Round 9

All the roses are done, round 9 is complete.

I picked roses from the garden this morning:

The pink roses have different shades of pink in them, just like my variegated thread version.

Owl Slippers

Nellie, my granddaughter, overcame second sock syndrome to finish knitting bootees for her niece. I bought her some knitting needles to take home with her, so hopefully it won't be the last knitting she'll do.

While I was looking for knitting needles, I came across a 'French knitting' spool (known as tolletjie brei in South Africa). I thought Nellie's brother, Ant, might like to have a go at that, so I bought the spool  for him. He took to it like a duck to water and soon had a cord showing at the bottom of the spool:

He thought it would be a good activity to do on the plane when they left on Saturday, but was worried that the metal hook could be confiscated. So he'll have to resume at home.

Half

I've done half the rosettes for round 9, so that's progress. I've continued to work the 'leaves' simultaneously.

Pink Roses

The good thing about being slightly behind on the Spring doily is that I had a chance to contemplate exactly how I was going to tat round 9. There were several options, of course. This one might be a bit laborious, but it fits with my aim to make the doily look like flowers and greenery. It would be easier to tat all the roses and then do the leaves, but I wanted to be sure it would work, so I'm working on them simultaneously. To begin with anyway.

Round 8

All the clovers are done, I've finished round 8 of the Spring doily. Round 9 is out already, but I'm not too far behind. Here's a closer view:

Assistance

I had help making hot cross buns this year. Nellie, my granddaughter, did much of the work, including kneading the dough (top photo) and putting the glaze on when they came out of the oven. The flour hand mark is self-inflicted, I hasten to add. I did offer her an apron, but she said that getting covered in flour was part of the fun!

Not Much Tatting

I took my tatting with me when we went off for a trip to a game park, but I didn't get much done. We went to Mokala, the same park we went to in December with the Australian branch of the family. There's so much more grass now than there was then. We saw a lot of animals, including a black rhinoceros. I didn't take many photos, but here are a few:

Zebra.

Roan antelope.

Giraffe. There were several giraffe at the water point. We saw one of them drinking from the reservoir, though I didn't manage to get a photo.

We stayed in comfortable chalets, overlooking a river. I took this from our chalet, looking across to the chalet where the rest of the family stayed.

In Clover

I've made a start to round 8 of the Spring doily. It'll take me a while, but the clover leaves are interesting to tat.

Two Hats Please

I had a request for two hats. That's no problem, except that I won't be going to town to buy fabric before the hats are needed. Luckily there's some fabric left over from the shopping bag project that works fine for hats.

The children (twins) can wear the same hats as each other, or different hats, just by turning them inside out.

Nellie's Bracelet

My granddaughter Penelope is making bracelets and anklets. She finger crocheted the green cotton and then used a needle to sew the beads on. It worked well.

Nellie is also the recipient of the socks I made for competition a few years ago:

They fit her perfectly!

The Tail

I'm not getting much time for tatting at the moment, which is fine, there is a time for all things.... But this morning I did make the tail for the Trailing Hearts bookmark, which I wrote about here . My bookmark is rather large and long, which is my fault for using size 10 thread. It'll have to go into a big book!

Round 7 Is Done

I've finished tatting round 7. It's an easy round and I didn't make any mistakes. On the previous (equally easy) round, I closed a ring and then found I'd only tatted half the previous chain. Opening the ring, undoing the stitches and correcting the chain was straight forward enough, but time consuming.

Working on Round 7

I'm working on Round 7 of the Spring doily. The New Zealand branch of the family is arriving soon,  I'm a little distracted, making preparations, so progress is slower than usual. But I'll get there before the next round comes out next week.

Bookmark

This post from muskaan reminded me that I've been meaning to make some bookmarks to keep on hand to give away. So it's only fitting that I use one of muskaan's patterns! Here's a link to the pattern.
I still have to do the tail, but I've done the main part. It's a clever pattern, I like it.This is my first attempt, so it's  not perfect. I used a size 10 thread here, but I may use size 20 next time.

Stage Two

Rectangle is the consensus, thanks for the input on yesterday's post. Rectangle is more normal, I'll go with normal! I'm working on the second additional row to the length and will then start adding to the width.

Stage One

The blanket is now the same size as the previous flower blanket.   I could leave it as it is and begin a red border. Or I could continue my quest to use up the green yarn! There are still 8 balls of green:

One ball is enough for 7 squares, so I have 56 squares to play with. I could make the blanket square, 12 by 12. Or I could add two rows to length and breadth to make 11 by 14. Decisions, decisions....

As it's international tatting day, I had a go at tatting Daniela Mendosa's Mimosa knot. I failed miserably. I have a tangle of knots. In spite of Daniela's clear video. An April Fool is what I feel like!