Getting ready for the Tatting Seminars in the Finger Lakes – just around the corner, April 13-15 - means that by this point in the process, life is all tatting, all the time – even when I’m preparing for Passover or cleaning the house or doing my everyday article-writing for the newspapers. Three of the stories due this week or next are school-related, so there’s a bit of a push on getting ready for those.
But I did finish this knitted “Queen of Hearts” Shawl for one of the silent auctions at the seminars. We decided our silent auctions will benefit the stroke and cardiovascular rehab unit at Strong Hospital in Rochester (NY) so knitting this shawl was a labor of love. I decided I want to do another one, to keep. Possibly as a knit-along this summer. The tweedy yarn I used was essentially self-blocking, so after I washed it, I left it in the sunshine and rain for a few days and now it’s totally wonderful.

But just so the joy was not unmixed, just when I was feeling everything was pretty much on its way to completion, came an email from someone who’d asked to teach at the conference announcing she’d decided, for unspecified reasons, to become an ex-teacher. So, 10 days beforehand, in the time I’d left for inessentials like cleaning, writing six articles for various papers, shopping and cooking for a 10-person seder and for Easter AND for my part of the cooking for this conference, packing for another conference, creating a class for kids, dyeing yarns and threads for the shop and – okay, you get the idea. Instead of taking a deep breath and getting into that good stuff, I had to come up with a few more patterns and another class. After a sleepless night, I came up with a Celtic heart. This is the prototype, still needs a little tweaking, but I’m rather pleased with it.



The grey image at the top is a photocopy of the design, the yellow is the real one, done in size 5 cotton. This cotton will be dyed and become part of the needle-tatting package in its new incarnation.

Here’s one of my until-now secret projects – I was knitting a sweater (pattern is from an Interweave Knits publication) for a young man. I didn't like this pattern and it reminded me why I often don't use them - if I'd followed it exactly, the sleeves would have ended before the raglan shaping on the fronts and back; also, if I'd knitted instead of crocheted the collar and front bands they would have been three separate pieces with messy finishing.
Also, based on the gauge I was actually managing to follow, I thought it was for a younger male than it turned out to fit. It was intended as a maybe 6-month sweater for a baby who’s now a few months old – I knew he would be a handsome, strapping kid, but not having held a baby in many years, I guess I over-estimated how large he’d be in another four months.
Instead it fits his 3-year-old brother. And I have to say it looks really nice on him, though if he keeps growing as quickly as he’s done so far… he’ll be passing it on to his younger sib only slightly broken in!

Having made the decision to do more work from home this summer, I’ve been continuing to clean up, exploring corners of the house and studio that have not been fully looked-into for too long.

I’ve now got 30 sets of Seneca Santa hats and mittens ready to send off. I’ll see how many I have by next Thursday and pack up the rest. Still working on them – got about 28 pairs of mittens from my friend June; when she makes mittens, I make hats to match. We’ve come up with some remarkably perfect pairings despite working on things separately! Above is a selection of a bunch I finished last week...



Also found this tatted necklace, which was until yesterday a project-in-progress. Finished it yesterday afternoon and wore it yesterday evening. Here’s the pattern – it’s tedious but simple! Use size 10 thread to thread on an assortment of beads from size 10 to E beads or a little larger. You’ll need a lot of beads – and I mean a LOT of them – 26 feet of beaded thread. I kept pushing beads down on the thread and winding thread across various pieces of furniture during the beading process spider-web style, a process that took most of the afternoon. (I’ve done four of them, so the memory of doing this is green.) There has to be at least 5 to 8 yards of unbeaded thread before and after the beads. One end of the unbeaded thread is wound on a shuttle. The other, longer part of the thread, which is also the part with all the beads, is wound on a giant thread holder. I use a piece of cardboard at least the size of a cereal box with a few slits cut into it, and wind the thread lengthwise around the cardboard. To tat, begin with a loop on a paperclip or safety pin, tat about ¼ inch of plain chain, then tat a Josephine chain: * move up 1, 2. 3. 4 or 5 beads, in an at-random order and tat the second half of a ds. Repeat from * until all beads are used up. Tat another ¼ inch plain chain, remove the paper clip or safety pin and join. Cut, tie and sew in ends. The necklace should fit over your head without the need for a clasp.

These items are looking for new homes - they’re for sale for less than their value in order to make room in the destashing process.



Hammett loom – the money for this loom and its accessories will go to the food pantry.



Love and Money loom – perfect for anyone with too much acrylic yarn who’d like to craft placemats, coasters, afghans, etc without crocheting or knitting. Contact me via email please (threads@empacc.net) if you’re interested in prices/ more information/purchase.

Here’s two views of our gorgeous quilt before it goes up for auction. Two views – one with Sally at the lower left and Neil at the upper right – both responsible for a bunch of quilt blocks; and we put everything together at Sally’s house; Neil and Sally are hidden in the second photo, but you can see Dani, Neil’s daughter, who collaborated on a bunch of quilt blocks as well. it is even more gorgeous in person - Sue Hodge did the quilting, for which she is justly famous. Really. Someone came into my shop today from quite a distance away, and says she only has Sue quilt her work! The live auction will happen at the Tatting Seminars in the Finger Lakes. We will accept advance bids. Incidentally, the bidding will start at $200.




Finishing has so many benefits – these socks, for instance were the results of teaching a sock-knitting class whose other results included two new, enthusiastic sock knitters. The green ones used the “Dani technique” (same Dani you see above) of starting at the ankle with a provisional cast on, knitting the foot, and then after the toes are closed, removing the provision cast on and knitting up the leg as long as one wants. In this instance, I ran out of steam before I ran out of yarn, but I love the result, because the cast off, with a chain stitch between every third or fourth bind off, makes the most comfortable and elastic cuff. Having finished those socks, I naturally began another pair, using yarn I didn’t know I had until I did inventory. I like the colors, but I’d sadly thought I’d sold the last ball.



Also finished a number of felted bag projects, including a tambourine case. Now I can travel to gigs in style. (I’ve always wanted to use the word “gigs” in a sentence relating to something I do. So now it can be told – I’ve realized I’m a good back-up singer and a “belter” rather than a soloist. If you want volume and someone on-pitch, I can do it. For beauty and sensitive expression, you probably want another singer.) (This is not a secret.)

Also finished another project I can’t show yet.


This afternoon, our spinning group – all two of us – experimented with spinning color change yarn, like Noro Kuryon; Jessica’s is a singles; mine (wound) was plied with llama yarn from our previous get-together.


And here are Jessica’s mitts, an adaptation of my pattern, spun from a mystery Canadian roving; we really liked that one.



Lastly, here’s another work in progress to share – I’m knitting a lace shawl for the silent auction at the upcoming Tatting Seminars in the Finger Lakes (weekend after Easter). Because our theme is hearts, this looked like the ideal thing to knit. The pattern is by the late Beverly Galeskas and available from Fiber Trends (or from me, I carry some of their patterns). There’s a lot more knitting to do before I’m done, but it has logical repeats and it’s a lot of fun.

A Goddess leaves us

Around the world today, those of us who tat and appreciate fine needle-arts – and each other – are pausing to remember Regina Brummett, also known as the “Tatting Goddess.” Whether she gave herself that name or it came from elsewhere, it was an accurate description of someone who tatted a great deal, accompanied by an immense curiosity for how things would work, how a pattern might be adapted, put to good use in a variety of needlework projects or gift-giving opportunities.

In her talented hands, a motif might become a bookmark, a bookmark an edging- and virtually anything could be improved with the addition of tatting. I greatly appreciated her support of my designs and I loved seeing her interpretations and the final outcome.

Gina came to our regional tatting conferences as a participant and as a teacher, always sharing the fun of the occasion with everyone around her. She was thoughtful, smart, generous with sharing, but never gossiped nor had an unkind word to say of anyone.

It can be a cliché to call someone a good person, and after all, who are we to make that sort of judgment? But it’s easy to see when there’s someone one can admire, whose company is treasured, and whose absence leaves a hole. It’s indisputably true there’s no one like her, and Gina will be very greatly missed.

Take a last look at Gina at http://threadsofatattinggoddess.blogspot.com.
You’ll see a vibrant, interested-in-life, beautiful woman and understand why, for those of us who knew her, our lives are dimmed by her passing.

The winter has a harvest too - and here are some of the first fruits. It took a while – a lot longer than I expected – to get the two tatting books (Button Abecedarius and Bouquet of Bookmarks) in the shape I wanted them to be, off to the printer and then back. the sampler in the center between the books is the back cover of the Button book. For weeks there was a LOT of tatting going on – for those and for the February 2012 Tatting Times. None of it was the work of a moment. And with the exception of a special quilt, there wasn't much else going on. No housekeeping. As little cooking as possible. No work on taxes. No shop inventory. When someone came in to look at knitting yarn, I showed them tatting instead.



so... about Kathy’s quilt. Which is also, in its way, about tatting. Quilt squares, mostly from tatters, kept coming in from all over – England, Germany, across the U.S. One tatter wrote something like, “Every tatter is either already my friend or would be my friend if we met.” While only about half those contributing squares know Kathy (so far), they are all gorgeous and made with love. I was able to deliver the quilt to Kathy today, the first time I’ve seen her in about five weeks. Back then, she was in the hospital, not yet in re-hab. (And the evening after we drove up to Rochester to visit, Bill became seriously ill with pneumonia, so circumstances kept me away for a while.) Kathy is now living with her granddaughter, Sonja, as her recovery proceeds. She’s mostly walking without a cane, working on continuing her recuperation – though she’s done so well, her therapists discharged her and told her to keep up the good work.

What a difference! The improvement is marked and wonderful. There’s still a lot of healing going on, but with so many good vibes in a healing blanket, made with love by so many hands, how can she do anything other than continue onwards and upwards?



Standing to the right of the quilt - there's Kathy. She's even using her right hand... way to go!

The current project is huge – a quilt our tatting group began as a fund-raiser. 28 quilt squares were given out for embroidery at last April’s Tatting Conference – these are either strawberries or flowers, pre-printed on pink fabric, which seemed to be perfect for our upcoming heart-themed conference in April of 2012. Seemed straightforward – the embroidered squares were to be returned by late August. Which was when most of them did come back. The plan was to take the finished quilt top to the machine quilter before the end of September.

Fast forward to December when we had a total of 18 – count’em, and we did, many times, and couldn’t come up with more than 18 finished squares, plus a few around still in progress, including several not yet returned.

So Sally, one of our members, took two squares to work on, I took three more, and last week, two more partially finished squares were returned. I’ve been spending quite a lot of time listening to books on tape and embroidering. I just read on-line that the most skilled “factory’ embroiderers can only work 5 hours a day because of the intense concentration and the potential for hand injuries. I can understand why. After about 16 hours, I’ve got the two partially-completed squares finished now, three more still to go. Then all the squares need to be washed, ironed and trimmed to size before being laid out and assembled into a quilt. (Stay tuned – it will be absolutely gorgeous when it’s complete!)



In the meantime, still have one more end-of-the-year article to complete; and of course the final Christmas present, which I put the finishing stitches into today. These are Bill’s annual Christmas socks. They’re red, because as anyone who’s been in my knitting class can recite, tongue-in-cheek, RED IS WARMER. Or so Bill is convinced. These are particularly nice, made of washable merino and sock yarn, two strands held together. This was an intensive sock year, in the holiday season alone I made five pairs – luckily three of those pairs were for kids.

I’m taking off Christmas Day to do some different needlework.