A horse, a horse

My kingdom for a horse.  Well, about two/three yards of thread!!!  For the sake of about two/three yards this doily has failed. Totally and utterly.  You can see where on the lefthand side.

In all the years I've been tatting (around 58) this has never happened to me before. Oh woe is me. Woe, woe and triple woe. 

I've plenty of the plain which is Lizbeth 635 but I ran out of Yarnplayer's Hot Pink and Lime with just 5 rings to do. So this is one for the box which will never get finished.

Sue Anna gave me this skein of the thread when I was at Palmetto and I couldn't wait to try it out. Love this colour way but now out of love with the unfinished doily. That'll teach me not to think about things before I start them!!!!  No more in her shop either and the cost of a whole skein when I still need to use up (and WANT to play with) my other HDT just isn't worth the postage either.  I suppose I could use the plain thread on both shuttles for that last bit.  Ah, there's an idea and perhaps all is not lost yet!!!!

Oh, the doily is this one.

Another bauble in the Exclusive club!!

Here's another member of the Exclusive tatting club. I'm so glad Anita has popped in with her bauble as I'd almost forgotten about this club. Also as I'm nearly finished on a current project I'm looking for something else to play with. As you know I'm addicted to this technique!!!! Here's what Anita has to say:-

"Dear Jane:

Here’s my trainee Bauble!

Hopefully this will get me in as an associate Exclusive member to your mouse/bauble tatting club.

It’s my very first attempt. It’s sort of…well….it’s the first attempt :D

Have fun with it!

Cheers,

Anita Barry, tatter

Amissville, Virginia"

Actually, Anita, I wish my first attempt had looked as good as that.

Another arrival

What a lovely surprise. A sailing boat from Axa.

You can read all about it here.

Finally got bored!

I finally got bored with the inside out snowflake so changed my allegiances and set off on the Fandango Button Snowflake which you can find here.

Well I lie. You can't find this version there as it hasn't been written down or drawn yet!!! Actually it's a simple modification to the original. All I did was switch shuttles and put a ring on top of the chain making it more 'snowflaky'. As I'm very fond of locking my designs into place I used very small picots to stop that pesky ring from twisting and turning every time I turned my back on it!!!

I will add the alterations to the pattern when I get time. I seem to be chasing my tail at the moment and that's got nothing to do with the 'silly season' as Pigmini calls it. Just life getting in the way of tatting stuff.

Continuing with the doily!

Well the Valencia doily is progressing but I'm changing the final round so that it stands out a bit more than just a round of chains. Not totally sure it'll work but we'll see.  This is where I'd got to when I last showed you.  

The light creamy rounds had to be done in a different colour than the centre due to the ball of thread having an untimely meeting with a cup of coffee!!!!  Even though it dried out just fine I decided to ditch the rest of the ball.  Well, I'd had it hanging around for probably fifty years so I thought it didn't owe me anything!!!  It had gone quite hard too.  It was a Coats thread.

Here's the progress so far.

Lots of earrings

Well just to finish the week off - here are a few of the earrings that I've made. In this picture you'll see that I've actually finished them off properly - a miracle in itself!!!!!

I've sent the pair I blogged the other day to Crazy Mom Tats. Well since her home burned down at the beginning of the year her ears have been almost naked and we can't have a tatter with naked ears, can we?

Pigmini and I have been talking about our rather large collections of tatted earrings and how we're going to have to do something about them.  Not sure what but some of mine must be roughly 25 years old!!!!  I'm dreadful at throwing things away.  

Same earrings but without doodads!!!

So having used up all my doodads on the earrings I had to go and think again about the pattern!!! I realised that I ought to do a 'without doodad' version so that's what I did!!!

This pattern is worked all in one pass. NO, SILLY, not the two earrings but each earring separately is worked in one pass. I'm not that clever!!! I really, really like this pair.

As some of you know I volunteer at two groups (or is it three?) teaching people in their 'later years' how to use computers, laptops, tablets and even phones sometimes. Well we've a relatively new volunteer who has joined us and he looked at this pair which I was wearing last week and said - 'I like your earrings'. I grew six inches in two seconds.

Well I suppose there may be one or two people who may want to make a pair like this so I suppose I'd better give you the link to the pattern!!!

I had two purple days!!!!

Still plodding on with these - in between other things!!! You've probably gathered by now that I tend to have a few things on the go at the same time - or it appears I have!!!

Actually I rarely have more than two on the go. A project and something to go to when I fall out with that - often a hanky edging. 

So the reason that I don't show you all of a project at once is so I don't frighten you all away with boredom - oh, and myself too!!! I get terribly bored with me so don't want to inflict that on others too.

So, today, two purple Inside Out Snowflakes!!!  That was definitely a 'purple day' when I made those!!!

Earrings with doodads.

Now I already have a pair of earrings like this in cream and black with the same beads and which I LOVE and wear a lot. The doodads are some that were given to me but I'm very sorry I can't remember who sent them. If anybody wants this pair (for the cost of postage + a little bit towards thread or a swap) then please shout. 

I've very few of these findings left and I'm going to make more before the mood leaves me and THEN I'll devise a way of making the same pattern but without doodads!!!  Watch this space!!!!

Another start!!

Having made the Once in a Lifetime Doily in green and red I decided that I really wanted to see it in other contrasting colours.

So, off I went again on another one!!! This is the centre.

Ready, Steady ....... not yet!!!

Not quite yet!!!!

So does anybody want to play with the new Tat It And See (TIAS) in January?

If you do then here's the link to the introduction. Please read it carefully to the end as the start date is there!!

Oh, yesterday I changed the layout of this page - just because I didn't like it when I read it again!!!!  Here's yet another snowflake!!!

Back to the giveaways

I know snow is white but I've always been contrary and I suppose you can't teach an old dog like me new tricks - like being 'normal'!!!

I must admit I love this one and may actually keep it. 

There again I never get round to putting my tatting on a tree or even around the house except for the odd thing here and there!!! As for doilies - I haven't the sort of house that would ever have a space for them. Clutterful is a good description!!!

Many years ago I used to have a tidy house and I did have the odd doily out too but nowadays - no way.  I love clutter!!!

Doily finished

I finished this Once in a Lifetime doily a few days ago. 

This will be a present for a friend.

Now I've made it in this colour I want to make it again - still experimenting with colours and climbing out with the lopsided sort of SSSR.

Earrings

Two years ago I made these earrings. I haven't worn them a lot until recently when I found that I kept going back to them and wearing them a LOT. I must admit I now love them. So, a few days ago I made myself a pair in black and cream.

THEN I decided to go for more cheerful colours and finally I ran out of doodads!!!!

Interestingly I suddenly remembered that back two years ago I'd started doing a pattern based on this idea but without doodads as people wouldn't always have those at hand or be able to get them. Here's a link to the pair I made then. 

Obviously I wasn't happy with them as I didn't finish the project!!!  So over the past week or so I've been working on a better design which I'll be able to share soon. Watch this space!!!!

Bessie Attenborough

A few days ago I was wandering back through the town after my walk round the rec and I decided to pop into a second hand book shop.  I go in there every two months or so 'just in case'!!!!!  

Well I found this book.  The hardback version of 'The Craft of Tatting' by Bessie M Attenborough.  Now I really should've left it there as I've got a copy which I bought in 1972 or thereabouts when it first came out.  In fact mine looks much the worse for wear even though it's only been used by me.  It was one of my favourites as in those days pattern books were few and far between.

Having liberated this book which has hardly been used (it's an ex library copy as you can see by the second picture) I now realise that I must part company with it.  I do NOT need any more clutter round me than I have already!!!!  So, if anybody wants it they can have it for five pounds plus postage.   Just email me and the first person who replies gets it!!!!!  

Getting on with

I'm still doing other things but every so often I make a snowflake for my giveaways.   I like this pink one most of all - so far!!!

It's very strange but my tradition of making snowflakes for the giveaways has been going on for probably 12 - 15 years but I never EVER put any on our tree!!!  I've got loads I could put on but never bother!!!!

I do have my range of Christmas solar jigglies which will go in the windows later today with a bit of luck.  This year I found four new ones in Poundland.  I'll show you another day.

A sort of technique!!!!

Not sure if you remember the phase I went through of making magnetic bookmarks?  Anyway, I did and loved making them before BC3 came up with a better idea - the Wrap It, Flip It and Mark It bookmarks which are impossible to lose.  

So, when making those bookmarks I enclosed a magnet with a tatted edge which covered over and lay on each side.  I've put a picture on here using a curtain ring to show how it sits.

Anyway, to get to the point - I decided that this idea needed sharing so that others may use it.  I wasn't quite sure whether to call it a technique or a pattern but in the end decided that it was really a technique as it can be easily adapted to whatever the  user requires.  Here's the link. 

I became 102 yesterday

Aha, bet you thought the old git meant herself then, didn't you? Well I actually felt I was 102 yesterday as I had one of 'those' bad nights sleep the night before. 

No, what I'm talking about is the fact that I got number 102 sailing boat in to my inbox yesterday. Here is the link to the story about where it came from and who sent it.

This also gives me the opportunity to say that the introduction to Tat It And See 2015 will be available before the festive season gets underway. Mainly so you can be sure you've got all the equipment needed!!!

Nothing exciting today!

Sadly all I have today is another snowflake.

I really ought to sort them out before I blog them (one of it's arms is wonky) but if I did that I'd lose them on the way to the scanner. Well there's another problem too as I'm always losing things UNDER the scanner too!!!

Do you ever do that? Scan something and then walk away and leave it there. Then a few days later there's a mad search of the entire house looking for the 'missing item'. Well I do and all too regularly.

Wonder if there's a cure? Are there any tablets you can take for it? Please let me know!

Pointless technique?

So, having discovered that I could get out of my predicament I worked the second attempt again (no I won't give up!) up to the first SSR (hiding one colour in it).  Then I went to bed.

The next morning I sat down with my graphics pad on my lap and shuttles at the ready.  Of course you can guess the next part.  I'd forgotten overnight how I'd done it!!!

A few hours later and a lot of cussing to myself I'd managed to remember and draw it out.  I then did a technique page.  Not that I feel it would be a lot of use to many people but I know I'll certainly use it myself in future!!! So, I should probably call it my 'reminder' page.  

Well after running it past Georgia (won't tell you what she said!) I thought I'd better finish it properly and put it up on my technique pages 'just in case' there was another soul who may one day come across the same problem.

Here it is and here is the centre of the doily once more.