Tatting To Go

I've started a new curds and whey braid from Mary Konior's Tatting With Visual Patterns to take on a trip. I was tempted to take my knitting, but it's too bulky. I'll be travelling by bus, so I want to limit the number of bags I take along. Tatting will slip into my handbag instead of having to have its own bag. I'm going to Goudini Spa, near Cape Town, for the two day Congress of the Cape Women's Agricultural Association. I'm looking forward to listening to some interesting speakers, and even more to seeing all the handcraft competition articles. After the Congress, I'll be spending a few days with my cousin who lives near there. So it'll be a while before I write my blog again, though I should get the chance to read blogs while I'm away from home. 

No no no

I decided to finish tatting my Root Beer Fudge ice drop yesterday evening. Big mistake. I thought something looked a little off, but I'd check before I sewed in the ends in daylight. I looked at it this morning and thought, oh, I've joined the last chain to the wrong spot, undid it and rejoined. Mmm, still not right. Then I realised I'd made a complete mess of the thing, only the first repeat was correct! And because that first repeat was correct, I couldn't even claim it was meant to be like that.

Scissors came out. I contemplated using the 'snip rings not chains' trick, but decided it was better to cut both off and restart CTM. I just made sure I had long enough ends left to sew in and then then rewound the shuttle and started again with no knot.

Here's how it is supposed to look:

The pattern by Lace lovin' librarian is in the files of the Ice Drop Addicts group on Facebook. The beads are swarovski crystals. They look better in person than on the screen!

Another

Here's another tropical ice drop, pattern by Nicola Bowersox. Here's a picture of the two together:

They do make me think of orchids or some such tropical flower.

Tropical

My stock of ice drops is low, so I thought I'd make some more. This is Tropical Ice Drop by Nicola Bowersox. The pattern is in the files of the Ice Drop Addicts group on Facebook. I like it. I might make another one, now that I have the hang of it. I need to pay attention to the tension of the mock rings. Beyond the first two rounds, it's worked entirely in chains.

Further Than I Expected

The brown yarn is going much further than I expected it to, so I think I can make a stole using Rebekah Yeager's Turkish Tiles chart. I should have some white yarn left over to work an edging on each side.

Rescue

A friend of mine found this tatted doily when she was clearing out her mum's things. She has no idea where it came from or how old it is. She asked me to sort it out. To be honest, it's not the kind of job I enjoy. I shoved it to the bottom of my tatting bag and ignored it. Which was naughty of me.

 I think the outer two rounds will have to be cut off and the rest blocked. And then? Should I tat a couple of replacement rounds? In a different colour perhaps? Or leave it as a small doily?

Bagged

Ever had the experience that you make a mistake, correct it and then find you didn't make a mistake in the first place? I hope it's not just me! Turns out I did have handles in animal fabric for two bags, so I made two bags with animal outers, shweshwe lining and one bag entirely from shweshwe.

I spent all day Wednesday in town, waiting for my car to be serviced. Got absolutely nothing done. Well, craftwise that is. I did visit a friend who has recently moved to town. It was good to have time to catch up with her. I sometimes think I should be less target-driven in deciding whether a day was well spent.