Test Tatting

I was excited to test tat for Victats. What an opportunity. These are 3 pendant patterns done in Lizbeth Size 40. Aren't they unusual and interesting? It was extremely fun and fast to tat up. I rummaged through my bead stash to find 12mm puff oval beads .

Left - Tatted in Lizbeth #166 Pink Cocoa with a faceted agate bead;
Centre - Tatted in Lizbeth #137 Berry Burst with a white cat's eye bead;
Right - Tatted in Lizbeth #140 Country Grape Swirl with a faceted agate bead

Look out at Vicki's space for these new patterns.

Mooncakes

This is a traditional paper bag which is still used by this company in Chinatown where I bought some mooncakes. They remind me of old times when these were used instead of plastic bags. They also roll the mooncakes up in paper if you do not want those fancy boxes. Mom loves this type of mooncake with the mixed nuts.

Although I like the usual lotus paste ones, this year I was especially looking forward to the Teochew yam ones. I finally found them at the nearby mall. It isn't as sweet as the traditional ones which is good but the flaky pastry shell crumbles when you bite into it.

 

The local supermarket also had some mooncake festival goodies like the pomelos, lanterns, and these water caltrops. I call them buffalo horns. You are suppose to boil them and crack the shell for a nut inside. I have never eaten one, just remembered playing with them when we were young. We were more interested in the lanterns and mooncakes.

Classic Doily WIP

When I saw this doily at Tattyhead's blog, I said I have to tat this, in between the pineapple heaven doily. This is Linda Davis' pattern and you can find it on her blog. Thank you so much, Linda.

At the moment, this isn't done yet. Another WIP. I just finished Round 8 (7.5 inches across) and there are 8 more rounds to tat. This is tatted in Venus Size 40 threads in #365. I have already used up 50 meters of thread. No wonder the pattern required a full ball (25g) of thread. However this ball that I have is only 20g. I hope it is enough. Link here to see Linda's classic doily in its full glory.

Lights in Chinatown

The lanterns were put up to celebrate the mooncake festival which is end of this month. Pastel coloured lanterns look pretty in a mass display. I was looking for the Teochew mooncake - fluffy pastry with yam paste. When I manage to get one, I will show you how it is different from these mooncakes. The usual mooncakes are lotus seed paste/red bean paste with/without duck egg yolks. 

Pineapple Heaven Crazy

Yes, I think the pineapple bug has got me. I want to tat the perfect doily without any mistake. I need all the concentration otherwise I will be unpicking on every round or starting a new doily yet again. Shall I tat them in every colour until I get the perfect doily? It would make great gifts. I am going out of my mind. This one is tatted in Flora Size 20 in Colour #239.

Japanese Classical Doily #23 - Con't

I thought it would be useful for you to see this piece of tatting from the book Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige published in 2010. It looks challenging to complete. I am very apprehensive. See my previous post if you are wondering what this is about. If you have tatted this pattern before, please share your photo with us.

Japanese Classical Doily #23

Diane reminded me of a Japanese pattern which I wanted to tat. I wonder if this is the same one Diane was talking about.

The pattern is from this Japanese book on page 28 and 78. I love the design but it is a pattern that is not so easy to tat, however once you get the design structure it should be easy. It is a lot of rings to tat. This is tatted in Lizbeth Size 40 in #682 Country Grape Dark and measures about 4.5 inches across. It took approximately 2m for Round 1 and 16m for Round 2. I wonder if I will continue with the next part to build the doily.

Salad for Dinner

This was dinner tonight. Colourful with dried cranberries, fresh blueberries, brazil nuts, apples, carrots, asparagus, butterhead lettuce leaves and chickpeas. Dash some homemade dressing of olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, chilli flakes and garlic cloves.

Pineapple Heaven Doily - White

It is complete. Slightly less mistakes than the burgundy but still not satisfied. This is tatted in Milford 40 and measures about 7.5 inches across, an inch smaller than the Size 20.

I had both Milford Size 40 and Size 60 thread balls out and when I had to replenish threads in the shutttle for this doily, I had forgotten which size threads I used. I looked at both from the ball and compared it to the shuttle thread and could not distinguish them. In the end I chose Size 40 and hoped for the best. It looks about right.

Tempeh

This is tempeh uncooked and just unwrapped from the leaves where it was fermenting in. It is fungi fermented soybeans which is full of protein and very inexpensive. For more information, link here. 

I first tried tempeh in Bali Indonesia. It was deep fried and then stirred with chilli and black sweet sauce. It was delicious. There are many ways to cook tempeh. Most popular is sambal goreng where tempeh is stir fried with french beans, a dish normally eaten with rice.