"Mastering" Split Chains and Single Shuttle Split Rings (SSSRs) and Motif #11!

Well, happy April :)

It's been a crazy last couple of weeks...since the last time I blogged:
-Chris got back from his training trip to the USA
-We moved (just within Vlad, not to a new country or anything)
-My sinuses exploded (or at least it felt like it for a couple days! Yikes!)

So you will forgive me for not having posted anything (or having had time to tat all that much) for the past few weeks. (Please.)

Progress on Reneluk's Spring Doily has been (temporarily) set aside in favor of learning and practicing new techniques as suggested by Ladytats and Grace Tyler (thank you!) and demonstrated by Linda Davies on her Toptattyhead YouTube page (thank you!).

After I posted this picture:

in my last blog post (it's the first few rounds of Karey Solomon's Plain and Fancy) Grace correctly pointed out that I had a lot of hanging threads and very diplomatically suggested that I could save myself a lot of bother, hassle and brain cells if I would learn how to do a split chain. Ladytats next gave an exceptionally good description of how to do said chain, and then Grace provided me with the knowledge of how to find Linda's YouTube video about split chains and SSSRs.

Oh Internet tatting people, how I love you and your helpful, giving ways!

So, thanks to this amazing combined effort, I give you my first split chain:

Followed shortly thereafter by my first ever Single Shuttle Split Ring:

The Hallelujah Chorus (as sung by the Simpson College Chorus in a 2011 flash mob at the Jordan Creek Towncenter) was loudly playing in the background when this was achieved, I assure you. :)

Hooray!

I was going to blog about this the very next day, but then we moved, a multi-day affair from which we are still recovering...

But Pip likes his backyard

And my comfy tatting chair has finally made it to the (4th floor!! of the) townhouse, so we're back in tatting business.

We moved a week ago Wednesday and Thursday, spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at work and unpacking, and then on Monday my head exploded and I spent the rest of the week recovering from the worst sinus headache EVER. Yikes.

Anyway, with brain and nasal function fully restored I decided to finish up Plain and Fancy (with split chains abounding):

Can you spot the split chains??

 Here's a hint:

Motif 11!

Whoohoo!!! :)

Split chains, check. Single shuttle split rings, check.

Next up is tatting around a bead. Oh, and that spring doily. :)

Continuing the Spring Doily, an Interim Project and a Lovely Gift

I am highly enjoying Reneluk's Spring Doily and am making surprisingly quick progress...probably because my husband has been gone the past two weeks so I've had nothing to do but tat! :)

Here are rounds Four:

Five:

Six:

and Seven:

I also decided it would be fun to work on something in a bit larger thread. This is the first couple rounds of Karey Solomon's "Plain and Fancy" from her booklet Doily Delights in size 20 Lizbeth.

I also received a lovely package from Aileen from Wicked Nothings this week.  I participated in her Secret Santa exchange, but the package that was sent to me (I like to think it was sent) never made it...even though she really didn't need to, Aileen was kind enough to send a replacement, and

I appreciate it so much!!!

Blue and white thread, rubber thimble, two decorated shuttles, origami paper for decorating my own shuttles, beads (more on that in a later post), a decorated card AND a fun cultural momento, a good luck "red packet" for the Lunar New Year. Inside my good luck envelope was a beautifully tatted bookmark! Thank you! :)

I especially love the decorated shuttle she sent, and some extra papers for me to practice decorating, too. I sense a mod podge order in my future! :)

 I enter all exchanges at my own risk and with the full knowledge that I may never receive anything-- I just think it is so fun to have the option to connect with tatters all over the place! Thanks again to Aileen for organizing the exchange!

I will leave you today with a bit of inspiration I'm mulling over:

I saw this vase at a restaurant over the weekend and thought, I can do that! So, I'll be thinking of exactly how to do it over the next few weeks. I'm thinking there will be a lot of stiffening agents involved! :)

Starting Renulek's Spring Doily and Finishing Another (Motifs 9 and 10)

Howdy.

Sorry. It's been a while.

I've had a bit of a horrible week...first of all, my hubby has been away at a training, so it's been sad and lonely around the house, and then, last Saturday my baby had a major health scare after he ingested an entire 100g dark chocolate bar that he found in my purse (which is not a good thing for a 25-lb terrier mix).

THANKFULLY Russia has 24-hr vets and thankfully I knew enough Russian to explain what happened, and thankfully the vets knew what to do and quickly, so THANKFULLY my dog is here with me happy and healthy today (although I don't think he enjoyed having his stomach pumped, poor thing).

 Yikes.

 So, with all that going on I have not been doing much tatting...but I have managed to finish up one project and start another:

Motif 9: Doily by Adelheid Dangela in the Ring of Tatters' 30th Anniversary Book of Patterns tatted in size 80 Lizbeth

I also started Renulek's Spring Doily a week or so ago, and thanks to a (major) thread infusion [because of course I needed that ;)], have continued this week:

Motif 10: The first round of Renulek's Doily

Here is round 2:

 And the newly finished round 3:

So far I am enjoying this tat, but I'm kind of confused as to how to start round 4 (two shuttles CTW or shuttle and ball...) Any suggestions from those who have passed this point?