Outdoor Tatting - Dragonfly!

* Scroll down to the UPDATE for dragonfly photo *

As birds twitter overhead and midday sun warms the grass, I sip my tea (iced) and contemplate tatting for the first time in days. Fireman Sprout is playing in the car a few feet away.

"Quick! There's a fire!" he says, grabbing his imaginary fire hose. "Let's go put it out!"

And so the stage is set for an outdoor tatting session.

But what to tat? A UFO or a new project?

There is the lovely 'Eventail' fan the online tatting class discussed yesterday. It was designed by a needle tatter named Lucette Evain-Lacan and is included on page 27 of her book "La frivolité à l'aiguille pas à pas." (Needle Tatting Step by Step)

Alas, I need to learn how to make Single Shuttle Split Rings before I can tackle it. *le sigh*

Riet Surtel Smeulders prepared the SSSR practice pattern for the online tatting class in 2002 – Libel, the Dragonfly.

And here is my dragonfly, such as it is. I ran out of time before having to go pick up Big Daddy from the commuter lot and take The Sprout to his swimming lesson. Will have to complete it after swim class.

My first attempt at Single Shuttle Split Rings

All in all, not a bad first try at SSSR's. More practice will make them less lop-sided.

As a funny aside, Riet named her dragonfly Libel...with all the muttered curses and name-calling, perhaps mine should be named Slander. LOL!

But seriously, no bad things were said about any person real or imaginary. (Though if the green cotton had ears...they would be flaming!)

UPDATE: Didn't finish the dragonfly until Wednesday morning. Sorry to keep you waiting, Gina!

Single Shuttle Split Ring Dragonfly

For the wings, I used two threads wound together (HWT)^† – a pale yellow DMC Special Dentelles in size 80 and a Signature variegated machine quilting cotton in size 40 (M09 - Golden Harvest). It gives the wings just a hint of dimensional color. 

^†Jane Eboral defines HWT in her post HDT vs. HWT

Floor Gets a Facelift

Sadly, I haven't picked up my shuttles to tat in several days. Without my daily dose of tatting zen I have felt remarkably out of sorts. Sometimes other projects must take precedence, like when the installation crew arrives to put down a brand new hardwood floor!

This was my kitchen with the crappy, old linoleum floor.

And here are the workmen laying the Gunstock Oak over top of the reinforced subfloor.

I L-O-V-E this new floor. It makes my kitchen look bigger and sound quieter. The squeeks are gone (well, except for one stubborn, tiny one). Now Big Daddy jokes that he can sneak down to the fridge for a midnight beer without me knowing. *grins*

See Ciarrán skating across the new floor?

He's such a fun-lovin' lep. You should see it when he challenges The Sprout to sliding contests. They really do have a ball together.

On Wednesday the new clothes washer and dryer arrive. Saints (or Goddess or name your favorite deity) be praised! I have been drying clothes on a clothes line (strung through my ground floor TV room, no less) since October, 2009.

It's not that we couldn't afford a new dryer before now. We wanted to cash in on the government's Cash for Appliances program. To qualify for rebates we had to wait until the project officially started. (April 28, 2010)

The itemized list of incentives for qualifying appliances was announced a week or so ago. The pittance our state had alloted for washing machines wasn't worth the trouble of waiting. If only we lived in one of the states that offered bigger rebate incentives! Live and learn.

A new dishwasher will be arriving in 14 days. The old one was yanked out to put in the new floor so I am washing and drying all the dishes by hand until the new one is installed.

*giggles* Do you think dish-pan hands affect my tatting?