Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Tatting the Afternoon Away!

Per my new work schedule, I'm off on Wednesday afternoons.  The trade-off is that I work Saturday mornings.  "Someday" I'll be eligible for Saturdays off, but it's going to be quite a while.  In the meantime, today being Wednesday, I came home after my co-worker (she's my backup and I'm hers, and we can't both go to lunch at the same time) got back from her lunch.

I've been tatting and watching Downton Abbey - Amazon makes it available for free for their Prime customers (along with some nifty other benefits) and it's cheaper than Hulu Plus (nyaaaah, Hulu!).  Today I tatted one of Mary Konior's crosses.

This is Mark My Words, found in A Pattern Book of Tatting.  I fudged it a bit; if you look closely, you'll see that it's not exactly as written:
  • The center rings in the trefoils aren't as large as given in the pattern; I only tatted 4 DS between the join to the previous ring and the first decorative picot, and there are only five instead of seven.
  • The outer rings in the trefoils aren't 2-6-8; they're 2-7-7.  Same overall DS count for the rings, but I think they fit better at the joins this way.
  • The long chains are now lock chains (first half flipped, second half not flipped); the equivalent of nine DS for each chain, and they're nice and straight.
  • I started with the third ring of the top trefoil and worked around to the other side of the trefoil - after tatting that ring, I tatted a split ring to exit from the top; I'm working on the chain now, and haven't decided how to finish it.  I can do a tassel or a mini-cross (and have ends to hide) - and I'll need to decide soon, as I see that I'm running out of Scottish Thistle on the blue shuttle.
I like to pair up unlikely threads, just to see how they look together; these are Sea Island Citrus and Scottish Thistle.  I rather like them together!  I realize now that black, while it makes colors "pop" in real-life, can increase glare in a photograph.  I'm planning on tatting another of these, and I'll try to get a better picture of it.

10 comments:

  1. An afternoon of tatting... what fun! I keep forgetting that I can access videos with Amazon Prime. I guess I should check it out. ;-)

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    1. They've got some good stuff! I've watched the first two episodes of Downton Abbey and I'm contemplating watching the third episode. I also watched the film One For the Money, but it wasn't as good as I'd hoped (and not nearly as good as the book, and Debbie Reynolds was woefully miscast as Grandma Mazur).

      I'm tatting another cross, this time in Purple Splendor and I'm experimenting again! I finished the first cross with a tassel (yes, I took the easy way out!).

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  2. so glad you found the time to tat.
    That is a nice cross and I like the changes you made to it. Lock chains make for really nice straight chains.
    I have a keyboard kindle, the kids gave it to me 2yrs ago. I enjoy all the books, but I don't have a prime acct and it can't show videos. Next year I will be replacing my very old XP computer with a tablet as farmguy has a large new computer for the farm business, so all I will need is a tablet to sync with it. Thanks for the info about the prime acct, I will keep that in mind as I look for a tablet to fit my needs.

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    1. I nearly finished the purple cross during the third episode of Downton Abbey - I'm on the chain at the top now and it's decision time on how to finish it. If I'm low on thread on one of the bobbins, I'll make a tassel. I'll get a picture of it for the blog - I made some more changes!

      My Kindle is the Fire HD - I've had it a week today and have read two books on it, and started two more. I'm very pleased at the selection of free books and lending library books at Amazon!

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  3. Pretty pretty...

    I'm so JEALOUS of your Kindle!

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    1. It's an INVESTMENT:
      1. eBooks are cheaper than the hardback equivalent. In a lot of cases, they're also cheaper than the paperback.
      2. Several thousand books fit in the Kindle - and more in the cloud space you get with it.
      3. I can change the size of the type for my myopic eyeballs.
      4. It does other things, too - surf the Internet, play games, etc.

      It doesn't tat, but nobody's perfect, right?

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  4. Wow just love the way you have attempted the cross, off to find the book.................

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  5. I finished the second cross I mentioned above, in Purple Splendor, and got a picture of it - I'll probably write up a blog post tomorrow and pop it in. Too tired tonight!

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