#14 of 25 Motif Challenge!

Go HERE for the thread giveaway which ends July 10th!

Yay! I got a new haircut and my new contacts! My old contacts didn't fit right and my eyes were itching and burning so much last winter that I stopped wearing them. I've worn contacts since I was 14 years old and I'm glad to have a good fitting pair again.

Our county fair is coming up so I need to send in the registration form by the end of the week. I'll be at some farm inspections next Tuesday and Wednesday. Then the following week I'll be out of town again for 3 days.


Last night was bobbinlace night and I started a butterfly but only got half done. When I got home I finished this little knitted pinwheel box/purse, a free pattern on Ravelry. She has a double pinwheel purse pattern too, which I just found tonight. It has some secret pockets and is a bit bigger. it's cute if not terribly practical.


After the pinwheel purse was blocking, I started figure #11 in the DMC Tatting publication.

Row one was EASY-PEASY! Rings of 5-3-3-5. The directions say to make long picots so I did, longer than my usual picots anyway, and it certainly helped space the rings better.

Row two was easy too and I could have happily stopped here. The little rings are 5, join, 5. The chains alternate with 8ds followed by 2-2-2-2-2-2 ds (5 picots separated by 2 ds). I sometimes forgot to make the small ring join in the same place as the last one before tatting one for the next picot but I always remembered before I actually made the join.

I've noticed the directions will use the = sign when transitioning from rings to chains and back. I'm not sure why. They usually say to turn the work and they will say which shuttle to use which implies rings if it's the right-hand shuttle ( or single shuttle) or chains if it's the left-hand shuttle. I guess they didn't have left-handed tatters back then. Maybe they got their knuckles rapped for tatting left-handed like children learning to print did.

So tonight I finished the last bit...not crocheted, just couldn't bring myself to try that again, but I tatted a lockstitch chain across the top. It doesn't really do what the crocheted header would do and you can see the bare thread space so I guess my brain couldn't get too imaginative.

This is how lame I am tonight. I draped the piece over my wrist and imagined it as a bracelet. LOL! Perhaps later I will actually tat something else from the pattern and I do really like it but I'm two projects behind already and decided this is good for now. I think I might tat a chain instead of the bare thread space in the first row if I tat it again. A chain with a picot in the middle of it would give something to stitch onto an edge. It IS an edging, after all.