With Ruth Ann's help, I got more precise stitch counts and tatted the horse. There are a lot of variables. I used size 20; she used size 10. I shuttle tatted; she needle tatted. There are a couple of places I'm still not real clear on. Her horse looks better proportioned than mine. Is it the thread? Tension? Blocking? Method of tatting? Basically, the rings and chains are correct. I did do a split chain at the stirrup to keep from adding a third line of tatting and extra ends to hide. I think the height in mine between belly and back is too much. The little fella looks pretty stocky, not streamlined.

I want to do the cowboy again with the new numbers and see how it looks before I make any stitch adjustments. Needle tatting tends to produce slightly larger rings compared to the same ring shuttle tatted. Maybe I'll increase the stitch count slightly.

Yesterday I finished couching down the remainder of the Romanian Point Lace bells. I'll have fun coming up with new filling stitches for each bell. I intend to stay with the white.

I have the pillowslip completed and bagged. I was going to knit a cap for my great grandson and his half sister but I can't find my shorter circular needles. I tried the longer ones and it's never ever going to work so I gave up. I guess I could go to double pointed needles but most of those are stashed whereever the shorter circular needles are. I have moved way too many boxes around in the past year!

I'm off the week after Thanksgiving and fully intend to find where everything is and find a new home for some other stuff. The last time I took some vacation, a tree fell on my house. We think all the potential falls now are not a danger but we've had a bunch of wind and rain this evening and that's prime blow-over weather. LOL! I'm going to trust that all is well.

I also plan to do some serious Christmas stitching the week I'm off. I've been going through my books, magazines and printouts the past few weeks, pulling out projects I've been meaning to do. I know I will only get a few done but it's a few more I can cross off my wanna-do list.

I haven't forgotten the giveaway I promised. I just haven't carved out a block of time to do it properly. I've still been sorting out what I'm going to do with the garage repairs from the last tree. I'm making progress but chances are that nothing will get started before mid-December. Gotta say I'm really looking forward to 2011!