A time to say 'Thank You'.

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all the men and women that have given so much that we can live in a free country. I am proud to be an American and I thank all those people all over the world who also fought and gave their lives to keep all of us all free. I appreciate their sacrifices and honor them today as well.

Time for fun!

THIS PLUS THIS EQUALS

FUN!

More to come later!:)-

Oh my stars!

This is a picture of my first idea for my friends book marker. It is a star pattern from 'TATTING Patterns & Designs by Blomqvist & Persson. It is done in Lizbeth 'Raspberry'. After tatting it , I realized it made a nice something but was too big for what I wanted to do. So it goes in the group of things that are waiting to be made into something else. I'm sure NO ONE has one of those piles.
Below is the book marker I finally made( and settled on), 'Black Widow' by Mary Konoir in 'Marble' Lizbeth thread. This book marker was about 2" across and 8" or 9" long. Good size so you don't lose it in the book!

Ok I know I posted the book marker earlier, but I like it so much I did it again! On the star, I think I might make several more and join either so it made a square or did it on the angle. But till now there are other projects calling me to work on them-so it will have to wait. :)

The BIG count down.

This is a picture my daughter had on her blog that she took on YellowHill. (In Metelakata, Alaska) If you look carefully at the shadow you can see her silhouette in the background. And it reminds me that the final countdown has begun before she comes home!
8 DAYS TILL BECKI- 23 DAYS TILL SCHOOL OUT! But who's counting.LOl. And that means that there will be only a few more days after that until THE TRIP! I'm not excited at all- can you tell! :)-

New bags, yarn, and not enough time!

Well the only excuse I have for not blogging sooner is that I have been working alot and working on time consuming projects. I know poor excuse but it is the Truth! Lol.
Here is a pic of a flyer from a lovely yarn shop I found on one of my long field trips I took to Rockford. Sorry I am not that suave with buttons and still don't link so you have to do it the old fashion way and enter it. For those of you not fortunate enough to live near yarn shops they do have a web site and do deliver.
OK a little blurb in here. We use to have places around were I live that sold yarn, thread, needles, tatting supplies and patterns. And I'm talking the good stuff not just the $2 a skein synthetic yarn(not that there is anything wrong with it) but not really good for wool socks. Then the scrape book invasion hit. Goodbye yarn,needles, thread, and tatting supplies hello cut out things to spend $$$ on. Hobby Lobby and Micheal's still have a limited selection, but looking for anything other than metal shuttles, larger than size 80 thread in limited colors or quality knitting needles is not there. To be fair to scrape Booker's, I hold no grudge but some times a picture is not the same as seeing the real thing. This summer I have plans to go east and I hope to find something in Maine or Vermont or on the way.( I will have to visit Goose Pond in Maine a great place for quality supplies for wool.)

This is a skein of orange creamsicle. It is 85% wool 15% mohair. Below is a pic of my socks. I was further along with a different size knitting needle and torn it out because it was making Paul Bunyon size socks. This is wool and will felt if washed in warm/hot water. But will be ok if washed in cold.

I am doing 2 socks on 2 circular knitting needles. You get both socks done at the same time and they are the same length! There are several books and instructions online about this technique. You can even do 2 socks on 1 long circular needle.( I would loose half my stitches doing it that way!lol)

I choose wool because wool/synthetic blends wear out so much faster than wool or wool blended with other natural fibers. And lets face it when you have a lot of hours in making socks or anything you don't want it wearing out too soon.

'Black magic' in Lizbeth thread. Finally! finished bookmark.(click pic to enlarge). I made it for a friend's b-day who likes flowers. I think the colors look like flowers, I hope she like it. I've already started on another.

Here it is! (pic courtesy of Jane) my new tatting bags by Jane Ebroll. It is already in use holding my latest project- a book marker using 'Marble' Lizbeth thread and Mary Konior's pattern 'Black Magic' found in 'Tatting with Visual Patterns'. (Pic of finished book marker above)

I am very excited for years I have been clumsily tatting how I learned from a book and I finally bought the 'Learn to Tat' by Jenette Baker. It has an interactive DVD with it that shows a faster way than I was doing. (OK I'm an audio/visual learner and have to hear and see it done- so to learn just from a book I repeat it several times and try to make it look like the few drawings. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.)The motions I was doing are pretty much the same, but I spend way to much time with how I pass the shuttle. I have seen 'UTube' videos of other tatters and could not fully get how they did it. I have to recommend this book . It always amazes me on how we can learn always learn something new from someone else!

Well, I will end here. There is always more things to do than time. I hope all of you had a wonderful Mothers day. My children sent me flowers and my son took me out. It was wonderful to hear from them all. But it was bitter sweet as this is the second Mothers day without my mom. You don't always know what you have until you lose it.

I hope life is good out there in blog land and that you all enjoy the beauty that God has created for each of us. Ta Ta for now.