Speaking of age

 

Tatting is old. So are the trees in Yosemite National Park. It takes 3+ hours to drive to the park from my house. I’ve done it in a day trip. It was exhausting. This time I stayed overnight close to the park. With 3 days to explore, we took our time. Here are some highlights:

We came in the South entrance. After a twisty, winding road, you drive through a tunnel. Now this tunnel was made in the early 20^th Century. It’s narrow, dark and very, very straight. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I wouldn’t want to take a truck or bus through the tunnel. I don’t think they allow it. Once you exit the tunnel, you can park and take in the view. You see Half Dome, El Capitan, Bridalveil Falls and Horsetail Falls. Here’s what I snapped with my phone:

As tourist attractions go, this park doesn’t have a lot. Mostly just nature. The park is developed with flush toilets and a 4 star hotel. We ate lunch in the restaurant there one day. I was inspired by the glass in the transom windows. Wouldn’t they make wonderful doily patterns?

We visited just after most of the snow melted. There was still some in the shaded parts amongst the trees. There was so much water in the streams. Lots of small waterfalls. This one will be dry next week. I'm sure someone has named it, but nothing noted on the website and no sign. The Yosemite Falls were flowing. Yes, when you hike the loop trail to close to the falls you get wet. We came prepared!

One of the trails we hiked was covered in snow and ice for a little bit. I was glad for the hiking poles I had. The trail ends up in a grove of Redwood trees. The tree in our neighborhood is quite young, it's only about 100 feet tall. The Park Service has done a great job adding signs that tell you what you’re looking at.

This brought home just how small we are. Here’s the photo of the roots. The sign is just visible in the bottom of the frame. I wondered who came up with the name Fallen Monarch? Given it was likely named around the turn of the 20th Century, it could be anyone. It was fun to imagine coming upon the tree when it was standing and how tall and big it was.

It’s always best to put ideas into thread

I’ve been adding to the motif for the Mauve piece. Nothing worth a picture. I have plenty of thread, plenty of beads, plenty of time…..

But…..

Do I have enough patience????

So here’s my first idea

 

This is a start. It’s a bit small. I’ll be adding to this I think.

Mauve

Mauve is one of those colors that isn’t well defined. (Search on the Pantone site for Mauve.) I have some beads I’ve used before for edging on a t-shirt. They are size 15 or smaller. Maybe even size 18 or 20. They look nice on sewing thread. Why would I try to tat something with these beads?

Because I have a luscious piece named Melody in Mauve by Richard Purvis.

I’ll be tatting up samples this week. Perhaps I’ll have something to show Thursday.

That's it for beads

I’ve finished round 9 of my current bun holder in bright colors. I’m not sure this will look good in my hair, but I’m wearing bright colors more often so at least I’ll look more together. This completes the part that shows the most with the beads, so from here on out, it’ll just be the lighter colors thread with no beads.

Stars for Samples

 It is my pleasure to tat up some samples for StarfishFibers. I like to support local small businesses when I can. Yes, the thread is not American made. If American thread worked as well as Lizbeth, I’d buy American. (Up your game!) I’ll continue to encourage higher quality thread. Any way I can.

Star-shaped Snowflake
by Vida Sunderman

The pattern is from Tatted Snowflakes by Vida Sunderman published in 1995 by Dover printed in 2014 in Canada. Not all the patterns are 6-pointed snowflakes. Star-Shaped Snowflake is one of those variations on the snowflake idea. I have 9 more samples to go!

Still raining

 I love that the rain has been slow and steady. We haven’t had high winds yet. So far, the only people who have lost power are those who live around the golf courses that were in the news last weekend. The area was developed in the 1930’s and is not an incorporated town or city but a corporation. ‘nuff said.

I’m still working on sewing the tatting onto the towel. There are quite a lot of floats in this structure, so my attempt to sew the blue elements without the thread showing on the wrong side of the cloth hasn’t been entirely successful.

I have 2 more repeats to sew on the other side of center after I finish this little bit. I like how it’s turning out, just haven’t had a lot of time to sew lately.