Not meant to be?

Do you ever encounter a situation or goal that seems unwilling to come together the way you had hoped? Take this situation with myself and the Krazy Kat Fiberhaus. It is a semi-local shop, out of the way enough to warrant planning a visit while we were in the area. I contacted the owner and was informed that they carry a small supply of tatting shuttles and threads, in addition to their selection of embroidery threads. So, along with our trip to the childrens museum yesterday, we had planned a quick stop there so I could check them out. Well, the Google directions I had printed sent me to an old address, thus eating away all the time available for browsing. Bummer. So, I decided I would try again another day. However, after finding out that my evening meeting had been cancelled, I decided to take the girls out as I had to go to the post office to drop off an etsy order. I printed the proper directions and we were on our way. We found the place easily and checked out a few other shops while we were there. The Krazy Kat is a nicely stocked shop, admittedly they don't have much in the way of tatting......but no one does really. They do have more than Joann for sure. They even had a play area set up in the back for my darling two year old! So I frolicked among the racks of thread for about ten minutes untill I heard the call of the wild...."mama? Poo-poo!" So I asked for the restroom and took the toddler in to do her biz. Now, mind you, she calls everything poo-poo still. And she has been fully toilet trained all summer. We had never had an accident. (take not of the past tense of the previous sentence.....) Well, there in the potty room of the Krazy Kat Fiberhaus, my darling missed the toilet and pooed all over her undies and jeans. and the floor.

Mortified was I! The diaper bag of course was conveniently located in the car around the block. So we cleaned up, used almost a whole pack of the poor lady's baby wipes, made our small purchase and headed out to the car. I don't think I need to explain how the rest of the story went.

So you see, my calm trip to meander the thread selection was met with chaos at every turn. Just like my attempts at the Spinning Wheel pattern....don't ask me why I insist on doing it with the tiny threads lately. This is round two. I made it farther, this time with silk. I made the same mistake as last time, and I tried to retro-tat. I succeded in making a knot, getting frustrated, and cutting the whole thing off. Pppffft.

I think I need another dose of "sense of accomplishment", so I may lay this to rest and start something else for the time being.

No, really....I do actually Tat...

I was looking through my recent posts and discovered that I haven't posted anything that I myself have tatted in just about a month. Hmmm. Well truth be told I get to sit down and tat on or two nights a week. Maybe. If I'm lucky and nobody is having difficulty with their bedtime. So I thought I would prove once again (to myself mostly) that yes, I do tat. After all, HandyHands is getting new colors of Lizbeth soon and I need to be able to say that I am using the thread that I have, so I can justify my need for more.

So here is my proof. It's a Birgit Phelps pattern, called Peacock heart, I just added the tail to call it a bookmark. It's made of the Zwicky silk floss that I received, and will be in the mail to someone this week, I won't mention who though, in case she reads this. The tail isn't perfect, I've never done a josephine chain that long on shuttles before, and I haven't quite got the knack of how to let the chain twist properly so it stays even. But that's what practice is for, right?

Ooooohhh goodies!

What is this box of loveliness you might ask?

SILK! LOTS OF SILK!

This week when Gram came, she had brought her friend Vivian for company on the drive. Well, I guess after showing her some of my jewelry and other tatting, she was "quite taken" as Gram put it lol. So soon after they returned home, she came back down the driveway and delivered this batch of threads to be sent my way. I believe Viv does some sort of weaving herself, so this must be from her stash.

I'm hoping for some assistance from the blogging community at large, maybe you can help me decipher the sizing system on these spools.

On each there is a set of number that look like this. Some say 70/3, some say 30/3 or 60/3 like the pink one above. The larger numbers seem to indicate smaller threads just like tatting thread is sized.....and I am thinking that the /3 might mean 3 ply? All are follwed by a number indicating the length of thread on the spool, and are of the brand "Zwicky". I looked around online a bit, and didn't find much information on this thread, its' possible that it is no longer made.

Anywho, this was my big happy surprise today. Not that I'll have time to play with it of course! I just put one darling down for a nap, and of course now the other is beckoning from the bassinet. Such is life!