A total failure

After the success (well, in my opinion) of my last Dora Young project I'm showing you just two pictures of this failure!!! 

This is the pattern on page 18 of the Dora Young book.  It's not an easy one to follow but has been made more complicated by trying to 'train' BC3 to use a picot gauge.

When I started tatting there were no such things as gauges and when they did finally become 'available' some forty years or more later I just didn't see the point as I'd got pretty good even picots by eyeballing them.  BUT when it came to this pattern it states categorically that all picots should be 3/8".  I decided that I'd better use one.  Well first attempt (not shown here) resulted in a real mess.  This was because I din't know whether to lay the gauge (made out of a milk bottle container), alongside the core thread or standing up!!!  Once I'd determined which way (standing up) I then made another which lay alongside as that made for faster tatting (for me!).  Lots of experiments to get the 'right' sized picot resulted from that!!!

It took these two attempts for me to realise that it wasn't going to work using a gauge when making lock joins so (for now) I've abandoned this pattern.  I WILL go back to it as I truly love the motifs when they're attached to each other - the negative space is pretty darn cool. Meanwhile I'm off on another Dora adventure so - watch this space!!!

New technique page

Well I've finally remembered to get this one onto my pattern pages. How long does it take? How long is a piece of string?!?!?!

Now this technique could be used to add beads to the centres of motifs like this one, this one or this one (which I've already done in a previous post). 

So, do you want the link to the 'how to' page? Well, here it is!!!!

Here's a 'taster' for you too!!

While Rome burns!

We've been fiddling!!! 

The source of that phrase (fiddling while Rome burns) is the story that Nero played the fiddle (violin) while Rome burned, during the great fire in AD 64. Bit bizarre really as there was no such thing as a fiddle back then!!  No proof that this happened but we'e definitely been fiddling on Tuesday mornings!!!

Anyway, I digress. If you take a look at the picture below you'll see seven fiddle muffs that the Tuesday morning group have made over the past month or two. 

This is the group that got together last year to make bunting for the street party that we had in honour of the Queen's 90th birthday.  We enjoyed it so much we've continued to meet!!!

If you want to know what fiddle muffs are then I suppose I'd better explain! Patients with dementia/Alzheimer's often get fidgety and like to touch things and play with them. The muffs are made (knitted or crocheted) and then objects attached so they've got something to play with - both on the outside and the inside. They can be anything from cotton reels, pieces of ribbon, velcro, curtain hooks or any item which has texture. Yesterday Sue and I took these seven muffs to a local home for patients with dementia. We had a very warm welcome from the staff which was lovely. Next project? Knitting and crocheting squares for blankets. 

Page 15 done and dusted

FINISHED. Isn't this lovely? 

This was a pleasure to tat and easy to follow but (like my last Dora Young) I had to keep counting and checking on stitch counts!!!! I really, really love following patterns and will be tackling more from this special book. Watch this space!!!

Charity shop find

Two weeks ago I was in Alcester as I was going to Crafternoon. My trips to Alcester are a delight after a busy week. I always go early so that I have time to mooch around the town. This town is like Stratford used to be some forty years ago - full of small family businesses selling the sorts of things that the people want/need.  No big multiples - well, only Waitrose which is a small supermarket.

There's a greengrocers, a 'fifty pence' shop (that's what my parents used to call it), a chemists, a few estate agents, a bridal shop, coffee/tea shops, a 'vintage' shop and a few charity shops. It's mainly the charity shops that I visit.

I found this necklace in one of the charity shops. I see lots of necklaces with rings in them but most of them have 'gaps' in the rings and are rather 'bendy'. This one hasn't got any gaps and isn't bendy in any way. So, what will I do with it? You'll have to wait and see, won't you?