The Fifth Day

I enjoyed making this snowflake but not so sure I am going to actually complete this challenge.  I don't understand how some of the future ones are tatted so might have to send a few e.mails to Jane and shout for help!

Also I thought you might like to see the winning scarecrow that two children made it is The BFG.  It was 100 years this month that Roald Dahl was born and in this country we are celebrating this important centenary of a very famous British children's author.

  

The Fourth Day

This snowflake is not very inspiring either to make or to look at, but then it had a hard act to follow after the third day!     It could have also done with a better press but was in a hurry.

So just to add a little more interest here is a picture of one of Saturday's scarecrows.  A lace maker, I did not take this photograph myself, too busy unfortunately.  If I had would have managed a closer picture of her lace making.   She was so cleverly made sitting in church calming creating her lace.

Now back to the snowflakes!

The Third Day

Now this is the only snowflake that I really wanted to make from the book, it was hugely popular at one time on blogs and I thought it would be really hard to tat, but it wasn't!

As you can see I have chosen to go for a little colour as it would be so boring for me if I tatted every snowflake in white.

The Scarecrow Festival is almost here and the weather looks fine for Saturday, no more snowflakes for a few days...........................

The Second Day

The Second Day of December

So far the challenge is going well, although have to admit the 'First Day' took a bit of working out, forgot to mention that in my last blog post.  This one though made me have yet another go at a split chain.  I am not fond of split chains as they take so long to achieve, but my determination to crack on with this challenge seemed to work and I not only tatted one snowflake but two.  The first one was using 20 thread but I had difficulty in getting it to lie flat, pressing helped but not completely happy with the result, plus I seemed to get the count of picots on the last round a bit wrong.      So made it again in 40 and much happier with the result.

I am at the moment preparing for a Scarecrow Festival this weekend, this is what someone has kindly knitted for the day.  

She has actually made 40 of these miniature scarecrows, but here are just three hanging on the church door.  

My Challenge

I am a bit naughty when it comes to tatting new patterns, I prefer them to be easy to understand with perfect results every time.  A few years ago I bought Lene Bjørn's Snowflakes in Tatting but could not motivate myself to tat any of them, partly because I do prefer patterns to be written out and not visual.    But this last week I decided that I would tat every one of the snowflakes and make sure they were ready for Christmas.  Now it was going to be impossible to start on the first day of December as I know I would not have the time or discipline to achieve one every day, so have started early with the hope that by Christmas Day I will have completed 24.

So I present 'The First Day of December' in September!

I did mention that parts of our old kitchen were recycled to make furniture for the house. Here is an example. 

Just focus on the four drawer unit on the left of the picture and this is what it looks like now.

I am not completely happy with the drawer knobs but they were bought at least 12 years ago and at that time I thought they were really great, they are made out of glass.  I think my tastes have now changed and would prefer them to be in porcelain so may look out for another set.  But the transformation is rather clever especially as a lot of work was involved to get it to look so good.

A Mary Konior Cross

I tatted a version of this cross a few years ago in size 20 and it came out large and quite ugly.  So this time I used 40 thread and much happier with the result.  The pattern comes from Mary's book Tatting with Visual patterns. 

I thought you might like to see some of the floral tributes that we have in my village graveyard at the moment, there have been some big funeral services

A gypsy caravan

A bird

A Landrover

Many thanks for the lovely comments about my kitchen, it is now fully operational complete with table and chairs and I am enjoying cooking and eating in it.  Hope to also tat in the kitchen too!

The Kitchen

For those of you interested in seeing other people's kitchens this is what mine now looks like, minus the table and chairs as they are having a bit of a make over by 'im in the garage.  
Two shelves have replaced a huge glass cabinet that held so much stuff, most of which has now gone to the charity shops.

The kitchen is bright, clean and fresh looking

Unusual for a kitchen there is a huge bay window which lets in light and gives the illusion of space, underneath the table will eventually be placed.

This is what the kitchen used to look like, including another cabinet full of stuff, I haven't managed to find a home for everything that was in it yet!

This kitchen was about 18 years old, what you cannot see in the picture is how badly the frames on the doors caught all the dirt and grease.    However, some  parts of the kitchen have been salvaged and on the far left of the picture you can just about see the end of a set of drawers, these are in the process of being made into a piece of bedroom furniture.   The top cabinet on the left of the picture is now in the garage where it holds all the cleaning equipment.    It is amazing how much can be re-cycled.

The kitchen fitter said, "I hope you don't mind me saying this to you, but I don't ever fit such a modern looking kitchen for someone of your age"  I am hoping it was sort of a compliment!