Flower Colors, Snowflakes and Crocheted Bracelet

 During a walk through the Boerner Botanical Gardens I came upon these pretty little flowers called Lantana "Landmark Citrus" in bright yellow, orange, and pink. Great combination for a batch of hand dyed thread, don't you think?

 I also liked the light yellow greens in this Hosta plant. I think I need a batch of greens like that, paler and more to the yellow side than my previous batches of "Celery" green.

 I finished tatting another Renulek snowflake (please see Renulek's Etsy Shop for her patterns) in an early sample of my own "Summit" hand dyed combined with a pale blue. (Summit sold out very quickly but it will return.☺)

 These snowflakes are all from Renulek patterns.

 As a break from tatting, I crocheted a bracelet from a pattern by Natalia Kononova. Her patterns are for sale at OutstandingCrochet.com  and also on Ravelry. The crochet thread is 3 ply linen (comparable to a size 10 cotton) which I purchased from YarnStories on Etsy.

The colors of my favorite baseball team and I'll wear it to the game!

Supporting My Neighbors and Letting My Voice Be Heard

 These photos are from the Lights for Liberty vigil held at Milwaukee City Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the selfie above, I'm on the left. I came with a friend, and for both of us it was our first time attending a protest rally of any kind. I went to this event because I believe all human beings have a right to life, liberty and dignity. More info on the Lights for Liberty website.  

Many inspiring, well-informed speakers. The sign in back says, "Not In Our Name", because we don't want our tax dollars being used to lock children in cages.

Close The Camps (the concentration camps)

More signs: "This Is Inhumane" and "Shame"

The speaker in the red shirt had been inside the detention camps, and he described the abuse and torture witnessed there.

To be clear, seeking asylum is LEGAL.

The crowd outside Milwaukee City Hall

Another view of the crowd at dusk. There was a minute of silence, with people holding candles or cell phone lights.

The front of the flyer given out with Milwaukee area action steps. Search online to see actions for your area.

The back side of the flyer. Any small action helps. You won't be one of those who stood idly by while witnessing injustice.

New Hand Dyed Batch "Summit"

"Summit" hand dyed shown in size 10

"Summit" is a new dye batch that is inspired from the view I saw from the summit of Mount Evans in Colorado. I attempted to capture the impression of the shaded blues of the sky and distant mount tops, a bit of white from the clouds and snow, and the gray browns of the rocks.

Hand dyeing in progress along with the scene that inspired the colors

Small batch now listed in my Etsy shop.

My Mountain Top Experience

Me being extremely cool in sub-zero wind chill wearing my Star Trek jacket, on what seems like a different planet

 Yes, that's me standing on top of a mountain in Colorado! How I got up there is thanks to the people who built the Mount Evans Scenic Byway, the highest paved road in North America. My dear hubby drove us up, cool as a cucumber, while I was "slightly frightened" at the many twists and turns in the narrowing road and scary drop-offs without guardrails. But, the views from the summit are spectacular! It was like being on top of the world!

Miles of Rocky Mountains in Colorado

Snow capped peaks in the Rockies

A mountain goat in its natural habitat

Breathtaking beauty

Drive carefully...no guardrails and thousands of feet down!

I started a snowflake from Renulek's pattern while visiting Colorado

The finished snowflake! Please see Renulek's Etsy Shop to buy her patterns.

Hand dyed "Beach Cafe"

A freshly dyed batch of "Beach Cafe" has just been added to my Etsy Shop!

While looking at my Etsy shop you may notice a reserved listing. This is why:

Etsy has a "Design Awards" contest going, and they will announce the winners sometime in August or September. Since it didn't cost anything to enter, I filled out the form and entered my Ecru and Red Heart. The item has to stay in the shop for the duration of the contest, so that's why I set it as a "reserved" listing. Please don't buy it! I would be disqualified!

Ecru and Red Heart

Folded Join in Tatting

This is how I do a “folded join”, which prevents a twisted picot when joining the last ring to the first ring of a tatted motif.

Whenever all rings are facing outward from the center of a tatted motif, then that’s when a folded join is used. There’s other ways to do this kind of join, but this is what works easiest for me.

The video speed is faster than my actual tatting!

Through the magic of an app on my smartphone, I figured out how to flip the video to show the left-handed version as well!
Here's the left-handed view:

"Lake Effect" hand dyed

New colorway "Lake Effect" and I've saved the "recipe". 

Actually, what I was trying to do is reproduce the pastels of an old batch I did years ago which I never did write down. But, the result of my experiment has colors that are much more intense, and I like it! So, calling this batch "Lake Effect".

Tatted necklace and earring set from an older batch of hand dyed thread. The pattern is my own, which I'm calling "Loopy", but I don't have it written down! I only got as far as naming a folder for it on my computer.

By the way, the spring concert I played cello in was a shining success! The community orchestra that I play with is the Wisconsin Intergenerational Orchestra (WIO), which has just been awarded a Creative Communities Grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Spring Corsage in 3D Tatted Flowers

 My spring corsage is done, just in time for Easter! I used the daffodils tatting pattern in Christel Weidmann’s book "Ostern" plus small tatted flowers I made up myself.

I really like how Christel's 3D daffodil design imitates the live flower so well. The book is written in German, with a list of the tatting abbreviations translated into English. There are about 15 designs in the book, including several animals and flowers, each with a diagram and stitch counts. The daffodils are the only 3D patterns in this book. The larger daffodil has more detailed instructions than the smaller narcissus, so I'd recommend trying the large daffodil first. (I started with the narcissus and had a bit of trouble, but eventually sorted it out!)

I used size 20 thread (Lizbeth, mostly) for finished flowers that measured about 2 inches (5 cm) across. After that I tatted small flowers (to suggest scilla and violets), finishing each with a tiny single shuttle split ring at the bottom so I wouldn't have to sew in ends. When all the flowers were done, I joined them together with lock stitch tatted chain. The joining was not an exact science - I just made it up while going along until I had an arrangement I liked.

I'll wear it using a corsage pin, just as if they were real flowers!

Connecting the flowers into an arrangement

Joining the cup of a tatted daffodil in progress

The book "Ostern" by Christel Weidmann