I Have Been Thinking...

... and that is always a sign of trouble! The thoughts were inspired as I glanced at some of the recent cards on my desk:

Isn't it strange, that when I began this crazy obsessive activity of tatting almost three years ago, I had the notion that anyone who used beads on tatting was not tatting properly - as in the way tatting is 'supposed' to be.  What an outrageous opinion.  I felt very righteous as well!

If I could not laugh at myself, honestly I would be in danger of weeping! That is not even my own thought, as someone else said that (Baudelaire?) and much more adroitly.

At any rate, the other idiotic notion I had was that I felt that people who spent so much time blogging and commenting to complete strangers online were pathetic and kind of creepy! Exchanges were dumb, and why were so many of those tatting folks doing that anyway?  WOW - witness the narrowness of the judgemental.  End of confession!

❀ Where would I be without my wonderful blogging/tatting buddies? ❀

NOW
On The Fandango Front...

So much trouble for a mere square inch!

I must have tatted this pattern by Jane here,  more than five times before I got it sort of correct!  I cannot follow instructions.  

Very frustrating -  I will do it again, and I would like to tat it with beads.  Interesting to me is the fact that I was not stymied as usual by directional changes, as there are not many, but because I kept joining to the wrong picot and discovering that way too late to carry on.

The two patterns  - this one and the Small Motif, also by Jane, will keep me too busy for a bit to tackle the lovely ones in my new book - thank you Wendy!  It was held up in the strike and was just delivered.  Can't wait!

The Master's New Moniker

He wasn't responding to the other name and I was having a hard time tripping over different pronunciations, so enough was enough!   (Pronounced Guy′ - Us)

Gaius \gaius\ as a boy's name is of Latin origin, and the meaning is "happy". Probably the root of the word "gay", which used to mean "jolly". Also a biblical name, and the name of a Roman jurist in the second century.

Update Later In July...  

Gian Stuck!  

Gaius was a temporary misadventure. 

We are now over it. 

Monsieur responds well to Gian.

 I am not stumbling over the vowels anymore!

MAIL

Now, look the postman delivered!

Back in May, I told Isdihara I liked what she was tatting and ta-da!

It arrived yesterday in my mailbox!  Thank you Isdihara for the card, which had lovely sentiments inside and the fantastic motif that I keep fondling! The tension in the stitches is so good *sigh*. I keep comparing it to my sadly flopping motifs.

However, we tatters are never satisfied; here is what Isdihara has to say about her tatting:

...I refer to my uber-tight tension tendencies as "deathgrip tatting."

When I read that, I could NOT stop laughing!  Sorry, Isdihara, but I HAD to share that!  Too funny not to!

Next, A Surprise WIP...

...followed by a question...

What are you supposed to do with this?  

How do you run your thread over it when the stuff becomes reduced?  Or does it diminish in quantity at all, ever? I feel so dumb, but I am baffled as how this can help with shredded thread that I can't manoeuvre into the little box, or am I supposed to take the insides stuff out of the box or melt it or eat it?

Pleasure!

☺

☺

Questions for Tat-land...

Taking my lead again from Tatting Fool, I finished Jane's Small Motif pattern, using beads from Miranda and thread from Kelly. (LOVE the Coats #30!)

All in all I am pleased with it, but I was confused about how to add the first bead that does not  sit in a split ring like the rest.  So it is free on the top of the ring, ( coming from the shuttle thread, as normal beads do in a picot at the top of a ring) while the others are held on with the ball thread, that sort of wraps over the top of the bead - as they would be if threaded on the ball thread in non-split-ring tatting. Anyone know what I am referring to? I could not figure this out!

Another question:  I could not figure out how to add the first bead on the false picot at the beginning, to be like the remaining ones.  Can this be done so that there is no thread lying over the bead?