I won this

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 I was in the kitchen this afternoon, just starting up on the lunch dishes, when the doorbell rang and hubby went to attend it. We were expecting a delivery from Amazon hence the delivery was pre-approved and the delivery person reached our apartment without any call from the guards. Imagine our utter surprise when hubby came back with the gift package from Marilee! It had been at the customs since 26th and we had no idea how long it would take there. From her doorstep to mine in less than 10 days!

The vibrancy of these hand-dyed threads is absolutely amazing! And the combo of shades with their cute names often brings a smile... 16 skeins, 4 in each size.

Size 10

Size 20

I have one skein in size 20 gifted by Denise years back but I've held on to it for fear of not using it in the right project, LOL. Now I better get cracking and enjoy them all. 

Size 40

Size 80

A little hand-written note from Marilee .... Oh yes, I certainly intend to enjoy them and show them off as well ;-D I just hope I can do full justice to them.

Read about it here - https://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/2026/10/giveaway-hand-dyed-thread-samples.html  ;  https://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-giveaway-winner.html  ; https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-rising-sun.html

And to think I almost did not join the giveaway!

Many many thanks, Marilee, for your wonderful generosity and the bounty of beauties!!!

aside

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Like I said in my last post, it's been almost 2 months since I picked up my shuttles. However, I have enjoyed watching videos of doodling, water colours, etc. I will need to buy a whole new set of brushes since my old ones are quite spoilt by their idleness spanning decades! But doodling was something I could do  ... simply pick up a pen or pencil and a piece of paper and .... 

I was especially impressed by Olga Dee Art on FB since her videos always start with 'stop scrolling for 3 (or 5) minutes ......' Now that's a strong hook, right ;-D So, here are my limp but quick attempts .... 

I need a hell of a lot of practice to acquire a steady and firm hand!

I had started with the orange Uniball but the shading didn't work. So made another in black pen outline.

For a bit of interest I added a tiny body so that it becomes a dancing peacock ;-P

I think this turned out pretty okay! I do like the transformation when those curves are filled/darkened as in neurographic art.

All these were done in September.

Now, yesterday hubby surprised me with a set of 12 blacklead pencils ranging from H to B! I just had to try them out so I made the above doodle. It had started out as a continuous curved entangled line. Then I darkened the outlines of teardrop or oval shapes and also filled them with simple lines. And yet, it looked kind of disjointed, so I started filling in the spaces with freeform shapes and shading, using a range of pencils. Didn't even bother to blend the shaded lines with a piece of tissue or lead shavings ... I just did it with my finger (you can see the smudges escaping the outlines). 

None of the above images has been tampered with in any way. They are pure photographs with all my mistakes and amateurish lines showing. Since these were all meant as something of an aside, I didn't try to improve or draw new ones. Now that the pencil set box is on my bedside unit, I should make a lot more use of it, frequently, and put those video-watching hours to good practice ;-D

the rising sun

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 Hadn't realised that I didn't blog this entire month! Life definitely got in the way.

 

Here's what hubby clicked a couple of days back on Dussehra morning (21st Oct, 2026). It is a huge festival celebrated throughout India in various forms, but basically reinforcing good over evil, the killing of Ravana by Ram. It also marks the end of 10 days of festivities and fasting and obeisance to Shakti in her various forms.

Image on the left is 10x hence resolution is a bit compromised. Taken from our balcony and through the glass window! Our balcony faces east and we get to enjoy its warmth during winter months.

On the tatting front, I haven't picked up my shuttles for many many weeks now. However, the design-along (DAL 2026) challenge is still bringing in new models!!! So I continue to do the pattern presentations.

On a happy, dancing note, I won Marilee Rockley's thread sample giveaway. My very first win and that too such gorgeous threads!!! She has already shipped the package and now I am waiting eagerly with fingers crossed. Also trying to think up projects where they can be used to best effect.