Before I lay me down to sleep.....

Yes! Another one! I have one more to do before I move on to other stuff. This one is very small, maybe 2" at the most in length and 1" in width. The rose is from Jeanne Lugert's earring pattern from the online class. I needed something really small. It's tatted in some size 70 thread and turned out beautifully. I think I have another one started. Just need to thread and gather. The leaves were the tricky part and just something I made up for the crochet to attach to.

A little knitting here and there is adding up. I want it to be able to pull up and be a hood without leaving a gap where the neck is so I've got quite a ways to go yet.

I don't have the beads and ribbon garlands up yet. The tree tilted dangerously just as I got done with the ornaments and tried to adjust some branches in the back so it's propped and I'm waiting a bit to finish. I'm very fortunate that the cats never bother it. One of my son's cats tried to take off with a ball of thread the other night but only after it fell out of the basket it was in. They generally do not bother my tatting at all unless I would purposely tease them with a shuttle swaying or rolling a ball of thread but I don't tempt them because then I would have to get very stern with them and that wouldn't be fair. Besides, watching them chase the flashlight beam is so much more fun!

Off to bed now. It was snowing furiously when I came home and I expect it won't be very nice out in the morning.

Save The Date!

I had a lot of fun participating in the One World One Heart event last year. It's meant to be a way for bloggers to connect globally. This will be the final year so I absolutely want to be in it again.

I can't announce prizes until January 30th, 2011 so make sure you put it on your calendar and come back to see what you can win. Eazy-Peazy!

In the meantime, if you think you might want to be involved or you just want to know what it's all about, the link is in my sidebar.

I'm excited planning what I will give away!

I changed my mind about showing this. I am so pleased with how it turned out. The recipient has no idea that they are getting anything from me anyway. I'm also tickled because I found my box of rocks last night too! That means I can make MORE! Most of the rocks I had just sitting around were too big or too small.

This is the front. I didn't realize when I showed the last post that it already fit over the stone. I painted the stone in a clear glitter acrylic because the rock itself wasn't all that pretty. I tend to pick up my rocks when they are wet and the color and pattern always show up more, so by putting a coat of varnish or clear sealer on it, it has the same effect as when it is wet. Except for the glitter.

Anyway, every time I put a coat on, it took awhile to dry so I had to wait to test the crochet part on the rock. I was able to use a little needle lace here too, so the rock is actually covered in multimedia lace. Tatting, crochet and needle lace. I guess I should say multi-technique lace.

The tatting is done is size 50 DMC cordonnet special and the crochet part is done in size 20 Aida. The needle lace was also done with the Aida since it was simply a continuation of the same thread.

I thought as I finished tatting this motif that I had done it before. Now that it is blocked, it is not the one I was thinking of. Or maybe I did. Ooooooh...is it bad when you can't remember if you've tatted something before or not? I'm not crazy about it but it does make a nice bookmark, a bit more masculine than some and it would make a nice mat with several of the same joined together.

It's motif #11 in this book which is still available at The Tatting Corner for $8.00 plus shipping. You might find it elsewhere but I know it's here. It's an older publication so it's all text, no diagrams, and the photos are black and white. I like to dream that some day I'll have time to simplify the text into short form notation and diagram each pattern for myself. It's well worth it for the 47 patterns inside.

DREAMS are free.

Yay! My son is home and he read my mind...he's bringing up the tree parts and decorations!

The subzero temperatures and busy schedule at work are wearing me out. I didn't do much at all last night. I had just dozed off when I got a phone call but it was enough to refresh me. I ended up doing a little knitting, a little crocheting and a little tatting. Very little!

My son came home with his girlfriend so I spent a little time talking with her. I was about right here at the time and ended up stopping for the evening. It's a snowflake from Myra Piper's snowflake book. It seems like I've tatted every single snowflake in there but I haven't. I really don't remember doing this one before but if I did, it was a smaller thread. It was too much trouble to find a colored thread and beads to play with so I just tatted with white. I can't believe I'm doing that, but it will go in the dye pot. I think it will be quite awhile before we dye again but I'm still in the tat-with-white-or-ecru mode.

The rest of this post is about the buttons I ordered. These are from Gerry Krueger. I say "these" but this is the one I ordered and I didn't have time to scan it this morning so I'm using her etsy photo but I also received a hummingbird button and a smaller rose button just out of her lovely generosity!

I ended up with all these buttons after reading a post at Pat Winters' blog which featured a treaury and the buttons were part of it. I had a hard time narrowing down my choices!

Then the seller had a great sale going on AND free shipping so I bought even more! Embellished Life is the seller.

Etsy sellers are often very generous. It turned out that this set, the one I originally found on Pat's post, had to be remade unexpectedly. She did so and sent them out immediately. I can't wait to find a project for them!

Monday afternoon was spent hemming the sheers from my living room and then washing those and the drapes and rehanging them. I rehung a photo display on another wall and put a few pieces of furniture back in place. I also made some corn chowder for dinner. All that up and down the ladder and up and down the basement steps pretty much did me in.

Yesterday and today at work had me in and out and doing some spot inspections which involved more walking and stairs. Last night I went to bed early and I'm hoping to make it a few minutes early tonight too. Still no tree up. I refuse to haul all that up from the basement. I'll catch my son and have him do it!

So, I did do more knitting, even knitting during a staff meeting which was also our Christmas luncheon so I knew I'd be okay knitting there. I tatted the center of this motif one night before the big clean but just got around to hiding the ends tonight and started with the crochet. I'm still getting my needle stuff back in my "corner" which is a new side to the table too. Anyway, this is going to be a gift so you probably won't see the final bit until the recipient gets it. I'm sort of working it out as I go.

I've also been an online ordering fool this past week. I've ordered books and movies and shuttles and buttons.....getting a holly shuttle from Jane, Sally and 'im in the garage. Right before leaving work today, I ordered Yarnplayer's Layered Ring Christmas Tree pattern. I think more than any other Christmas symbol, I love tatting Christmas trees and I have no clue why!

Out of all the trees I've tatted though, I think these two are still my all-time favs!

This simple 1 ring and all chains pattern by Sue Fuller is SO EASY! At one point, I knew exactly how much thread to wind on the shuttle for the one ring and I even knew how much for the chains. When I traveled to Australia, I had cards wound with the exact amount of thread already loaded with beads. I gave them as gifts but it was so easy to make them and a delight every time because the beads always looked different and I'd use a different star for the topper.

At the other end of the "easy" spectrum is this delightful little tree brooch pattern by Sheridan Fernia, an Australian tatter. There are several bits to this tiny tree that only measures slightly over an inch. It's got all the glitter and glam and I think that's why I like it so much. I've only tatted one and it's in a frame with some other Christmas ornaments.

I'm so busy cleaning and sorting this year that I haven't done nearly as much tatting as normal. I need to get back to the cowboy scene by Ruth Adams too, but I haven't had time to get back to the diagram software either. Life is very very busy just now.

I am both relieved and irritated. I'm relieved because the carpet shampooing is done. I'm irritated because my scanner won't scan. It keeps telling me there are no scan options. It worked Friday, why not today? It will copy and print but it won't scan. I tried reinstalling but a message pops up and says my computer does not support this program. Whaaaaa?

So for now, I'm confined to digital photos.

The last segment! I'm taking a half day of vacation tomorrow to put things back and figure out the tree placement. It's not rocket science but I have to sort and rearrange some things too. Maybe wash the drapes.

Chewie checking out the new playground (she thinks!). Earlier, after I vacuumed but before I shampooed, I had a flashlight and was looking for needles and such. My son's two cats, Diogi and Dillon, thought I was flashing light beams just for them! Yeah, I had fun with it. Dillon especially doesn't move that fast more than once a day. You'd think an old cat wouldn't be enthralled by moving lights.

here's the lace bobbin I won yesterday. Carolyn had John Aebi make up some samples that we can offer at our Lace Day in April to celebrate Lafayette Lacers being 30 years old.

Well,actually, you have to order them ahead of time but we spoke for the ones we wanted. They are $20 each so keep that in mind next Spring. I don't know what kind of woods - only light and dark, that's all.

Here's what I won in our exchange! We do the kind where the gifts are anonomously wrapped and dropped in a box before coming in. Then we draw numbers (if participating) and take a numbered turn picking a gift. Three times. There was a purple package that kept being taken by whomever was up. LOL! And then in the same order, the gifts were unwrapped.

Mine was from Dagmar. She actually facilitated this class in tapestry crochet at our last meeting except we made tiny bags. Nope....didn't get mine done. She made these into potholders and I think they are delightfully colorful!

I took a tiny tatted piece in a framed ornament plus one of my RPL bells. Lace Knitter Kelli Slack ended up with it!. Kelli is one reason I've been feeling prompted to knit more lately. The cowl is now about 4 1/2" long and it supposed to be 8" but since I want it long enough to act as a hood too, I'll make it longer. Besides, I have several more skeins of that yarn. Might make mittens too!

I was surprised when I got home yesterday and found a Christmas card from Kelly Dunn. Well, not really because she has sent me Christmas cards before, but this one had a sweet kitty bookmark too!

Here's a better photo of the bookmark.

I didn't take part in any online exchanges this year because I wanted to play secret santa to some particular people. At the rate I'm going though, it may be NEXT Christmas before I get things done! The weather is crappy and I have time tonight but my stuff is also a bit helter-skelter so maybe I'll just knit. I'm tired of cleaning!

This isn't the only thing I'm doing but for the moment, it's consuming my attention. One thing I've discovered in all this cleaning is that I have a LOT of yarn. I can't tell you how many times I've culled and given BAGS of it away. You would think I'm a certified knitter...or crocheter.

The truth is, I'm a bonafide sucker for pretty fiber, be it yarn, thread, ribbon, fabric or animal hair. I see something pretty and my brain immediately imagines at least one thing I'm GOING TO MAKE! By the time I get home, I've already forgotten the exact inspired idea half the time, but there are always dozens of others to take its place. This yarn was originally meant to be something for my oldest granddaughter. Probably a sweater since I seem to have skeins and skeins of it. I do remember giving her a skein of it while teaching her to knit. I guess since I gave it to her to play with, the sweater idea was immediately discarded.

For a couple of years now, I've been wanting to make a cowl or a wimple or a neck-something-or-other. They look to be much faster to make than a shawl or sweater or cape, right? Quick and easy gifts too. So every time I see a skein of yarn to-die-for - I buy one skein. That's all it takes, I'm sure. Or mittens. I was making the foldover mittens for my grandkids one year. Big plans don't always match up with time and energy. I've got yarn for my youngest granddaughter too. I know from my other grandkids that it's not always a good idea to jump in there and make something. Sizes change. Color preferences change. Okay...she's too young to talk but mom might have some input there. And until I know for sure that I will have the time to start AND finish it, I don't want to start.

Now...I've been wanting to make one of these cowls for myself for ages. I started a different one as a gift last year and it's still in the beginning stage. I got stuck on something. I didn't really intend to knit this one right now. I was making a swatch and trying to figure out how to work the circular needles I have. I've used them before but it's been a long time. Way long. So once I figured everything out and I'm not going to tell you how many times I started over, I decided to go for it.

So far I have three inches done, plus another inch that was turned and knitted in with a picot edge. I've had to correct a few mistakes which I'm grateful to have found to begin with.

And now I feel a need to keep at it until it is DONE.

Even so, I took time out today to go to my lace guild's Christmas carry-in and exchange. It was a fun afternoon. I won a commemorative bobbin from Carolyn Regnier. Our lace day next April will also commemorate a 30 year anniversary. I got a set of lovely tapestry crochet potholders from Dagmar. She taught the tapestry crochet at our last guild meeting.

I'm too tired right now to get the bobbin and potholders to scan and add.

You see, I've spent a good part of the evening shampooing the living room carpet. Half of it. When it's dry, we'll move the furniture over and I'll shampoo the other half. THEN I can put my tree up!

I've decided this will be the last year I put up this big tree. I have more than enough ornaments but it's becoming more of a chore than fun to get it all out. I love Christmas trees so I don't want to give them up but it's time to go to something smaller and more manageable.

So..I'm waiting on the carpet to dry, hopefully enough to move the sofa out of the hallway, and I'll knit for awhile and then go to bed!

Future & Past.....

Lace Eyelashes

Okay, these were shown online a few years ago, but I wonder when these will be the next fad? Tatters Up! You could tat some lovely lace eyelashes and put them on the thin eyelash strips. Tat in size 80 and they will still be fairly light. Remember when I tatted eyelashes for a gold mask? And they aren't fancy at all - just very very long picots!


I wanted to show you the 1908 McCall's magazine that I bought last weekend at the same place I bought the shuttle I blogged about recently.

Here's the cover. The water damage does not look as dark as it does in the scan. Note the writing saying a Christmas Play is inside. Click on the image for a larger version.

This is the table of contents. Keep in mind that this is over 100 years old! The annual subscription rate was 50¢ per year. It mentions in the January preview of an article about the lace that will be in fashion. I would love to see it! Oh, and if you were writing to one of the editors/writers you needed to include a 2¢ stamp for a reply.

Here's an article about a popular hairstyle and it mentions teasing (or backcombing) the hair and the permanent wave created by a French stylist. I can't get over how much hair the model has! Mine won't even hold a velcro barrette!

Handmade gift ideas! I wish I could see that needlebook in the upper left a bit better. I am so tempted to try my own version of that one.

Much of the magazine had to do with McCall's patterns. I guess I was surprised to see what a wide range of patterns they carried a century ago.

This is a description of the patterns just shown. Read just how very elaborate these articles of clothing were! Tucks and braids and lace and buttons and pleats!

Just like today, the magazines were supported by advertisers. See the ad for suesine silk? Ten to twelve yards for a dress and the cost was 47 1/2¢ per yard! Okay, a yard may only be 22 inches wide, but wow! What a lot of fabric!

Look at how nifty the "modern" stove and gasoline lamp were!

Here's another stove and "alkali" must have been the buzz word then. I saw another ad mentioning their product did have not alkali or was made without alkali.

I hope you enjoyed these pages. I just love glimpses into the past.

A lovely card with gifties!

Even though I knew Tatting-Marie was sending me something, I wasn't expecting these lovelies!
I don't think I've ever seen such perfect clunies in person! The poinsettia is lovely and the way she put it on the card allows me to take it off and frame it or use it as a bookmark. The teensy angel ornament was inside the card. She's about 1 1/4" tall and has that tiny thread bow around her neck. Can you imagine tying that thread bow???? It also has a clear hanger to put on my little tree (which isn't up yet!).

But that's not all! Inside the card she shared a photo of a tree decorated in tatting and I'm assuming Marie is the tatter of all the angels (and a few crocheted ones) as well as the ornamentation on the tree skirt. Do you recognize the patterns? I see patterns by Monica Hahn and Mark Myers and Martha Ess and a few others.

AND...she also tatted a kitty bookmark! All the current cat residents are shades of black,gray, and white but the cat we had for years and years before that was an orange tabby that we called Rusty. He lived to be 18 or 19 years old, as far as we knew - coulda been older, and was quite the character. This bookmark makes me think of him.

Thank you Tatting-Marie in Florida! You brought some sunshine to my cold cold home!

Finished RPL Bells!

I haven't really felt good the past two days and combined putting a few things back on the bookshelf and hallway and just laying around. And stitching. I finished bells 4 & 5 last night. I had a hard time getting them photographed without a reflection or scanning without blurriness but I finally got a shot of all 5 on my printer this morning. There are slightly more detailed shots on my lace blog.

I feel better today but I'm really tired now too. In and out of single digit temps wears me out and I was out most of the morning. I don't generally get sick-sick, I'll just not feel up to par, so when I suddenly feel a lot better, I know I probably had a touch of something going around. I hate not knowing it til it's over because I can inadvertantly expose others who do tend to get really sick.

I'll probably rest some more tonight but the next few nights I need to do some baking for lace guild on Saturday and finishing up my exchange gift there. Cripes! Is Christmas really only slightly over two weeks away?

I finally got some tatting done! Friend Jane sent me a bit of her Lizbeth Pink Cocoa which happens to match some things I wear perfectly, so I used my Beginner's Beaded Blossom Brooch pattern to tat it up. I wanted to use pink and brown beads but do you know how hard it is to find brown beads? I settled on some "brown iris" glass beads, 11/0.

I had a hard time getting a good image too. Because it's 3D, the pin won't scan properly and it seems it won't lay well for the camera either! This image is clear, compared to the others, but tends toward a pink cast which is more than the thread itself has. The areas are actually well defined by color.

My tree is more decorated now but not with tatting. It seems to be an expectation that with a white tree, you use colored tatting but I don't have a bunch of ornaments tatted up for that and I DO have plenty of other ornaments. Too many for a tree really. I ended up using some small glass ornaments and leaving it at that. I do have a small green tree that I put tatting on but I'm not getting it out this year.

Yesterday I bought a new container for a collection of thread that has grown over the years. These are too thin for me to tat with alone but I often use it doubled or as a blending thread with another regular tatting thread. Lately I've had it in mind for bobbin lace and embroidery. I only buy when they are on sale and then I'm overwhelmed by the color choices. I was afraid I was duplicating what I already had but I think there are only 2 that are duplicates. I don't really use them a lot but I love looking at the color and sheen!

Sore, Hungry & Tired

I finally got the hallway shampooed. I also wiped the walls down and took down the cold-air return grate and washed it. I cleaned out a much used bookshelf. Now that the carpet is drying, I washed the blades on the ceiling fan in the living room and heated a frozen broccoli/carrot/cauliflower/cheese one-person serving. It's too late to nap but I will probably shower before I go to bed. I worked up a sweat!

I still didn't get all I wanted to get done on my week off. I hoped to have the entire living room shampooed so that I could put the tree up but I'll do it in halves through the week. This is where the furniture is too much for me to move myself. In fact, I had my son move the display cabinet with dolls in it. I'm out of boxes to empty things into so couldn't empty it except for a few teacups.

I hate the idea of putting things back in the hallway - it looks so open and clean now, but I have nowhere to put some of this stuff. I felt a bit guilty for not getting to any of this yesterday afternoon but I was tired and recouping then! So while I was recouping last night, I decided to tat the other two bookmarks in the December 1986 issue of Anna that I mentioned before.

You might remember this one? I sent it to my aunt and it turns out now that it's my favorite pattern of the three.

Here's the second pattern tatted in Lizbeth size 20 Christmas thread. I might like this pattern better in a solid and thought I might tat one later. We'll see.

This is the third pattern and I used Lizbeth size 20 Victorian Red along with a strand of Sulky shiny gold. I don't know the exact color/size of the Sulky but I thought it would add a bit of gold to the overall look. I used the handle of a crochet hook as a picot gauge which makes the picots nice and loopy as well as uniform size. I almost ran out of thread on this one!

It's not like I need one more piece of furniture, but as I was thumbing through a craft magazine on the aforementioned bookshelf, I found the "Perfect Caddy". I think that would be a perfect companion to my chair - right next to it, holding the threads and books I use the most. Several hundred dollars is the cost, but I do know a few carpenters so someday.......who knows?

New Old Shuttle

Today I demonstrated tatting for Dickens of a Christmas, an annual event downtown which uses a Dickens theme, the time period, as the focus. There are carolers walking around singing, carriage rides, everyone is dressed in clothing of the era, and I think there was even a production of A Christmas Carol going on but I didn't check it out.

So I try to dress at least a little bit like the Victorians and this time I wore my usual long black skirt but I don't know where my white Victorian blouse is and I suspect it's a bit snug so I wore a long sleeved black sweater and a very lacy black shawl. I couldn't fit Carol's shawl pin in it - the holes were a bit too loose and it was polyester, not real yarn, but I wore a purple rhinestone necklace and some crystal drop earrings. And snow boots - it was snowing like crazy when I went in. For this event, I often use my metal engraved shuttles or a pretty wooden one, but this time I decided to use this very small metal filigree shuttle I bought from Purse Paradise once upon a time. It was even still in the bag!

It's a small short shuttle but the post depth is tall compared to many shuttles. I love the look of it but like all metal shuttles, it slips out of my hand all the time. I just can't get and maintain a good grip on them so it's in my collection to look at. I'm glad I tried it out though.

We were demonstrating at Lafayette Brewing Company, an eating establishment that brews its own beer. They always have a Christmas Ale and it's different every year. This one had a vanilla flavor and smell to it. I only had a small glass but it was very good.

Yesterday I drove with my daughter to pick up her grandmother (paternal) from Rockford, IL where she was visiting a friend the past few weeks. On the way, we stopped at St. Joseph, IL primarily to find a restroom, something to drink, and lunch as it turned out. We saw a sign that said "Antiques" on the exit ramp so of course, we turned in that direction. heheheheheh.....it was just a little way down the road. Actually, there were two places close to each other but one had the gate locked so we went into the one that was open, just to stretch our legs, you know. Well, the storefront was deceiving. We thought it was little....it was HUGE. We kept wandering back further and further. The place was clean, well lit, and everything was wonderfully displayed plus the prices were awesome. Very reasonable, not atrociously high. I ended up buying one vintage crochet magazine that had some tatting in it. And a tea towel. And a pomadour. But I kept myself in check. After all, we had to include another person and her luggage for the return trip. Can't imagine strapping grandma to the hood for the ride home!

When we finally left, the gate to the other place was open. Well....might want to come back some time so I really needed to at least peek inside to see if it was worth it. We stepped in the door and were immediately greeted by a gentleman rattling off the sale information. The place was packed and the aisles so narrow I was afraid of knocking stuff off!

We were actually only a few feet in when my daughter spied a glass dish holding shuttles on the OPPOSITE side of a glass encased display. There were all kinds of sewing and stitching bits in there! So we asked the fella to unlock it and I poked through the shuttles while my daughter checked out crochet hooks, scissors and stuff she she was curious about. Most of the shuttles were the typical ivory colored ones that I already have many of. There was a pumpkin seed one, also ivory colored and very flimsy feeling. Another smaller pumpkin seed model but the tips were broken off. Several of the black celluoid and a few bone ones. There was another dish of all metal shuttles but nothing that I didn't already have. The prices were quite steep compared to the place before, but anything under $50 was 50% off so I ended up getting this one for $11.00. This is not your typical ivory colored shuttle.

It's a bobbin shuttle, not post. The ends are pinned together and it has a bobbin of the same color and material of the shuttle which pops out. It had this very big yellow cord in it, not a lot, but I noticed the bobbin was still a snug fit and didn't spin easily when I tugged on the cord.

I was delighted to add this to my collection! It's a bit dirty inside so I'll need to clean it up, but I haven't seen anything out of this material before. I'm happy!

I took pics of some lovely tatting and embroidery on my cell phone but can't get it to send to my email. It keeps saying it was refused so I'll probably have to contact AT&T if it continues to find out why. One thing I noticed - lots more tatting and tatting supplies at both these places than I ever find in Indiana.

Well, I'm feeling tatting-deprived again, in spite of the tatting I did this morning. I only do very simple edgings at these events so that I don't mess up but I'm needing a bit more of a challenge now.

One day I walked into the living room and found Dillon sleeping on the stuffed lion my son put on the back of the sofa. Guess every cat needs a stuffed "teddy" to cuddle with.

When you've been tat-deprived, you start tatting everything in sight! I spotted a pattern on Spulni-Blog yesterday and had to try it! With Beads! I've been without beads in my tatting for even longer! For the center ring, I slid the beads over from the shuttle as I needed them which puts them on the core thread and makes a center more stable. I should have had the last bead on the thread around my hand though so that when I closed the ring, it would be at the base. It's kind of off-kilter and if you want to look, you'll see it. I also had to remember to leave a little space where I put the beads so there would be room to join into later. Some ended up being a bit snug.

I really thought this snowflake would tat up as large as the Angels in the Snow snowflake but I was wrong, just like I was wrong with the Angels snowflake that I thought would be very small! You can see the difference here. The Spulni-flake is tatted in size 30 but I don't know what brand since the label was missing. It felt soft in the tatting so I suspect it is a 3 cord thread. It was one of Jane Smith's that was sent to me along with other threads and shuttles, etc. She was good about marking the size. Even though I had to make some minor changes to accommodate the beads, this was an easy pattern to tat. The beads are size 10 but looked bigger to me. That's what the package said though!

I've lost my momentum in cleaning...booohooooo! It will be Saturday before I can get back to it but I did sort through most of a stack of Anna Magazines. Well...at least until I found the only one missing a cover which is dated inside for December 1986. There was a tatted doily pattern in two sizes which I wasn't interested in - don't generally do doilies - and three bookmarks. This is the first one. If you've ever tried any of the projects in the Anna magazines, a now defunct publication that has reincarnated in a somewhat different focus, you might remember the pattern sheets in the center with mostly symbols for directions and many printed over each other. Numbers are in the instructions as well as the diagram but both are sketchy. I did figure it out but had to retrotat pretty early in the game as I realized I'd made a wrong join. I like this but I really want to try number two. I may scan the diagrams and put them all on one document instead of scattered on a pattern sheet that is yellowing with age!

I'm debating on saving this for the dye pot or sending it to my aunt along with the angel and snowflake. It's easy to make so I may go ahead and give it away. I'm driving out of state today and won't be back until late evening. That's not going to help my tat-deprivation at all unless I happen upon a spectacular thread/bead/craft shop along the way!