Short Supplied (for 5+ months anyway) + Motifs #19-21

I am down to just 11 spools of thread.

 Well, ok, I am down to just 11 spools of thread available to me right now. That may sound like a lot to people who don't tat, but I'm sure that most of us have a bit of the thread hoarder in us (some of us have actually found a creative and beautiful way to display our thread, whereas my display method is somewhat messy and, you guessed it, All Over the Place)

 My current thread shortage "problem" is self-made...as you may or may not know we are moving away from Honduras and had to pack all our stuff up to ship to storage for a few months...and since we are only allowed about 250 lbs of luggage on the plane when we fly away from here, and since we have about that much in clothing and golf clubs, pretty much everything had to be packed away today...including all my tatting thread!

So here it before it was all packed away...

And now it's in approximately three of those boxes...the movers didn't get the idea about packing like things in the same box

So now I'm down to slim pickins...

 You've probably noticed I'm fond of tatting in off-white, mostly because I LOVE my Perle 8 Madame Tricote thread (the one that's almost gone below), so I have that plus my two rolls of a similarly-colored and sized Altin Basak (I have to conserve the Madame Tricote!) and one more of the Madame Tricote in the darker caramel color. I also have 5 colored spools in size 8 because of a project I'm working on (more than that in a moment) and two spools of size 20 off-white thread just in case I decide to "work small." And that's it.

 As I was watching the baggies and basket being packed away today I kept telling myself that I am going to a place that sells thread (apparently there are more than a few places in the greater DC area), so I won't be starved for thread (oh and of course there's the Internet.)

 Plus I don't have to load all that thread in my suitcases, which is a good things since we're about full-up with clothing and gifts and stuff. :)

Speaking of gifts, I figured out how to finish the the ripple tatted necklace, and I got to practice a new tatting skill at the same time!

 For a while now I've been avoiding patterns that call for josephine anything, because they have never made sense to me. I got the "just the first half of the stich part", but every time I tried it it just curled up and looked awful, nothing like the beautiful pictures in the books.

 The other day at school I decided to do a little Internet research when a pattern that I REALLY wanted to make called for josephine knots (something I still don't feel I have mastered). I was searching for the josephine knot, but came across this video on youtube:

Thank you very much TotusMel! Not only does it explain a perfect technique for the josephine, it shows it! On the needle!! YAY!!!

So, as I looked at my poor chainless (but grinning) necklace, it suddenly occurred to me...josephine!

Remember this?

I did it! :)

I actually used both of the techniques on the video, and although I already had split rings down, it was nice to practice.

So there it is, in its finished glory.
You'll notice I finally cut the strings off...I never cut strings off a project until it's done...kind of like with new clothes, I don't remove the tags until I wear it the first time. Yes, I am weird!

I actually kind of liked it, so I thought I'd model it for you. Chris cut off my head.

And here I am tatting away after finishing the necklace...I was making three more motifs!

 Now, if you don't believe me about the Tatting All Over the Place, check out that couch! I can really fill a seat made for two with all my tatting paraphernalia.

 Actually, I had a bit of a scare about this time last night...Chris had lost his phone earlier in the night, and in the middle of looking for it, I LOST one my tatting needles! I mean, it was just gone! I'd obviously had it while I was putting the chains on the necklace, but I could not find it. I moved furniture, I swept the floor, I did everything I could think of, but to no avail. In 3 years of tatting I'd never actually lost a needle until last night...

 Luckily, as you can just barely see on the bottom of the picture above, I had my jeans rolled up...and when I took them off and un-rolled them, my missing #3 needle rolled out. Hallelujah! My no lost needle record is still intact. ;)

Anyway, in-between the phone and needle searches I did manage to make three tiny motifs:

These two (#s 19-20) were already attached when I got around to taking their picture...they are both riffs off of some of the small flower motifs in Lyn Morton's Tatting Patterns

And #21, although not in a very pretty color on its own, does stand alone (for now anyway!)

 You've probably noticed the white border the three motifs are attached to...it's part of another gift, one of those that I started a few months ago and am now finally getting around to finishing. I'll put up pictures when a) it's finished, and b) I've given it to the person I'm giving it to...don't worry, you'll only have to wait a week+! We're on the home stretch for going home! :)

KF