Kangaroo and trees

My adopted son, Mark Myers, suggested that the joey should be facing sideways. I'm going to try to make him look upwards at his mom when I do another draft. Thanks, Mark.
Last night I made brooches. I started late afternoon and used the Christmas tree earwig pattern. I made the last chain slightly longer and have added small coilless safety pins to the back. I want to give one or two to the ladies who work and smile all the time at the local Post Office. They're always asking me what I'm sending out in my ebay packages and finding me the cheapest way to mail them too. Here they are.

Day 8 - final draft, phewwwww

This is the final draft. I'm so pleased to have got to this stage. I shall now leave it for a few days while I make Christmas tree earwigs and other play stuff.
When I get back to the kangaroo I shall use brown/tan thread and start tweaking it. The mother's head needs to be slightly larger, there are 'issues' with the back legs and tail and perhaps the joey needs a bit more work too. I'm beginning to see that this pattern will eventually be OK.
I think I've also devised a method of writing it down for 'front side, back side' workers which may make it easier for all (WHO WANT TO) to use this method. Personally I don't bother if the item I'm making is going to be seen from both sides but in the case of the kanagaroo I think I shall only sew it onto something (or do what I usually do - chuck it down somewhere in the houselose it and forget it!!).

Day 7 of the kangaroo

I looked at yesterday's start on the front leg with the block tatting and decided that it just would NOT do. It was time to have a whole new start!!!
The main problem with this leg was that the worker would have to remember to do the block tatting in the reverse order from normal. By that I mean that the first chain would have to be second half ds followed by first half. The second chain would then have to be first half, second half. Even I have a problem remembering that so tat's another grand idea down the drain!!!
Below is a whole new start. The tail is slightly shorter but still not right. The joey's head is a little better but still needs sorting. That front leg is going to HAVE to go. It's never going to work like that!!!

Day 6 of the kangaroo

Last night a new kangaroo was born. The first long tailed kangaroo!!! Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!! I'm happier with the new block tatted legs but the tail turned out way too long as the whole thing has been thrown into a new position!!! If you look at the tail it's now coming from further down the back.
Something which could help pull her back into a better position is if I join the chain from top of the second leg to the chain leading to the joey.
Th lower parts of the legs need to be slightly longer and perhaps another two rows of block tatting will cure that - I'll try it tonight.
The joey is by no means right either! The head is too big and doesn't have the 'cute' factor yet. I used a ring for the mouth so that the head appears to peek over the top of the pouch. More work needed on that too. I've a feeling that if I join the head to a later chain so that it overlaps the upper body that might also help. Tonight I'm going to start again on a new tail etc - probably!!!

Day 5 of the kangaroo

Well here we go again. I undid the second leg that I started last time and then did the one below. I really, really don't like the legs at all so went back to the drawing board. This is the drawing I've done for another new start!!! Oh, the agonies of designing. Why, oh why do I do it? Why can't I just be happy to sit and make things rather than pushing myself through these hurdles?

Kangaroo? What kangaroo?

Day off kangarooing yesterday.
I do have some tatting news to report, though. I went to the Lace Fair which was being held about twenty miles away. I'd arranged to meet up with Jennifer and Sheila there which was great. We met up at Lyn Morton's stall (Tatting and Design). It was lovely to see Lyn and Mike again and I soon spotted a lovely pendant she was wearing. She was selling the thread that she used for it which was a gold, sparkly one. The problem was that she had a range of shades so making decisions was hard. I'm a real ditherer when it comes to this sort of thing so find that the easiest way round it was to take three shades!!!
Jennifer and her friends (two Welsh 'dragons' and a Scottish/Welsh one) that she'd brought with her and I all went to have lunch together. Lots of tat talk of course!! Then back to heaven - whoops, sorry, I mean the vending room.
From another place I bought a lovely pouch with clear pockets inside like one that SueH has got. Here's a link so you can see it. They had very few colours and the one I fell for was purple!!!
Also I got to speak to Pam Palmer. Yes, the real Pam Palmer. The last time I met her was about twenty years ago when she was more interested in my back!!! The reason for that was because I had one of my jackets on with one of her designs on it. I'll try and find the pictures she took - I only saw them a month or so ago! I've made lots of her patterns in the past and in those days they went onto my jackets. Now those designs are on hangings round the house! Pam, I might add, didn't look any different from when I last saw her. I asked her when her next book was coming out and she did say she was going to look through her stuff after Christmas and would see how she felt about things then. Keep your fingers crossed, folks!
Well that's about it for yesterday. I'm now going to take a serious look at the kangaroo again. May get something done about her this afternoon as it's persisting with rain today!!!