookmark. You could run a ribbon through the center. Would make a lovely embellishment on the front placket of a blouse or on a cuff.

I'm home today. I'd arranged for someone to come out and pump out my septic tank (one of the glories of living in the country) and also asked them to install a riser so we don't have to dig to uncover the unit. "We" meaning my sons. They are very grateful to me right now. LOL! The septic pumpers showed up early and are all done, so I'll use the rest of my day to try to get some cleaning and sorting done.

My son is still in the small bedroom and his stuff in the living room, as well as the stuff I took OUT of the small bedroom. We had picked up a door to replace the one in the basement but we were off on measurements and had to take it back last night. Additionally, the door will have to be special-ordered, or we can cut off a regular door. There was much discussion about this last night. I was tired and weary of thinking so I'll figure out what I want to do this weekend - very likely going back to get the same door if I know we can do the modifications ourselves. It looks like it....but there are no guarantees. It's much less expensive than a special order though.

We still have to check out the sump pump, paint the basement, paint the outside of the house and make a repair at the north end of the overhang, hopefully get some gravel for the lane, and if I have any money left over - I'm getting a new countertop for my kitchen. Are you tired yet????

Oh, and btw, TattingChic is celebrating a milestone of 50,000 visitors by hosting a giveway. Go!

I'm hungry.