Tag: vacation

Yellow tangle

We took a family vacation over the Memorial Day weekend; my husband and I, our kids, and their families.  It was a lot of fun! While on vacation I did very little tatting, even on the long drive to and from our destination.  I took my tatting with me (of course!) and sorta, kinda, had an idea of what I wanted to work on.  I had shuttles wound with  Perfect Quilter 085 ready to go.

Why I thought I could tat anything on vacation with such tiny thread when I usually use size 20 baffles me.  Using thread I’m not used to in the car while traveling or when likely to get interrupted by the grandkids was  a mistake waiting to happen.

This is the extent of what I accomplished while on vacation.

The one time I actually got a little tatting done ended abruptly when I was needed due to some minor emergency, which I can’t even remember.  I only know I was finally putting in a little tatting time when I had to put it down in a hurry then came back to such a tangled mess I put it away.

Over the next two weeks I picked up my yellow tangle and tried to work on it several times.  I think it is a lost cause.  I have made stitch count mistakes, broken the thread, and kept making a bigger mess.  I think it is time to retire this piece all together.

The little yellow piece after two weeks of messing with it.
I might try making this in a larger thread if I ever sit down with it and write down the stitch counts. We’ll see.

I thought I would have another pattern ready for today but I’m still fighting with my computer.  We had gotten it working better but today while trying to touch up the pattern a bit it just froze up.   It’s becoming quite annoying.


“One of the most feared expressions in modern times is ‘The computer is down.'”
Norman Ralph Augustine
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Small threads, vacation and TIAS

I did a little bit more with those small threads, King Tut and Perfect Quilter.  Okay, mostly to work them off my shuttles 🙂
The butterfly at the top is in Lizbeth size #20, the yellow on the right in Perfect Quilter, the smallest in King Tut.  They are tatted with the same number of stitches (though the picots may not have the same ratio to stitch size.)  The edging is also Perfect Quilter.  Making this, and the crosses I posted about last week, show that I have trouble getting the picots the right size for the size of thread.
IsDihara left a comment on last week’s post about what she found out about the quilting threads.
“Since I have a ball of size 100 thread to compare against, I can confirm that WPI (wrapas per inch) for King Tut thread matches size 100.  Perfect Quilter has more WPI than size 80 Lizbeth but less than size 100 thread.  So it seems to be in between sizes.  But that could also be an issue of different plies.  Pretty sure Perfect Quilter is not a 6-ply cotton. (Don’t know why I didn’t think to check these details before now.)  Thanks Madtatter80 for wondering!”
Thanks, IsDihara, for sharing this information.
We recently went on a vacation to Colorado, to the Buena Vista area – yes, again.  For the last several years this has been our favored vacation spot, and September our favored time of year.  We have been very blessed with seeing the Aspens change to their fall colors – until this year.   They have had so much rain all summer that, unless you were at a pretty high altitude, the aspens were only barely starting to change. 
This is the Mary Murphy Mill, not far from St. Elmo, Colorado. You can see that the Aspens have turned here, but this is at about 11,000 feet.

We stopped for lunch at a likely looking spot – there was a somewhat flat area with a convenient large rock to use as a table. The altimeter app on my phone showed we were at 11,433 feet. 
After lunch I took time to take a few stitches using our ‘table’ to sit on.  You can see it was a little cool here.
Sherry Pence, LadyShuttleMaker, is doing a TIAS, found here. Her pattern won first place at the 2013 Idaho State Fair.  This is my day four.  It doesn’t quite look like the pattern 🙁  I might have to un-tat a bit and try again.  That’s okay, it’s still fun!

“By all these lovely tokens 
September days are here, 
With summer’s best of weather 
And autumn’s best of cheer.”
Helen Hunt Jackson
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More mice

I had to make more mice this weekend due to a few requests.  From the grandkids, so how could I refuse?
We went on a vacation with our daughters and their families this holiday weekend. There were four children ages two to six with us.  I was sitting on the porch of the cabin with my tatting when they came by to see what I was doing.  They saw the two mice I had in my case and immediately started deciding between them who would get them and wasn’t I going to make more?  As I didn’t expect to get much tatting done during the weekend I didn’t bring a large choice of thread. In fact I only brought two balls of thread, Lizbeth #644 Boysenberry Dark and # 662 Turquoise Light, both in size 20.  I also didn’t bring the black beads I use for eyes and nose.   
That didn’t stop me.  I had a partially loaded shuttle of another color thread that had clear beads strung on it so the mice would have light colored eyes and noses.  I did, fortunately, have enough findings with me to make the required number of mice.  With the blue mouse I had already made (in Lizbeth #652) that was specially requested by one of the grandsons I just needed to make three mice.  I made two in the Boysenberry Dark and and one in the Turquoise Light.  
On Sunday, after lunch but before we went our separate ways, I let the kids choose which mouse they wanted.  One of the grandsons wasn’t very happy with the color choices – none of them were red.  So I promised him I make him one in red and send it to him. 

Here’s the red mouse I made for him (Lizbeth #671, size 20).  Of course at home I had the black beads so it has the dark eyes and nose.  I’ll be sending it off in the mail today or tomorrow. 
This snail is Nancy Tracy’s pattern made in Lizbeth #601 snow white in size 20. I have made this before but I thought I would make it again for the Shuttlebirds Tatting Challenge.  This was tatted on the drive to the cabin.  It’s in white as I had a little bit of this thread still on a shuttle.  
Every morning this weekend (Friday, Saturday & Sunday) I was the first one out of bed, which gave me a quiet time to tat while enjoying the beautiful view from one of the porches.  I got a surprising amount of tatting done this way.  These motifs are what I had planned on making if I had time, which dictated the choice of colors I had brought.  They are to go on a denim purse I want to add tatting to.  They are made in the Turquoise Light with 6-point findings.  The shape and pattern is pretty much the same as for the mouse with a reduced stitch count for the rings, 3+3 and 2-2-2-2 for the chains.  I’m planning on gluing them to my purse (I’m lazy and don’t want to try stitching them on).

We spent this vacation at a small retreat in southeast Nebraska called Dana Farms at Mayberry.  The entire family had a wonderful time.  Not once did I hear any of the kids (adult kids or grandkids) say they wanted to go home.  The pond (Lake Suzanne) was stocked so every time we went fishing fish were caught, which really helped the grandkids have a good time.  The owners were great and the cabin was absolutely wonderful.  If anyone needs a nice, quiet place to get away and you’re in that area I highly recommend Dana Farms.  You can find out more about it at http://cabins4fun.com/
(This is my own endorsement made without compensation. We just had a great time there!!)  

We all hated to see the end of the vacation.  It was very hard to go back to work on Monday, too. 
“There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.”
Washington Irving

Where have they gone???

The pictures of tatting I took while on vacation??  I can only find the one of green thread on a red button that I already posted about, all of the other ones are gone! What a bummer!
Taking a suggestion from Kathy I’ve been making zipper pulls instead of hair clips.  Each one of of these blue ones has some form of mistake so they are mine, but I’ve been trying out different ideas to see what works, what doesn’t work and if I like the results or not. I had a pink one that I gave away to a friend and a green one that I put on my coat zipper.   I had taken pictures of them while on vacation with my phone so didn’t worry about taking one with my camera.  They should still be on my phone but I can’t find them anywhere:(
 I also forgot to take a picture of these at home before I came to work.  It’s been interesting trying to find a way to get a good picture that doesn’t have my shadow in it.   You can see how they don’t hang very well.  I’m still trying to figure out what I need to do to fix that.
We are slowly getting back into the swing of normal days since returning from our vacation, but it is hard.  We had such a great time it was very hard coming back. I’m still going through the pictures trying to label a few and pick out some to print.  
On Wednesday, September 12, we decided to go over Weston Pass because it is an easy pass and it was misting and raining that day.  We aren’t that skilled at driving in the mountains on rough roads so thought we should do something that wasn’t too challenging.  In trail books this pass is rated about a 1 or 2 for difficulty but a 10 for the scenery.  
We saw a lot of color on our drive up through the mountains. 
The rain turned to snow as we got to the top. It was great!
As we came down the other side it turned back to a light rain. It was a wonderful drive. Here’s some information on Weston Pass if you are interested. 
We went over starting on the Fairplay side so ended up close to Leadville.  We went on in and had lunch there, at Callaways Restaurant in the Delaware Hotel. We enjoyed a great lunch then did a little shopping.  We also drove a little ways out of town to see some of the mines.  We could see it had snowed enough in the higher elevations that the mountains tops now had a covering of snow. 
I have no idea which mountain this is, but it was beautiful.
Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I sipped hot tea and looked through pictures instead of tatting.  I’m still hoping to get a few minutes of tatting in but it may have to wait until tomorrow. 
“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”
John Ruskin

Home again

We are home again after spending a week vacationing in Colorado.  I now have a better Internet connection.  Oh, happy day!
We spent the week in the same area we did last year, close to Buena Vista.  There is still a lot of things we haven’t done there, but we had a lot of fun checking a few things off our list of things to do.  
We went back through St. Elmo and this time went all the way over Tin Cup pass (we didn’t make it last time). We stopped in St. Elmo for a few minutes to see what had changed since last year and to take a few pictures. The post office in this picture is a good example of the state of most of the buildings in the town.
Me tatting in front of the St. Elmo post office, elevation 10,006 feet (3050 m)
Jay seen flitting around St. Elmo.
Can you believe I actually caught this guy sitting still long enough to get his picture?  I just got lucky.

Flying chipmunk
The chipmunks were unhappy with us that we didn’t give them any seeds.  They would come right up to you in search of them.  One even climbed part way up my leg (it’s an odd feeling!) I was snap-happy with my camera and was able to catch this guy jumping from one rock to another. 

Aspens at St. Elmo
We came up a week earlier this year than last and weren’t sure we’d see any of the Aspens in their fall colors, but they were just starting to change while we were there.  Here you can see that some have changed while others are still completely green.  You can see some of the color change on the mountain side in the distance, too. 
We spent a lot of our vacation in a jeep going up and down mountains.  The roads are not conducive to tatting while in the car!  I was able to get some tatting done but very little.  I’ll share some of what I worked on later.
Deer in someones yard in Buena Vista.
We saw more wildlife out in the mountains this time than we did last year but, like last year, most of the deer were seen in Buena Vista.  They have become quite the pests.  This lovely buck was seen in the front yard of a house, along with four other bucks and three does.  You have to be at least as careful driving through town as you do out of town so as not to hit them. 
I had a cup of Refresh tea yesterday for Tatting Tea Tuesday, but due to life’s twists and turns was not able to post.  I’m hoping that next week I’ll actually get to post on Tuesday!
We had a wonderful vacation and are sad it’s over and we have to return to our normal life, which includes working, though I am glad to have a normal Internet connection.  It is (very) likely that I will be sharing more vacation pictures next time 🙂
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travel’s sake.  The great affair is to move.”
Robert Louis Stevenson 
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Tatting for Little Girls

I tatted several lengths of my “Row of Crowns” edging to put on a dress for my granddaughter.  I finished the tatting on our way up to Kansas City, Missouri where we spent the weekend. I didn’t get much tatting done after that – we was much too busy with the family!
Tatting for a denim dress on wandasknottythoughts.com

This morning I added it to the dress.

 Denim dress before having tatting added 1 on wandasknottythoughts.com

Denim dress before having tatting added on wandasknottythoughts.com

This is the cute little denim dress I picked up at Carter’s for Kids.  It’s one of the few children’s outfits that doesn’t have decorations already on it, just pink thread used to sew on the buttons.
Tatting added to the front of a denim dress on wandasknottythoughts.com
Tatting added to the back of a denim dress on wandasknottythoughts.com
This is what it looks like with the tatting added.
I’m trying Bo-Nash to attach the tatting to the dress. I ordered some a while ago but never tried it until today.  I’m not sure if I like it yet, maybe because I’m not using it correctly.  But if it holds the tatting in place long enough so I can sew it down it’s still a good thing. Trying to keep tatting in just the right place while sewing it down has always been a problem of mine.
I can’t wait to see what my granddaughter looks like in this!
As I mentioned, we spent the weekend in Kansas City, Missouri, close to Country Club Plaza. This place has fountains everywhere! As is usual for me when we travel I just had to have a picture of me tatting with one of our destinations in the background.
Tatting in Kansas City, MO on wandasknottythoughts.com
This is one of the fountains on Nichols Road.  The architecture of the entire Plaza is based on Seville, Spain. It’s a pretty cool place to visit, but if you want to buy anything bring lots of money.  This place has very high-end stores!
We had a wonderful weekend with the family!  Of course I spent too much money on the grandkids, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Too bad we have to go back to work today.
“Happiness consists of living each day as if it were the first day of your honeymoon and the last day of your vacation.”