Progess and stuff

 I need to fix a tatted bracelet and I finally found the correct thread to do so. That's my next project. I've been working on tatting a couple aliens (Jane Eborall's 2023 TIAS) for a friend who recently turned 51. I have one in bright green just done and next is one in grey. Need to hide ends.

 

I finished 4th round of the Round Robin doily, but I need to block it and hide the ends. So yes, this photo is a bit sloppy.

 

No progress on the wrist warmers. I can't find the instructions for finishing off a project (do I just pull the yarn through the last stitch?). 

I've down to 2 pairs of (mended) work slacks, so as I got to that point, I've been going to the thrift shop to find more. Until this past Saturday, I was out of luck. I found 3 pairs (wow)! Two of them even have full sets of pockets, although the 3rd pair has those fake front pockets. When I have time, I can amend that.

Our DnD 5e game progresses. At least 2 of the PCs think we're on a wild goose chase and think we got this assignment to get us out of the way while the matter is really being handled at home. 2 PCs had backstory elements we were able to use to get more information for the next leg of the trip. I'm still not sure we have a grasp of the combat, though. And especially the short rest/long rest thing.

We also had a Pathfinder game this past weekend. We finished another stage in the adventure, without dying, although it was close. Two of the PCs were out of any spells above cantrip level and the healer was down to about a third of her spells/channels.

More nalbinding and stuff

I started a 2nd nalbinding hat, same yarn. But this time I started at the top. As a hat, it is less than successful. As a bag, it's not horrible. I do have a gaping hole where I missed a stitch or something, but I used some of the leftover yarn to make a lucet braid & just tied the hole shut; but semi-decoratively. I still need a drawstring for it, though.

I am working on a new card case for my gift cards, etc. It's a simple pattern, but I couldn't resist some changes. And I think I left out the seam allowance, so I did some piecing to add extra fabric to create seam allowance. Until it's done, I mended my current card wallet. 

I started a pair of nalbinding wrist warmers, in acrylic again (yay knots), but smaller yarn so it's likely to look lacier. I think I need to work on my tension, I keep finding holes.

I am finished retro-tatting on the round robin doily from the online tatting class. Forward progress again. 

I took a bag of stuff to Scrap Exchange this past weekend. Some of it was 'get it out of the house, I'm not going to use it' and some of it was 'if I don't take this, it's going to be thrown away.' While I was there, I found some fleece to use for a plush toy (I have the pattern, I just need to actually work on it) and some more Formica samples for Tri-Tatters luggage tags.

Three of us took the day off from work yesterday to hang out and go see a matinee of the Dungeons and Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves. The theater has reclining seats; very comfy. Happily, the movie did crest the very low bar set by earlier DnD movies and there were a couple Easter eggs for long time DnD folks.

Projects

 My first successful nalbinding project.

I used acrylic yarn so there's all these knots. It's why wool works better, you can make knotless joins. I'm using up the rest of the yarn in another hat. I'm trying top down. It won't be quite as neat or pretty. 

I keep making errors on the 4th round of the round robin. So no pictures of it. 

I was going to sew a card wallet last night, then realized I had forgotten to include the seam allowances. I'll need to cut more fabric and add to the pieces. Currently I have 3 fabrics, so I'll use the other fabric for the strips (outer fabric is sky print, lining is flowers, so sky print will have a strip of flowers and vice versa.

Works in Progress

Friday (St Paddy's Day) sunrise. Red sky at night, sailors' delight.

Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.
 

I'm working on round 3 of the Online Tatting Class Founded by Georgia Seitz round robin doily. I have had so many false starts. Time to start round 4. 

It's unblocked and untrimmed, so not a great picture.

I am also learning nalbinding, or nålebinding, (ignore the knots, I'm using acrylic).

Hopefully, this will be a hat. The pen is for size comparison.

Carolina Fiber Fest 2023

 Fiber Fest at the State Fairgrounds again (in the nice, large expo hall, yay). And once again, shared parking with 2 other events. One, if someone hadn't told me they were there, I wouldn't have known about them. OTOH, the other group has a subset of 'we have an RV, who cares about parking spaces'. 

Most of them with RVs are not like this. They park in the camping area, which admittedly is not particularly close to their event location. There's some though, that take up 2-10 (and no, that is not a mistake, I counted) parking spaces. Which again, is okay if no one else is using the lot. Like someone who parks their car over 4 spots at the far end of a lot where it's completely empty, if it's not disrupting other people, then who cares.

And that is why my friend and I arrived at 7 am for an event in which the doors open at 9. We did need to be there enough before 9 to get our tables set up, but if it weren't for the parking issues, we would have aimed for 8 am. 

 We were towards the back, near some of the classrooms. We were also near this display about flax and flax spinning (picture is only part of display).

There were 2 spinning wheels, some fabric (both recent make and vintage), sample of linsey woolsey tape, 3 linen stricks,  and flax in different stages of processing. There were also brochures for a book on homegrown flax and cotton.

I also bought a couple mini-skeins of linen yarn to try it for tatting. I bought some burgundy and black. I'll need to be careful of slubs, but it tats pretty well. The hanks are DK weight, so about size 5 for tatting, I think.

 Here's the edging sample I did.

 Pattern from New Dimensions in Tatting by To de Haan-van Beek

I saw lots of fiber friends; other members of Tri-Tatters, Sir Walter Lacers, weaving group, machine knitting, etc. I also saw Danielle, who I haven't seen since she moved to Texas. I also met her wife, Jen, who I only know from Danielle's FB posts. They've moved back to the east coast.

I also bought a nalbinding needle and then won some wool yarn! How about them odds. I only bought 1 ticket in the drawing. And funny enough, while I was up there getting my 'here's the cert for you to claim your prize', the vendor came up to see if the prize they'd offered had been claimed. I didn't have to search for their booth, they lead me right there.

I finished Jane Eborall's Tat It And See, although I used 2 different colors. I want to do this in light green and in grey, too. For reasons.

 

I've also been playing around with Mandala by Nami Art Patterns

You can't tell from the pictures, but the top one is size 20 and the lower one is size 40.

I also took some of my bits to mend a skirt. It's cotton gauze, so I stabilized the holes and then sewed tatting over them.

 And of course, glued flowers, etc to a card.

We play the Pathfinder game again this weekend (crossed fingers) and our 5e game continues. 

In the 5e game, we learned what poisoned our oldest sister (cousin for 1 player). We did some local investigating to see if there's a cure available locally and tried to get some information on who created the poison. We did learn a few things, but we had to go to another town, on the recommendation of someone we contacted, to someone who might know more. 

Cousin (PC is 16, player is my age) continues to underestimate my PC, possibly because of jealousy. My PC went to college in the capital, is beautiful, and cosmopolitan. She (PC) is the smartest and most beautiful person the room; she says so. 

Please note, the player is a good friend and it's all in fun.

I can't believe we had sleet/snow yesterday. Last year, we had snow (no accumulation) as we were leaving the Fiber Fest. And it's supposed to freeze tonight.