Thoughts on being torn apart by wild animals

It's been two years since I last posted. On August 10, 2015 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease (PD).

I was reading articles on dealing with PD while riding an exercise bike and listening to The Man Who Sold the World: “A chance to die to turn to mold.”

There is advice on planning for your impending decrepitude. Best case I only have 20 to 30 years. I might be helpless as young as 80 something. Okay, that's not so bad.

At 15 I thought I didn't want to live past 30. In the month before my thirtieth birthday I found a new job and moved into a new house. Now at more than twice that age I'm glad I lived. BTW, my first wife was not worried about me killing myself. She just assumed that I would go to bed on August 7, 1983 and not wake up.

As I read about all the directives and planning I need to do I again return to the dreams of my youth. Well, actually I've talked to my boys about this before.

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for nature. I know I'm in trouble when I start to feel separate from nature. A friend noticed that since I started treatment I am easily distracted by birds flying by. In my youth I loved to watch birds.

Again in my teens I dreamt of being buried in a simple pine box to decay and molder back into the earth. My favorite dream was being buried at sea in the Laguna Madre, food for my early arch enemies: hardheads and crabs. But perhaps my favorite and most bizarre dream was that near the end I would go into the wild to be torn apart and eaten by wild animals: pumas, coyotes, bobcats, &c. and finally my great love, vultures.

As I go through these thoughts I begin to wonder about my mental state. I read the following on the National Parkinson Foundation Web Site under “What Are the Treatment Options for Psychosis?”

“ The clinician must determine if the psychotic symptoms are related to medication side effects, dementia or delirium.”

So where do I really stand mentally. Some may think wanting to be torn apart and eaten by wild animals might be a bit on the psychotic side, but I thought it through.

Given the number of medications I take it would be an act of cruelty to allow a poor beastie to eat me. It would also poison the earth to decay in a pine box. I suppose the only sane thing is to ask for cremation at a place familiar with disposal of hazardous materials.

TTFN

All the pieces fall together

I'm so tired I took a short nap this evening. I am glad my wife called when she did. I should be able to get to sleep now that it is approaching bed time. You'll understand later why I was so tired.

I do not believe in coincidence. I do have a strong belief in providence. I also believe that if we allow ourselves to be guided we develop into the person we are supposed to be.

I wish I could say I am a lace maker. I hope I can say it again soon. But what is it that makes me good at crafts of this type. One could say a love for tedium, but actually sometimes in the mist of meticulous endeavor I sometime just wish it would end. I actually can feel surges of stress going through my body and then I carry on with more energy than before. I suppose that is part of what we call tenacity.

The last few days have reminded me of how much my life is out of control and yet being lead.

Last Saturday we learned that my brother had left us on Thursday July 4, 2013. The authorities had told his neighbor that they would contact the family but they never did. We had to hear about it through neighbors and friends. In the end we were lucky to have a cousin who is a Corpus Christi Police Officer. He called the morgue and verified that indeed my brother was there.

Then comes the planning to leave. My youngest had a great day camp scheduled for this week and my wife really had to stay for other reasons. So my two older sons and myself would travel to my home town of Kingsville, Texas.

At first mom wanted me to wait until just before the service to come. She didn't want me to have to pay for a hotel. My wife, the Engineer, insisted that I go as soon as I could to help my mother. As always my wife was correct. I needed to be here. And it was good to have an excuse to leave my youngest. My two older boys have their computers, movies and books. They enjoyed staying in the hotel while I attended to my mother's needs. I hate to say it but my youngest would have put a bit more strain and limitations on my getting things done.

On Saturday while discussing the trip my wife thought I should consider buying a laptop computer so I would have something to occupy my mind when I wasn't busy. I talked her and myself out of this. I have a desk top and though ancient it serves me well for the most part.

Then on Sunday she said you really aught to go to Costco and look at laptops. So we went. And though I could not convince myself that I needed a laptop for some reason I bought one, a nice one.

So in all my preparation for the trip I also had to prepare the laptop. What files would I need what tools did I need to configure while on my home network. The normal system updates alone were taking forever on WiFi so I hooked it up directly. Given the really lame WiFi at the hotel it would probably still be running, if it didn't fail outright. The abomination of a network won't let me send emails from Windows Live Mail. I need to go to some website and prove that my email address is from a human. Fortunately my providers website and Microsoft's Hotmail site allow me to send email.

It turned out that the computer has been critical in dealing with the Funeral arraignments and one other associated task.

I have been communicating on FaceBook and it is through this site that the family has passed news of my brother's death and the arraignments. In one particular case one of my niece's cousins, who I know I met at the last few funerals sent a friend request and messaged me. She asked me to call her which I did within half an hour of her request. She had read the obituary and she needed to know what had happened to her uncle.

But the main thing that the computer was instrumental in was one of those many somethings that we are not always prepared for and I do not know if anyone else in the close family could have succeeded as I did. Partially because I have a background in computers and partially because I am the type of person who can enjoy the tedium of lace making.

One of the first task my family wanted me to do was to find a way to back up Paul's computer. I won't go into it here but there are a lot of things that have happened leading up to Paul's death that do not make any sense. He had rented a new laptop and sold his old computer. There was nothing, absolutely nothing on the computer. Oh, we wont go into how using his note book of passwords I was able to come up with the password for new new computer. But where were all his pictures and such?

One of the true oddities of recent events was that the police had locked down the trailer after his death. But they did let his estranged wife go in to get some clothes and she took his iPhone. She claimed that her's was dead and she used Paul's phone to call and let us know about his demise.

Mom did get the phone back fairly quickly but it was out of charge. It was when we went to check out the trailer and try and retrieve the data from his computer that I found the charger and we removed the cable from the computer. My niece charged the phone over night and we went to the AT&T store to have the number changed so she could use the phone.

It was when we meet at the AT&T store that we discovered that he had a lock on his phone. Since I had just the day before broken the code to his computer it took three tries to unlock the phone.

We did change the number and put a new SIM card in the phone. They were going to reset the phone to factory defaults when I asked the clerk if there was a way to retrieve things like contacts or photographs. She didn't have a way at the store so I said I would try and we could reset it later. Then the stark blight of my toil began.

I hooked the phone to my computer and went to look at the photos. Only Camera Roll showed up on my computer so I called AT&T. The very nice and helpful clerk soon admitted that this was more of an Apple thing so on came Amber. The first clerk had explained how Camera Roll is where the pictures you take with the iPhone reside. The other folders were synced from a computer. Amber very nicely explained that iPhones are not meant to trade data between different computers but given the situation they would try to come up with a work around. The two she came up with would have taken days with substandard results.

While she was researching I was looking at various functions on the iPhone. I finally asked what is Photo Stream. This resulted in a bright flash of light and a loud gong sound. She did a little research and we started testing. We selected a couple of pictures in one of the folders by first clicking edit and then tapping the photos. We then selected share, tapped photo stream, tapped create new photo stream, tap next and finally post. Then we opened the photo stream then again tap edit, tap the photos, tap share, tap Camera Roll. It actually took several tries to get this sequence but now we had it. I thanked her. It was a 42 minute phone exchange.

And then it began. Attach the phone to my computer. Copy Camera Roll to my computer, delete the contents of Camera Roll. Go to the phone. Open a folder. Select edit and then tap every photo, select share, select photo stream, create or add to a photo stream, tap next and tap post. Open the photo stream, select edit and then every photo, select share, select Camera Roll. Wait and then disconnect the phone from the computer, reconnect the phone to the computer. A then you repeat the process with a different folder.

At some point I discovered that somewhere around 500 pictures the process stops. So for the fuller folders I had to extract the photos in groups of three to four hundred.

So here is where being used to repetitive, meticulous crafts paid off. There were 15 folders with a total of 3,518 photos each of which I touched at least twice. With mistakes and the like some photos were touched more that twice.

After this I kept one complete set, Paul's widow wanted everything saved. I found an app to retrieve the contacts, but I did not extract the music. It was Paul's phone they were separated, so I did not want to deal with ownership issues of copyrighted music.

I do not wish to seam cold but she is lucky to get what I will be giving her. I did not want to transfer all of the photos. Some are not appropriate to my moral outlook. But at this point I took on the persona of an archivist and I did want to save everything for the widow. She was in a lot of the pictures. Fortunately not any of the questionable ones. This process along with resetting the phone took over 12 hours, not counting the phone call.

There was a reason for expediency. The funeral home, but more so, my mother and my niece wanted wanted pictures of Paul and his grand kids for a video montage to run during the funeral and I had to get the pictures to the Funeral Director by 9:00 am.

I needed to find some pictures and I need to remove any objectionable pictures so I could make a DVD for my mother and my niece. I went through every picture and selected the ones we needed and deleted the ones inappropriate for my niece and mother. In addition to the porn, my niece had told me she wanted to have nothing to do with guns, not even see them. There were several pictures of just guns and a few with her father with a gun. Including what I think was the gun.

I emailed the pictures to the Funeral Director at 2:38 in the morning and reset her phone. My niece now as a like new from the factory iPhone 5 and we will have pictures of my brother with his grand kids and I am able to look back on my life and my recent chance purchase and see how I was uniquely prepared to help my family in this endeavor. Even that one decision to pay a little more for a DVD drive. I was told most people just down load stuff now. But I will be leaving three DVDs here, which would not exist but for everything that lead to this day. It would have been sad for my niece to lose these memories. Now to bed and then its time to say good bye.

Musings on a tattered life

Can you believe it was April of 2011 the last time I made an entry. I cannot blame Facebook since it has only been the last couple of months that I have started getting hooked in the universe.

I guess part of my issue is that with everything such else (kids, health issues, the violin) I have not been that involved with lace and this blog was begun as an area for my thoughts on tatting, though I did extend it to bobbin lace at one point. This post will touch very little on lace and may actually be a little sad towards the end.

I am staying in a motel in my home town. I do not know when I lost the habit of visiting, but I rarely return to this little town in South Texas. Kingsville.

Though I have not done any lace making in a long time I cut off a UFO and brought some shuttles and thread along with one of my tatting boxes.

I have been having a rough time with my knees lately and the osteoarthritis was exacerbated recently when I was a Walking Den Leader at this year's Cub Scout Day Camp. I loved being able to spend time with my youngest and the rest of the den, but obviously my knees cannot tolerate that much walking, especially in a semi-rough terrain.

I was going to have one of my knees replaced last September but another member of the family became ill so we put it off. I now plan on having one of the knees replaced after the first of the year.

I will be limited physically for a few weeks so I really want to have my lace making up to at least an intermediate level so I can use the craft to distract from my situation. I don't want to be struggling with things like how to join at the end of a doily or having to frog stitch (rip it rip it) because I forgot to put a twist in before going around a pin.

But now why am I back in Kingsville. Unfortunately over the last few years my visits have almost always been to say good bye to that which remains of a person after that which defines a person has left them. Most unfortunately the last four times the loss was self inflicted and all in one family.

So here I sit late at night thinking about today's trip and the things my mother and I will need to attend to tomorrow. The trip was uneventful and even given the nature of the visit very enjoyable. But as my doctor once said, I am a dweller and there is nothing I can do about that.

As one would expect I am having difficulty focusing, though I was able to maintain focus on my driving even with in the musings that occupied my thoughts for some 238 miles, tattered musings at that.

It always amazes me that as much as I remember disliking so many things about this area as a kid just how much I love this place. I especially enjoy the drive, watching the land become south Texas. It is just so beautiful. And then I think about my kids sitting behind me. The glow of movies on their lap tops lighting their faces.

We could see the Celanese Plant from the by passafter dark. I always thought of how amazing how the plant always reminded me of a ship at night, though more lit up than anything I had ever seen off of Bob Hall Pier. I explained to the boys that I had been told that there were three sister plants built and that the Kingsville/Bishop plant was the only one that had not blown up. I then engaged in a little hyperbole and told my oldest that if the plant were to blow up we would be in part of the hole. My middle son had already gone back to his movie.

I think that neither one of them was much impressed that their grandfather had spent his entire work life in that plant or that after the 1987 explosion of the Pampa plant most of their grandmother's family had worked on the rebuild, including their mother. I wonder if any of my in-laws are aware that the plant they help rebuild ceased production in 2009 and is being turned in to an industrial park.

My sons's lack of interest in the land and it beauty put me in a very meditative mood. One of those moods where memories just come, seemingly from nowhere. Though just as I recognize so many of the sights even after all these years I know the memories are also there, waiting to comfort or to torment, though mostly this day to bring calm and resignation.

I remember a drive many years ago. I must have been late junior high or early high school. My brother would have been about the age of my middle son, or even my youngest. I don't remember where we were going Corpus Christ or Mexico, just some forgotten trip, except for this one memory.

Paul was tired and back then cars didn't have seat belts. He laid down sideways and placed his head on my lap. Hard to imagine with my kids. Even tonight at the hotel my oldest insist that he will not sleep with anyone. So my middle one and I are sharing a queen size bed.

I remember Paul starting to breath quietly and then there was that little jerk that lets you know he had fallen asleep. Well I didn't know it at the time, it startled me. So I asked dad if he was alright and dad explained that we do that sometimes when we fall asleep. Then I remember stroking his hair for a while, watching him and hearing him breath.

Paul was born on June 11, 1958 a few days latter I remember sitting in the back seat of the station wagon and being allowed to hold him all the way from the hospital to our home. Years later we sold that station wagon and I remember feeling sorry for Paul. He cried. After all his world had always included that vehicle. And though I was rarely around my world had always included Paul, for better and worst.

On July 4, 2013 while I was alone, my wife at work, my oldest at Philmont Scout Ranch and my two other sons at Schlitterbahn on an Alter Server field trip, over two hundred miles away my brother was in torment and for some reason I will never know he chose to leave us. But for some reason I still have not cried.

Tomorrow I will see my mother for the first time in many months. Actually is might have been just after July 4, 2011. And just now as I finish these tattered musings I feel like I am about to cry.

A busy time and a few new tools

I wish I had more time for crafts and I do wish I had more time to share my world with, well, the world.

I have been agonizing over last weekend’s Pack Campout. I have two Webelos (my son and his best friend) and by tradition the newly elevated Senior Webelos prepare the meal for the Pack at the Spring Campout. All went fairly well. I was a little short on Taco Meat and Pizza pockets, but made up for it with the two cobblers. They were excellent.

On top of this our Pastor called a meeting with two choir directors and myself to plan an up coming Confirmation Mass with the Bishop. I am the “Music Resource Person” for the Parish. I do miss leading a choir, but that’s another rant.

But on to my crafty life, I have been working on “the project that does not exist”; a cross-stitch kit that I am making as a gift and I am trying to get my boys to not talk about it. I started it about a month ago and thought I would have it in time for a birthday next month until the day I noticed I had worked exactly on hour and knew exactly how many stitches I had made. I should be able to complete the project in less than 270 hours, so Christmas then.

I didn’t get much done at my Bobbin Lace class last Tuesday (yesterday). Some days it is just too much fun to be more social than dedicated. Well for one thing it was the last official class of the semester so we all brought “finger foods”. For another our local bobbin maker visited and brought some of her wares for us to admire desire and acquire.(http://www.lacebobbins.com/).

I was able to resist buying a pair of really nice tatting shuttles, but that was the end of my resolve. I bought a pair of what I believe are her Barley Twist one in Kingswood and one in Ebony, I also bought a pair of Fancy Turned Bobbins that do not really match anything on her Web Site but as you can see they are very nice.

I also bought a scissor tip cover. She had several with an elastic monofilament string of bead and I was quite taken with one with a Cat bead, but decided I would do my own beads (still regret it a bit, but mine should still be nice). Cute kitty though.

I also bought a hoop style pin puller, DymondWood-Fuchsia color.



I am also including pictures of some of my older tools made by Fran; my v-style puller with matching crochet hook and pricker.

And finally my oldest tools, my tatting set of three crochet hooks and knot un-doer tapestry needle thingy.

Well as you can see, though I had a lot to do after my class I did manage to spangle the two pairs.

I also added a couple of Hedgies to my collection. I won a silent auction item at our Elementary School’s PTA silent auction which included a plush Fox and a gift certificate which covered most of the cost of the two Hedgies. They are the two brown ones on each side of the WebKinz Hedgie in the center. I also placed the winning bid on a Violin Lesson but that’s another story. Poor thing (violin) had not seen the light of day in twenty years.

TTFN
Pat T.

Aren't my toys nice

I wondered if I would get to this today. It has gotten to be a busy evening.

At my bobbin lace class today I started a test of pattern 3 from Underwood’s Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons. The interesting event of the last couple of days was that all of my bobbins were off the pillow. Though some did have thread on them.

I took this opportunity to photograph the various groups of bobbins.

When I first started this class in the summer of 2008 the friend who invited me (one of my sons' Godmother) had made some skewer based bobbins. I know my oldest son still has some of these and hopefully I will find them and present them here.

My first set of “real” bobbins was an anniversary gift from my wife back in 2008; six dozen Lacis 4” hardwood bobbins. I like them but they are too big to fit my Mattson Mora winder. These old hands do not like winding too many bobbins.

I made an order for supplies in September of 2009 and added a dozen of the SMP Traditional Middland bobbins and thought I was set up. But before February of 2010 I decided to go through Underwoods’s Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons and knew I would need more bobbins.

In July of 2010 I ordered 200 bobbins from SMP in England. This order included 50 of the Traditional Midlands and 50 of the Fancy Midlands. The remaining 100 are Honiton, but that’s another book and another dream. These turned into another wonderful anniversary (August 21) present.

It took a bit too finally get the 100 midlands spangled, and there were times I thought I might be a bit whelmed. But before Christmas 2010 I found myself in spangling withdrawal and ordered a dozen of the polished beech East Midlands from van Sciver, my favorite supplier.

So that’s 72 Lacis, 62 Traditional Midlands, 50 Fancy Midlands, and 12 Beech East Midlands for a total of 196 bobbins, or 98 pairs.

Ok I also have two commemorative bobbins. One from Hilary Davies' class last November the other was a prize.

Last Christmas season the Lace Guild in England had this fun Advent Calendar where you got hints indicating the location of a particular style of lace, and if you were able to identify the style of lace associated with each and every hint you were entered in a drawing. Two were selected and I have a second commemorative bobbin, Two Turtle Doves.

They are beautiful aren’t they? At some point I started using primarily semiprecious stone beads. And I found that I had more fun if I made two matching spangles at a time as this requires half the thought.

At this point I guess it is time to seriously think about moving up to the next level of bobbins, we have a wonderful local maker, but that is not really a consideration at this time as I might have enough bobbins for my immediate plans.

Pattern3 only takes 18 pairs, and even if I start this Torchon piece I want to do I have more than enough. Its was March of 2009 when I finished my last Torchon piece and I want to make sure I remember the technique plus I have a beautiful Gold Velveteen Roller Pillow by Van-Dieren I received last July. Not only have I not used it I have not shown it to my lace friends. I’ll get into pattern 3 and then start looking at the Torchon.

I have to find more time to make lace

Just a short note to express my joy and my distress.

First the distress, I hope I can make more time for lace making. I spend time studying, but I have little opportunity to actually make lace outside of my class, which due to the child care situation I cannot attended during the summer or the holidays.

I have been wanting to work on several types of lace but some time ago I decided to go through Barbara M Underwood’s Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 lessons. Lesson 2 has two patterns. Most lessons have one but there are a few with even more.

On top of this I do not just make an ‘L’ to practice a corner I make a square. So I was aware that with the additional number of repetitions and the lack of time I might take a bit to get through the book, but after finishing Pattern 2b I had a frightening discovery.

I finished Pattern 2a on March 3, 2010. Take away the summer and the few weeks I spent on a project from a class with Hilary Davies it still seems unbelievable that I just recently finish Pattern 2b (sewed it up February 19, 2011).

I can’t take 20 years to go through this book, even if I could live that long.

Oh, well, the real problem is that I do not seem to be able to improve my technique this way.

In nearing the end of pattern 2b last week I forced myself to take the time to work up to the last corner and then to complete the project. After a little while I found I could actually develop some speed and I really did get a sense of “throwing bobbins”. So I must find some time, hopefully at least a few times a week to work on my lace.

One thing I did not do for pattern 2b that I have done for other projects is make a few repetitions of the lace, tie it off and make a few more repetitions from above the beginning to allow me to test finishing. Big mistake, I ended up with way too many pairs in one place at the end and used a tied bundle instead of individual sewings and sewing in the ends. I did try to do double sewings and tied them off, but the knots were huge, much larger than the bundle. I was lucky to get the knots out.

I will make at least one practice ending of pattern 3, though given my dislike for how the DMC Tatting Thread (size 80) worked on all the previous patterns from this books I was thinking of using DMC Cordonnet Special Size 100. The book calls for Madeira Tanne 30 and I do have some Madeira Cotona size 30, but I was saving it for more heirloom projects, should I ever get that good.

Well with all it inconsistency and bunny eared picots here is pattern 2b.

The first couple of repetitions have leaves as I first learned them from books and a couple of web videos, followed by the majority learned after watching a Christine Springett video. And the last legs after Hilary Davies worked with me. Still very inconsistent but at least a few are getting fat, and mostly tapper in both directions.

Oh the worst is finding that with some of your picot you have caught another pin. So unlike Barbara says, I am working on the back, for now at least.

Oh, and how did I pick the size to make pattern 2b. I had made what I thought were an adequate number of repetitions to practice in pattern 1, also a square. Pattern 2b fits around pattern 1.

TTFN
Pat T.

A manly Craftsman

Not so much back to tatting (I wish) but still lace / needlecraft related.

I had a Beds class with Hilary Davies here in Austin Saturday and Sunday November 20 and 21, 2010.

I had to move my current project to an old pillow I both loathe and have great memories of. Styrofoam breaks down and makes a nasty squeaking noise when the pins go in. I want to go back to this project so I needed to spangle some bobbins. I needed 30 to 40 pairs for the workshop (yes that’s 60 to 80 bobbins). So I had to spangle 14 pairs beyond what I had readily available.

I started my lace making supplies with six dozen Lacis bobbins. I then added a dozen from Holly (like SMP) and then for my last anniversary (August 21) I received 100 Middlands and 100 Honitons acquired from SMP. Tonight I spangled the last Middland bobbin in my collection of 184 Middlands. And just when I was starting to really enjoy spangling.

What I really am dwelling on though is how little the people I know understand what it is I do. Someday I need to do a demonstration at my younger son's elementary school.

I spend a lot of time on a playground waiting for after school programs to end or the older child’s school to let out (5 minutes away). So I am part of the picnic table crowd, most of whom, including myself, are active on the PTA board. I am the music liaison, mainly I type things for the music teacher and update her website.

So I am talking about spangling and a woman asks me. “What is a bobbin?” So I explain bobbins and bobbin lace. I also explain that I do not want to be caught again with too few bobbins for a workshop. So I explained that I needed 30 to 40 pairs for the workshop, to which a person who I have talked to before about bobbin lace exclaims “For the group or just yourself?”

When I said for myself she got this shocked look on her face and said “I had no idea.”

Ok fine we expect this, but being a male lace maker I did not expect the next day to get into one of those one-ups-man-ship macho conversations about needlework.

This is another father of a first grader; mine are first fourth and eighth. The first time I noticed this man the school was in lockdown and I was staring out the window at a man I did not recognize sitting on top of one of the play structures.

We have talked a few times so when I saw him on the top of the slide I said “you really like being elevated” forgetting that he is a rock climber.

He is originally from Essex so listening to his accent I thought of Hilary and told him about my workshop. He then started asking me about bobbin lace. But his questions were not like others’. He was focusing in on the needlecraft distinctions; stitches, loops, knots, weaving. I had to ask

“What needlework do you do?” and that’s when the manliness took over.
“Cross-stitch”
“Counted or printed”
“Counted”

Turned out he does these copies of masterwork painting using single and double strands so of course I had to mention my experience with mixed colors, half-stitches, 22 count Aida.

So now for my challenge:
“I was one of those that put the knot on the front and stitches over the thread underneath so there are no knots in my work.”

‘Yeah, people look at my back and say, it looks like the front. But why shouldn’t it?”

“Yes, I took a needlepoint in to be blocked and the woman turned it over and asked if I had made it." She then said "Men are always so much neater on the back.”

“That’s because we get more into the technical aspects of the craft.”

Just before his son asked if they could finally leave we went on. He asked if I know what goes on with needles. He used gold plated tapestry needles, very small ones.

“I end up squeezing the eye pushing it through and eventually the eye distorts and then breaks.”

“I have not had that problem but mine always develop a curve to them”

“Yes from squeezing as you pull them out.”

We then discussed our methods of needle disposal; tape, card, etc. Don't want the wife rummaging through the garbage and getting stuck now do we.

It was a nice conversation, but it was strange realizing afterward that I had just gone through traditional male bonding over the topic of cross stitch. Cool.

Back to the past

I originally meant this blog to reflect my activities and thoughts on tatting and thus the recent lack of any activity.

I still want to tat but my life has been quite hectic so art, crafts and music have not had their rightful place in my life. Unfortunately I am finding that my mental health is taking a turn for the worse because of this.

I am still taking a lace class but if it were not for the actual class times I would not be doing any lace at all. There is a workshop on Beds in November and since I have been working on Beds for a while I plan on attending. Wow almost six hours a day for two days; should be fun.

There was something that happened today that I want to tell people about, but before I get to that a little background or rambling, depending on how you look at it.

In order to try and put some life back into my existence I have decided to take up the traverso again. I have started to playing-in some of my one-key transverse flutes and have been more or less happy with my progress.

I am over halfway playing in my Verhoeven Beaulieu bore in Blackwood with no rings, pitched at A=392 hz; a gorgeous instrument both in appearance and sound (http://users.skynet.be/fluiten/sold.html look for number 89). The bore is based on a French flute circa 1720. It has a small embouchure hole and this took some getting used to. At first I was very concerned about intonation and unevenness, but it was me not the flute.

When I first took of the “baroque flute” back in FEbruary of 1981 I was mainly a recorder player and had played baritone in High School. I had wanted a “baroque flute” for a while mainly because of a recording I fell in love with: Michel de La Barre, Pieces Pour La Flute Traversiere, 1710.

Stephen Preston used a copy of a Hotteterre flute. It was the most amazing sound I had ever heard. It is a great recording and I still get a little annoyed at myself for taking so long to figure out just who Jordi Savall, Blandine Verlet and Hopkinson Smith were, a few year actually.

But in 1984 Amster Music and Art shop, sold me a Moeck one-key in Blackwood and ivory. It was funny; the main saleman knew me and knew I might buy the flute. When he saw that I had seen the flute he almost knocked one of the other employees down getting to me. I seem to remember the flute costing about $500 back then and it being the largest check I had ever written. I was so nervous I had to get on my knees and my writing was a bit more than a little shaky.

I still like this flute and now that my Verhoeven is in its third week of breaking in (30 minutes a day) and my CF (later) is still in its second week (10 minutes, twice a day) I started playing-in the Moeck today.

Now the Moeck is a copy of a F.G. Kirst (1750 – 1806) so though alright for Quantz, CPE Bach and the like, it certainly never satisfied my desire for the sound Preston produces on the Hotteterre copy.

After two weeks I am getting control over the Beaulieu bore and when I play La Barre I can actually hear the sound I have been after, even if I am still horribly out of practice.

So here I will leave off for now and get ready for bed. When I can’t sleep, all too often, I sit in a recliner and listen to my mp3 player. It was mainly Blavet and Quantz, but the last couple of days it has been Locatelli. I appear to be addicted to the flute again. I hope this is a good thing at this time in my life. It does make me feel good, I am even exercising (a little).

Feeling Punchy

I remember once on the original eTatters having a bunch (ok three or four) people taking issue with me knowing how many double knots were in the project I was working on. There were also some people that thought it was a good idea, especially if you are a teacher or a seller.

In Mary Konior’s Network I came up with something like 7614 double stitches. Of course all the rings have the same number of stitches and all the chains are the same length or half that. So it was easy math, especially since I had to keep track of where I was to know when to insert the rings within the mesh. This is the piece I did in 2006 when I published the ds count.Today’s math was easier, but we will get to that in a minute.

Since it is hard for me to pull out my pillow when the kids are home, but I had some time I decided to get ahead on my prickings. I am on lesson 2a in Barbara M. Underwood’s Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons. I already have the pricking for lesson 2b created and punched so on to Lesson 3.

What most people may not realize is that I must agree with Alexandra Stillwell, “The most important factor in an attempt to achieve good lace is to use an accurate pricking, and to draft it oneself is the answer,” from Drafting Torchon Lace Patterns. I do hope to acquire this book someday.

Lesson 3 in Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons is a circle requiring 18 pairs of bobbins.

At first I decided to just copy the pricking from the book and I got as far as printing it on a piece of a Manila File Folder and covering it with plastic. Then before I started punching pinholes I decided it was just too uneven for my technocratic self.

So I drew it using DrawPlus X2. Now the first thing you need to know is how many repeating patterns. In this case 72 so every 5°, so a few concentric circles a few lines all drawn over a scan of the original. Some simple rotating of copies and voilà you have a pricking.

So print, cover and punch. Punching pin holes can be very relaxing, but I might have done too much. My right hand is a bit sore. But if each repetition has nineteen pin holes, 72 of them will have 1368. Here is a photographically enhanced view of the back.Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I will tell you about Christmas soon.

TTFN
Pat The Tat Rat

A Tatting Fiasco

Strictly figuratively speaking; today I have turned around and may have flipped my vehicle in so doing.

Some time ago (October of 2007) I started the T.A.T. Tatting Proficiency Program. The first project required size 10 thread and I decided to use the shuttles that appear in my September 20, 2007 post on this blog.

Shortly thereafter I had an allergic reaction to a medication and the swelling caused my tendons to become inflamed so I had to quit tatting for a while.

Recently I have started tatting again and shortly after my return to the art I became involved with an online Design class.

Since I had these shuttles still loaded from the end of 2007 I decided to use them.

I remember how much trouble some of us had with these shuttles. Since the ends did not close very well the shuttles have a tendency to run away should you let one loose. I have watched video of the maker tat so I know that my manipulation and his are very different so I can see how it would not be a concern for him.

In the design class I did a simple second row pattern and was fairly happy with the look. But, I decided to try some simple modifications as an aside. Well today I was making a join and I shredded the thread. Grabbed the wrong hook I think. Well between torn thread and frustration with the shuttles I cut the project (literally) and unscrewed the shuttles (three at this point) and removed the thread.

The shuttles have been packed with my other archived shuttles and I will return to the project I started to take with me on vacation last July. But I will need to decide which shuttles to use with size 10 thread. I have a few clovers that would run away, clicking all the way down, with size 20, but they are small, especially compared with the ones I have retired.

Well I felt I had to rant so as a little gift for your time here is a picture of my design project. All rings are 4-4-4-4 and all chains are either 10 or 5-5. I just ask for fair attribution should you attempt to copy it. I will post a pattern someday.


TTFN
Pat T.

It is hard to believe it was last November when I last made a posting. I knew I was inconsistent but that is a bit much. The name Tattered Musing originally reflected my obsession with tatting. But due to many obstacles I have done little in tatting until recently.

I have been taking a bobbin lace class but since finishing my last project (June 18, 2009) I have had little time for hobbies, sort of.

We did take a vacation mid-July to Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine Texas. In preparation for vacation I started Mary Konior’s Network in a vivid pink. I was so out of practice that my tension changed so much taht about a quarter of the way through I decided it was not worth continuing.

I bought some of the new Lizbeth thread in a beautiful blue and began Mary Konior’s Spinning wheel (glass mat version). I did do a little on vacation though on the last day at Great Wolf Lodge I had to do a little retro-tatting and there was not enough light. So I waited until I got home.

Since then I have occasionally been able to work on the tatting. I have also been trying to find time to work on a Spanish Bobbin Lace pillow. For my birthday a couple of weekends ago I received some nice Spanish Bobbins and some small square bobbins.


I went to Jo-Ann’s a couple of days ago (Tuesday) and ran into my Lace Teacher (who does not live in Austin). She had just come from the class, which I have not been able to attend all summer. My son shouted “Oh, you’ll be able to go next week,” when school starts. I had not even thought about that. The official start date for the class is September 14, 2009, but we still meet between sessions.

So now I need to start that Bedfordshire project since I won’t have the Spanish Pillow ready by next week for the Torchon piece I want to study.

I guess my main concern right now has to do with scissors. I started working on an online design class and decided to empty some bobbins holding size 10 crochet cotton. I set up a second box to carry my tatting around in.


Unfortunately the only scissors that fit this box are my Gingher Stork embroidery scissors. Cutting the size 10 I started to worry about the scissors, they felt strained. So I wrote Gingher. They think I should be using my W-4 or my W-5s. They do not fit in the box. So I will be real careful and only use the tips when I have to cut a thread sticking out of the double stitches.

With my bobbin lace, I have a bigger box and have a pair of Gingher Lion Tail embroidery scissors for finishing work. I have a pair of detail scissor for most thread cutting.

Well back to tatting, if I have time after the laundry.

Take care!

Fig. 53 Handbuch Der Schiffchenspitze, band 2.

Yesterday (24 Nov 2008) I finished another of the figures related to fig. 51 in Tina Frauberger’s Handbuch Der Schiffchenspitze, band 2. Like fig. 52, fig. 53 encloses fig. 51.

I am for the most part pleased with my work. My tension is still inconsistent but my bridge and split ring are better than in fig. 52. I used a lock stitch at the end of the chain leading to the last ring and at the end of the bridge I brought the last stitch out the bottom of the chain. This results in the threads exiting in the direction of the split ring.

In fig. 52 I did a normal chain and bridge and just brought the thread up towards the split ring. This resulted in some amount of twist and distortion.

The one experiment / questionable practice came at the start of the chain after the split ring. I did not like the looks and I had forgotten my Magic Thread. I did a little retro-tatting and produced an acceptable chain. I few chains later I realized that I had again forgotten my Magic Thread. My original intent was to just sew-in the one thread. In the end I decided to try putting two Magic Threads in a single chain. The technique works but produces a really fat and mis-shaped chain. You can see the bridge, split ring and fat chain just to the right of 12 o’clock.

Fig. 53 is nice but I mainly worked it up so I could compare it Mary Konior’s Small Cross on pages 88 and 89 of her Tatting with Visual Patterns. After studying Mary Konior’s cross I have found that with the exception of modifications to turn a six arm figure into a four armed figure the patterns match. Many of the knot counts are the same.

I hope to start on the cross as early as tomorrow, well maybe after thanksgiving. I will explain the similarities and the differences in a later posting.

It is nice to be tatting again. Now if I can just get my knots consistent and find a block of time to work on my bobbin lace lesson.

TTFN

Lace books are getting harder to find

I first wrote about Tina Frauberger’s Handbuch Der Schiffchenspitze back in December of 2007 I received inquiries concerning how to get the book. One, in an email, stayed in my inbox for the longest time and now I cannot find it. I did want to reply but I was never sure what to say.

I received a comment yesterday with an interesting statement “Someone on E-tatters gave me a web site address that carries the book, but the site is in German, and I was wondering if you knew of a site selling the book that I could correspond with in English?” In all probability I was the “Someone on E-tatters.”

I still have a copy of the email I sent to the people who sold me the book in which I apologize for not speaking German.

I really wish I could help everyone get access to Tina Frauberger’s work. I remember when I first started struggling with onion-rings having a well know teacher wrote in passing that I should study the work of Tina Frauberger and in one email I got the impression that her work was ubiquitous through-out the tatting community. I did find out differently later when I tried to find these works.

I mentioned the German website to this teacher in a email in March of 2007. It was in August of that year that I wrote my first email to the sellers. I sent a second email in October. I received my first reply in November of 2007. I received the book on December 10, 2007.

I had spent over a year trying to obtain copies of these books and I hope that the German site is still responding to international orders. I received one of their newsletters last June and that is the last I have heard from them.

It is very frustrating trying to get older Lace books. I joke that of Mary Konior’s four known published works I have five. She published a pamphlet for a Women’s organization in the UK and I was able to obtain a copy. It is mainly written instruction with only two patterns but it is a rare treasure and I treat it that way.

But let us consider Mary Konior’s most well known publication, Tatting with Visual Patterns. If I go to Amazon.com a new paperback copy is listed today at $210.64, a used one is more. If I go to Lacis I can order a copy for $20.00. We need to thank Lacis. The edition they sell is their own. So the open market is overpricing B T Batsford’s edition while the wonderful Lacis Publications has taken up producing this work.

Unfortunately they do not have the ability to publish everything. Try to get the wonderful and some would say necessary Practical Skills in Bobbin Lace by Bridget M. Cook for under $100.00. I cannot find one. OK, I bought the last one.

I want to work on lace today, especially to post my finished version of fig. 53 with some comments. I wish I could find a reasonably priced copy of New Braids and Designs in Milanese Lace, currently over $200.00 on Amazon.

I am so spoiled with my books and my crafts. My dream was once that I could find copies of the original publications of Tina Frauberger’s works so I could scan them and put them on the Antique Patterns web site. I have a reproduction so I do not own any rights.

I hope those that want copies can get them, but the German site is the only source I know. Today even the few what once seemed expensive originals are gone. I did see one copy of band 2 for over $90.00 but that’s it. Persistence is what found me mine, I wish you luck.

I cannot work on lace today because I am getting the house ready for Thanksgiving, I shouldn’t be working on this. We are having people over and I already have Turkey from Honey Baked Ham and will be getting Brisket from Rudy’s. My main concern has been how long I will have to stand in line.

I was thinking of these things on my way to drop my children off at school today when I heard an article on Zimbabwe.

I hope I can remember over Thanksgiving to say an extra prayer for those in Zimbabwe and all the other areas of the world where there is so little food that finding a kernel of undigested corn in animal manure is a treasure.

Fig. 52 Handbuch Der Schiffchenspitze, band 2.

I have finished another of the figures related to fig. 51 in Tina Frauberger’s Handbuch Der Schiffchenspitze, band 2.

I completed figure 52 yesterday (12 November 2008) and would like to share it with you. Though this is only my second project since returning to tatting and I am not very pleased with some of my technique I am pleased with the overall piece.

I did force myself to use a bridge and a split ring in this project so this was done CTM. The bridge and split ring are to the left of 10 o'clock. I need to work on those, but these are the first to appear in a finished project by me.

The additional instructions for the additions to fig. 51 are relatively straight forward. You have a picture of the final motif, a couple of statements and the actually notation.

Here is the Babel Fish translation of the text:

The sheet row, which encloses the six arms
beginning on the left of an arm:

The term "sheet row" is crude translation of Bogenreihe. An abbreviation used through out the book is VBBG for “Verbindungsbogen” which Babel Fish translates as “Connecting sheet.”

The best I have been able to determine is that VBBG is used where I would use some version of "Chain" as I think "sheet row" must be.

This could very well be a vestige of Tatting’s development starting with rings and the true chain coming later. Though by 1917 when the first volume of Schiffchenspitze came out chains were certainly more than than connectors between the rings.

You should also know the following:
○ = Zierringchen which best I can guess is a floating ring
< = Anschürzen which other references translate as join.

What is fascinating to me is how Tina Frauberger notates a floating ring. Here are her instructions for the fig. 52 addition.
“mal” translates as “times”

I was not going to do fig. 53 at this time. I went through all my tatting books and online patterns looking for my next tatting project. I had decided I would like to do a cross by Mary Konior. In trying to choose a cross I noticed that one of the crosses had some elements that reminded me of fig. 53.

So, even though I planned on waiting to do fig 53 and given that particular Mary Konior cross was not one of my first choices the similarity in technique between the two makes me want to do both so I can really understand this design approach.

I hope to start Fig 53 today, my shuttles are wound, but I really have not gotten to say what it was I was really planning on saying today.

A return to tatting

It is hard to believe, but the last time I finished a tatting project of any sort was over a year ago.

Around the time I was working on designs from Tina Frauberger’s Schiffchenspitze and the TAT certification I had an allergic reaction to a medication that due to swelling caused all my tendons to become inflamed. I had to quit tatting.

I have continued to think about tatting and have started a few things only to be very disappointed in my lack of control over the thread.

Last August a friend asked me to join her in a class for the older crowd on bobbin lace. Her daughter even offered to watch my youngest while I went. I have indeed fallen in love with bobbin lace and will have to extend this blog to include that aspect of my life.

All this hand weaving has made me want to again return to tatting and today I actually finished a small project.

In Tina Frauberger’s Schiffchenspitze, band 2, this is figure 51, Sechsteilige Grundform (Six-part basic form). It is the basis of three other figures; though one of those is actually several repetitions of one of the other two.

Since this is such and easy pattern to memorize I do plan on working with the other figures. Hopefully my tension and my technique will come back. Well hopefully not all of my tension. It is late tonight so sometime soon I will relate a story that shows just how tight my tatting is. Sometimes I think my early success was not due to my control but to the resilience of the thread. You can only squeeze it so far.

Though it is not very symmetrical and I see all sorts of issues in my work this is the first tatting I have finished in a long time. Figuring out the German did take some effort but that was almost a year ago.

This book is much abbreviated and what the pattern amounts to is a statement saying something like all rings are 4 – 4 – 4 – 4 and the chains in the middle are 6 – 6 – 6 – 6. I used a magnifying glass to determine that all chain segments are 6 ds and all ring segments are 4 ds.

This should actually be enough information for you to copy this. Thank you.

Christmas book

It was a marvelous Christmas. Even though a health issue put an end to my tatting just before Thanksgiving I have not stopped thinking about tatting and now I think I am ready to start tatting again.

I received the most wonderful tatting book for Christmas, a reprint edition from Germany containing two foundational works by Tina Frauberger. Her Handbuch Der Schiffchenspitze (1917) and her II Band Des Handbuches Der Schiffchenspitze (1921).

I have wanted these books for a long time. Actually I wanted the first one and for a while thought the second one might just be a later printing of the first, but that is not the case.

Though I do not read German using Babel Fish I feel confident in referring to this reprint as containing volumes one and two of the Manual of Tatting. Schiffchenspitze translates as Boat Point which refers to the shape of the shuttle and to lace, thus tatting).

Volume one has two forwards, volume two has one. Volume one also has an introduction. After this both volumes have the following sections:

Geschichtliches is a history of tatting.
Das Werkzeug or The Tool (primarily about the shuttle and I believe a hook for joining).
Das Material obviously The Material which I believe mostly covering thread.

Die Arbeitsart (Technik) on technique (forming the knot, joins, etc) this includes a few simple patterns including some using the onion ring.
Meine Muster or My Samples contains the patterns.

Next volume one has a section called Weiterbidung un Verwendung (Further training and use) while volume two has a section called Verwendung der Arbeit (Use of the work).

Both Volumes end with a section titled Anhang: Das Waschen der Schiffchenspitze (Appendix: Washing the Tatting).

The main section of the book is the patterns (Meine Muster). I have not noticed any repeated patterns in the two volumes.

Both volumes have a few images that do not have patterns, but just a few. My copy came with a supplement (Nachtrag) giving the missing patterns at the beginning and towards the end of the first volume. I love the word for the diagrams Wortbild (word picture).

There are many examples of what I would call edgings, insertions and motifs, but there are also a several doilies or mats. Many of the patterns are built from earlier patterns.

An interesting historical suprise to me is that even though there are no patterns given there are illustrations of tatting with bead, this in 1917.

Overall I find the patterns to be brilliant and especially beautiful. I must put Tina Frauberger amongst the top of my list of designers. The symbols and method of presenting the patterns is very different from anything I have seen elsewhere, and in some ways perhaps a little more intuitive, from my perspective.

Dealing with an unfamiliar language and set of symbols, I had to deal with paragraphs indicating the use of an earlier pattern with additions or exceptions.

I am planning my first project which is square mat (doily) built on what the designer calls Kronen (Crowns).

A Tina Frauberger Crown

This is my first bit of tatting since before Thanksgiving and my first attempt at this motif. I think once I clean up that picot at the top of the onion ring I should have no trouble with the mat (doily).

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Happy Tatting.

An appoach to eBay

I have been spending more time thinking about tatting than actually tatting.

I am a full time parent (three boys with one still at home) and with the cold season started, science fairs and scouts I can go an entire day with out a free moment.

But I have been lucking in adding a few great instructional / pattern books to my collection recently.

I think like most crafts persons / artist I have a tendency to accumulate a nice supply of tools and references.

Recently I have started using eBay and have a few thoughts on that process.

I learned when accumulating a few of the made in England Aero Shuttles that my best approach was to determine the maximum I am willing to pay and if at all possible wait until there are only a couple of minutes left in the auction.

I also try to find items I want with enough lead time so I can do some research. As an example, one book I recently won was still available through Amazon market place, though not any other place at anything approaching a reasonable price, if at all. I took the Market Place price plus the standard postage and subtracted the eBay postage. This became my maximum bid.

I entered the bid with two minutes left in the auction. At that time the current bid was less than a third of my maximum bid. I saw three other attempts to out bid me occur before the auction ended. The final bid was still below the Market Place price. And even a three dollar savings will buy a ball of thread or a couple of crochet hooks.

So in this case eBay automatically increases my bid until the maximum is reached.

My latest win, so to speak, is probably the most telling about doing your research.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a crafts fair at a local church and saw some really wonderful crochet. There was one piece I really loved but my wife and I both thought this is what I make and we really do not have a lot of room for displaying large doilies.

I found a pattern book on eBay that reminded of the elements that I liked in that doily so I decided I had to have it.

Now here is where research pays off. The book is out of print and not available through any of the second hand sources I can find. But I did find that someone was selling the same book with just a "buy now" price on eBay. This should have been straight forward except that one seller used the subtitle and the other used the actual title.

The "buy now" seller’s end time was later than the auction seller’s end time so I added the buy now price to the postage and subtracted the auction seller’s postage. This gave me my maximum bid.

The auction ended early evening and I arrived home from picking up my sons mid afternoon. I checked the biding as soon as I could and saw that the bidding had already exceeded my maximum so I immediately purchased the copy with the buy now price.

I do not know how much I would have bid had the other copy not been available and I do think that the winning bid plus postage was not an unreasonable amount.

I do not know who I feel for most: The person who paid 61% more than I did or the person whose lost the bidding. There were only two bidders and at least one watcher.

Looking at the bidding the winner used a maximum bid entry. You can tell since the winning bid was placed earlier that the challengers’ bids.

The challenger quit two hours before the auction ended, so they also had a maximum bid in mind.

Well now you know how I approach eBay, I hope it helps you, except of course against me.

Shuttling my projects

I have taken a hiatus from my onion ring projects. I am starting on a series of exercises that I hope will improve my tatting. For various reasons I should not discuss the various patterns and techniques publicly, so I will be even more limited on my thoughts here.

One strange turn of fate is that my first exercise uses size 10 thread. I used size 10 thread when I first tried tatting but almost everything thing after the first couple of edgings has been done in size 20 until my recent work on the onion rings.

The thing I did today was load my first shuttle. I am going to use the Jan Stawasz’s shuttles for this project. I have emptied the sapphire and the gold shuttles with the onion ring project and a few experiments, so today I loaded the pale yellow one.

The one thing I have learned using the Stawasz Shuttles is the importance of the stiffness of the material. The Plexiglas is fairly flexible so as I reduced the amount of thread in the shuttles the tips came closer together.

In loading the pale yellow shuttle I endeavored to not allow the thread to come in contact with the blades. This produced a very round profile to the winding. Now, once I load the other shuttle I am off to a new tatting adventure.

I still intend to return to the onion rings and a few other things as time goes by.

I am still not totally pleased with how this motif looks so I am thinking about it while I do other things.

I still think it is a very nice motif.

Still frying onion rings

I knew when I decided to take the plunge and start a BLOG that I would have little time to dedicate to writing. I just thought I would have a little more time than I actually have had.

I have been fighting onion rings. I decided that the size 30 project I mentioned before should actually be a size 10 project and instead of the GR-8 shuttles I am using a couple of shuttles made by Jan Stawasz in Poland. They are a little open for my taste but given the trouble Aero style shuttles have given me I am used to not being able to rely on the shuttle staying where I put it. A couple of my German Aero shuttles will unroll to the floor if I let them go.

Jan’s shuttles feel great and look pretty good also. They are also larger than all but the Tatsy shuttles in my collection.

The size 10 project consists of six joined onion rings connected by chains.

I am having difficulty getting the area between the chains and the onion rings looking and acting like I want them to look. I was able to incorporate some advice I received on the eTatters forum but they are still too floppy for my taste. Not to mention a slight tendency to twist.

I have decided to keep at my two projects, both with onion rings, while I begin a learning journey that I think will really help me with my tatting. But more on that at a later date.

Hanging by a thin thread

The struggle with the size 80 thread continues. Or at least I think it is the size 80 thread. I did make a small cross from Patti Duff’s Minitats. Having actually started tatting again is wonderful, but I feel so much the beginner. Bare threads, gaps at the bases of rings, but mostly it is just surprising how many different shapes and sizes a 4-4 ring can be.

I know part of this is the thinner thread but I must also contend with the loss of much of what was once second nature and now almost forgotten. I have started another cross, a very different pattern and though I find I am finally getting control of the thread I am making so many of the mistakes I made as a beginner; wait I only tatted for six months back then. To be honest I have probably started this cross a dozen times.

Even tonight I almost finished the first onion ring when I realized that I had skipped one little element; a picot. Oh well, though I am going through a lot of thread and not producing much, I am starting to get my technique back under control and I am starting to think about those little things one just knows to do when starting and working up a pattern.

I did buy another ball of the thread I am using ($1.07 before taxes with the 40% discount). When I finish all the practice pieces I need to do to feel up to starting the small doily I want to do, I will still have enough thread.

I thought about starting a second project using size 30 just to have something a little easier to work with, but I really do think that I am getting enough control of the size 80 that most of my errors are from a lack of practice and not the lack of experience with the thin thread. I do want to try out my new shuttles though.

My wife gave me two GR-8 tatting shuttles for our anniversary, but I will get the size 80 under control before I start the size 30 project. The size 30 project is one I have wanted to do for over a year now, as are most of my desires, but this one is nice since it consist of one small motif. Each repetition of the motif is joined during construction to the previous work until a doily, centerpiece, table runner, or table cloth is made. So this can become one of those projects that one just works on between projects. Unfortunately I am already starting to visualize an edging to go around a large doily made from this motif, and that adds a whole new element to the project. But this is part of the fun of any craft; the want to do more. I think.

Well I will have to take a break from tatting for a couple of days. I need to get the patches on my six-year-old son’s Scout uniform. I also have to make sure I am ready for school to start next Monday. I have no clue what to send for lunches this year.