Rainy Day

There's so much rain comming down in Ottawa that a rain warning is in effect.  Anyone with half a brain is at home worrying about their basements flooding.  I'm not because I'm having a case of house phobia.  All my friends are too busy to come out and play but I'm bored.  Normally I can find lots to keep myself occupied at home but today I'm reluctant to hang at the house.  No reason, just feeling confined.  The cleaning that desparately needs to be done might be playing into my phobia.  I also need to do the laundry.  You would be amazed at how much laundry one person can generate or at least the amount I produce. 
So far I've ate lunch out with friends, gone to the wool shop, bead store and a very noisy Starbucks.  Since anymore shopping therapy will require a stop at the mall I'm thinking that I'll just go home and clean.

Stats

You need to clean the kitty litter...

Why haven't you cleaned the kitty litter?   !

Just to let everyone know that I've posted the dagger heart pattern at the side.  Click on the picture at the side to get the pattern.  Lace Loving Librarian pointed out the new feature on blogger that allows you to see the number of visits to you page.  I'm not sure if its all that accurate because it has Threads of a Tatting Goddess as the number one source of all visits.  I've contaminated that count because I use Tatting Goddess's blog list for finding blogs and often use it to find my own.  So I suspect that most of those visits are actually me. 

Completely Missed Valentine's Day

I completely missed Valentine's Day.  It wasn't on purpose, I truly love any day that allows you to wear pink and red together.  Sadly, I was informed in 6th grade by the fashion police that they don't match.  That might be true but sometimes pink and red do go together!  
Cameras and taking pictures is the bane of my blogging.  I have a few pictures to share but they're at home in my camera and not on my computer.  I wanted to share the dagger heart pattern but I don't have a good picture of the heart in progress.  I think pictures will help make the directions clearer. 
I always read the comments on blogs.  Its interesting to see what people say.  Yarnplayer's blog has 161 comments/entries for her latest give-away so far today.   Which means that there's alot of people who are usually quiet.  I have to confess that I've been too lazy to leave any comments lately.  Sometimes its more trouble than its worth but I'm going to get back in the habit.  I like comments because its nice to know that someone visits your blog.  I made the mistake of not putting a visitor counter when I started blogging so I have no clue how many people actually visit. 

Housekeeping

Sunday was a day of cleaning up and finishing stuff.  I cleared out a bunch of pictures from the photo gallery on my computer.  To get one decent picture you take quite a few and there were lots of redundant photos on my computer.  So I erased ones I don't need and hope that I don't regret erasing them.  I also fiddled around a bit and made a few more snails.  Its interesting how different color combinations can completely change a pattern.  I think the snail with the blue body is better than the brown I used in the last post.  I plan on adding another twist to the pattern but haven't tried it out yet. 

I've also spent the last few weeks obsessed with a particular motif in tatting.  In my head I call it a dagger because its made of a series of rings and chains that get smaller until it comes to a point.  I was working on a pattern before Christmas that involved this motif but lost the doily and thread somewhere between Ottawa and Campbellford.  I worry that it fell out of my car.   Last weekend I started playing with it again and ended up with these hearts and a square doily that's slowly forming.  The heart at the top is done in Tat's Kool's mango chocolate.  I love the shading in this thread from brown to yellow, unfortunately that doesn't show up in the picture.  The 2 a the bottom  and the square doily are done in Lady Shuttlemaker's (Sherry Pence) silk thread.   I lucked out this week because Sherry sent some thread as a Thank-you for some thing I sent for Picadilly.  Sherry was too generous and I feel like I should send a thank-you for the thank-you.  

I'm going to use Sherry's thread to continue a few more rounds.  I've had to stop and take a break because I was getting stiff but the doily is currently 61/2 inches.  The nice thing about silk thread is its ability to slide which means decreased friction while tatting.  You don't notice this until you go back to a cotton thread and then you feel the drag.  I can tat more with the silk thread before my hands start to stiffen from overuse.   

Hector Tatting Seminar

Its an exciting time of year with all the Spring Tatting Seminars being posted.  The seminar closest to me (relative term since its a 4-5 hour drive) is the Hector Tatting Seminar.  The drive is sooo worth it!  Its fun to get together with other tatters and hang out, take a few classes, eat great food and get a few tatting supplies. 

If you're in the area the seminar is on April 2-3/2011 for more information you can email Karey Solomon at threads@empacc.net.  There's some great classes being taught including one taught by me called Garden Critters!  Its hard to pick what classes to take from the description so I thought I would help by posting a picture of the snail and butterfly I'm teaching.   The fun part is that you should be able to finish the butterfly in class then start same pattern again with a few twists to create the snail and a more slightly more blinged butterfly.  So you get a chance to add a little complexity to the pattern.  If you haven't done 2 shuttle work this is an easy start.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to everyone!  I know I'm a little late in my New Year's wishes but I've been in mood of quiet contemplation.  Okay...not really. I've been reading instead of tatting.  At least once a year I spend a week or 2 in a glut of reading.  Not that I'm reading anything too impressive, just a bunch of trashy novels (but only the best trashy novels). 

The funniest thing happened the other morning.  I came downstairs and my 2nd cat couldn't be found.  For a second I thought she had died because she's always at the bottom of the stairs 1st thing in the morning.  After looking around for her I finally found her.  You can't tell from the photo but she's sitting on top of my satellite receiver.  It puts out more heat than you realise and when I left it on over night she discovered a nice, warm perch! 

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!!

This morning I'm hanging out with family, opening presents and eating waffles.  I wanted to take a moment and wish all of you a Merry Christmas.  I hope its a day filled with love, laughter and lots of food.