Tatting Tea Tuesday - Election Day & Carpool Trauma

Since Tatting Tea Tuesday fell on Election Day, Sw4nkyL4c3r and I decided to spend a few hours together tatting. Tatting is always more enjoyable when done together and what a pleasant Election Day treat!

Sw4nkyL4c3r and I drove over to her mom's house to sit with her bed-ridden stepfather, so that her mom could go vote.  Her stepfather is in the late stage Alzheimer's so Mamma Sw4nkyL4c3r rarely interacts with ambulatory/vocal adults. I believe our visit was a welcome respite for her. And it was a lovely tat-n-chat at her kitchen table.

Before long it was time to pick up The Sprout from Kindergarten. What should have been a calm carpool routine was quite unexpectedly interrupted.  I was walking around the van to buckle The Sprout into his car seat when very loud wailing rent the air.

What happened?!? The Sprout bonked his nose unexpectedly on an armrest in the car while showing off for his 4th grade carpool buddy. There was no swelling, no blood, no mark at all.  But you would have thought The Sprout's nose had been ripped off his face.

The most alarming part was watching the him punch himself in the nose repeatedly while huge tears streamed down his face.  He was crying so hard I couldn't understand him.  All I could do was hold his punching arm, maneuver him so I could examine his face and try to hug away the hurt.

He continued to cry the whole way home. The 4th grader looked very sheepish the whole time, so I suspect she may have had something to do with the incident, but she didn't own up to anything.  And The Sprout didn't tell on her, so I cannot say for sure what her role might have been.

I was at a loss for how to deal with the situation.

Once The Sprout was sufficiently calmed, I took him to a book fair and bought him some new books. It was a school fund-raiser so I didn't think it was spoiling him too much.

There were no nose-bonking or wailing relapses for the rest of the evening, but I wonder if I should be speaking to a doctor of some sort about The Sprout's punching himself in the face?

Any more seasoned moms out there who can comment on this type of behavior?

Deep South Staples

 Or how to survive in a southern kitchen without a can of cream of mushroom soup

By Robert St. John

Oh Sweet Mercy!  Have I chuckled a hearty chuckle while reading this cookbook. 

Growing up north of the Mason-Dixon Line^*,  I am often surprised and amazed by colorful Southern sayings. They are an endless fascination for me and I mean no disrespect whatsoever. Truly.

For example, I heard this said the other day while waiting outside of The Sprout's school. 

Tennessee mom said, "Anyone who's ever had their heart blessed knows how true that is...."

Georgia mom nodded knowingly.

BAM! Just like that I was confused. It took me the better part of 15 minutes of silent reflection before enlightenment finally came. 

'Is this a twist on the "Bless your heart" comment?' I thought to myself. 

But by then I had lost the thread of the conversation and couldn't test my hypothesis in context.  I still don't know what "anyone who's ever had their heart blessed" means.  

But enough of the exasperating example. Let's get back to the cookbook.

Published in 2006, the author states that the recipes included were traditional preparations of the Deep South that were handed down from grandmothers and great-grandmothers. They were often written on the backs of old cancelled checks, notepads, garden club programs or church bulletins.

Chapters are organized by occasion: Cocktail Parties, Funeral Food, then Breakfast, Salad and Soup and a grin-inducing essay on Vienna Sausages.  Main Courses follows with an essay entitled, "The Great Possum Predicament."  All chapters are peppered with cooking tips.

As you may well have surmised, it is the cooking tips and essays that had me giggling. 

There is a separate essay on sweet tea!  In it the author explains how the tea gets sweeter as you travel deeper into the South. That rule works for women too, he writes.  

I imagine a few readers may be nodding their heads in agreement.  The following short passage had me laughing out loud:

I hate sun tea. It's a scam. I imagine sun tea drinkers also are dog beaters and jaywalkers. Sun tea is weak. [...passage snipped for brevity...] The same guy who invented the Pet Rock invented the sun tea jar.  He was a dog beater. 

[...snipped again...] Don't beat your dog for fear that someone will call you a sun tea drinker...

This cookbook was a perfect choice for riding out Hurricane-turned-Superstorm Sandy. Cabin fever?  Not me.  I had good food, tatting and this anecdote-rich tome to dispel cooped-up feelings.

Luckily, we never lost power and suffered no wind damage.  We came through unscathed. Plus, my amusement meter reached level 10 at various points throughout the storm.

And a reward for those who read all the way to the bottom:
Funny Southern Sayings - Meaning of Southern Expressions 

I may never completely understand Southern expressions, but the journey is never boring.

^* the demarcation line representing a cultural boundary between Northeastern (Yankee) and Southern (Dixie) United States

Gingerbread Boy Tat-Along

Now that the Halloween candy-fest is past, it is time to scare up some après-ghoul tatting.

Gingerbread Boy Tat-Along
Anyone up for a Gingerbread Boy tat-along? One of the things I have wanted to tat for a long time is our dearly departed Tatting Goddess, Gina Brummett's, Gingerbread Boy.

Gingerbread Boy (click on link to download pattern from Gina Brummet's blog)

While you consider, here is Tatskool's post showing three good-enough-to-jump-out-of-the-oven gingerbread boys:  Gingerbread Boy!

And just so we all remember, in a later post Tatskool shared that one of her tatting lassies found a discrepancy in the pattern.  Read all about it here:  More About the Gingerbread Boy

Jeff Hamilton (Bridge City Tatting) shared his 2009 Gingerbread Boy and it looks FAB (even though he says he made a mistake or two with the pattern) in a solid brown:  Gina's Gingerbread Boy

Miranda (Tatting Fool) shared her Gingerbread Boys earlier this year, shortly after our beloved Gina's death.  Two delicious tatting treats, one with white icing and the other with green.

If you are interested in joining a Gingerbread Boy Tat-Along, leave a note in the comments.  I will make a list and start watching your blog (if you have one).  No worries if you don't have a blog.  You can still join in!  

Fretting over Flop

Norma Benporath Lace Mat Tat-Along
Round 3 in progress

Having already griped over the liberal picots in this otherwise graceful design, I turn my attention to the really long chains in round three.

Nineteen tatters are listed on Jon's blog as participating in this tat-along.  Several of those tatters have already completed this project and posted their lovely results.

So why has no one mentioned their experiences tatting the long, floppy chains in round three? Surely I cannot be the only one to approach them with prejudice.

EDIT:  Oops, I stand corrected. Tat-ilicious Jess had a fair amount of success with tatting her chain stitches unflipped, using the second shuttle.  I will give that clever trick a try.

My dislike for long, floppy chains can be traced back to my participation in the 2009 Design_Tat online course. The class discussed my long floppy chains at length (see the picots?). It was a great learning experience.

Determined to overcome floppy chain syndrome, I reworked the assignment.  The "onion dome" shapes were lost in the process of retro-fitting stability into the design.

EDIT: Two bits of wisdom I took away from that particular lesson were "don't retro-fit stability into a design" and "designing takes patience and PERSEVERENCE."  I guess an unexpected thing I took away from that lesson was a (perhaps unhealthy?) dislike for long chains with regularly spaced picots.

Ever since, I have avoided long floppy chains, especially ones with lots of decorative picots.

But I digress!

If no one else was willing to tackle this issue, I was going to give it a try.  Substituting the Double Double Stitch didn't work because the resulting chain was too long. Adjusting the DDS stitch count was a bit problematic because of all those picots, so in the end I decided to just tat it as written and forget about stabilizing those floppy chains.

But I can't stand it. It is driving me crazy!

Those of you who have finished the doily, does your doily stand up to the flop test?

Gentle tatters, I ask for an open discussion of long, floppy chains.  Help me to learn how to use them advantageously and without prejudice.  Whaddya say? Will you weigh in on "flop?"

Lil' Black Border Revisited

Maybe because Jane from South Africa is tatting an edging?  Today I have been thinking about the Lil' Black Border pattern I learned to tat back in the 1980s.  (And a slew of other projects...)

Alas, too many tatting To Dos are already queued to start an edging. Unless, of course, it is Be-stitched's Tatted Holly Edging.

There is also Tatman's Back to School Apple, Gina Brummett's Gingerbread Boy, Yarnplayer's Small Maple Leaf earrings and a paperclip horse designed by Ineke Kuiperij.  (The design comes from her Chess Set booklet.) The paperclip horse was shared with the Palmetto Tatting group by Pam Freck, Katharine Buckner and Riet Surtel-Smeulders.

See what I mean about distractions?  *whine* But I have Norma Benporath's Lace Mat to finish. And at least one more charity project snowflake to complete before November 3^rd...

Hand-dyed threads (HDTs) are whispering too. 

• Karey Solomon's Hobbit (pictured left)
• Lady ShuttleMaker's Witches Brew 
• Yarnplayer's Sugar Maple
• Tatskool's Brackin Crunch 
• Tat-ilicious' (I have forgotten the name.)

It is not "4-Eva," not Fancy Fields, not Blue Tango...

All these HDTs are vying for attention. Oh, good grief!

Maybe I'll tat a football instead:  Tatman's Superbowl Shuttle & Pattern

Scheduling FAIL

Dear Readers,

I messed up a scheduled post last weekend and at least one eagle-eyed tatter (Michelle from Tela Magistrae) saw it go live for about 45 seconds. There may have been others...

When the scheduled post published yesterday, it failed to show up on blog rolls.  I am sorry for this inconvenience and hope you will scroll down a bit and check out the Tatting Tea Tuesday post.

Tatting Tea Tuesday - ♥ from Postie ♥

Ooh, it has been a good week for post.  Look at what my "Twistin' Postman" delivered.  And yes, he did ring twice.

New Tatting Bags and Shuttle Pouches
from Jane Eborall

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  I just love, love, love these new bags! JaneE is so generous.  She even included one of the square tatting bags designed by Anne Bruvold. 

This fabric might not appeal to everyone, but I really fancy it. (bought it ages ago) It has been languishing in my stash closet waiting for the perfect project. Wouldn't you agree that this was it?

Size comparison

My original orange bag is starting to look worn from me taking it (literally) everywhere. The new, round bag is taller for those times when I am teaching and need to use a tatting needle. (Not very often, but it pays to be prepared.)

Not one, but TWO matching shuttle pouches

What a luxury to have matching accessories!  Two shuttles from my collection are included for scale.

The same shuttles at the bottom of the new tatting bag.  Don't they look small?  ツ

Of course, one very eager elf leapt right into the square bag for an impromptu game of hide and seek with his knitted pal, Arthur Dent.  Don't panic, Ciarrán, but he's getting closer...

Not sure if the giggles permeating my kitchen are of the tiny, elfin variety or from The Sprout.  Either way, we're greatly enjoying the parcel from across the pond!  Thank you, Jane!

---

But that's not all.  This box arrived two days later.  Just a little box...

But sometimes the best things come in small packages, as Ciarrán will attest.

Honey Drizzle, Elderberry Jam and a few other Lizbeth^®40 new Fall colors (not all of the them).

These will tide me over until the size 20 threads (and size 3) and new Aerlit^® shuttles arrive.

Hoping you have time to indulge in lace-making endeavors today and can enjoy a cuppa tea too.  See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!