Progress, or Rather The Lack Thereof

Yeah. It's been a while since I last posted. Unfortunately, I haven't done much over the last month or so. Most of July was fairly cool, so I can't blame the heat. Towards the end of July, I was experiencing GI cramps a few hours after eating. After concluding that I wasn't coming down with the flu or something, I figured something I was eating was bothering me. I tried cutting out dairy and gluten from my diet with no luck. I came across a gluten free blog where the author mentioned having a really bad reaction to aspartame. Since I do drink a fair amount of diet pop and use many other sugar free foods, I figured I had nothing to lose if I stopped using aspartame. I began to feel better a few days later, and once I got past the caffeine withdrawal (I didn't realize how much caffeine I consumed), I felt great. Without diet pop to drink, I had to find an alternative. I'm not a big fan of plain water so I turned to tea. I read that loose leaf tea was waaaaaaaay better than the stuff in the tea bags, so I ordered a fair amount from Adagio Teas. Anybody buy from here?? In case you're wondering, I had a heck of a time trying to find loose leaf tea locally; Safeway had three varieties, and it wasn't cheap. I ordered a variety of different kinds and flavours. They offer sample size packages for most of their teas so it's easy to buy a bunch to try. I bought a selection of samples and several larger packages to make the shipping more worthwhile. Once I try all the samples I'll have to order a larger amount of my favourites. If it's not obvious, I actually enjoy tea now.

Anyway, to keep this post somewhat tatting related, I'll share some of my recent purchases. I bought a new book. And it's not written in a foreign language!

It's of course, Jan Stawasz's new book Tatted Treasures. This is the first Jan Stawasz book that I own. I love many of the designs, I hope to make many of them too. You'd think that would encourage me to get out my shuttles and get tatting, but there's a problem. I really don't understand his method. That's not true, I understand the concept, it just seems like more work. I may just have to bite the bullet and try a motif his way, and see how it goes. Even if I don't get anything tatted from it, it is an awesome addition to my ever growing tatting library.

After I couldn't find my size 20 red thread when I went to make my Canadian flag, I felt it was absolutely necessary to order more thread. I ordered from Handy Hands first, and then Bestitched a few weeks later to pick up the thread I forgot.

You should be able to see, most of the solid colours are size 10 (one of the reds being the exception). Most of the size 10 was bought to crochet with. The two variegated colours are size 20; they're both newer colours.  Not pictured is the ball of  size 20, colour #135 Lollipop that I received in the red thread holder I also bought and a ball of size 3 black I bought for my tatted tattoo project. I also bought a package of those new flat Celtic shuttles. I'll take a photo when I get around using them.

I also purchased some Omega brand yarn and thread. I needed the yarn for a crochet project I'm working on, and bought some thread just because. I noticed after I ordered the thread and yarn that the cotton Omega thread was the same that Handy Hands carries/use to carry.

For anyone interested I bought the thread from a company called Creative Yarn Source. I notice that Handy Hands only has size 30 and 50 in two colours. Creative Yarn Source has six sizes of this thread, size 10, 20, and 30 are available in 61 colours, and sizes 40,50 and 60 are available in 4 colours. It's also significantly cheaper than HH. Anyway, I have a couple balls of size 30 from Handy Hands, but I don't remember if I used it. And for anyone interested, unless I'm the last tatter to buy them, Creative Yarn Source carries the coiless safety pins that everyone (except me!) uses.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully I'll get something tatted soon. I would like to get back to my tatted tattoo idea. I have a few new ideas that I need to try. The last couple of weeks have been pretty hot, we hit 34 C yesterday. Next Monday is Labour Day here, so that means it will be a short work week! Hopefully I may get a chance next week to get some tatting done. Perhaps I'll make progress on and be able to share more of my tatted tattoo. Anyway, till next time.