Same mistake...different doily

It has been a super brutal last couple of weeks.  Holidays away from family never seem to get any easier but I  just had to get through 3 of them.  It certainly wasn't much fun not getting to give my dad a huge hug on fathers day and then on the heels of that, mine and my dads birthdays are a week apart.  That pretty much made the whole week almost impossible to get through.  To top that off I went to close row seven only to find that I had missed putting in a thrown ring in the previous row!! AGGGHHH It is the exact same thing I did with my last doily.  I cant believe I didnt see it as it was only 3 joins in from where I started the next row.

As mistakes go it was in a pretty good spot to be able to fix it without having to tear out too many elements but the problem was trying to hide a massive amount of ends all in a small space.  It also meant trying to open several ring of which I am not so good at.  I agonized for a couple of days over the decision whether to fix the mistake or just leave it and deal with it like I did the last doily.  I finally just decided to leave the mistake alone because I figured making a weird join in row 8 would be less obvious than trying to hide so many ends in one spot. 
The week wasn't completely all terrible, we did end up working a Candlebox  show at a casino which was pretty fun.  This one was a complete full production show which means we supplied and set up absolutely everything needed to put the show on.  The only thing we didn't set up was the stage as it was already there.  The hours were super long and the casino was several hours away from home so we got to stay over night at the casino hotel so it was kind of fun being away from home for a few.
 I guess you have to take the good with the bad, we can only hope for more good than bad.  The hubby can usually find the good in the bad but I don't do so good with that but I keep trying.

Shuttle addiction

Our weather took a nasty turn for the cold and rainy so its been a good couple of days of just snuggling in and tatting and trying to stay warm.  It seems to be even colder when you go from a 90 degree day to down in the 50s. The last 2 rows on my doily have gone pretty well as they are just rings and chains.  The repetitiveness of doing a doily seems to be a bit calming so that is a very good thing. It seemed to work pretty well by using my bigger Lacis/Sewmate shuttle for the core/chain thread and using my Aerlit shuttle for the rings.  I am pretty sure I am going to order a Moonlight shuttle to see if it holds more thread than the Aerlit.  I am getting quite a collection of shuttles and thread, I guess that's what happens when you have an addiction..you just want more and more!

Doily remake!

Well another weekend bites the dust! It seemed like the weekend went by really quickly.  I got to work production on a comedy show on Saturday at a casino that we hadn't worked at for a while.  Its not very often that I work a show that my husband doesn't work with me so its was a bit different. Its always a better show when we get to work together, maybe the worse part of not working together for this show was the 2 1/2 hour car ride alone and then another 2 1/2 hour car ride home after working a 12 hour day. The crew I was working the show with are super fun guys so it was a pretty good day.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day because the hubby also had to work a show alone Saturday night so we both got home really late.  I got in a little bit of yard work because it was the first nice day we have had for a while but other than that we didn't get much accomplished.
Earlier in the week I had decided I was just going to do another doily of the same pattern that I had just completed.  I had someone in mind that I was going to do the first one for but since I am not super happy with that one I am going to try it again.  I am going to be brave and try to do this one with several colors which means quite a few decisions.  So far I have already decided on the colors and which colors the first few row are going to be.

 The pink shows up a bit more bright pink than I was hoping it would be but so far things are going ok. The center is red heart classic in burgundy,  the green is the same thread I used on the last doily which  is Artiste in sweet pea and the pink is Artiste in tropical pink all thread is size 10.
I also decided to tryout one of my new shuttles.  I had ordered an Handy Hands Aerlit shuttle which has a crochet hook on one end and a removable bobbin awhile ago but I haven't had a chance to try it out yet.  This shuttle has good points and not so good points.  I really like the fact that I don't have to constantly look for a separate crochet hook to do joins but the hook sometimes tends to get in the way and it hooks itself on the thread when you least want it to.  I love the the fact that I don't have to unwind a shuttle if it has the wrong color thread on it I can just change out the bobbin. I ordered a set of extra bobbins so I think that will be an extra bonus. The down side is I don't think the bobbins hold as much thread so it seems I am having to add thread more often.  I have tried to find out how much thread each shuttle holds but I cant seem to find that info out.  I think I may have to do a little experiment to find out exactly how much each holds so I will know in the future. 

First doily complete!!!

OK so I had set aside my doily because I thought that I had done an extra element. I kind of let it frustrate me and it started to get to me so when I finally decided to pick it back up I had it in my mind that I was just going to bail back into it and cut the element off and finish it off. I had already made up my mind that this was going to be the last row because it was already pretty large.  I just took a deep breath and cut the element off but  after I got to looking closer, I had cut the element off and realized that I didn't need to.  It ended up that I was just missing an element in the previous row with which to connect to.  It took me a bit to remember that I had made the decision not to go back and fix a missing element in row 4 or 5 and now I am paying for it.  I am trying to take this as a live and learn moment but it is super frustrating to work and work and spend hours and hours on something and then have the ending be a mess.  This doily has quite a few little things I am not happy with and of course as with every project I do I can pick out every little mistake.  I am very critical of every little thing I do.  I am very much a perfectionist and it tends to get in the way of lots of things in my world, nothing I do is ever good enough.  Thankfully so far my will to succeed has outweighed my fear of failure of never being good enough so I keep trying.
I am still not really sure where this doily is going to live because right now I am a bit frustrated how it turned out so I am not sure if I am going to be blocking it immediately so I just went ahead and took a picture of it and I am going to go ahead and call this #17 in the motif challenge. This is Ranulek Spring 2014 napkin done with #10 Artiste thread and the color is snow pea. I stopped at row 8 because this is already 17 inches across, the pattern actually has 5 more rows. Unfortunately it is going to need blocking because it is not laying very flat.  I didn't tat as tight as I normally do and the thread is not very stiff.  It feels good to complete a large project but right now I am not so proud because of the last join and all the little mistakes so I will just set it aside and decide what to do with it a bit later.

Motifs 14, 15, 16

Well it looks like it has been a couple weeks since I have posted anything.  I got right to the end of row of my doily and realized it looked like I had made one extra element that I didn't have too so that frustrated me a bit because it was a big element and they take a while to accomplish so I ended up setting aside the doily and haven't touched it for at least a week.  I have actually done more beading than I have tatting but I did squeeze in a few little motifs.
I decided to do a little needle motif so I didn't forget how to do it. This little heart is a pattern by Vicki Clarke, I found the pattern here and its done with Artiste thread in Windsor color. I got almost half way around before I found that I attached a ring to the wrong picot so I ended up just abandoning my first attempt and starting over. This will be #14 motif in the 25 Motif challenge.  I am not sure what I am going to do with it but its kind of cute.

I have been looking for a choker pattern for a while now. I recently borrowed a book called tatted bookmarks needle & shuttle distributed by Handy Hands. I found a bookmark pattern called hearts by Dee Powell. I first tried the pattern with needles using Bernat Handicrafter thread in iris.  I love the color of this thread but I really don't like the way this pattern turned out.  It was difficult to work with and you cant really tell that they are supposed to be hearts so I tried it again with shuttles and Cameo crochet thread.  This thread is very uneven and has weird texture in spots so I don't like this one at all either. I made one too many hearts so if I am going to use it as a choker I am going to have to cut it off. I ordered some black Lizbeth thread so I will probably just end up making another one. I am gonna call these 15 and 16 in the Motif challenge.