Spring tasks

This spring I have a new task to balance. Normally, I take on the pleasure of spring garden tasks along with housework, tatting, and volunteering. The roses are in bloom now. All of the bushes made it through the winter. The climbing rose is actually doing better this spring than in other years.

My new task: watching the listings of new houses in our target area. Sometimes that means that I don’t get to tatting as my volunteering and housework and gardening take up the time left in the day. The good news is that if we decide to look at a house in person, it’s a couple of hours car ride. Time to tat!

I need to squeeze in a trip to the local plant supplier. We have 4 areas around our fountain that need plants. This is the only one to survive this winter. I’d like to replant with the same plant.

plants around fountain

 

But, I have no record of what this one is called as I didn’t expect it to do well. It did, so now I’m on the hunt!

 

TIAS 2015 finished

It’s always fun to tat through the puzzles that Jane cooks up. I love the way her brain percolates. I think I’ll be tatting several of these for gifts to good friends.

TIAS 2015 by Jane Eborall

It rained quite a bit Friday and yesterday. The sun is out today. I'll be getting into the yard to pull weeds while the ground is soft. No tatting until my hands are cleaned up though!

Shawl angel coming along

I finished the head, body and wings of the angel.

 

Shawl angel head, body and wings

If my math is correct, when I work it in size 80 thread, it will be a little wider than the labels that are sewn onto each shawl and blanket and lap robe and scarf. It will be a tad longer I think. I’m not sure because I decided not to work on the skirt yesterday. I chose to work on tacking down the Blue version of the Saint-Saens. That task won out over sorting for the move as I decided that I didn’t want to move with the doily still in the hoop. I think with 2-3 more days it should be ready to go to the framers. Whew!!!

 

Here's my TIAS so far

TIAS 2015 up to Day 11

Each year I enjoy what Jane cooks up for us. I think I like that the pattern is released in small chunks and we are encouraged to guess what we’re tatting. I've guessed we're tatting scissors. She is so kind to post what folks send her on the blog. I'm in good company as many of the folks who have sent pictures guess scissors also.
 

Now I’m off to work some more on the angel. I’ll post when I have something interesting to show.

Another house hunting trip

Another house hunting trip

 

Picking a house to bid on is tough. It’s complicated. It’s emotionally draining. It’s exciting and terrifying.

 

I think what weighs on my mind the most is that I’m committing to something for years and years. Yes, I can change things. Yes, things will break and I’ll have to fix them. But, I stand in someone else’s home and try to imagine it as my home.

Now, I have a very active imagination. So, the imagining part isn’t that hard. We’ve remodeled our present home and I’m fairly conversant in handyman, so the fixing and changing isn’t hard to imagine. It’s just hard to think through everything and make sure I don’t get carried away with all the possibilities.

 

At least where we’re searching, it’s easy to take a long walk and let the ocean help calm down the thoughts and emotions.

 

More later.

joining in with TIAS

I’ve been tatting along with Jane’s TIAS. Just not every day.

 

I do try to limit the sorting in our house, the browsing for the new house, and the general puttering. I try to tat each day. I’m still working on the flag. As soon as I complete another stripe, I’ll post a picture. I’m getting closer on the angel. Don’t expect a picture until February.

 

So, the only pictures I have to share are my TIAS: 

TIAS 2015 Day 5

back of button

I was tempted to use the back of the button. I like the little dark spot. But, not knowing how the pattern will turn out, I couldn’t decide how to orient the spot, so I used the front. But……

I have another button to use for the second sample!

Back to my goals

Well, it’s been awhile. My bad. I’m very embarrassed!

 My excuse is I’m moving….soon….to Monterey/Carmel area. That means we have to sell this house. Now, we’ve only been in this house for 15+ years. So, there’s not too much archeology required. But, we’ve raised our children here. So, there’s all the “stuff” associated with that and the memories. ‘nuff said.

 What have I been tatting you ask?

 Well, I’m still bouncing around ideas for an angel for the Prayer Shawl Ministry. I’m getting closer. I’d like to have a skirt that seems to swirl, so I’ve been looking for geometric patterns that are dense. I found this heart pattern:

Morales heart

 Lilly Morales reworked an older pattern. I kinda reworked her pattern. I’d like to adapt it for the skirt of the angel. Along with keeping up with Jane’s TIAS 2015 and continuing the flag. More on those later.