Breast Self Exams save lives

Everyone, men included should be doing their breast self exams. Yes the gentlemen should also be doing them...same technique as the ladies use. If everyone did their own breast self exams the incidence of fatal breast cancers would be cut by 90%...The size of a tumor found by a doctor at an occasional checkup is the size of a marble and stage V, by a doctor at an annual exam it is the size of a small grape and stage IV, by the occasional breast self exam a pea and stage III but by the monthly breast self exam a small grain of rice and stage I--curable by outpatient surgery and seldom even needs anything else but the more attentive followups by a good medical team. That said many women do not get mammograms often because of the cost. Most Insurances pay less than $100 on a total cost (x-ray reading by a specialist) that typically costs $250. The Breast Cancer site has a program to help fund mammograms for the un- and under-insured. Please click on the icon and follow the directions...Thank you

Peace< Cynthia

learning to tat before the internet

I learned to tat about 25 years ago...I had a dress that had tatting on the cuffs and collar that did not fit from the time I got it...lol We all have that from our high school days....My mom gave it away!!!!!!!!! long before I wanted to get the beautiful lace off of it! I had searched and searched for a similar lace...no luck...when I asked her to think back to where she had gotten the lace she just laughed and said "Eloise made it." That put in motion a real challenge...Eloise lived in Missouri and we lived in southwest Colorado. Eloise was a l-o-n-g day's drive away. We tackled the drive with a 3 and 5 year old...we left home about 4 AM and got to Eloise's house about 6 PM......crazy way to get instructions on tatting...but we were on our way to Ashtabula Ohio--2 more days in the car to visit hubby's parents. After we took Eloise out to dinner then the tatting lesson began...She did not have any books just a shuttle and thread. Everything she had ever made she made up as she did it but she only had rings and picots...she called them loops and frills. I think I threw out at least a ball of crochet thread learning to tat...but learn I did. Eloise did not have any chains or joins and as far as split rings, split chains, and the host of other techniques she had not a one of them...nada. She did a loop with frills and then a short bare thread and another loop with frills and repeated it to the needed length.

One magical day probably 3 years later and bored with just rings with picots. I discovered / designed / stumbled across a connection aka join...off I went with that joining the picots together that would naturally be side by side...I actually made a wreath! Snow white but it was a circle of rings. The the reason I call it a magical day...I had to refill my shuttle...it may have been a great big Tatsy shuttle ( I'd never seen tatting thread...size 80! I'd have panicked if someone had told me to use sewing thread to tat with! It can be done tho...try the glazed quilting thread makes beautiful angels... ) as I only had crochet thread for tatting with at that time. I picked up a the ball thread instead of my shuttle thread and looped it over my hand and proceeded to tat the next ring....boy was I shocked when I pulled it tight and zip it came out!! try pulling the shuttle thread on a chain that isn't hooked to anything....it was amazing to me at the time. Eloise always used a very long thread to tat with and that is how I learned... The magical moment of discovery...I now had 2 things to put together...a ring with picots connected to another ring with picots and a chain between. I didn't reverse work or anything at the time so it did look a bit odd. Every "pattern" I made until about 2 years ago came from my head. I'm not all that imaginative but that is where I got them....all of them...from my head. I'd never heard of tatting books/patterns. Of course if I had I wouldn't have invented joins and chains...

Georgia's Advanced tatting class was so far over my head...I didn't even understand what they were talking about and I'd been tatting for over 20 years...She suggested without pointing out how little I knew about tatting that I try the Beginning tatting class. I, wisely, kept my mouth shut that first day and was trying to figure out what they were talking about...rings, split rings, picots, up joins, lock joins....you all get the idea. Well the beginning class was such a relief...they started out as if no one knew anything and away we went.

I was back to the advanced class and downloading every pattern I could find before I knew it. I tried to give credit to the designer and list their address but on some I didn't...for that I apologize. I now have three 3 1/2 inch binders with patterns! I download everything I can find!..Now I make sure I have the designers name on it and the blog site or where ever I got it.

Peace, Cynthia

just a reminder about the map

Oklahoma Map with Counties

I could not get the map to load or show up on my blog so I'm including the url here. Lone Grove where the tornadoes were so bad earlier this week is in Carter County. south of OklahomaCity . Stillwater is in Payne county (look for the tugboat in the upper third of the map about the center)
The word Payne has the center of the Y about where Stillwater is. Now we all know something more than we did about Oklahoma...lol...maybe I'm the only one who learned...
http://www.state.ok.us/osfdocs/statemap.html

A Celtic Snail's Tale

Ruth Perry made my daughter, Beth--a non tatter, a purple snail when we were at her beautiful home before Christmas. Beth has kept the tatted snail in the back of her checkbook. Beth and a friend, Shawn, got pulled over after dropping an acquaintance of Shawn's who he hadn't seen for several years at a house they had never been near before. The officer asked Beth to step out of her car and proceeded to search the entire car, her purse, and asked Beth to empty her pockets. They took Shawn (a buff college kid) out of the car, handcuffed him and patted him down. Apparently the house they had left Shawn's acquaintance at was a known drug dealers home, and we police were stopping anyone leaving that house. The officer went through Beth's purse and noticed a small, irregular bump on the back of her checkbook and got excited...He knew he had a drug dealer or at least user. That had to be a small bag of drugs!!!!! Alas, when he opened her checkbook all he found was a friendly, completely harmless, clean and sober, purple tatted Celtic Snail! The poor officer really looked disappointed...his drug bust was a clean and sober Celtic Snail...
Now we can all laugh about the event! At the time it was disconcerting to Beth but the poor officer was so sure he had a drug user and it would be a good arrest but alas he only found a snail. No drugs of any kind. They had actually handcuffed Shawn and patted him down. Beth is convinced the only reason she wasn't cuffed and patted down was they didn't have a female officer on duty at the time....purple Celtic Snails are not illegal...
Moral to the story...watch out where you stop and let someone out of your car!

Tatters unite and let's tat up a drug free world that will be safe for Celtic Snails and everyone else...

my lack of picture

Beth took a picture of some of my tatting. It now is in place of a picture...I'll get a better item--something I'm designing right now--but for now the circle will work. If anyone can tell me where I got the pattern I'll gladly give the designer credit. Peace