Well, well, well!!!

A month or so ago I bought a leaflet off Ebay and when it arrived I thumbed through it (as you do) and came across a very familiar pattern!!!

Familiar as I know I made it way back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth.  YES, I was/am a dinosaur in Tat Land as you know!!!  I knew I didn't work it from this leaflet as this one is all in Italian and I don't speak or understand that language!!

It's bothered me ever since I saw it so yesterday I donned my safari outfit and set out with courage by my side and fought my way to the bookshelves.  Why, oh why do we both 'dump' stuff in the back room and always in front of MY BOOKS?

Anyway, I arrived breathless and perspiring having fought off snakes, lions, elephants etc to find the folder with the odd loose sheets in - least I knew roughly where to look.  Now to my surprise - there it was.

This is just a loose sheet which I must have inherited when my gran died.  I've got quite a few but this one is a mystery as I've no idea which publication it came from.  Looking on the back of the sheet it wasn't a tatting book.  I'm wondering if it was from 'The Lady' as it's got an article about a National Trust property on the back.  When I have assembled an army of volunteers to accompany me again (well I'll ask the cat if she wants to help) I may take another trip to the bookshelves to see if I've got anymore that are from the same source but with more clues.  As it's suggesting that Coats thread is used I've a feeling they must have sold the pattern to the magazine.  

Bet you want to know the name of the Italian leaflet I bought?  It's Il Lavoro Chiacchierino 4.

No prizes for spotting that the Italian and English versions both have the very SAME photo!!!!  

There are other patterns in both my loose sheets and the Italian leaflet that are the same.  Does anybody know the history behind this?  Bet Georgia knows!!!

I think I can

Now one of my online mates asked me ages ago if I could do a toucan for her. 

This sounded really easy as I've got the parrot pattern over here. So after waiting for ages for BC3 to get himself out of bed and ready to work I set off. 

How WRONG can you be!!! Although you'll see from this first attempt the wing is more or less the same as the parrot that didn't mean it would work for the toucan!!! For starters the toucan 'needed' to start in a different place because, of course, he's mainly black and I didn't need to work with several colours. This first experiment shows BC3 muddling through the wing part!!!!  That 'bit' at the top left is supposed to be the upper part of the head.  Well, that's my excuse!!!

I have got the pattern completed but I'm going to show you a little of how it 'got there' and tease you with it a while longer. 

I still have to add links to the darn thing and y'all know how I prevaricate over hyperlinks!!! They're not hard at all - just time consuming and I need to concentrate while I'm doing them and that needs gallons of tea and the bathroom nearby to accommodate the results of the gallons of tea!!!  

To do this webby stuff I put pictures in a folder on my web site, open it/them one at a time, copy the link, go to the word document, highlight the right part, go to 'add hyperlink', close.  Repeat and repeat and repeat!!!!  Make some things larger, other things need thumbnails, open an html software thingy, add words, add hyperlinks, etc, etc!!!!  Then the whole texty caboodle has to be magically changed into a pdf and that has to be uploaded.  THEN the pdf needs links from the front page (in this case 'animals') and that pulls in another whole set of aggravation!!!!  

Drives me mad.  Well it would if I wasn't mad already!!!!!

Bad days turned around

This is probably going to be a long post!!!! 

The ladybird pattern problem has been sorted - thank goodness. The lady who sent the pattern to the magazine had worked it out from a picture she'd seen of the ladybird and then just didn't realise the copyright implications. We have spoken about it and all is well in that area.

The magazine took it in good faith not knowing a lot about tatting as their main aim is to sell craft items and books.  Remember - this was their first publication.  The result now is that they will issue an apology in the third edition (although I did say it wasn't necessary) and will be running an article about me sometime. I'm sure the Italian readers will be bored to death over that!!!

I have offered to help them with researching patterns which are submitted to them in future in order to prevent them being put in a similar situation and already I've run my eye over two of them.  Of course this isn't fool proof as I don't know all the patterns that there are in every book and on every internet page.

One of the things that the magazine is concerned about (and which I said I'd mention here) is the number of tatting books (which they also sell) being uploaded on the internet for anybody to take.  We ALL know that this happens and I hope we all avoid sites like those and report them to the appropriate authorities if we stumble on them.  After all if all pattern books were available for free on the internet then designers would stop writing them, wouldn't they?  Then where would we all be - patternless.

So, to sum up. I now have a good relationship with the magazine and with the lady who submitted the pattern. The magazine has now learned that tatting patterns are for shuttle tatters and the dreaded needle tatters too!!!

More about my bad day!

What a day it was yesterday!!! 

As you know if you read yesterday's blog I found out that an Italian magazine had published my ladybird pattern with somebody else's name to it. First before I give you the update I'd like to publicly thank Edda and Corina for all their help in tracing the person who'd sent in the pattern to the magazine calling it theirs.

I have been corresponding with the magazine and I think we're making some sort of progress. I had to explain that there was no difference between needle tatting patterns and shuttle tatting ones as the editor or publisher said that they were purely needle tatting patterns!! Also had to explain that a small change in stitch count (and a possible missing picot on the head) did not make it somebody else's design either!!

Below is the pattern in the magazine - as it's really mine and has been plastered all over Facebook I've no worries about posting it on here.

Discussions will continue and I am now hoping that a fruitful collaboration will be established between us ensuring that this doesn't happen again.  I will update on progress tomorrow!

Blatant theft

I was totally gobsmacked yesterday on a troll through Facebook at finding my ladybird pattern on one of the tatting lists. 

It was printed and obviously came from a publication of some sort. I left a 'strong' message on the list and the person who put it there took it off immediately.  I also contacted that person privately too and they confirmed the name of the Italian magazine that it's in. I am truly, truly grateful to the tatter who removed the post and for their wonderful help in confirming the magazine. It's called 'Il Mio Chiacchierino'. Here's the link.  

If ANYBODY has a copy of this and is willing to sell it to me or scan and send me a copy then I'd be very grateful.

I can also prove when the pattern was uploaded onto a previous site I had (thank you, wayback machine) and it was put up on the 20th July 2001.  Again, here's the link.  The reason for me mentioning it is to see if I can get anymore information from anybody reading my blog about who publishes it and to find out if there are anymore stolen patterns in there too.

I have used a translator to translate the page and it appears to be the first in a series of magazines.  I hope that by stopping and stomping on this NOW we can prevent others from being as hurt as I am.

Sorry this post isn't in my usual lighthearted manner but I'm upset and ANGRY.

Finally it's all done and dusted!!!

Finally finished and placed in the position on the radiator shelf it was made for. Well, for now!!! 

I wonder how long I'll like it for and when it'll be relegated to 'the box' of tatting!!!! I find it pleasing at the moment but I know me and I know that won't last!!! 

The edging turned out in the end to be similar to the last round of the Fandango coaster but with SR's instead of the chains and it worked well. Here's a close up of it first.