Aliens in Tat Land: A Closer Look

   This past January, Jane Eborall hosted her annual Tat It And See adventure. She works hard to design, diagram, and deliver an original tatting pattern in bite-size pieces for Tat Land to enjoy.  It is two weeks of creative battery-charging, energy-boosting, doldrums-banishing fun!   

   You can never tell where Jane will take you. Every stage of her game is fun, since it fuels my  imagination to run wild with crazy guesses. (I always try to work in a camel guess early on.) 

   Each new clue jump-starts my creative brain cells and helps me to see design possibilities. This year she had me guessing right up until the very end.

   Without further adieu, I present to you the first of my insinuation of aliens! Chief Blue Meanie from Outer Space!  He is tatted with Lizbeth thread, size 20, #707 – Sky Blue Dark. 

   You know that bittersweet feeling when you get to the end of a very good book? The end of T.I.A.S. each year is a bit like that. It is affecting, conquering new techniques; I have loved the camaraderie; I am delighted by the aliens, and yes, I am sad it's over for 2023. 

I will have alien #2, #3 and #4 to reveal in future posts.  Stay tuned, tatting friends!

“Everyone’s quick to blame the alien.” ~ Aeschylus

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.

Motif #20 - SCMR Snowflake & TIAS

SCMR Snowflake © 2007 Sharren Sarver Morgan
Tatted in size 20 Hakelgarn Bright White
with crystal beads

Motif #20 - SCMR Snowflake

For Tatting Tea Tuesday I completed Sharren Morgan's SCMR Snowflake, shown here in a super close-up.

Do the clear beads give it frozen ice crystal appeal?

As you can see, it hasn't been blocked. I had a few "d'oh!" moments with this snowflake which contributed to its off-kilter shape. Blocking should set it right.

Sadly, this darling pattern isn't available online. Sharren e-mailed me a PDF. If she grants reprint permission I will add a link to the PDF file.

Tatting Tea Tuesday

Two cups of Moroccan Mint tea accompanied my tatting efforts. I had been thinking back to my wedding/honeymoon cruise and the wicked laryngitis I had. The server at our dinner table was so kind and attentive. She served me hot mint tea every evening until my voice returned. Just in time to say "I do!"

No laryngitis today, but it seemed right to raise my cuppa to the tea that got me through that cold/flu season. Hee, hee, if the tea doesn't help this time, maybe another Caribbean cruise will?

2011 Tat It And See (T.I.A.S.) - Day 4

I am participating in Jane Eborall's TIAS. Day 5 was released yesterday but I haven't tatted it yet, so I have fallen a little bit behind.

If you are unfamiliar with TIAS, it is a fun, creative winter diversion. Jane releases only a small part of a pattern every day or so and won't tell what it is.

That's right! You don't know what you are making. You "Tat It And See."

Part of the fun is guessing. As of Day 4 I was still thinking some kind of lizard or a turtle. But I was holding out hope for a sea creature. Who knows? Maybe I'll get my wish and it will be Nessie from the Loch!

The Day 5 blog entries suggest that something along the lines of an airplane or jet might be more accurate. A bent pogo stick or even roadkill (perhaps a flattened rabbit?) is still likely, though not Jane's style.

It is not too late to join in the fun! You can join at any time, and catch up as you go or just to watch the fun unfold on the TIAS blog.

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful. See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!