NC Regional Lacemakers and other stuff

Saturday was the yearly meeting of the NC Regional Lacemakers. I finished the last baby bootie. I attended Karen Kurella's talk about what to do with old lace and how to identify machine made versus handmade. There were many of the local tatters there and Tatting Corner came down from Indiana. I think we may have made it worth the drive, even with it only being for one day.

I have decided what to make for my State Fair project. I have a lovely, lightweight cotton scarf/wrap in blues, purple and pink. I found thread to match and I'm going to put an edging on both ends. It needs the weight to keep it from floating off. The edging is number 18 from Anne Orr's book number 13. I'll be using silver/white beads for a little extra weight. Optional, add motifs to the corners.

I recommended Kaye Judt's Oh My Stars to a new tatter. It's quite nice for its stage by stage pattern progression. The first star is very simple, rings and chains. It includes front side, back side tatting; pictot-size, etc. Each pattern introduces a new technique. The new tatter got started and was absolutely thrilled with it.

I got to show off my bead spinner. I used it to load the beads for my new edging. I also told how to make one, per Martha Ess's instructions from the 2013 Palmetto Tat Days.

I did not get as much done on Sunday as I had planned. I still need to mend that skirt. However, I cannot find my Gingher embroidery scissors! I hope I haven't really lost them, that I just dropped them in my living room (under the couch, maybe?).

Thursday's Deadlands game went well. Our steamship departed Shan Fan in something of a hurry and the captain was working on ways to smooth over things with the city government so she could go back. She planned to do so by faking our deaths. There goes a set of Alis's clothes. We had just reached a comparatively peaceful pool of water, after a somewhat harrowing passage through rough water, when a maze dragon attacked. Those things are pretty much bulletproof, but their eyes are still vulnerable. And they are not really-big-rock proof, as the Doctor (mad scientist) proved when he dropped one on it.

I'm currently working my way through the Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood. I enjoy them, even if I have to work out some of the words from their context. Or look them up in a dictionary. 1920's era Australian slang is just a touch different than early 21st century American slang. I've read the books before, I'm re-reading.

I took this picture outside the Seymour Center (where NCRL had their meeting). I posted it on G+ for my friends who are feeling spring-deprived.

Late but not forgotten

Great time with CC. I gave her her Christmas present, a handmade blank journal. She loves that sort of thing. She gave me an afghan knitting loom. It can go up to 60" wide. I'd been thinking about making a shawl,this will spur me on.

My wristlets are making progress (Vine Wristers by Isela Phelps). I'm at the thumb hole. I think my tension is tighter than Ms. Phelps and my hands are larger. Which explains why I need 15 repeats and not 9.

















And all done, with a better look at colors. I need to block it and sew it closed with buttons.

Here's the ring I made for a fellow gamer. She needed a distraction, so I told her I would make one for her. I hope it's the right size.

I've been playing with washi tape. This was a nice cardboard box, but plain. It's not plain anymore.

DST recovery

It takes me about a week to recover from the change in Daylight Savings Time. Suddenly, I'm waking up in the dark again. Add recovery from a cold (yes, it's lingering in the form of an occasional cough) in with that and I am dragging.

This is the book Louise sent me. She's the wife of Dad's college roommate. It's circa 1946. I sent her a thank you card over the weekend.

This is the other book I got in the mail. I supported the kickstarter for it. And then found out the writer works on campus, too.

2 ogres down, 4 more and an ettin to go

This is from our game Saturday. That hand belongs to our wizard, whose figure is almost visible behind his forearm. He was measuring his range for a spell. Next to the ettin are the other three of us. The dwarf fighter had just finished two ogres and was coming to help us. It was a 'good fight' as another player puts it. I was at half hit points most of the fight. The game is Pathfinder. This Saturday, I'll be playing Mermaid Adventures, with almost the same crowd.

After the game, we went to Casa San Carlo. Their food is so good. For once, I did not have the blue crab ravioli. I had the portobello ravioli in marsala wine sauce.

Red sky in morning, Sailor take warning

The mother of a friend from high school is sick. As in, she's in the hospital sick. She used to let us play D&D on her dining table, back in the day. She made us include his younger brother, but J had a bigger problem with letting him play than I did. I made this for her as a 'get well' gift, including it in a Get Well card. I mailed it yesterday.

From Georgia Seitz's site, color is Red Burst

clover, from mariyas-tatting.blogspot.com color is Leaf Green, light

On my way out the door this morning, I realized the green on my shirt was more teal. So I grabbed the first ball of green thread I found, did a quick search for clover patterns and made this on the way in to work. In my meeting today, I made two more. I need to practice my split chains some more.

Google 'awesome'd' it

On my way into work, I stopped to take this picture. And the Google back up transformed it to a b&w photo.

Tonight is my date with CC. We usually have it the first Tuesday, but I was sick and the second Tuesday she had a meeting. I'm looking forward to it.

I Am Teary-Eyed

Sir Terry Pratchett died today. We lost Leonard Nimoy and that was a blow. But I've read most of Pratchett's books, over and over. He spoke to me and he was a part of my life in a way no actor, no matter how gifted an individual, can be. We lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's and years later she died. I read a book on Alzheimer's and it was a good book, just hard to read sometimes. That creates an extra resonance to his death.

My cold pretty much wiped out my productivity. I haven't done anything with the baby booties since the tatting meetings. I tried to make a cross for a friend's sick mother. Here's a tip, if you are making alterations to a pattern, note those changes on a copy of the pattern. This tip brought to you by the fact that three-armed crosses are not a thing.

I thought I was caught up on my correspondence yesterday. Then I found two more letters which need replies. I feel bad because based on where I found them, I had planned to reply to them before the others I wrote early this week.

My copy of Night Witches arrived this week. I will be taking it to gaming tonight. DR and SR (no relation) both want to see it. And funny enough, I'll be having lunch with the designer tomorrow. We work really close to each other, it turns out.

It's a short wall of text this week. Sorry.

Late, oops

Sorry this week's post is late. I blame DST. I'll see if I can get it written and posted during lunch tomorrow.

I hate having a cold

Revolutionary thought, huh? It started hitting me on Saturday, during the tatting meeting. I rested the rest of the day, all day Sunday and I've been off work the past two days. Resting.

We made it to supper on Wednesday. It was excellent food and we were the last to leave. The snow was starting to stick to grass and roadsides as we left. I got most of the way home before it started sticking to the roads. It was a wet, heavy snow. Really pretty.

And really heavy. Our transformer blew a bit after 6 am. We made it through most of the day and the snow started to thaw to slush.

We checked when we should expect our power back and the estimate was 11:45 pm, Friday. That's the outside prediction of course, but even 12 hours earlier was just too late. We went to R's house, because she had gotten power back mid-afternoon. The next morning work was scheduled to open at 1 pm. I checked the bus schedules. It would take me about two hours, one way, to get there. I used vacation leave instead. 

We got home late morning on Saturday. I grabbed a couple things, ate lunch and went to the meeting. I missed my turn, distracted by a car going 10 miles under the speed limit. I ran into....traffic. They were cleaning up an accident and I was about an hour late to the  meeting. Luckily, it's  a very relaxed, come and go, meeting. Leigh was talking about her website, the tatting & other craft magazine bibliography. She convinced me to do some work on the wikipedia entry for tatting. It really needs updating.

I finished one baby bootie. And started the next one.

Since then, I've spent a lot of time coughing, sneezing, and trying to nap. Yesterday, I emailed my boss instead of calling because my throat felt like I'd been gargling glass. Ouch. And I was barely intelligible my voice was so rough.

I do not have the flu. I checked my symptoms. And I am improving, but kind of slowly. Yesterday was the worst. I've made 3 jugs of tea; I just heat a cup at a time to drink it. Saves me both time and energy over making my tea one cup at a time.

I'm still playing Pathfinder Online. It's really sad I can't be away from the keyboard unless I'm playing with someone else. Because of all the PVP. It's still early days and stuff is still being patched and installed on a weekly basis. They installed looting before they installed the defenses. I was relying on the AI NPC guards to protect me in town. Until my character got killed while crafting. Yeah, that left a sour taste in my mouth. As part of the kickstarter, I have a few months of free play. So far, I have not had a play experience that encourages me to buy more time.

I still have my 'practice' MMO, Lord of the Rings Online. I only started playing to practice for Pathfinder Online. I really prefer the PvE experience, which I knew I would. My experience with PvP has emphasized this.

Snow Day

Work isn't opening until 10 am today, due to dangerously icy roads. It started snowing at 6 am yesterday morning, so roads were slick. Some people worked from home as a result. By the time I headed home in the afternoon, roads were wet and slushy. I headed home early because I knew, once the temperatures dropped, I did not want to be out.

I'm working on the baby booties but I have to open a ring. Here's a picture (before things went wrong).

 Last Friday was very cold, so this was the outer wear I wore. From left to right, my really long scarf, hat and earband, fleece mittens, gloves, and then my really warm coat.

I had three things in the mailbox on Monday. I got a letter back...ripped in half. I need to print out what I wrote and send it out again. A friend in New York sent me some of her basil oversupply. I also got Night Time drops from Smith Brothers.

I went looking last week and no one could find it to order it for me. I checked the Smith Brothers website and finally contacted customer service. She broke the news to me they had changed the formula, no more melatonin. I expressed my disappointment and she offered to look for any leftover samples. Guess what arrived! She found four packages from a display in the warehouse and sent them to me. Great customer service from Smith Brothers.

Dad got a letter from his sister, she had a box from one of Grandmother's sister. Inside were some letters from Grandma, one of which concerned a visit to us and mentioned me as a little girl. I think he plans to send me a copies.

Due to weather, our GM has cancelled our game tomorrow. Plans are still on for R's birthday supper. We tried to meet last week, but the weather and roads were too bad. We had our game on Sunday and it went pretty well. We got started late but had fun.

From C (after watching a crime procedural): 'It's blunt force trauma, maybe, I'm your CI, so call me, baby.'

Snow and Ice

We finally got some wintery weather that amounted to something. In inches, it didn't add up to much, but any ice is bad.

This is after about an hour of snowing. Just after I took this picture it turned to sleet.

This is about 6 pm, and I had only seen two cars since I disembarked the bus. Do I need to say that's unusual?

My bus left as I was heading for it. I couldn't run because of the treacherous footing. I had to wait over a half hour for the next one. I stayed mostly warm, because I dressed for the weather.

As of 2 pm, work was at 'you can leave if you aren't mandatory, just take paid leave', until 11 am on Tuesday, when I looked at 7 am. However, my bus didn't start running until 11 am, a mile away. My stop wasn't going to get service until 3 pm. At that point, I decided it wasn't worth it. I let my supervisor know, he wasn't surprised.

When I happened to look again this afternoon, work and bus were both closed, the announcement made about an hour after I last checked. I'm glad I didn't even try. Apparently, the ice was even worse than I thought.

I found the thread for the booties. Too bad I can't find the same pattern. I found another pattern, though. I'll probably go with that. The thread is Lizbeth #109. I thought I would get more done since I was home all day, but all I did was get the shuttles loaded.

I'm glad I dropped my lettermo letters in the mail over the weekend. They didn't go out yesterday because of the Federal holiday but they'll go out as soon as mail services can resume. Here's one I mailed.

I never did post my final scissors, did I? Here's my final of Jane's TIAS.

As you can tell, I ran of thread on one shuttle. I had enough to finish, and that is what is important. I used what was left on the other to make a Barbara H heart.

By the way, the Japanese heart I've been doing, is about the size of a US quarter in size 20 Lizbeth. 

Saturday, we played Mermaid Adventures again. The narrator says he needs to work on his plots, as we've had some kind of chase scene every adventure. His daughter's character is made for combat, with high body, tough, lucky, and fast swimmer.

For Valentine's Day present, I gave my SO a grater to replace one we had accidentally ruined, the measuring cover part anyway. Then we found out he can get a replacement cover for $.25. Oh well. It's the thought that counts?

Lettermo and boots

Lettermo is well underway. I've already gotten three letters and sent out about 10. And those are just letters to family and replies. I have a list of new people to write, too.

My ankle high boots, developed a hole in the insole, right under my heel. That's incredibly uncomfortable, so I bought gel insoles. They are quite comfortable and I think they make me about a quarter inch taller. At my height, with the low heel on the boot, that's important.

I've been watching Agent Carter tv show and enjoying it immensely. (link is to a great blog post about reasons to love the show)

We're behind on Sleepy Hollow but we're catching up. I do enjoy the historical namedropping; it's just so entertaining.

I've made a couple heart bookmarks, using that earlier heart pattern. I used the cord idea from Kersti, of using a lockchain. Then I ended it with a simple clover, with or without a tassel.

color: Scottish Thistle

color: Red Burst

I've been having problem finding stationery. I finally bought a pad of decent quality paper and some washi tape. Voila, instant stationery, as many pages as I need. Right now, I'm using old calendar pages with white address stickers for envelopes.

TIAS progress etc

I found my bracelet. It looks good, even if I do say so myself. And a couple days later I found my TIAS. I got caught up and sent the pictures to Jane.

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

I tatted a heart (from a Japanese webpage) while my project was lost.

size 20 Lizbeth, Seashells

I messed up my weekend schedule. I told mom I'd go see her this weekend, and told M.C. et al that I'd play Pathfinder on Saturday. I talked to my boss and he let me have Monday off; letting me see Mom for two days and not disappoint people.

We made some decent progress in the game and Chris made honey barbecued chicken for the first time. He found is surprisingly simple.  After the game, we shared food and conversation.

RolePlaying Game with a child and the rest of my week

Saturday, we played Mermaid Adventures. Our last game was two years ago, much to M's frustration. It was up to her dad to schedule the game and the time passed faster than he had realized. Don't tell M, I'd lost my character sheet and had to make up my octopus spell caster again. M has been wanting to 'play games with Daddy' since she was four. R and I gave her child-focused RPGs for Christmas before she turned 6. She decided she wanted to play Mermaid Adventures. We played two years ago and she really enjoyed it. She enjoyed Saturday's game, too. We may have gotten her bitten by the RPG bug.

I've lost my tatting; both the bracelet I'd finished tatting and my TIAS up to Day 5. Jane has up to Day 7 out and I'm behind. Again.

I'm tatting a heart from a Japanese webpage to keep my tatting fingers busy in the meantime. I'm using Lizbeth seashell in size 20.

My car has been back into and out of the shop again. Maybe this will keep it out for a few months. I would really like to have a fully functioning car for awhile.

I've been playing Pathfinder Online. It's still early enrollment. I've discovered a problem with their graphics. It gives me a headache after a couple hours. And then, while in my character's home town, crafting, three players came up and killed my character. And the local guard (NPC) did nothing. I have no reason to go back into the game. I was just starting to figure out how to fight and how to craft. If it had happened outside a settlement, well, travel is risky. It will take some serious convincing to get me to play again.

Monday, I read someone's blog post about their first troll. And that getting a negative comment on their blog meant their audience had spread, beyond their 'comfort zone'. And that they had expressed an opinion, strongly enough, it grated on someone. It's rather like Jim C. Hines essay about the value of a negative review on his books. I've never gotten a negative comment on my blog. That's because this is a journal rather than an opinion piece.

Gaming/sci fi convention and Tat It And See

I spent most of this past weekend going to, at, or returning from Scarab con in Columbia, SC. We traveled down on Thursday and the con started on Friday. It takes advantage of the holiday on Monday to last for four days. We drove back today.

We played Pathfinder Society all weekend. I signed up to run a game Sunday night. We played only two session for each day. Part of that was the big game Saturday night was a Special and we haven't played the scenarios leading up to it.

About a month or so ago I checked the game sign ups online and didn't have anyone signed up for the game I had volunteered to run. I switched to a game with 7 people signed up to play. It's up the GM if they are willing to run with seven people at the table, but 6 is an easier number to handle. I signed up to GM, too; waitlisted. Since then, someone else signed up so we could have two tables of 4 people. With walk-ins, we had two tables of five people.

Jane's Tat It And See started January 7th but I totally missed the beginning. I could not find a button, without cutting one off a shirt. I finally found one, right before we left. On Sunday, I managed to get started. Five days were out so I did them all at once and took a picture after each stage and sent all five to Jane. I have a guess what the end result will be.

Day Five

Day Four

Day Three

Day Two

Day One

While I was standing in line, I was tatting a heart (clearing my shuttles for the TIAS) and someone noticed. She (Mary) was entranced and loves to crochet. I gave her some info about tatting (Here Be Tatters, Georgia Seitz, YouTube, InTatters) and the heart I'd made.





I've made progress on the knitted wristlet. I'm past the recommended 36 rows, where the thumb hole should be. Since 36 rows were too small, I've kept going. I need to measure my hand.

Sorry about the peculiar formatting. Editing on my tablet has odd results.

Jury Duty and other matters

Do you like to play board games? Are you uncertain about what board games to get or play? Here's a flow chart.

Do you want impetus to try more games? Or just to play games more often? Try 51in15; play 51 discrete games in 2015. These games can be tabletop, board games, card games, played a thousand times, never played before, published, unpublished, playtested, etc. You only count each game once. There are badges, to post, to gloat over, however you choose to use them. The site I linked to has the badges and some ideas. Enjoy.

C got a KitchenAid for Christmas. Now we need to find a place on the counter to put it. We have a possible place, if we get rid of his knife block and do something with our hot chocolate collection. Since we've been trying to eat healthy and I started having problems with milk, we haven't been drinking as much. We had a couple different flavors, and been getting some as presents. We need to decide what to do with it. Unopened boxes will probably go to the food bank or something similar.

This just makes me want to scream. (article about San Francisco seeking exemption from the ADA for police interactions.)

And in case you missed it, Muslims did react to the shootings at Charlie Hebdo. 

Tuesday I had work thing, a half-day retreat. I didn't go. Instead, I had jury duty. Whee?

First, photogenic, project from my new Japanese tatting book. 

The one on the right is the one I did first, and my tension was too tight. I did better on my second try.

And here are the first two bracelets I made this year.

 And I finally finished my lace wristlet. And its a leeeeetle too small.

And here's a picture of a neighborhood in Greensboro, NC. They hang these lighted balls for Christmas.

Happy New Year (Roman calendar)

I could look up which Caesar changed the new year to begin in January but I'm feeling too lazy to do that. There are lots of calendars so I could easily wish everyone a Happy New Year at least 3 more times without even thinking hard about. I'd just need to look up the exact dates as two of them are based on lunar calendars.

My goal this year is to post at least once a week. I'm not going to say what day of the week, but I'll strive for Tuesday or Wednesday.

Here are some websites I've been reading:
okay, this one I'm playing; creating custom miniatures for my characters
https://www.heroforge.com/
About women (some real, some fictional, some...in-between) who stand out
http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/
If you're on Twitter and had a problem with certain people who claim to be concerned about "Ethics in Game Journalism" you may find this tool helpful
https://github.com/freebsdgirl/ggautoblocker
I think this game looks adorable and I really want to play it
http://penguinking.com/games/costume-fairy-adventures/



My friend A.H. gave me a Japanese tatting book for Christmas, Tatting Lace Accessories. She went to Japan this past summer and I had asked her to look for one, more hopeful than expectant. She confirmed the difficulty in finding a book on a topic, a somewhat rare topic to boot, when you don't know the local name for it. However, she found one for me after the trip. Wasn't that nice?

Bracelet I made of A.H.

This is the scarf, around my neck and in my lap

My stepmom gave me a fabulous infinity (aka Moebius) scarf. A friend of hers arm-knitted it, using boucle yarn. When I put it on, the other end is somewhere near my ankles. I can wrap it twice and it serves as scarf, shawl, head cover, etc. My sister-in-law made me a pine cone wreath. I haven't put it up yet, I need to find my wreath hanger. My stepmother and Dad also gave me a lovely deep burgundy pashimi scarf. It's almost large enough to serve as a c. 1814 shawl; but then shawls that size could fit a twin bed as a coverlet.

My niece is in college now, she started this past September. I gave her a gift card to the school store and a bracelet in her school colors. She was really happy to see those. The small moleskine calendar and pocket Shakespeare seemed to be hits, too. I gave Dad a copy of Wilfred Owens poetry; to my stepmom, I gave some pods for her new Keureg and a small prayer box ornament from hungersite.com (note I don't know if that link goes to the Keureg she has, I just linked to a random one). To my brother, I gave a DVD about the development of roads and other travel in NC. For my Midwestern sister-in-law, I gave a book on Southern cooking. All the presents seemed to go over well.

For C, I looked at his list and bought a t-shirt he wanted; a 9 pounds of King Arthur Flour (pastry, pasta, and whole wheat pastry, the King Arthur flour baking book, and from mom a pastry cutter. I found a cute pair of socks for R and a couple things from her list. My one huge goof was giving someone a calendar, who already had 3. At least the one I gave him, The Big Bang Theory superhero one, is entertaining and came with cards.