All sorts to tell today!

A boring, boring, megga boring evening on the telly and several false starts on the next earring which has now been upgraded to a pendant because I feel it's a tad toooo big as an earring - even for me!!! Also, of course, it gives me more scope to play. I've put two of my false starts down below with the third better one (with a hanging bead). I shall continue with this later. Also 'down below' are the finished medium earwigs which don't look half as good as they do in 'real life'. Nick says they look like expensive Victorian antique jewelery.

Goodness knows how but I was fiddling around with the blog and found a new gadget - followers!!! So I added it to the top left of the page. I was totally gobsmacked when I put it on to find that immediately I'd got five followers. Can't tell you how brilliant that feels. I use google alerts for blogs but I'm going to have a look at the gadgets again to see what others are being offered. I shall be looking to add myself to other people's blogs too!! BEWARE - daft old git at large!!!

Thanks to Sherry (celticdreamweaver) I have now added the Spanish couple to my site. I'd completely forgotten them. Sorry, Sherry but thanks for reminding me!!!

Earrings again!

This earring 'phase' is set to last a little longer, I think!! Doing these isn't as easy as it would at first appear. Adjusting stitch counts and making a very small (very beaded!) motif for the centres is also very hard.
Anyway, below is the progress on the medium sized hoop.
On the left is a central motif that just 'didn't work'. This attempt has now been 're-cycled'!!!! The middle one - this has a new inner but I wasn't happy with the outer part. I needed to adjust the stitch count and use better beads. The final attempt on the right is fine - for now!!! I love the hanging bead in the centre and hanging below the hoop. Looks 'classier' than the long beaded picot on the first trial.

Fun with earrings

I finished the other earring of the pair I was making the day before yesterday (the brown ones) which means that I have yet another pair to choose from in the mornings!!! I really MUST clear out some of the darn earwigs - they're taking over my bedside table - in fact I'm sure they're breeding!!

Anyway yesterday morning I sat down and did the drawings for this pair. This is a fairly big task even though it's only a small piece as I want to be sure that people can follow my perverted way of working it easily.

In the evening I started working on the medium sized hoop. This one measures 1" in diameter so I don't want to make it any larger than that if I can help it. I've solved this problem by working beads into the covering over the ring.

The inner (as you can see below) is sort of OK. I shall work the central large bead into it in another way. I really fancy a 'dangly' something in the middle there. In fact I've been experimenting with ways to do that (the pink 'bits' at the bottom). All I've done is take ......... heck, I'll explain it on the pattern and do a drawing but it's really easy.

If you look really closely at the scan you'll see there are definite variations as I've worked round the ring. I was trying to work out how many ds's to do etc. I think I'll add another large 'dangly' bead at the bottom instead of the LBP. Anyway, that's this evening's task sorted!!!

The new brain!

First reports on the new brain suggest it's a clumsy one!!! I hardly ever spill beads nowadays as I use those lockable bead containers. I managed to drop a small container that isn't lockable yesterday morning so had to get the small handheld hoovery thing out (with the piece of 'hosiery' that I keep for this purpose) and put this over the end to retrieve them. So, an hour or so later they were all back where they belonged.
Blow me down - I dropped more beads two hours later and they were some of my favourites - 3 blues all mixed up! So I reckon it's a clumsy brain that Martha sent me!!! I'm still sorting those!!
Still I managed to get started on my big project. Let me explain.
I've got two sorts of earring hoops and want to start using them. One sort is open (easily closed with a pair of pliers - on the left below) and the other is closed with a small ring at the top (easily removed with same pliers!!).
There are three sizes of one and two of the other so yesterday I scanned and measured them all. I've started on the smallest one first and this is what I've come up with (along with the pictures of the hoops I've been talking about). The blue and white is my first attempt, then there was another brown one which I wasn't happy with and haven't shown. The brown one below is fabulous and I'll make another to match.

A NEW brain - at LASTl!

I think brain cell # 3 can go into retirement now because I have friends out in tat land who think of me and offer help in an entirely unexpected way.

Yesterday morning I received a letter from Martha Ess. Now this struck me as sort of odd as we usually email each other. So I opened the letter and there was a card. The note in the card read like this -

"Dear Jane. This all started when Beth Sims (of the Tennessee Southern Belle Tatters) made an off hand comment that she wished there was a tatted brain for her neuro-scientist boss. Well, I couldn't resist that ...... But everyone who saw it, including Beth, instantly said 'Jane needs more brain cells'. So here you are"

I read the card and wondered whether Martha had 'lost the plot' until I opened the folded sheet of paper inside the card. On this sheet was a pattern for a brain!!! Yes, honestly. That AND a brain included (see the picture below). Now I've NO excuse for not getting on and doing stuff. I'm now 'over brained'!!!! I don't think I'll ever become a genius but I'm certainly on the way now thanks to Beth and Martha. Thanks, Martha.

By the way - I nearly peed my pants when I saw my new brain.

Christmas colours!

Yesterday I drew up the diagrams for this little earring/motif. I could do with a good name for it. I always struggle with naming my stuff. At the moment it's called a 'ring on ring in ring earring' but that's a bit of a mouthful and I don't think it should necessarily be 'marketed' as an earring either. All suggestions welcome. I am wondering if anybody would like to try this out to see if they can follow the instructions. I have them in a Word document so would happily take on a volunteer or two.

I also managed to do part 3 of the TIAS 4.This game is proving to be very good practice at doing block tatting!!!! I've sent Sherry my three stages this morning so she can blog them when she gets time. I've solved the mystery of what it's going to be but you'll have to wait until later when it's blogged here!!!

I'm warming to this one!!!

I'm really beginning to love this earring. YES, I will wear them as earrings. Somebody mentioned making them in Christmas colours - that's this evening's 'task'!!! I'm currently drawing up the stages so it should be 'out soon' at a cinema somewhere near you. Sorry, I mean web site!!!!

Having made a few of these now I'm finding them fast to make.

I've been forgetting to mention my student at the antiques arcade in town. Remember that I was teaching her to tat? Well I pop in about three times a week for a fast lesson. She's managing rings now with picots and is ready to go onto the next stage. I think I'll have to stop calling her a student as she's become more of a friend!!!