Day 6, and Edging Nearly Done

I finished Day 6 of the TIAS this morning, but was too tired to photograph it, so here it is now.

My thinking on this has evolved since Day 5. However much it might look like rabbit ears (if you turned it the other way), I don't think Jane's devious mind would give us something so obvious right from the beginning. On the other hand, she might start with a distinctive feature of a less obvious animal. Therefore, these are the tentacles of a cuttlefish. That's my story and I'm sticking to it-- at least until the next segment is released.

On the third hand, though, the last time I guessed a TIAS was a cuttlefish was Sherry's, which turned out to be a locomotive. Wanda thinks this one is a plant of some sort, and it's true, I can see either a Venus fly trap or some sort of orchid in here too. Jane says no one has guessed it yet, but sometimes she's devious in what she says, too.

On the edging front, I have made some progress, though not as much as I would have liked, what with having to go to work so I can buy tatting supplies (and food).

I am about 3/4 done, actually, and I hope to be done with the tatting part by tomorrow night. Of course, then comes the sewing on part, which, for me, is not so fun.

I figured this was a good time to stop and take a picture because the shuttle needed to be refilled anyway. I've actually gone through two full shuttles already; since the pattern is mostly rings, it uses a lot of shuttle thread, and not as much thread fits on the shuttle with all the beads.

When I was first starting it, I had no idea how many beads to load on the thread, because I didn't know how long each repeat would end up, and therefore how many repeats I would have to do. (It turns out, 15 repeats per side, plus the corner, for two 12-inch sides). So I just kept adding beads until I had about a 10-inch length of them on the thread, and hoped that would be enough. As I wound the first shuttle, spacing the beads along the way, I found that the shuttle was full after I had only wound about half the beads onto it. I therefore cut the thread and set that shuttle aside, and wound another shuttle, spacing the beads in the same manner. Filling this shuttle used up all the rest of the beads, so I kept it attached to the ball and started tatting; this actually worked out nicely as the other shuttle was already ready to go the first time I ran out of thread.

Each time I ran out of thread on the shuttle, there were still a few beads left, so I just set these aside in a small bowl, figuring I would need them eventually. After using up all the thread on both shuttles, I knew how many more beads I would need-- 47 (because the last repeat will have a different beading pattern that will use two fewer pre-strung beads)-- and I actually didn't have this many in the bowl. Remember, these were from the original 10 inches of beads that I strung before I started. No problem, I've got plenty left in tube.

I pulled a couple of yards off the ball and cut the thread there; this is a good technique when you have to refill your shuttle in a ball-and-shuttle pattern, so you don't have to join on a new ball thread as well. Refilled the shuttle with the necessary number of beads, and I'm ready to go.