In The Pink through a New Lens

The arm is much better. Thanks you for your well wishes - they seem to have done the trick.

The camera has been replaced. The flower was a test. It passed.


I am able to forgo the elastic bandage, and this morning the elbow felt almost normal. I have decided that the problem was with the blanket and the crocheting - NOT with the shuttle and the tatting! Thank goodness!

So, friends, I have hung up the hook. For now.


The finished product after this little fiasco is lovely. Yet another top-secret thingy...... !! But, I had to let you know, I am really pleased with all that I am accomplishing. Not getting a lot of sleep though. I will look like a Victorian tatter by the time I am finished.... Lack of sleep is incredibly aging - as well as curmudgeon-inspiring.... YAWN....

Somewhere in Blog-World, I saw this kind of numbering in a photo. I have copied that idea and it works beautifully. Although I have a red shuttle, (Birch) it feels terrible - very rough, so the colour may be good, but I will never use it again. This numbering system is great and two grey shuttles is just fine!

The picture of the 'mimi came out perfectly through the new lens, but the kids will be here on Wednesday and my daughter has already had a sneak peek at the blanket from the post a few days ago. I do not want to ruin the moment.

I will post it later for any of you who play from time to time on the dark side!

Anon

Tats of Woe

This is all I can show you - one, sorry-looking, little, piece of tatting - a remnant of one of the exercises that got discarded, left on the floor and covered with cat hair. It had been lost for quite a few days.

That is the good news.

Just before I found the little critter, my computer lost all sound - right in the middle of a rip-roaring mystery that I have been listening to, as I break my elbow, toiling away at the grandbaby's 'mimi'.

Seven hours of grief ensued as I frantically tried to resore the sound. At last, the great support technicians at Sony were able to help me at about 11:30 p.m. last night and the laptop is up and running! Thank goodness! I felt as though I had lost another appendage!

But, alas, I have not finished the tale. As I was in the midst of trying to sort out the audio dilemma, I had lunch with my son. While showing him a photo on my camera's LCD, the toggle switch stopped working. The camera was suddenly disabled and the mechanisms frozen. Just like that!

Unfortunately, the expense was prohibitive to fix a super camera to which I have become very attached, over the past three years, but I have had to replace it with one that is adequate enough, but inferior in quality, for sure.

End of tale of woe. Hope you enjoy my meager offering today.

I am going now, to finish 'mimi'.

Anon,

Tatting Elbows Out Crochet

Perhaps, I have been hasty in blaming tatting for the tendons in my elbow - which are ALMOST better, since I discovered this helpful elastic bandage. See that tri-colour, crochet business under the shuttle?

That little item - actually it is a 36'' square blanket - that I have been trying for some time to finish for my grandson - may indeed be another of the culprits behind the painful appendage.

The blankie, (a "mimi" in the bigger brother's four-year-old lingo) requested by my daughter for her second baby, has been in the works for about over a month. I had put off doing it. Why? The T.A.T. course took over my time.

Since I am more than half finished, ( YEAH!) I put it aside and picked up my hook. The kids will be here next week, so I have to finish up.

It is frustrating not being able to post what I am working on. There is one thing; see that little pink string of hearts on the blanket? I was late for work, trying to remember how to get the SSSR to close WITHOUT UNRAVELING!

I was so discouraged. Try as I might I could not understand the directions:
4. Pass the loop OVER the SSSR and the shuttle.

I am experienced in many areas. I have been fortunate to reach the age at which I find myself. I am educated. I am capable. Why then could I not figure out these simple directions? I ask you; how hard is it to pass a loop over the SSSR and the shuttle???

I felt very sheepish when I finally got my brain around that one! VERY HUMBLING!

Apropos of nothing, I wanted to post this picture of the little tray my mom didn't want - it's decades old and just the right size for my current tatting adventure!

Cute eh?

Anon,

S.O.S! Earing Distress! What is the Secret?

There is fraying where the thread hangs on the hook. See the bottom picot of the blue earring? I took the hook out and put it on the top picot, when I saw this. I noticed it before on the second pair I made - the black ones. Why does this happen?

Also - please advise:

1) What kind of pliers do you use? Mine have a flat and not needle nose end. They seem too big, but they are for jewelry.
2) Do you use a little ring before the hook? Does that prevent fraying?

I would appreciate all the input you are willing to offer on the logistics of earring-making! I have done my homework and checked online before turning to the Tat-land, but these questions I could not find answers to.

I seem to have been bitten by a strange bug, indeed! I do not wear, let alone own more than a few pieces of jewelery - not my thing at all; it is strange to have an overwhelming desire to make pretty, little, hanging, baubles and want to load them up with tiny beads and crystals....

I find it even odder that this must-do activity craving strikes after midnight!