Leaving on a Jet Plane...again (Also Motif #34 and the end of the TIAS)

Well, at this time tomorrow I'll be winging my way across Europe, heading toward a job training in Frankfurt, Germany. It's a tough life, I guess. :)

Anyway, my thread is wound and my tatting books carefully selected...it's always hard to choose what to take and what to leave behind!!

I've also done a bit of tatting in the past couple of weeks:

The TIAS! And motif #34 (#1 on my way to 25 by the 25th of December...clearly I need to pick up the pace!)

Here is another fun project I'm working on...

 I'm not going to tell you the story behind it yet, but you can guess if you want :)

Last weekend I taught my first ever tatting class! Here is the aftermath:

 I was so proud, I had 6 people over and all were able to make rings and chains by the end of the 2-hr lesson...one even brought a completed motif to work the next day!

Becky's First Motif!

Since then I've given refresher lessons, provided fresh balls of thread and lent out a couple of tatting books; definitely signs of tatting fever in Vladivostok! And, the best part is most of the people have asked when the next lesson will be...so fun!

I also sent off my package for the Secret Shuttle Exchange...I hope it doesn't take too long to get to the US from Russia!! If you're interested, there is another holiday-themed exchange being planned: Secret Santas!

Birthday Tatting! Plus catching up with the TIAS, China, Motif #33 and new thread!!

Well, I guess there are some perks to turning 30!

Besides cake, of course :)

For one thing, I got to order a bunch of thread "guilt free" as part of my birthday present :)

All size 80...eek!

Also, as you can see from the map to the right, I have added another new country to my tatting list...China!

OK so I'm pretty sure this doesn't mean tatting, considering the store below it was full of antiques, but it was fun to find! :)

Chris and I traveled to Hong Kong over the past weekend to celebrate my birthday and reconnect with some wonderful friends we met in Honduras. We had a great time and you can read all about that here if you want.

I'm a little teapot...

Besides having nothing else to do on the entertainment-free 5 hr flight from Vlad to HK, I did find a little time to tat while in China...

See, it's a shuttle!

We had a great view from the 32nd floor of the hotel!

 I was pretty busy in HK, but did manage to finish this pretty Rose Medallion from "Mastering Tatting".

Motif #33

 Of course, being away meant I got a little behind on the TIAS, but I've caught back up:

Day 8: Ok so it's probably a train...

Day 9: A snail sticking its tongue out?

Today's Day 10: Ok, it's really probably a train...pretty cute!

I also bought myself some gorgeous Japanese cotton fabric at a fabric market in Hong Kong as a birthday present:

I'm not 100% sure what I'll do with it, yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something fun! It's hard to tell from the picture, but all the outlines of the flowers is sparkly gold, so it's really lovely!



So, I'm settling into life in a new decade and getting ready for another international trip (and maybe two) in the upcoming weeks...life sure isn't slow! :)


Also, fun fact: My little brother reads this blog and challenged me this morning to do 25 motifs by the 25th of December...this might be pretty tough since it took me until, what, September to get my first 25 of the year(?), but at least the TIAS will count as one of them! Anyone want to join me?! :)

Three More Motifs...I made 30 before 30! :)

So I enjoyed tatting from "Mastering Tatting" so much on Saturday that I just decided to keep on tatting motifs from the same book on Sunday...and ended up completing my 30 by 30 self-challenge with over a week to spare!

Motif 30: Ñandutí Motif A (Size 30 Cebélia) Just so you know, the extra white rings on the outside are not in the pattern but were purposeful...I just wanted to see if I could. :) Also, I just now saw an error...do you? :)

And, because it was Sunday (and I had nothing else pressing) I just kept going:

Motif 31: Ñandutí Motif D (Size 30 Cebélia)

Motif 32: Ñandutí Motif B (Size 30 Cebélia)

 At this rate I might finish a second 25 Motif Challenge before the end of the year...I doubt it, but you never know! :)

TIAS Day 6, FINALLY Finished the Spiderweb, and Motifs 28 and 29...

Today was one of those awesome days where I tatted pretty much all day (with a small break to make a Chicago-style pizza...yum!!!). My husband discovered "Breaking Bad" (yes, I know, the series ended last week and he's just now found it...thank goodness for Netflix!) So he has been binge-watching his show today, and I've been tatting in the other room!

However, despite the amount of time I spent tatting, my actual finished product ratio was rather low...friends should not let friends tat distracted. :)

I'll actually start with the last thing I tatted...Sherry's TIAS Day 6!

 As I mentioned in my post on the TIAS community blog, I actually left off the last ring because the written pattern and diagram looked different to me...so we'll see on Day 7. :)

Well, as I said in the title of this post, I finally finished the Spiderweb Doily! :)

 It's larger than I thought it would be--just over 12" in diameter. I have it spread out on the dining room table, and my husband actually came over, examined it, and said, "You should frame that" and pronounced it his "favorite thing [I] have ever tatted." High praise indeed. :)

The last row took a bit longer to finish than I thought, mostly because I kept forgetting that the last row included rings with a picot instead of just rings that connected to the row before...I made the mistake below at least 6 times as I went around the last row:

So annoying!

That was last night. Today's distracted tatting came while I was playing with a couple of the motifs in Lindsay Rogers' book "Mastering Tatting." I received my copy of this book about a week ago, and I can already tell it's going to be a favorite. (Funnily enough, Fiona the MadTatter was also tackling this book today...she was a bit more adventurous than I was, though!)

As you can see, I had more than a little trouble with the motifs I attempted today:

Oops! Missed joins, too many picots, and forgotten repetitions abound...le sigh. So much wasted thread!

Does this happen to anyone else out there?!

However, I did (FINALLY!) manage to finish two of the patterns to my satisfaction:

Motif 28: Stained Glass Window Variation (Size 10 Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice)

Motif 29: Heart Motif (Size 30 Cebélia, White and and antique blue shade)

 It's amazing how different it feels to work with the different sized threads:

Size 10 - Size 80 - Size 30

 I find (much to my surprise) I am actually leaning more toward the smaller sizes of thread when working with the shuttles...I actually probably like the size 80 the best of all...weird.

 And, finally, because he's so cute, here's a picture of Pip enjoying the lazy Saturday, with visions of Iowa dancing in his head. :)

More of the Same...

Hi.

Being quite a bit ahead of most of the rest of the world (there are just two time zones separating Vladivostok from the International Date Line), it's always interesting to see how long it takes for the TIASs to show up in my blog feed...

I try not to "spoil it" by looking at other blogs (I like to see what I create before "comparing it to others) but sometimes that doesn't work out...oh well.

Anyway, after school today I found out there was a Day 5 and hastened to complete it, with (I hope) success:

 I've given up my thoughts of the first motif being an eye...now it reminds me of the wheel of a unicycle...although I'm guessing that won't be it, either, since there are two more picots floating out there in space...

In-between loads of laundry, piles of dishes (it's amazing how many dirty dishes two people can create!) and general apartment tidying I've also managed to start on the final round of the Spiderweb Doily...for those who wondered how it would end...take a peek.

It's twisting. Grr. Even after two separate starts, the final row is twisting. This doily will need to be blocked into submission, I think...

 I've also been very happy to notice distinct signs of fall here in Vladivostok...

As nice as warm summer days are, there's nothing like the changing colors of fall! :)

TIAS Day 4 and Just 1.5 Rows To Go on the Spiderweb!

 So, here we are again, another day, another bit of the TIAS completed:

It looks like it might want to be an elephant when it grows up.

The reverse work vs turn work thing was super-confusing, even though Sherry included the tutorial, but I think I got it right in the end...

Also I think I have the most boring TIAS on the community blog...silly me with my penchant for beige thread!

--

I've also continued a bit on the spiderweb/sunburst...you can see it completed through the second-to-last row in this photo:

I like it. I kind of want to send this picture to CBS Sunday Morning so they can use it as their icon between segments...with the proviso that they do a segment on tatting, of course. :)

I'm also pretty excited, I entered the Wicked Nothings' Secret Shuttle Exchange, and you should, too! :) Who knows, you might get a shuttle from Russia! :)