TIAS, T.A.T. and Something Really Fun (oh and an upcoming 15 HOUR PLANE RIDE!!!!!)

Well, I didn't do a good job of keeping up with the daily parts Jane's TIAS this year, but I did manage to finish it on the day the final part was posted...so, yay!

Cute scissors...mine didn't turn out amazingly, but, eh. I'm ok with it. :)

In-between waiting for the pieces of the TIAS, I have been busy with showing my brother around DC, gathering last-minute things to take to Australia, and working on two projects that I can't/won't show you, hehehehehe. 

The can't part is the Apprentice phase of Tatters Across Time (T.A.T.)...the organizers specifically ask that we don't show any part of our work or the patterns for the program, so I can't put any pictures up here, but I really enjoyed the experience and I think I am already seeing some benefits in the other project I am working on, which I won't show you because I prefer to show projects finished, and I'm not done yet...

But I LOVE it and it's fun and I can't wait until I'm done so I can show you!!! :)

TIAS 2015: Day 2

Here is my Day 2 for Jane's TIAS:

I still have no clue what it will be, but it wouldn't be as fun if Jane didn't keep us guessing!! :)

TIAS 2015: Day 1

Oh, hey. What's up??

So, my life is a little crazy right now, what with the move from Russia to our temporary homes (bouncing between my parents and my in-laws) just in time for Christmas...and the flu season! 

Yeah. We've had multiple family members in the emergency room this past week, multiple cases of Influenza A, the stomach flu, sinus infections, a sprained shoulder...chaos!!

So, as the resident "well person" I've had a lot of practice being "Nurse Kristen", a role I was not designed for, I assure you!!

I finally grabbed a break between patients to start Jane Eborall's TIAS, which you can find on her blog (or just google her, it comes right up). 

Of course this is only the first day, but I already love the pattern because of the lock chain! I have been admiring all the lock chain patterns but never knew how to execute them...and now I do! That Jane, she is one in a million!

Sounds like day 2 is coming tomorrow--hooray!!! :)

Tatting Randomness...Motifs 6, 7 and 8

OK, before I get to the real post I have some exciting news...Chris and I were told where we will be heading after our two years in Vladivostok are done (early 2015)

We are totally looking forward to 2+ years in...Canberra, Australia!!!

So, does anybody have information on the tatting scene down under? :)

-----
Ook, February was not been a particularly prolific month of tatting...more just a little of this and that...

First of all, here (finally!) is my sailboat from Jane's TIAS:

Motif #6

My sister-in-law gave me the Ring of Tatters' "30th Anniversary Book of Patterns" for Christmas, and I have been mostly dabbling there for the past few weeks:

Motif 7: Buttercup by Hannah Crowle

If you compare this to the actual pattern you will find (on the outer round at least) there are a few differences...all due to user error, of course. Fox has been quite vocal about her alleged "Instructional Incompetence" and I have to admit that I, too, suffer from that disease. Oops. :)

Motif 8: The first motif of Adelheid Dangla's Doily

I've actually had to abandon this motif here--it's impossible to tell on this terrible picture, but apparently I tatted this with dirty fingers--the inner rings are new-snow white, but all those lovely chains are closer to snow after the first plowing. Oops.

Finally, another project from that same book that is just giving me fits...Jane has this adorable badger bookmark that I'd so love to tat...

 But I can't get the joins to work properly!!

The pattern calls for both up joins and down joins, techniques that I understand in theory, but have struggled to execute in reality:

The first ring does not require the down join...and the down join worked pretty well on the second ring...but WHY are there black marks on the third and fourth rings?!

 Here is the back side, which looks right(?)

Any suggestions? I literally worked on this for two days last weekend (this is the 4th or 5th attempt), and I'm stuck! :(

Also, I'm very sad because the Olympics are over, but being in the host country has some perks...like finding Sochi chocolate! Hooray! :)

TIAS Day 15 and a tiny motif #5

It's so sad, there is only one more day of Jane's TIAS...sniff.

Here is my progress through Day 15...

I guess it is pretty obvious what it is at this point...

Too cold to sail on Amur Bay!

Saturday night I opened up every one of the balls of size 80 thread I have, found an empty shuttle, and started tatting with each and every one of them. I mostly stuck to rings since that seems to be where I'm having trouble...the thread keeps snapping when I'm in the process of closing the ring for some reason or another.

Thank goodness, almost all of the thread tatted up as normally as possible. Hooray! Apparently I just started tatting with the few balls that weren't good first...awesome.

At any rate, I was finally able to get a start on that doily project, and here is the first round (and motif 5 of the 25 motif challenge):

Again, it is deceptively tiny...

Oh, so cute.

Actually, perfectionist that I am, I think I'll be doing this over before I continue with the rest of the doily...but it was SO NICE to finally get a finished motif in size 80! Hooray!!!

Annoyed. (Though, not about TIAS Days 13 and 14)

Gah.

I am so annoyed.

Why?

This is why:

Yes, that is what it looks like, about a quarter of a ball of size 80 thread...

 I was all ready to start on a new doily. I was really excited, it was going to be a challenge but something I wanted to do. It was going to be pretty.

So I got started...ring 1, fine. 2nd ring (no RW, no chain)...tat tat tat, start to close the ring...SNAP.

This happened FOUR TIMESSSSSSSS!!!!!!

So, I threw the ball, thread snapped rings, shuttle, everything across the room. (Literally--it made me feel much better, although it didn't solve the problem.)

Another ball of "bad" thread.

Based on the helpful comments people left me, I did a little bit of a strength test on a number of balls of size 80 thread I ordered in October... 3 (including two that I got on purpose to make this project I was going to start on) of the 8 that I tested were "bad." I have 8 other balls still in the package that I'm scared to open because they might be "bad" too.

UGH!!!!

In related news, my 10% off coupon came in the mail this week, so I want to order some new thread...thinking I'll be moving to size 40, it seems to break less often... :/

In much happier news, I'm still enjoying Jane's TIAS:

Day 13

Day 14

 I still have no clue--the idea of a sailboat still looks good, but I think Jane still has some tricks up her sleeves.

Finally, I leave you with a picture of something that made me smile a lot this week:

Happy Olympics!

TIAS Days 11 and 12, New Techniques and a Confession

Hello, my name is Kristen and I am a tatting book addict.

No really. I've ordered something like, oh, 15 new tatting books in the past 2 or so months.

Because, you know, I really needed that many more books. I clearly didn't have enough before (eyes rolling).

But I got some REALLY good titles, and some REALLY good deals! (Also I had a REALLY nice Amazon.com gift card from my in-laws this year, so most of the books were "free" to me...).

But seriously. It's ridiculous. (Awesomely ridiculous!!) :-D

So, since I admit I have a problem, the least I can do is to work using those books to learn something new:

Voilà!--Block tatting and that cool looking circley tatting that I've always wanted to know how to do but have never been able to figure out. Block tatting directions courtesy of "24 Snowflakes in Tatting," the circley thing from "The Craft of Tatting."

Two of only a few things I've tatted that my husband has said "That so cool!" about. Hoorah. :)

I also need to keep up with blogging my progress on Jane's TIAS:

Day 11

I still see Mary and Joseph...

 And then here's today's offering:

Day 12

 Of course, it hasn't been all tatting and buying books around here...I also made an amazingly delicious pizza (if you allow me a moment to brag):

Soooo good! Here's the recipe: http://cheese.food.com/recipe/deep-dish-spinach-and-mozzarella-pizza-171223. I promise, it's worth the work you have to put into it. (Also, add a tablespoon of sugar to the sauce recipe. It cuts the acidity by a lot!)

Besides the delicious pizza I've also been trying not to eat these:

 My mom sent me this bag this week and I'm doing my best to make these last as long as possible and not to eat the entire thing in one sitting.

I love love LOVE these and they are really hard for me to get, mostly becuase they are not a) sold in Russia (not surprisingly) or b) reasonably available online (quite surprisingly...Walmart.com says they are "out of stock online", Amazon.com wants to charge me $10 for a smallish bag, and Target.com blocks computers trying to log in from Russia. Bah.)

Also, I am really picky and I only like the Brach's kind...no SweetTarts or Necco for me, ick! :)

So, I'm making this delicious bag last as long as I can! Thanks awesome Mom! :)

Finally (really, this is a random post, isn't it?) here is something I found to be REALLY cool this week:

It's a pattern from a plastic tablecloth I found at work this week. Neat, right? It kind of looks like tatting...kind of...

Thanks for sticking with this rambling post. :)

Happy the Olympics start today!!! :)

TIAS Day 10 and Some Cute Little Clovers

So.

The thread is working a little better now...I've managed to make 13 "clovers" without breaking the size 80 thread (along with at least three more that didn't want to work out)...

6 more to go!

 I'm still not 100% sure what the heck is going on...I usually don't have such problems closing rings with Lizbeth thread...

 I might have to rethink my plans if these troubles continue once I start building on these clovers...maybe go back to size 40 :)

 Jane also posted Day 10 of her TIAS...

I'm back to the Nativity idea...Mary is on the left, Joseph is on the right...? :)

A Terrible Tatting Day (+ TIAS Day 9)

Oh hello.

To borrow a phrase from a book I never really liked when I was a kid, I'm having a "Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Tatting Day".

Seriously. Yikes.

I know it's only (way late) January, but seriously, time passes really quickly, we're looking at more travel later this spring (for those who are wondering, my husband is a diplomat with the US State Department, which is why we're in Russia and why we travel so much--you can follow that adventure here), and Fair entry time is just a few months away!

So, I need to get to work on some stuff. I've chosen what I want to be my next victim, loaded my shuttle with some beautiful ercu size 80 Lizbeth thread, and...promptly broke the thread two times in three starer motifs. Tension troubles or...??

 Seriously. Grrr.

Clearly that wasn't working out, so I decided to move on, for the time being. I saw on Facebook that Jane's Day 9 was posted (apparently we're halfway there, fellow TIASers!) so I decided to move back into the realm of size 20 thread.

Two words (well, letters, really). SS. GAH! :)

 Well, despite getting all "switched" around (bwahaha), and having to un-tat half of today's pattern more than once, my finished "motif" matches the diagram on today's pattern, but I'm still not at all sure what the heck this is going to turn out to be!

So. I'm a little done with tatting today, but to steal another phrase from somebody else, "Tomorrow is another day to tat." :)

Tatting in Thailand (Motif 4) and TIAS Day 8

So, Thailand is really a lot warmer than Russia.
Three days in Thailand (see the map to the right--8th new country in the past year!!) with an average temperature of about 80 degrees (all-time low temps according to people who actually live there) were heaven compared to this chilly, snowy Vladivostok...although it is nice to be back. :)

Those three days were so crazy-busy I didn't get much tatting done, but I did manage Motif 4:

Подвеска (Pendant) from "Фриволите Рукоделие" by Животовская Е. В.

It doesn't look quite right, but close enough. Russian patterns are sometimes kind of weird to follow...

I also kept up with Jane's TIAS--here is Day 8:

 I'm seeing windmills:

Maybe?? :)

TIAS Day 7

Since I'm far away from my computer in Thailand, I've decided to try out the Schedule function of blogger for my TIAS Day 7 post...

Jane was nice enough to send me the Day 7 link so I wouldn't get behind while I was gone, but I promised I wouldn't put up the picture until after she put it out...so hopefully this works out! :)

Anyway, here is my Day 7:

I still have no guesses...how about a hint, Jane? :)

TIAS Day 6 and Traveling Again

Here is my Day 6 for Jane's TIAS:

Once again it doesn't seem to be turning the way Jane's diagram shows, but I'm sure it will eventually get there. I still have no guesses...lack of imagination, maybe?

I'm writing this in the lull that comes between the time when you are frantically packing your bags and when you leave for the airport...yes, we're off on another (very short) trip, but I think this will be the last for a bit (March or April, probably). I have to stay home through February so I don't miss any of the Olympics!!

Speaking of the Olympics, here's something fun:

This is me (in the maroon in the back) running at the Iowa State Track and Field Meet in 1999 against Lolo Jones (navy in the front), a fellow Iowan and 2-time Summer Olympian who just qualified for the US Olympic bobsled team! (And, not to brag or anything, I actually ended up beating her in this race...it's hard to tell, but she is starting to grimace in pain, because she's just pulled her hamstring and is about to drop to the ground in agony, thus allowing a slow, chubby 9th grader to pass her, poor girl. Clearly she overcame that particular disappointment.) Anyway, so next month we'll both be in Russia! (Albeit on COMPLETE opposite sides of the country (and continent) but still...same place.  :) Funny how life is, sometimes!

40 Badly Blocked Blue Tulips (Motif 1) and TIAS Day 5

Did you know that there really are blue tulips?

According to a quick Google images search, there are!

A fun fact to go along with...my 40 (Blue and (badly) Blocked) Tulips!

I think this is actually Motif 1 of my 25 Motifs for 2014?

Overall I really liked tatting this pattern...but BOY was it a pain to block!

What with all the thread stretching and then the tendency of the tulips and circles to overlap, this doily did not want to lay flat! Also, there is a mistake...I can see it, can you? :) I'll give you a hint: it's blue

 Of course, I'm not sure what I expected from a pattern of tulips...having grown up with Pella, Iowa with their ostentatious Tulip Time Festival as a major school rival, tulips are not my favorite flower...so I was not totally surprised when a pattern of tulips turned into kind of a headache...

Oh well. It's blocked, done, and I can move on... :) Hooray!

Ok actually I can't totally move on; I really, really want to iron it too, but we STILL haven't gotten a new iron. You wouldn't think it would be that hard, but it's turning into a bit of a saga. Shopping in Russia is kind of hard, apparently. :)

I also have my TIAS Day 5 completed...I can't wait to see what this thing actually ends up being!

Teeny, tiny Day 5!

 It's a three day weekend for me here in Vladivostok (in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day...I love living abroad and getting to celebrate both US and host country holidays!) so I should have plenty of time to tat...but we're also still hard at work ranking countries on our bid list and getting ready for another trip later in the week, so, we'll see.

Oh! Another fun fact...today is the one-year anniversary of our arrival in Vladivostok! Yep, it's been a whole year! Crazy! :)

TIAS Days 3 and 4

Well, 40 tulips have been accomplished but not yet ironed or blocked...this week has been busy since we started school again after our 3 week winter break! Starting back has been particularly exciting because the school moved into a brand new facility...and here's the coolest part:

Why yes, there is an airplane outside that window!

Yep, the school I volunteer teach at has an AIRPLANE outside...!

I'm not sure why, but that really makes me happy :)

So, there has been more lesson planning and less tatting happening this week...also I found a really good book that I'm into, so I've been reading a bit more too...

Anyway, I have kept up with Jane's TIAS, here are my Day 3 and 4 offerings:

Day 3--no clue!

Day 4...Mary?

From the moment I saw the diagram for Day 4 all I could think about was that it looked like a kneeling Mary in some of my nativities that are, I'm happy to admit, still up all over my house...my tree is still up, too...technically it's still the Christmas season in Russia, so I'm milking it for all it's worth! :)

This is a small puzzle nativity that I brought back from my trip to Germany last fall

Speaking of Christmas, I received a very nice gift card to Amazon from my parents-in-law (what do you get the person who lives in Russia?) so I've ordered some new tatting books...not that I guess I NEED more tatting books, but...I'm anxiously awaiting their arrival anyway! :) Yay!! :)

24 Tulips (so far) and TIAS Day 2

 It never fails...you get a few days off...and then you get sick!

Or, at least, it never fails for me...maybe it's a way of punishing idleness... :)

Anyway, we had a really nice, REALLY lazy 8-day New Year's holiday, and mine actually extended to 10 with two sick days this week (it's just a cold, but a particularly nasty one and not one I decided to share with my colleagues). Between the sniffling and coughing and chain-drinking tea I've managed to get myself pretty far along in "Forty Tulips" (warning...the tulips need some blocking!)

24 and Counting! :)

If you're not sure exactly what I'm talking about, here's a closer view of the tulips...

It's the blue things...ok, I don't know that I see tulips there either, but my husband said he did, so what do I know? :)

 This was the same doily I was having tension troubles with last time I blogged...thankfully a good dunking and some tough love with stretching and pinning made it lay flat as a pancake:

It's amazing how different the colors look when wet!

 I was a little concerned about how enlongated the rings of the variegated trefoils got in the last row above until I took a closer look at the picture of the doily in the book:

Totally elongated...so, nbd

I'm really enjoying this pattern, particularly because I think it is the most challenging pattern I've ever completed...the last row (the tulips) use two shuttles, and you have to constantly switch which shuttle you're using to make it turn out right. It's actually been a good pattern to work on while not feeling well because it hasn't gotten boring or mindless, and takes my mind off not feeling well. :)

I've also continued with Day 2 of Jane's TIAS:

Mine didn't turn right...

 I'm guessing it's the back end of a helicopter...I bet I'm wrong, though! :) I'm very proud, though, I've never joined on the second half of a split ring...but I got it right on the first try! :)