Not tatting but netting.

When I was in my 20's or thereabouts my gran (who I'd learnt to tat with as she was learning too) gave me a bundle of netting needles and meshes which somebody had passed on to her.  I took it upon myself to find out what they were and how to use them.  I had a very good trip to the local library who searched down in their cellars and found me one book with instructions on  how to do the craft and so I taught myself netting.  I went on to accomplish filet too which is another story.

So roll on a few more years and I picked up The Lady magazine in a dentist waiting room (or it may have been the doctors as I had young kids then) and read an article on bobbin lace in there.  I'll never know why but I jotted down the address of the magazine and wrote and suggested they ran an article on netting.  They wrote back and said that if I wrote one then they'd look at it and maybe publish it.  Panic set in.  I had no idea how to type so borrowed an ancient typewriter and set off to use it!!!  Well I daren't tell you how long it took me to write it all down.  Weeks and weeks and weeks of laborious one fingered typing!!!!  

I was gobsmacked when they wrote and accepted it and I waited for about two years for it to be published.  You'll see that the date on it is 1973 so I was 30 years old and would've written it at the age of 28ish.

They paid me.  I can't remember how much it was but it was such a small amount for all the effort I put in that I really didn't think it was worth it but I was SOOOO proud.  You'll see that it's published under my married name P J Dunn which I ditched as soon as the M R Dunn part of the deal left!!!!  Why be Dunn when you're really an Eborall?!?!!?

Meet Spud!

This is my new pet.  Well, actually it's my daughter's and I haven't met him yet.  Knowing that they were getting a puppy I decided to go ahead and tackle a doggy design.

Over the years I've been asked time and time again for doggy patterns but have always not quite 'got there'.  The main problem was that they were all different breeds or mutts.  We've only ever had mutts in the family and as you all know all dogs differ a lot.  It was too hard to decide on what breed of dog to do so I eventually decided on a puppy as they all look 'much the same' when they're little.

So, Spud was born.  

Want to meet him?  He's here.  

Snowflake with LOTS of beads in centre

No, this isn't the new and exciting idea - this one is NOT going ANYWHERE!!!!  I wasn't happy with this at all and the notation I did for it has been thrown out of the window!!!!  Well, not quite but it certainly got deleted!!!!!

Another attempt will be tried out over the next few days.

Kathy woke up brain cell 3

In the comments section of the blog two days ago Kathy said:-

"A couple of words stood out to me: 'magazine' and 'doodad'. Did the magazine do an interview also, in addition to printing your pattern? And apparently you were using doodads back in 2000!"

Well that prompted another trip up into the loft to look for the patterns I did back then for a magazine here in the UK.  No interviews and no mention of my name either!!! 

All I really remember is the craft lass rang me up and asked for 'tatted snowflakes', please.  I'd done things for them before which I will show you another day.  Well I suppose I've always had a rather unusual way of looking at tatting so I decided to do something that nobody I knew of round then had done before. These were done in 1999 at the beginning of my 'four bad years' so this was a real morale booster back then.

In those 'good old days' there was a lady who had a tiny, tiny wardrobe sized outlet in one of the antiques arcades in town. In fact many times you had to wait outside for the only customer in there to come out so you could squeeze in!!!! 

I found some (now called doodads) metal findings in there and promptly set about doing four designs for the magazine. Three were published as you can see below.  Unfortunately they took over a year to be put in there and as these sorts of metal findings were so hard to get the lass in the arcade had run out of one sort!!! That's the reason that one of the snowflakes below doesn't have a doodad!!!!  I wonder why they didn't use the other one?  I'll never know now.

So, for those who missed previous posts here are the links to the patterns that came about because of this.  First the altered original here on rings and currently I'm working on updating this one - which wasn't published!!!!

Snowflake with big bead in centre

First of all - please take a moment to read today's TIAS blog for an explanation of the failings of brain cell three!!!!  I have also amended yesterday's file to give thread quantities.  Must've had a bad few days with the aged brain!!!!

Now I'm playing with another of the old patterns - this one.  I've put a bead in the centre just like I did with the old one.  I'm off into the loft later to see if I can find the magazines that had the originals in - watch this space!!!

I'm pretty pleased with this idea but I want to try something new and exciting out too.  Well, it might not be new but it's certainly exciting!!!  Watch this space!!!

Last of my playtime!!!

Another 'before I start rambling' note.  Yesterday we reached 99 prams - wonder who will become the magic 100th?

Finally here's another pattern completed.  

This is an update of a pattern I did round about 2000 for a magazine here in the UK.  After a few years I took the doodad out and replaced it with a cabone/curtain ring and the pattern is still lurking on my site here.

A while back I wanted to make a newer version along the same lines so that's now done and dusted too.  Here's the link for the new one.