Tatting Progress and Other Matters

 I finally finished my lattice edging (except for clean up). And as I held it up, preparing to pin it to my bag before sewing it down, I learned I had made a moebius edging. I had somehow twisted it while joining the end to beginning. I had top open 2 rings, retrotat one completely, retrotat a chain (but only a few ds long), and partially retrotat the next to last ring. But I redid the join I messed up and now it's on to clean up and sewing. 

Lattice edging, needing clean up

I started the carnation brooch, but I can't remember if I meant to put beads on the rings or not. I estimate I have more the 300 beads, but that's for 3 rounds of chains. I loaded the beads last year, I think but didn't get started tatting until, well, this weekend.

Carnation boutonniere started

I made a couple more art trading cards. I used collage and mixed media (aka tatting) and used some cardstock as a base. 

art trading card

 I started drinking diet drinks when Coke had a vanilla Coca-cola. However, while I loved the flavor, it was too sweet, while the diet version dialed down the sweetness to my preference. When they stopped making diet Vanilla Coke, I turned to other diet drinks because my tastebuds had shifted and most sodas were too sweet. Mostly I drink Cheerwine Zero when I can get it. When I run out of my stash (I have to bootleg from a couple counties over because our local bottler doesn't carry the 16 or 20 oz bottles), I usually turn to diet Dr. Pepper. Except, I have observed that the diet Dr. Pepper really sparks my appetite. I feel like I'm starving. And it's just that one. Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, Diet Mountain Dew, etc do not do this to me. 

F, one of my friends from high school is back in the area visiting family. We try to meet up at least once and we had lunch together on Saturday. Due to some very odd traffic, I was half an hour late, but we sat and talked for 3 hours. 

I was supposed to go see my parents, but there was a festival taking over the downtown area, including the train station parking lot. My dad decided he didn't want to fight with that traffic, so we postponed. I wrote Mom a letter instead.

I need to think about what I'm entering at the fair this year. I often use my Palmetto Tat Day projects, but I'm not sure about doing that this year.

 

Fiber Arts and Food

The danger of visiting the craft store, twice. They had beads on sale, and buttons (2-hole, so I didn't get many of those). I've been working on Beaded Path by Marilee Rockley from her book Tatting with Beads Jewelry. Alas, I put the beads I'm using somewhere safe and now I can't find them.

the thread is crochet cotton, I think the color is called Pinstripe. It's a nice ombre black/grey. I'm using black beads (see sale I mentioned).

C made this for a friend's birthday grill party. DR has a house too small for everyone he wants to invite, so he rents a picnic shelter and we grill and talk. This is the dessert C made. He said it took 15 minutes; marscapone and creme fresh, berries, more marscapone and creme fresh, with a touch of honey, then muddle and heat berries with honey and lime to pour on top. I'm really hoping he's going to make it again.

Buttercups for spring

C asked me to mend his hoodie. It's his emergency 'need to grab something' jacket he keeps in the car. The sleeve seams and cuffs had holes to I did a quick mend with crochet cotton. Yes, it's very visible but he doesn't care and it was quick.

I finally finished the 2nd Fandango and sewed both of them on my scarf to cover the darning.

I have now done 2 weaving something on my mini weaing frame.

And the results are....

 One blue ribbon

 

It's always uncertain about my tatted entries in non-tatting categories. But apparently they judges like this one. I really hope the judges left comments.

This is what surpassed my framed piece (the only one in a tatting category). I've done this pattern, although not 4 of them to make 1 doily. It's so pretty, isn't it? I know the tatter and she's really good.

I really thought my hankie would do better. It's size 80 for goodness sakes. But it's not an original pattern so maybe that eliminated it. On the other hand, they did an absolutely lovely job displaying it.

I'm at the fair. Of course, I have to try some fried food. Unlike my younger years, I didn't eat my way from one side of the fair to the other.

I don't know who made this, I'm not even in this category. But it's such a lovely dress.

This was in the garden competition. This one is my fave.

I made a split ring bracelet. I need to find my jewelry findings. The brown color isn't typical for me but I wanted to do something understated.

My tablet (my main 'camera') was low on power so I took photos with my phone camera, too. I just need to download them. I'll save them for next week. And talk about what I photographed.

What's was lost is found

 I called the lost and found on Monday again and my phone had been turned in! Unfortunately, thanks to people working remotely (not that I blame them, cause fewer people on site means less exposure for everyone) the office closes at 4:30. To get there before they closed, I had to leave work before 3:30 on Tuesday. And I just made it. The office that was open was not in the main building, and I had to walk around to find it. It was a trifle (understatement) warm, but not record breaking, thankfully.

I've been a bit scattered though. I've made 2 mistakes on my edging and had to cut thread. Then I found an error from early on. I'm not going to cut it out, yet. We'll see if I get done early enough to redo that part. I should. If I stop making mistakes. 

I didn't have any leftovers to pack for lunch during the 1st part of the week, so I bought lunch. I had Med Deli on Monday and CholaNad (Indian) on Tuesday and Sushinara on Wednesday. That's watermelon, hummus, and cheese tortellini (and pita) on Monday. Tuesday was chicken tikka masala, vegan channa masala, gulab jamun, and naan, with bismati rice. And teriyaki beef with steamed broccoli and rice. Not cheap, but oh so tasty. Due to the restrictions, I had to order my food to go and then went and ate in my office again. 

I successfully donated platelets on Wednesday. Because they're limiting the number of people in the room at any one time, they spread out the donation day. My appointment was at 5:45 pm and I got done at 8:30. I watched The Thin Man while I donated. 

Happy Spring Equinox, etc

DR's party on Saturday was fun. His house is a little small (hey, one guy, how much room does he need?) so he rents a picnic shelter at a local park and has a potluck. Everyone brings their one main dish and then share sides and desserts.

CD started prepping Thursday night. He began marinading the chicken breasts. Saturday morning he made the barbecue sauce, meatballs, and got the corn on the cob ready. Alas, his dessert attempt was not successful (we ended up getting a dozen doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts).

On the way there, it was cold. It was raining. It was not looking good. It did stop raining by the time we got to the park. We met DR's aunt and uncle visiting from Wisconsin, I think. Lovely people. We all chatted and had a good time. The food was delicious. I love CD's honey barbecue sauce. SO YUMMY! The leftovers did not last the weekend.

I took more pictures but I don't have permission to post pictures of people, so y'all miss out. I didn't even get pictures of the Canadian geese grazing nearby.

By the time we were packing up, the day had turned quite lovely. The sun came out and the temperature went up to comfortable.

I finished the red bracelet but I haven't taken pictures yet. I may end up giving to NCRL for a door prize.

I've done more coloring. And took pictures of the pages.

Yesterday was the spring equinox for the northern hemisphere. Now the days will be longer than the nights. Of course, we've already had most of our blooms.

And Now It's Over (for now)

Monday, there was frost on my windshield. Since then, it's been warm and almost rainy. We could use some rain. It's been dry to the west, drought conditions. The light rain we had helped control the wildfires, but it's still bad farther west, in Tennessee.

I'm still doing physical therapy. It's not cheap but it's helping.

Thursday, Dad and K met me for lunch. We went to Maggiano's They considered C invited, considered it implicit. I told them he preferred an explicit invitation. It was a lovely meal.

That evening, C fixed supper. Unable to get a non-frozen turkey, he made a roast beef instead. He also made mashed sweet potatoes, dressing, and mixed veggies (squash, zucchini, and okra). We finished the last of the leftovers Monday.

I braved Black Friday and picked up a couple things for mom. At least, I waited until mid-afternoon so most of the crowds were gone. I found a jade plant for her. I still need to find something to put in and also find her an aloe.

I picked up some plumber's tape to fix the faucet. It is mostly fixed. I had to use layers of tape. It was tape, test, tape, test, repeat, until the knobs caught and worked.

Our Pathfinder game on Saturday got canceled (one of the players could not make it, private stuff that I'm not going to blast over the internet). So I went to the Tatter's meeting instead. I made a snowflake for the exchange. I took a picture before the exchange but I haven't taken a picture of the one I got, yet.

















I'm also making another knit block, to try and make this rabbit. I know, I'm knitting just to make something else. But it's so cute.

Oh, and one of my friends pointed me towards this website. I've ordered a pair of leggings from the sample shop. We'll see how they work for me. They're expensive leggings, but if they're as good as the review I read promised, they'll be worth it. And there are so many cool designs (about 42 pages).  I'm thinking of designing my own, based on tatting.

Schedule...or Not?

It's only been a few days since my last post, but I'm trying to get into the groove of posting on a schedule.

I hope (for my US readers, all 2 of you) you had an enjoyable holiday weekend. For my other reader, I hope you had a good weekend and good start to the week. I lazed around and just did a few things around the house.

We now know the problem with the washing machine is not the hose and not the filter. We've changed one and cleaned the other; but the cold water still dribbles into the machine instead of pouring. It may be something wrong with the machine itself.

CD made chocolate chocolate chip cookies on Sunday. The first batch was a little overdone but the second batch came out perfect. I also have some Milano cookies I bought left from a potluck. Thank goodness I have (almond) milk to drink.

I still haven't picked up the yarn for the baby afghan project. Maybe I'll get a chance to do that tonight. Tonight is my date with CC so I'd have to pop into Michael's on the way.

I am so glad I had noted down the phone number for my voice mail in my old phone's contact list. I entered it in my new phone's contacts finally. I called it and I had 17 messages. None of them had dates or times (unlike my work voice mails) but the subjects mentioned let me know I could delete them; i.e. references to my mom being in the hospital. If there is some symbol or something to alert me about messages I haven't found it. There's something to let me know I missed a call or have a text message waiting, but that's it.

NASA got the Juno satellite in place. Yes, it is rocket science. The links go to YouTube videos; one is the trailer and one is a documentary on the project.

From futuristic, to ancient past; here's a short video of a young woman using kulning to summon cows back to pasture. There's a difference between kulning and hollering.

I wonder if my local comic store could get this series, Saltire; it's an import so it might be difficult.

I did get some good news. Another friend called to let me know he and his wife are expecting a baby. They're not spreading the news yet, so I won't even mention initials. 

WARNING: Politics Ahead
And then there's the news from Istanbul; 41 people dead and how many more injured? During Ramadan, one of the holiest holidays in the Muslim calendar (or such is my impression). As usual, Daesh kills more Muslims than any other religion. Despite what they call themselves, Daesh is barely more Islamic than I am. But they could call themselves cars easier than I could, with just the same amount of truthfulness (they are closer to a major source of gasoline than I am). I refuse to call them their preferred name as they are neither Islamic nor a State. They are a terrorist political organization.

And two major US presidential candidates are in my state today, as well as the US President. At least none of them are in the towns where I live or work. No offense, but I'm pretty sick of all them by now. Okay, one of them more than the others. Can you guess which one?

RavenCon etc

The trip to Ravencon went well. The drive down was not particularly heinous and we made good time.

Signs around the Con

MM met us at the con Friday afternoon. We played a couple games that night and finished up as scheduled and got back to the hotel around 1 am. The morning slot started at 8:30 am. We played the morning slot and then the battle interactive in the afternoon. Saturday night we went out to supper.

We got the Sunday morning slot wrong, and showed up late for We Be Goblins, Too. The GM was at another table but generously got up to run our game. The Goblins adventures are massively fun, and often run short on time. We had time to go to the Dealers' room and see Artist Alley. I was going to buy a Con shirt but after walking back and forth, looking at the shirts, and then making my decision, and then waiting for another minute or so and being ignored, I decided not to. The person at the table was in a conversation and I'm too Southern polite to interrupt. A couple dealers had some very nice pocket watches. I want a small silver(tone) one and apparently one of them had one, but I missed them.

They had a kid in the right one

I did buy a new (silk) fan stamped with foxes, and a present for someone else. CD bought a t-shirt for me and a necklace. There were more things I really liked, but well, funds.

steampunk R2D2

Market Square, new since my last visit

We found some new restaurants in Williamsburg. We went back to the Sal's Ristorante, a place CD and RG tried years ago. The food was still great and so was the service. We also tried Emerald Thai, The Cheese Shop, DoGs Street Pub, and The Whaling Company. We also tried Capital Pancake for a change from Mama Steve's.

mussels bowl leftovers, soooo good

bracelet based on edging

Where did the weekend go?

Weekend

Most of Saturday was the Pathfinder game. We did some housekeeping (how much money do we have? What loot are we keeping and who has it) and then continued to explore the structure. We started at the top, so we're working out way down. We had two fights, one of which had a funny incident. If a magic beast has grabbed someone, then both are on the lip of a spiked pit, and the person who has been grabbed misses their save not to fall into the pit, what happens? CD decided to work it as a bullrush variant. Instead of my CMB, he used my character's weight, with gear, to see if both my bard and the foe would be dragged down into the spiked pit. That beastie was strong, and played a quick game of 'dangle the bard.' Then the oracle/paladin teleported my character away and she was safe to cast spells at the beasties from a distance.


Then RW and his family had a Christmas party to attend, so we wrapped up early. MC had to go home to let his dog out and the rest of us went out to supper. We went to our favorite Mexican place in Raleigh. CD and RG used to eat there once a week. Now that RG is working somewhere else, CD goes by himself.


Sunday, it was do some tidying around the house, CD did some laundry, and we played Lord of the Rings Online and caught up on our tv. We're down to about 3 shows on the DVR right now, less than 10%. I need to watch one show on-demand, I'm behind on that one. We're caught up on everything else. We watched a few movies we had recorded, too. We saw Jumper, Super Troopers, and then American Ultra on Netflix.

Movies

• Jumper wasn't bad. It's in media res,which is fine, but it never got resolved. We got a glimpse of the history of jumpers and the people who hunt them, and a hint about why they're hunted. But only a glimpse.
• Super Troopers is kind of stupid and funny, but not 'only 13 years old will laugh at this' funny. And the cast is not 100% white people. It's still absurdly low on the number of women in the cast, but hey, Lynda Carter has a cameo as the governor of Vermont.
• American Ultra was a little better than I expected. It's not an 'omg, you must see this movie' but it's pretty good. There are not very many women in speaking roles, and it wouldn't pass the Beschdel 'test.' But the women are really awesome. 

Games

And CD and I talked about how you could play a character like Mike Howell in an tabletop rpg. It would be a little easier in a flexible system. In Champions for example, you could have a variable skill pool. Need a skill? Bam, you know it.

He came up with a way to do it in D&D (3.0 or 3.5) and Pathfinder. In that one, you have an 11th level character. You write up the 1st level, as a commoner or expert or something. You have, call it, d8 hp for 11 levels. The rest is a mystery. The player would have to know the system pretty well, though. Because they'd have to know what's possible. IE, player goes, "I want to cast Magic Missile." The GM responds, "How many?" The answer determines who many levels of spellcaster you have (1 magic missile means 1st level for example). The player notes down how many levels of that class.

Skills, you can fill in up to 11 on any skill. Know a language, put a point in linguistics. Keep track of how many you spent on what, because as you get classes, that will determine skill points.

Your stats would start at all 10, and you'd spend to buy them up as events occurred. So for that level of sorcerer you gained when you realized you could cast Magic Missile, you have Charisma 11. After you spent all those points you still have 2 stat bumps (4th & 8th level).

Oh, you want to cast Fireball? That's a 3rd level spell, 5th level caster. What class, sorcerer, wizard? Boost the appropriate stat up to 13. How does that affect the skills you've bought? The number of skill points you have so far?

I'd like to take a look and see how it would work in Fate, too. Fate is pretty flexible after all.

We went to the Italian restaurant near us for supper. Their lobster ravioli isn't quite as good as Casa san Carlo but it does have the option of adding shrimp. CD baffled the waitress. They have a tasty chocolate dessert that has a base layer of cheesecake. He asked, 'what kind of cheesecake, New York, Italian, or (some 3rd kind I missed)?' She had to go ask to find out.

Tatting: 

I can't find my green thread for a certain present, but I did find red, white, and green thread. Think I'll be using that one. Jane has posted the intro for the next TIAS. Yay!

website/articles

Have an interesting article on the future of self-driving cars. corrected article link: https://www.lifewire.com/waymo-self-driving-cars-4171314

Here's an article about recent grave digs revealing information which calls into question earlier conclusions about gender roles.

And scientists in Japan have a process to make glass about as strong as steel. And they hope to have it commercialized in 5 years. 

Pictures

Found a 'paper toys' website, and here's a box; print, cut, and fold
from http://www.thetoymaker.com/2Toys.html

roses are still blooming

Blood Donation

I volunteered at the half-day blood drive. I was in the canteen so I was 2+ hours walking around and standing. This is after I had to run to catch the bus this morning. Once I finished my volunteer stint, I grabbed some food and then off to donate. It took longer than I expected, even with the rapid pass.

Rapid pass is a new thing. You go on-line the day of donation to read the material and fill out the questionnaire ahead of time. You print out the report or email it to yourself. They scan it as part of the pre-donation process, but it saves time.

She had to test my blood twice to see if my iron levels were high enough to donate. I barely made it. But I had plenty of water and the donation itself went pretty quickly. Back to the canteen to grab some food and then back to work.

My knees do hurt tonight. All for a good cause, though. And tomorrow is the garden committee meeting, so I get to leave early.

Family Reunion, etc

Still raining, off and on. Today was a hot, sticky mess. Seriously, the high today was around 84F and the humidity hovered in the 90s.

Friday night, CD made his tasty honey barbecue sauce and baked chicken. However, there was just a little too much spicy heat so we went to the grocery store to get more ingredients, and a foil pan. Our usual cookware is stoneware and those suckers are heavy.

Saturday morning, I woke up late. I ran around getting stuff together. I found a 3rd snowflake pattern and directions to the family reunion.

Finally, I got on the road to Mom's. We went shopping and found some taper candles and candle holders. We got silver and white candles, so I can see which ones work better.

We spent the evening relaxing and watching tv. CD had also made chocolate chip cookies and I brought those to share with Mom. I made an origami box to hold the trio of snowflakes I'd made for the family reunion door prizes.

snowflakes, from Sharon's blog, Palmetto Tat Days 2015, and Be-Stitched

waterfall calendar page

origami box

The next morning, we baked the chicken and used the insulated bag as a hot bag. I used one of my microwave hot bags to get it hot, then used aluminum foil to cover the chicken, wrapped it in a towel, and into the bag.

We ran a trifle late getting on the road to the family reunion. And my directions were...not optimal. As a result, we arrived after everyone had started eating. Mom sat next to her uncle (my grandfather's remaining sibling) while I was seated near his son and daughter-in-law.

After we finished eating, they had the drawing for the door prizes. Mom got a picture of G-grandpa Claude E. and G-grandma Suzy. The first two drawings were for turned wood bowls made from a pecan tree that died on the old family farm. After the 1st two, people got to pick. Until someone opened the box, no one picked the snowflakes.

Afterward, we went to Mom's and I dropped her off. I headed home. I got tired enough, I had to take a break to wake up on the drive home.

Monday morning, my alarm clock did not go off. I woke up a trifle late. I checked on it before I went to bed and it still didn't go off Tuesday morning. It has two alarm settings and I realized the weekend alarm didn't go off either. Tuesday night, I set both of them to weekday am (one at 6 and one at 6:01) and then set my travel alarm clock. Guess which alarm didn't go off this morning.

I've finished my 1st bobeche. I still need to do the third round of the other one.

My niece wrote me. I've written her a reply and plan to include some photographs. 

Update: I updated to OS 9 last weekend and now there's been two more minor updates. 

Late But Not Forgotten

Friday night, I submitted my State Fair submission forms. I'm entering my scarf edging, a pair of beanile earrigs, and a pair of bobeches. 

Spark Con was Saturday and it was loads of fun. I kind of wish I'd gotten out more to see the chalk drawings, etc. But we (AS, CK, and I) tatted and had fun. I got a good start on my bobeches and we were entertained by music. There was an instrumental guitarist, then shape note singers, and then a musical group. Weavers and spinners sat across from us. Other activities were also in the City of Raleigh museum, like Mordecai House.

You can hear the shape note singers

Sunday, I tried to rest some. We went to see R and went out to eat.

I found my navy blue thread and worked on finishing my bobeches. They have a red core, white round, and then a round of navy blue.

Went out to eat Chinese Tuesday night with JJ. It looks like the end is in sight for settling his mother's estate. it's been a long, hard row to hoe.

There's some drama going on at work. I don't want to talk about it.

Sunday is the family reunion. CD generously agreed to make some of his honey barbecue sauce for me to use on some chicken to take for the potluck. 

Oh, here's a fun exercise, from a friend on G+
You are a dragon.
What color are your scales?
What weapon is your breath?
Are you feathered?
Where is your lair?
What is your hoard?
Who can kill you, and how?*

Poncho and Tat Days Prep

Shockingly, I recently ran out of notecards. Or at least, if I have more notecards, I cannot find them, which amounts to the same thing. Luckily, I am prepared. I have a pad of decent quality watercolor paper, 6"x9", and washi tape and rubber stamps and bits of tatting. Between these elements, I can make my own notepaper. The drawback is a lack of envelopes. However, as per this blog, there's a solution for that. I often use old calendars and maps.

Here's an analysis someone has done, attempting to use Spotify to identify timeless music. It's interesting and it might be possible, due to modern technology. The only other way to measure how popular an older song is (to my knowledge) is it still being purchased? If I'm wrong, please let me know. I'm curious about this.

CD, my SO, made another chocolate chess pie. This one was ever better. It was lighter and the crust was softer. I don't like hard pie crust. He used grated frozen butter and frozen vanilla vodka and colder dough means softer crust.

My boss turns 50 this week, so the office got together to celebrate. Monday evening, three of us decorated his office with balloons, caution tape, etc. At lunch, the people who share an office with him added more. We had cake, ice cream, nuts, chips, and CD's pie. We were supposed to have punch but the woman making it dropped her punch bowl and it broke. Luckily, it wasn't an antique or anything like that.

picture from iPad game, Neko Atsume

And this arrived this week

Pretty

Remember the cape from last year? My...additions are complete. Bwahahahaha.

And coincidentally, Michael's had Aunt Lydia's Mexicana thread in size 10 on sale, $2.93 each if purchasing 3 or more, compared to the usual $3.49. No connection. At all. Really. I mean that.

I've been trying to write in my journal again. This blog , with daily journal prompts, is inspiring.

Someone save me. My eye was caught by a small Dr. Who sampler, I now want to do a larger sampler with the transcript from Blink. There are some obstacles; one, what fabric would I use; two, do I do the entire transcript or just the Dr's lines; and the hardest one to overcome, time.

British Library published public domain pictures. Much fun.

Nothing Exciting

I consumed too much caffeine last Tuesday. I finally got to sleep around 3 am. I made it into work and made it through the day; although I did take a nap at lunchtime.

C made a chocolate chess pie. I may have bragged a little bit on social media. As a result, I have two people strongly request I bring some when they see me, Palmetto Tat Days and Village of Yesteryear. I told them I'd ask, but I wasn't guaranteeing anything.

We played our next session of Wardens of the Reborn Forge (Pathfinder module) on Sunday. We had some close fights but we made it successfully through the session.

I think I finally figured out the pattern I'm supposed to be assisting at Palmetto Tat Days. Yay me (& Georgia). 

A Brief Flash of Spring

A couple days this past week had me wearing long sleeves and thinking about jackets. Then summer resumed.

Triangle Tatters did a demo at Mordecai House. We were in the Visitor Center and a few people came in to talk to us, watch us tat, and see what we had displayed. Katie brought out the quilt. It really is a magnificent piece.

There were 4 of us, really

Mordecai House; my view at lunch

I've finished sewing the edging onto one end of my scarf/shawl. It only took two tries to get it right. I started the edging for the other end. I also worked on the same bracelet, but the beads were all wrong. I finally made a pair of earring using the serpentine spheres and seed beads. Then I started a bracelet using just the seed beads, although I'm going to try to use one of the serpentine beads for a toggle catch.I'm contemplating a pendant to match. Maybe another State Fair entry?














The salvage guy never contacted me about my Saturn. I thought he was going to be faster. Since he's not, I've contacted PBS about donating my car. Hopefully, it will all be over by the end of the week.

Sunday, CD and I went looking for milkshakes. It's surprisingly hard to find an ice cream parlor or other place I knew had good milkshakes. There are no more Swenson's around here, and no Mayberry's nearby. Turns out, CookOut has pretty good milkshakes and we passed one while driving around.