Happy St. Patty's day

Happy St Patty's Day!!

As you can see I've had some fun making Shamrocks.  The ones in the back are Tatting Goddess's and the from Sharen Morgan.  Thanks to you both for sharing the patterns, they were just right for the day.  I threw the shamrocks into my pocket for no particular reason.  My friend Salima took Sharen's shamrock and pinned it to her shirt.  She got lots of compliments. 

Roses are red...

Ever since I got my own laptop I've been lazy about posts.  You would think that it would be easier to use my own computer instead of the one at work.  The catch is that I don't own a scanner and I'm an indifferent photographer.   I end up with no photos to go with the posts and you can't see what I'm talking about.  Of course I can just randomly write whatever is on my mind but I like photos. 

So today I looked for stuff to share that you haven't already seen and found this picture on my laptop.  I meant to post it in February and ask what that did they look like to you?  I was trying for roses but wasn't sure if I was delusional.  In addition, I was trying to figure out a way to make the roses into a doily without losing the rose in the pattern.   I don't think I needed to be so concerned...Pier One Imports wasn't worried about losing the rose in the design when they did their rose placemat.  

The roses really show off  Yarnplayer's hand dyed thread and the color changes.  The one on the right is done using Olde Rose and the smaller rose is done using Pizazz.  I've yet to try the pattern with a solid color so I guess that's the next step.  I have a vague picture in my head for a doily but I don't have the right colors in Lizbeth thread right now.   That means its on the shelf until I go on a purchasing spree for greens and rose like colors at the Finger Lakes Tatting Group seminar.  I have to start compiling a list of needs now so I won't miss anything.

Finally A Head!

Poor dragon lost his head and
has to hide until it regenerates!

I've been tatting Anne Bruvold's Norwegian Dragon pattern for the last 2 weeks.  It met with early disaster when I missed a ring and then horrors of horrors ran out of thread doing the head.  Poor dragon had his head cut off for a week!



finally finished!

I persevered and finally found him a head.  I was really tempted at one time to pretend it was a side profile and skip the other wing.  During the process I learned I never have to worry about SSSRs coming undone, they are pretty hard to cut apart.  I'm thinking in a regular pattern that ends with a ring you could substitute a SSSR and just cut the thread where it comes out.    I used Yarnplayer's Pizazz thread and I love the vivid colors.  I think I might try doing Anne's Sea Horse Dragon next.  You find this pattern and a bunch of others at: http://nuperelle.net/Sammensatt/HjerterEng.htm. 



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.