TIAS Day 7 -- What IS it?

Instead of waiting for the weekend, I thought I'd post a quick update of my TIAS Day 7.

IsDihara's TIAS 2013 Day 7 progress, white background

IsDihara's TIAS 2013 Day 7 progress, red background

Note:  These scans are flipped "wrong side" up. Being a left-handed tatter, my "whatsit" naturally progresses with the Days 5, 6 and 7 the other way round (on the right side).


Day 7 had me saying this phrase over and over in my head:  rubber baby buggy bumpers
Say that three times fast!

Here is a photo of my latest guess:  a surrey-like baby buggy.  It puts me to mind of the song from the musical Oklahoma!  -- "Surrey with the Fringe on Top"

Image source: Hap Moore Antiques Auctions, March 21, 2009
www.hapmoore.com

Isn't it fun how each new release jump-starts the creative brain cell(s)?

It really is great to see so many TIAS 2013 bits pop up on the blogs. What a wonderful reminder that we aren't "tatting in the wilds" (all alone) but in a lively global community.

TIAS Day 6

Not a lot of tatting has taken place this week. What with "da boyz" (hubby and kidlet) having a snow day on Friday, kidlet's busy social calendar on Saturday, I-don't-remember-what on Sunday and a two-hour ice delay Monday morning; oh, and hubby's second attack of gout Monday evening, the long weekend was seemingly over before it began.

I did complete TIAS Day 6 yesterday afternoon.  I have been enjoying the TIAS tatting immensely! The early stages of this game are the most fun, since I can let my imagination run wild with crazy guesses.  I always try to work in a camel guess (or a Loch Ness monster) early on. 

Is'Dihara's TIAS 2013, Day 6, progress

By the time we get to the halfway point, I am usually influenced by ingenious guesses posted on Jane's TIAS blog. For example, Valerie Ho's hunch that it might be a Viking ship!  Hmmm, don't think it will turn out to be a Viking ship at this stage, but who knows?

Now I am swayed by another excellent bit of deductive guesswork: the pram/baby buggy probability. It could be a flowerpot or even a hot air balloon. But all I see is the carriage of a pram.

Anita M Adamson's shopping cart prediction was featured on Jane Eborall's Facebook page promoting TIAS. Hurray for Anita!  Don't cha just love all the shuttles loaded up in the cart?

Day 7 will reveal another clue to the puzzle and our tatting imaginations will race ahead once more. How did I ever make it through the long, cold, January stretch before TIAS came along?

Merci mille fois, Jane, for giving us this delightful game to play.

Tatting Tea Tuesday - New Books
Today's tea is decaf green flavored with Powell & Mahoney Cosmopolitan cocktail mixer.  Tatting while sipping a warmed concoction of cranberry, lime and orange is a very tasty prospect. The cocktail mixer was left over from New year's Eve and I couldn't let it go to waste, now could I? 

Instead of tatting during cosmopoli-tea time, I opted to leaf through my two new tatting books!  First is a reprint of Judith Connor's 2006 book, "Contemporary Tatting - New Designs from an Old Art."  It contains lovely color photos and hand-drawn diagrams of "a galaxy of patterns."

The second addition to my tatting library is Jan Stawasz' second publication, "Tatted Treasures."  Owning his first book made buying this one an absolute must. Mr. Stawasz' method is very "front-side/back-side" centric.  His patterns have a stately elegance that I find very appealing.

Both books are wonderful and I can recommend them to any tatter.