Don't Dream or Contemplate Sampler

10-07-21 While trying to organize my craftroom,  I found my half finished sampler from the early 1970s, with no thread, and no instructions / no color key.   

 I have went thru all my threads to try to match the colors used.   After I made a few decisions I got started and went to get a card to wrap a skein on, and low and behold I had missed something!  In the thread box there was a wad of threads from a kit and I do believe some were the ones to this one.   It looks like my 2 turquoise choices were right on.    The coral that I had had a small amount attached still!  These are my additions:

**JP 239 & JP 132A Parakeet** for outer border

**DMC 370** Khaki-dk  inside border

*JP 235 MInt Gold*  for shelf with robe on it and shoe pompoms

Oct 8, 2021 :  1 strand of the **original coral of towel & 1 strand of DMC 3326** for the French knot roses on the towel.  :)

**DMC 892** will replace the coral for the housecoat on the bench and shoes.

and a little black, I think this is all I need.   

10-10-21  I have finished the bottom left hand corner of the design and learned to make the daisy stitch to put pom poms on the house shoes. I love the colors of the border and the little things that I got done (bench with housecoat, house shoes, roses on towel, added so much cuteness, along with the colors of the border, I’m really excited at how cute it is becoming!

Last night I decided to give my girl a face, as it was just pink X's, and then did her book after learning the stem stitch for the cover, but did back stitch for the pages, just lines for the words.

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This kit is poorly made and the x-st are like they were drawn quickly by hand, all uneven, different size, wiggly.   It is nothing like today's precision charts that are master pieces, but simple and a bit corny and badly marked.   But, I really want to do this, as it brings back happy memories or when I bought in and I was in my 20s (now  69!).   

I hope I can find the paperwork one day, and see what brand and colors were for sure, but this will work and I am happy to be able to do it.

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10-18-21  I was nearly done with the last side border, when I realized something I was doing wrong! I was so pleased that I always kept my stitches going in the right direction, BUT, then I realized while doing the last side, that as I finished one side, I turned the corner and kept going, and by so doing, my orientation of the stitches automatically changed with each turn! So, I’m guessing that the edges must be done like the picture, being held up, top to bottom, with no turning of the piece to go around the border! It’s not a deal breaker for me, at all, it only shocked me, as I was feeling quite smug about keeping my stitches all going the right way! ….and I’m still trying to decide on rug color. so... and need to finish the border. I started the Madonna Ornament to give me thinking time.

Bluebird Christmas Ornament Pattern by 

The New Berlin Co.  CCS Kit 30814

(DMC floss)

I've been cleaning my craft room and finding so many UFO projects and never started projects.   I have a real sense of urgency in getting these things going!   I have a stack of little cross stitch Christmas kits I must have bought on clearance or something, but chose one and I'm off!

Sept 30: start kit.   Made plenty of counting errors, fortunately, it is small.  

Oct 4:  Finished late night on and washed and laid out on a towel.   Used sticky mountain board that came with kit and framed next morning.

 Just made this video to show the proper way to 'turn the page' after making a needle tatted chain:

My first cro-tatted snowflake pattern: "It's Snowing!"

So, I had this #3 reg cotton crochet thread and a 2mm hook. This would not produce a very declicate snowflake, but I was thinking it could be seen from the street, as a snowflake on the window, attached with a clear sucker cup. I started one from a pattern, BUT, this thread is hard for me, I really prefer to use slippery thread, and also the pattern called for very large rings, which makes it harder to pull thru SO MANY stitches, with the hook totally loaded. So, I pulled it out and decided to just see if I could make something up. I don't know if it wilhl work or not, but I guess that is how most patterns come about, you just keep trying something else if it doesn't work.

I have no trouble with cro-tat rings that are attached as in the doily I have a video for, with the top picot joining the last ring. But most snowflakes work the other way, with the ring shooting up from the current edge, and the top picot facing out. When I do this, I seem to end up with my rings rotating backward, but I have started trying a different way (this won't make sense until you actually have the problem, and then it will).

I am finding success at crocheting my chain, then turn it over to do the ring, then back over to make the next chain. I am checking each ring after the chain connection to make sure the fronts are all on the same side. So far, I have:

ch 8, slp st together to form ring

12 sc around DO NOT TIE OFF.

rnd 2: ch 3, rw(fold back to right), ring of 3-3-3-3,

rw(fold forward to left), ch 3

Join to prev chain: skp 1 sc and slp st in next

DO NOT TIE OFF.

rnd 3: *ch 5, slp st to picot, ch 5, sl st to picot. rw

R: 3ds, sm picot, lg picot, sm picot, rw,

slp st to same picot.

ch 5, slp to picot, ch 5, skp sc, slp to next sc

*repeat on all rings, till there are 6 finished.

To finish: Join with beginning chain in sc and bring thread thru loop to form small knot, then work thread into the sc around center. Picture 4 is just now finished, not blocked.

*If this resembles any other snowflake, I worked with just my thread and cro-tat hook, not referring to any other pattern or picture.

JANE EBORALL'S MYSTERY 2018 TIAS

Jane Eborall's 2018 TIAS (tat it and see)
Link:  http://tatitandsee.blogspot.com/   (look in the top right frame for day links)

DAY 1, Jan 21, 2018:   Ok, here's my day 1 work, with 2 pic/guesses:

Day 2, Jan 21, 2018:   My note and guess to Jane:  OH NO!   THOSE POOR ANTS!   This is taking a sinister turn.... I’m going to hide under the covers!

DAY 3, Jan 24, 2018:  As soon as I saw the pattern, I KNEW it was a chain saw sawing a log - but that's all I saw!   Then another participant, Sherri, caught a pic of FOXES sledding down a hill on a log sled!  With this new clue, I realized who it was that was using that saw! 

DAY 4, Jan 27, 2018 ~ My note & guess to Jane:

Last winter, our local zoo had a pre-mature hippo named Fiona, who has become world famous!   Last year, I saw your old TIAS for a hippo, I knew I had to make a Fiona of my own!    Now I see how silly all my previous guesses were, when all along, you were making the nice birthday surprise that Fiona loves – a watermelon!   You fooled me again, Jane!

DAY 4, Jan 27, 2018 ~ My note & guess to Jane:
Last winter, our local zoo had a pre-mature hippo named Fiona, who has become world famous! Last year, I saw your old TIAS for a hippo, I knew I had to make a Fiona of my own! Now I see how silly all my previous guesses were, when all along, you were making the nice birthday surprise that Fiona loves – a watermelon! You fooled me again, Jane!

BOOK: A Flurry of Snowflakes (cro-tat) Snowflake No. 3.

The body of this snowflake is all crocheted, so on the second round I decided to swap out to a reg crochet hook, as this was not ring and chain, ring and chain, just crocheting and a little harder with no comfortable place to hold for a long time, on the cro-tat hook. I will say that for some odd reason, the mm size of cro-tat hooks does not match the sizes of crochet hooks. Since my cro-tat hook is a 1mm, I searched for a size 13/1mm crochet hook - nothing alike in size. Comparing sizes, I settled on a size 8 steel hook, switching to the cro-tat hook in the last round when rings and chains would finally come together for true cro-tatting.   I used Hobby Lobby's Artiste Egyptian Cotton Thread with 1mm cro-tat hook and size 8/1.50mm crochet hook.

I took about 2 hours to make, and about 2 hours to get a pic that didn't have something stupid showing up in it! I painted the back with mod podge glossy, to stiffen it.

JANUARY 8, 2018:   Valentines Fridgie

I saw these wonderful variegated colors in a package at Walmart for just under $4 and didn’t know if I’d be able to cro-tat with them, but for so cheap, I wasn’t worried about losing money on them, and I’d probably be able to do something with them, if they didn’t work. They are a very small amount on each embroidery floss skein, and so I figured flowers & leaves, which are often part of cro-tatting, would work fine with them. One thing, the threads should never have had any separating to them, you want them to still be very close together, like pearl cotton, which doesn’t divide. I worried if it would stay together, since it is divisible, unlike pearl cotton, that isn’t, but it did pretty good. It also helps that I now have some experience cro-tatting so can work with more difficult thread. I did have a few places where I caught a single thread out of the group, but not so many that it was hard to work with. With the 6 strands intact, I used the annie’s cro-tat hook (6) which is very similar in size to prym 1.5 cro-tat boullion hook.

I was just about finished, coming up the last half of the outside rim of the heart, when my skein ran out. Naturally, I was not happy to have to open another skein, and use about 45” from it. I did find one that had an end that was the same color the old one left off with, so no loss there.  It took about 2 hours.

Pattern is from crotatters yahoo group and one must join to get access to the patterns. Once a member it is in the files as 2003 tat-a-long, pattern by Amy Yendall. 
Group: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/crotatters/info

If you don't already know it, there's a group on facebook called Ice Drop Addicts, and have plenty of pics and patterns in the files.

Shuttle tatted with Lizbeth size 20 thread, color 151 Angel's Love.   So,  I finally got a chance to make another ice drop... I think this is my fouth one. I had lofty dreams of making the pink fudge drop, but things kept going wrong. First I strung my beads, then as I was tatting the 2nd row, I realized that I had actually decided to change my ice drop center and now those beads were not going to work. Then as I go along, I realize that the thread is disappearing way faster than I thought it would, and I was going to run out. Lastly, I had a knot in my thread, that made me wonder if I was going to have to cut.

So, I just decided to do something that would use less shuttle thread, and leave off the beads, but then realized I could get in some different beads by connecting the chains to the picots with a bead in there. Better than nothing. I ended up having to take the last bit off the shuttle and finger tat it, and was lucky enough that I got the little knot in a place that was not a slip to close spot, and tatted it in! Well, this is my 'I winged it again' ice drop!

This is Patrizia Pirocca’s tatted Angel pattern, which I adapted into cro-tatting.   I know the tatted version will be more delicate looking, but I just wanted to do it now!    It took me about an hour to do the angel, and then I painted on Mod Podge glossy on each side, letting it dry before doing the other side.   It kinda gives it a 'glass' like texture.   She came out pretty well, and I'm happy I was able to get something done so quickly, as my time is very busy right now.   I'm using a 1.5mm prym cro-tat hook, that I got  from: http://www.ds9designs.com/crochethooks.shtml    - bottom of page where you see the 3 black handle ones, and DMC Petra 5 in white/blanc.    I got the bead on a string of beads separated by little silver 'caps' at Walmart beading section, (if your walmart has a craft section)

CRO-TATTED: 1.00 mm Prym/Lacis cro-tat hook with DMC Pearl 5 in white, 502green & 842 light beige brown. This is Doily no.6 from Annies Attic Dainty & Delicate Mini Doilies - found on ebay.

I have the Annies Attic hook and also recently ordered another 1mm and 1.5mm and 2mm Prym hooks from the bottom of the page here. I was happy to have the larger sizes because I’m using DMC Petra 5. Imagine my surprise to find out I was using the 1mm, by mistake. It is a little hard to get all the DMC 5 into the hook without splitting it, so mad at myself for not using one of the medium size hooks. 2mm would be too large for this, and should be used on DMC 3 or other 3 thread.    

 I think if I made it again, I'd look for a reg crochet hook to do the edge, that was just a little larger than the hook on the cro-tat hook, because I have a problem with making my chains to tight when I crochet.

This is a real busy time of fall yard clean-up - especially when you let it go in the summer!   But I've finally gotten a little time to make another cro-tat snowflake.    Although many of the cro-tat books can be found on ebay, this one is like a needle in a haystack, A Flurry of Snowflakes:

I made snowflake no 1 with 1mm prym cro-tat hook & Hobby Lobby size 10 Artiste cotton thread in white porcelain.

I have to say I don't like the crochet picots, which seem to just look like lumps, compared to tatting picots. BUT! I did this one and there was a little error in the pattern, which made a little divot in the round that the first set of rings go on.

Long explanation:  The error is that it has you start off with slipping 3 st to get to the place for the first ring.   But then it has you do a chain 3 all the rest of the way around, and I kinda thought it would end that way, and make up the difference.   But when I got around to the end of the round, I couldn't go up to the ring with a ch 3, because I had to start the large outer chain from that point in between the rings. 
SHORT EXPLANATION:   Don't start with slp 3, but a ch 3, then into the middle of the next loop for the first ring.

OOPS!   Looks like I forgot to share my cro-tat bookmark I made to keep in my recipe pages.    It's the same one I made before from Roger's Easy Beginner Cro-tat Bookmark, found here:
 https://craftree.com/get_attached_file/134

Cro-Tat Ring Tips Snowflake

I made this Cro-tat Ring Tips Snowflake from MaryM's free patterns. This one is: 
http://www.reocities.com/mountainhome1999/ringtips.htm and I used Aunt Lydia's Fashion #3 thread, with the Prym size 2mm hook I just got. It is mostly crochet, with just the rings on the tips being tatting. It was harder for me because this is not slinky thread, but since I have some experience doing this, I was able to make it work. When I put the first ring on, I thought it was too big looking and nearly ripped it out and just did a 3 picot ring. But, I thought her picture looked good and I just needed to follow what she did, and it turned out great at that size, afterall.

Blue Varigated Snowflake by MaryM

Blue Varigated Snowflake by MaryM Link (scroll down): http://www.reocities.com/mountainhome1999/bluevarigatedsnowflake.htm

Let me start by saying that the first round with inward facing rings and chains around the outside was very simple to get right. However, the next round where I had to join chains, created a 'backward' feeling, which I was able to solve eventually.

So, I made the first one, the blue one, from Thread Art Perle Cotton 8, color 519, with a 1mm Prym cro-tat hook. The thread is 2 ply and flimsy. I would be easy to pull apart, but with cro-tatting, you have to keep a little looser so you can pull the hook thru the stitches. The thread makes a limp project, as the thread has no body. I notice that my chains are al twisted at the connections.

So, I made another one, to see if I could find a way to join without twisted chains. My next attempt was DMC Petra size 3. color Blanc. I used the Annie’s Attic cro-tat hook (about a 6) This size helped me to scrutinize the chains better, and I worked out the problem. But on finishing, discovered that I had managed to twist the beginning chains, and that resulted in every ring going on the wrong side, with the picot bands on the opposite side as the ring’s picot bands in the center round. If you look at the bottom ring, at 6:00, you can see the chain going up on the left is twisted - the culprit, the first ring and so all are on backward. So.. I made a 3rd attempt to resolve the rings on the backside, and make sure why they are on the backside.

 I tried to use Aunt Lydia, but I just hate to try to cro-tat with thread that is not slippery, I really need to have slippery thread that lets the hook slide thru, so….

 For my 3rd attempt I chose Hobby Lobby’s Artiste size 10, 102 Porcelain. Used the Prym 1mm cro-tat hook with it. It is the smaller white one, at the bottom of picture. I managed to get all the rings face up, and the connections made with no twist! WOOT!

Cro-tat Christmas Ornaments

Oh dear!   I bought a Cro-tat Christmas Ornament package from Enfy's Rainbow Valley Crochet and started making them, leaving my little mat (doily 6) unfinished!   I feel very naughty about that, and hope I do the right thing and get it done, as the devil is keeping track of all my UFOs :(    But these are so fun to make, I wanted to do them so much!   Sure they are not as delicate as straight tatting, but there is something to be said for ease and I like how the change between needle tatting and crocheting is easy on sore hands & thumbs. Also, it doesn't take a week to make each one! Well, I'm not giving up tatting, but I'm going to have fun with these cro-tatted ornaments.

Unless other hook is stated, I used the Annie's Attic cro-hook.
Oct 19, 2017 I made the "Stocking" using:
DMC pearl Cotton size 5, blanc & DMC Petra size 5, color 5666 (red)

Oct 22 Angel: DMC Petra size 3, B5200

Oct 23 Star: DMC Petra size 3, B5200   I sprayed it with Stiffen Quik and I don't know if it's user error, like I was too close maybe, but it made my stitches not be as visible and it left little fuzzys everywhere.   I also sprinkled with opalescent glitter which is beautiful, but camera barely picks up their sparkles.   I had a little hole where I didn't close the last part right and so I got another little piece of thread to close it, and was very surprised how white the new thread was when compared to the star, which the Stiffen Quik had apparently caused to lose its snow white color.  Still very happy with it. :)

Fall Leaf Earrings

October 18, 2017  Unexpectedly got some free time today (hurt foot!), so... Finished my La Feuille Frivole, design by J. Paulson and found in the free patterns here: http://leblogdefrivole.blogspot.co.uk/p/patterns.html I used size 40 Lizbeth#136 Autumn Spice thread & shuttle. Beads put on picots with tiniest crochet hook. 2 full knots after stem bead, with a touch of Elmer's glue after cutting off ends and smoothing down. They are not perfect, but the little inner leaves are so small, no irregularities are even visible to the eye - might be more so with a solid color

Started Doily No. 6 from Dainty & Delicate Mini Doilies, and just need to make a flower and do the edging on it.   This one will need ironing and spray starch (from the back only) to get the chains to not crumple up.   I'm a little miffed at myself, because I'm using #5 DMC Perle Cotton in #842 Lt Beige Brown, and #5 thread is PERFECT for the Annies hook I have, but I forgot what I was doing and picked up the 1mm Prym I have.   Well, it makes a nice tight ring, which I like, but is just a tiny bit too small and I have to watch that it doesn't miss a bit of the thread, creating a fuzzy spot.   Here's my progress:

CRO-TAT Delicate & Dainty Mini Doily No. 1

Hobby Lobby's Artiste $10 Thread:
110 Country Rose
119 Aspen
202 water lily is a red, pink, white, green variegated

1.00mm Prym cro-tat hook

This small simple looking cro-tat doily took me over a week to make. There is definitely a learning curve to cro-tatting... and here I thought because I could crochet and tat, it would be easy.... So excuse my delirium when I enthusiasticly post 3 pics of my "I can't believe I finally did it" project. Doily no. 1 from Delicate & Dainty Mini Doilies (cro-tat). It's best to use a slinky thread when cro-tatting, and this is Hobby Lobby's ARTISTE, with Prym 1mm cro-hook.

I made this as the first from this book because I thought I’d have it done in an hour or so. Big mistake! If you have this book, save this one till you’ve made some of the others, because getting the chains that go to the rings (green) all the same size is a bear!

CRO-TATTING "AROUND A ROSE"

So... found another pattern in the cro-tat books and decided to try it.   My now I've tried many different threads to see if I could find any that worked better.  

1.    I have size 20 and 40 in Lizbeth, which is a tightly woven 6 cord thread, so not catchy, BUT that is way small for the size hook they sent.   It leaves the stitches too loose.    So I will wait to try it till I get my 1mm cro-tat hook I ordered off ebay.    The hook sent by Annies Attic, is about the size of a 7 crochet hook, and I rememered I had a size 3 sample from Lizbeth, and since the stitches with 10 were too loose, thought I'd try it.   It did make nice tight stitches, but bigger rings, not small dainty ones:

2.  I found that the Hobby Lobby thread Artiste, has a sheen on it, and so is more slippery, and that causes the hook to slip thru the stitches, rather than catch.  (In cro-tatting, you get the stitches off the needle by pulling the hook with a loop of thread, back thru the stitches, then catching a loop at both ends to close the ring)    Still loose, with this hook we'll see how the 1mm works with the Artitste thread, which is the least expensive solution to good thread to cro-tat with.

3.   Then I remembered, quite some time back, Walmart had a clearance on a bunch of some kind of thread skeins, and I bought a dogs load of it, at something like 10cents each.   I thought I could make Barbie clothes with it, as I had 2 Barbie pattern books.    I did make half a Barbie top... she's still mad about that...I wonder where that is now....     But,  I couldn't remember what it was, but knew it was not cross stitch floss, with the 6 strands for separating.    Turns out that it was DMC Perle Cotton 5, and I have a whole drawer of it.   Again this thread has the important charicteristic of looking shiny and that makes it non-snaggy!

It reminds you of long hanks of wool yarn, because it is a large loop of thread, that is tied and then twisted into skeins to keep it in order, then you have to decide how to handle it when you open it, so it doesn't fly into knots.    I guess many people wind it... but I'm lazy about some things... or maybe just work smarter, not harder...   unwound pretty easily from the opened loop, after hanging it from a cabinet knob, by my desk.

So, with this discovery of nice shiny slinky perle cotton #5, I chose another cro-tat pattern and it worked wonderfully.   

This pattern is from Annie's Attic #873717, "Crochet Baker's Dozen Pot Holders". Pattern by Elizabeth Ann White. Using the Annie's Attic cro-hook with hook size appearing like size 7/1.65 crochet hook.

This comes with a front and back body (not the rose), but since a pot will never dare to touch it, on Rnd 11- I di NOT fasten off, instead finish last ch as -ch 1, dc in last ch 3 of starting ch, which put me in the middle of the chain for the next rnd. Then go straight to the 2 rnds of edging. I do not see this as a pot hold, but decorative, like a doily.

Even with only one thickness of the body, I was lucky to finish the ecru crocheted area with about 2 yds left over from the skein of 27 yds. I used about 2/3 of the other 2 skeins.    I see a large improvement in this second cro-tatted project, from the first one.

Shuttle, size 40 Lizbeth #114 Sea Shells, 2 shuttles CTM.  So, I happened to run across the tat-a-long from 2008 that Jane Eborall did, and it was a hippo.   Since we've had a new baby hippo at our local zoo this year, and have enjoyed seeing it's videos as it learns to do things -so cute - I thought I'd give it a try.   Jane's tat-a-longs always push the envelop and force you to learn new things -hope I can keep up!   I had no idea at all how much thread, so wound 2 shuttles CTM with 5 arm stretches on each... we'll see.   UPDATE:   Plenty of thread on my tiny tiny shuttles, with plenty left over :)

OH!   and I followed Mike Myers lead about doing an 'open mouth' version.

I learned so much, thanks to Jane Eborall's cunning split ring wizardry!

CRO-TATTING, FINALLY LEARNED IT!!!

Another diversion for me.    Tonight I've done something that has eluded me for years!   I finally 'got it' about cro-tatting.    The thing is, I shuttle tat, and can also needle tat a bit, so I would probably not go trying cro-tatting at all, if it weren't for the fact that some years back, before I tatted, I had bought about a dozen cro-tat pattern books, and then found I couldn't figure it out at all!   Later, when I got on ravelry, I saw a group about it there, and tried again and failed again.

BUT!   tonight while looking for something completely different, there was one of my purchases - a cro-tat pamplet, with cro-tat hook and small amount of thread in it.    I tried again, and again watched the same videos I have before.  The ds is very much like doing it with needle tatting, but the part I always failed at was getting the hook back thru those stitches, much the same way that you make a bouillion stitch.    

As it happens, the thread they put in this kit was about size 10, but seems to be 2 ply, AND the slightest tug on it and it just shreds apart, like you were pulling on a cotton ball!   I kept shredding my thread and so thought, I'm just going to keep going, this is only practice anyway, BUT, I will need to make my stitches a lot looser if I'm going to do this without shredding the thread.   BINGO!   What had stopped my success before was putting on the ds as tightly as I do on a tatting needle, and no hook could pass thru them.  Now it is finally moving thru, unhindered.   My first practice flower was a real nightmare, so uneven and showing no promise.    But, the second one improved enough that I decided to start making the next pattern that has the flower for the center and then a simple set of rings around.    Well..... my rings are all different sizes, and looking very odd.   Yet, somehow I am delirious with the prospect of actually being able to make all those patterns I bought before!    I will finish this flower coaster thing, and then, see if I can graduate to a better thread.   That is another problem with this, it can't be pulled tight, and however you do manage to get the stitches to form, they just start going limp and sliding out, picots disappearing completely.   But if not for this terrible thread, I'd never have understood that my stitches were too tight, and learned how to do this!   

These are both pretty horrible and wonky, but I'm excited to see even a small improvement in the second one, and so you see I've added onto to start the coaster from it.   Worst one on top, the somewhat better one on the bottom, compared to pattern pic.

The outer rings on the pattern are my next problem area.   All of the 3 rings I've made are different sizes, and look pretty lopsided and wonky, but I hope to gain experience as I go, and have them start improving before I'm done.   You really can't take them out like you could crochet.   It is just like regular tatting, once you've closed it, you'd pretty much have to cut it out to re-do any part of it.

I also tatted on my Fiona hippo last night A.M. hours, and my Spinning Wheel Glass Mat brown & ecru version, this afternoon.    But tonight I learned cro-tatting!   WOOT!

Later Friday, 9:46pm:  

Well, it's done ~ and it's wiggly and wobbly, but I'm just tickled that I was able to do it!

Sept 3, early Sunday, 4:30am


So, I happened to run across the tat-a-long from 2008 that Jane eborall did, and it was a hippo.   Since we've had a new baby hippo at our local zoo this year, and have enjoyed seeing it's videos as it learns to do things -so cute - I thought I'd give it a try.   Jane's tat-a-longs always push the envelop and force you to learn new things -hope I can keep up!   I had no idea at all how much thread, so wound 2 shuttles CTM with 5 arm stretches on each... we'll see.   Hmmmm...  I'm thinking I shouldn't have wound CTM, as I'm just making rings with no chains, so if I had not done that, I could have hid my first thread as I tatted the first ring... NUTS!   I am at the last ring, ring 6 and it is a split ring, so I need to re-visit how I did that on her last tat-a-long.  That will wait till tomorrow though, as it is 4:30am already!    I'm trying Lizbeth size 40, #114 Sea Shells to match her colors!

Sept 4, 2017 = Days 1-3 of 10 days:

I usually get a lot of tatting done when I'm having health/pain issues.   It keeps me from wilting and entertains my brain until I feel better, and can get up and work again.  It has been tatting time around here, with my fibro acting up, but yesterday(Sept 5) saw no tatting at all, as I had a tiny, almost invisible demon from hell insect, outside, stung/bit/I don't know what and injected liquid fire into my hand!

Sept 6, 2017 = Day 4, thru wily split ring maneuvers, a leg appears!    

You can download the pdf for one concise pattern, here: http://janeeborall.freeservers.com/Hippo.pdf http://janeeborall.freeservers.com/Hippo.pdf-but the day by day tat-a-long actually has more detail, as there is a graph for each day of a small area to do.

In the right frame of the page, under January, there are links to 8 pages of finished projects!

Day 1:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-1-of-first-tat-it-and-see.html
Day 2:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-2.html
Day 3:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-3.html
Day 4:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-4.html
Day 5:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-5.html
Day 6:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-6.html
Day 7:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-7.html
Day 8:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-8.html
Day 9:   http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-9.html
Day 10: http://tatitandsee.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/day-10-last-part.html

August 27, 2017  I started this one, the day after I finished the last one.   On the last one, I started the first center ring normally, doing FS/BS tatting. Because there was a definite back, I could not turn it over and so mine came out going in the opposite direction. The 3 ring row came out frontside, and the 6 ring row came out on the backside (needs rods). So this time I started the first center ring with rods and thought it would change that, that the 6 ring row would be frontside, but no, it's still backside. 

So, I went back to what I tried and forgot how to do in the first glass mat - making my picot joins from the back (side thats away from me) when I'm tatting on the wrong side - so my joins come out like they are made on the front side and the blip is on the actual back side. I like this.  I may decide to make a video of how I'm doing it.

This is so stupid... I'm using size 20 Lizbeth in 603 Ecru and 691 Mocha Brown Med.   So.... it won't show well on a brown table, because the brown rings will disappear... and the ecru is like an off white, so it will disappear on my white coffee tables!!!!!!

About half done with this, and it's going well, but have been distracted by a hippo pattern, so Sept 3 am hours, are doing that - more in next post.