Santa Tatbead

Some of my longstanding readers may remember the Tatbead family. If not you can find them here.

I designed this series of little people with beaded arms and legs waaaaay back in 2007 and they came with a story for each person and this was published on my blog. It was terrific fun and kept me amused for some months.

The Tatbead family went off to America on a big tour of the country and arrived back with me at a Palmetto Tat Day and all due to the care that Karey gave them. They came back to me with a sweet little book of messages from the people they met on their travels. 

I was thinking about them a week or two back and decided that they needed a Santa to visit them.

Santa sorted!!!!

Well his head at least!!!

This started out as a probably cat’s head and then changed rapidly into this but sadly (or gladly) deteriorated (or evolved) into a Santa head.

This seemed to BC3 to be a simple design to do but I’m a bit of a fusspot over my work. Getting the eyes in ‘just the right’ place caused many re-tats as you saw the other day!! 

Anyway, he’s finally done and floating around on my web site.

Oh, nearly forgot.  Do you want the link?  Here it is!!!

Moaning Monday

There's one thing that's guaranteed to drive me bonkers. Well, more bonkers than I usually am!!!

One of those things is the re-naming of perfectly fine tatting terms. After all a ring is a ring, a chain is a chain and a split ring is a split ring etc. BUT why do people go out of their way to confuse this old git by calling a ring on a chain a 'thrown ring'. 

For goodness sakes I know we've all wanted (and probably have) thrown a shuttle at the wall, floor etc but we don't and can't throw rings!!! They're attached. 

I know what other people think 'thrown rings' are but to me they are simply rings on chains. They've always been called that and that's one of the reasons I still call mine - rings on chains or RoCh.

To me a thrown ring is this. Bina came up with this many years ago in 2008 and called it a loop tatted ring. I always think of a thrown ring as this. I did draw this out for my own benefit a few years ago and this is the link to my page.

Getting closer!!

Well this is what I was aiming for in this post (pictures below) - believe it or not!!!   A Santa head.  

These are a few of the attempts that I found on and around my tatting chair! 

BUT this pattern isn’t quite ‘there’ yet.

I’ve actually almost got it sorted now but just need to get the web page up and running before I share.  Check back on Monday when I WILL have it done.  That'll make me get it finished as I've promised in public!!!

Snowflakes are beginning to bore me even though I did that last lot of midi ones.  I'm trying to be a bit different this year and there’s more to come AFTER the Santa head and hopefully next week too.

Hold tight - you’re going to need more red and white thread and black, white and pink (yes, PINK) beads before the end of next week.  

Hat part 2 - finished

Well here’s the finished hat!!!

The photo makes it look quite elongated but I assure you it’s ‘just right’ and I don’t have an elongated head to put in it!!!

It’s not been ‘road tested’ yet as the weather has been a little warmer and I haven’t been able to do my usual long walk as the river has completely stolen my path. It’ll take a week or more for it to become passable again, I think.

I thought about putting a bobble on the top of the hat but haven’t done so - yet!!! I may or I may not!

It all started with this!!!

You’ll probably guess that I get surrounded in lots of tatty bits when I’m on a designing spree. I’d actually decided not to do anymore designing anyway after the protracted midi snowflakes and all the worrying I did about copyright and treading on people’s toes. 

Then it came to tidying up and I was about to throw the top scrap in the bin when I thought it looked like a cat!!! Well I do have quite a good imagination!!!

So I picked up a pair of shuttles and started playing as you can see in the second picture. Sadly the ‘cat’ appears to have just one ear. Well, that’s if it ends up being a cat when I’ve finished playing.

I never start with a drawing of what I want to make and always just pick up shuttles and see what happens. Wonder where this adventure will take me!!!g

Start of the hat.

Now the hat I wanted to make to go with this scarf became my next project.

Last Tuesday (or was it the Tuesday before) Anne came to the craft group with three balls of yarn which she didn’t want and I brought in some fabric too. It was a great coincidence as amongst the fabric was some that she liked and the balls of yarn became a very good swop for both of us!!!  The pink (well it’s darker than it looks on this picture) is a great match for the scarf.  Luck’s on my side with this project already.  

I thought that knitting a hat with a rib (knit one, purl one) would be very slow using the continental method but in fact it turned out to be pretty fast. The video that I found most useful is this one and you’ll notice she knits into the back of the stitch. This (for me) makes it much easier to purl. I’m not sure why but that’s the way it is!!!

You know what I’ll be doing for the next day or two - knitting!!!!

A new scarf

For my birthday in October my dear Joanie gave me this scarf. 

It's very long (BRILLIANT) and she gave it to me when I was staying with her in Florida back in September. Not the sort of place you need a scarf very often I should think!!!

Well it's gone REALLY cold lately so I got it out and put it on. It's very light and has lots of holes which trap the air and I must tell you - it's the WARMEST scarf I've ever owned. It's wonderful that it's so long as it goes round the aged neck a couple or more times (doubled) and it sits snuggly in the neck of my coat too.

Now I have a pair of gloves that are blue but I don't have a hat to go with it so you can guess what my next task is going to be, can't you?!?!

Butterflies in Flight

This is another of the lessons I taught at Palmetto Tat Days and which I've remembered I'd not added to my site!! I found another pattern too but need a few hours to sort it so it won't be arriving until next week!!

Some of you will recognise the basic SCMR butterfly that I did years and years and centuries ago and which can be found here.  The original pattern is so old that I can see I haven't even got a date on it. Probably thought it wasn't important back in those days but now I realise it probably is a good idea to date my work!! 

This new idea took some working out and I haven't really given a reason  for making it as it could become a bracelet, an edging or even a bookmark.  I may well play around with this one further.  I did have a version where I had a lock chain going over the first wing but it was so complicated to explain and it kept sort of twisting on me.  Having discussed this with Joanie (my wonderful test tatter) I decided it wasn't worth the hassle and would've been too hard to get that part done in a class and we'd probably have run out of time!!!

Anyway, here's the pattern link.

Waistcoat finished

I blame my 'need' to really get to grips with continental knitting for this!! I've been knitting like crazy and am now very, very comfortable with this method of wielding knitting paraphernalia!!!

In fact I've actually already worn it and it fits a treat and is very comfortable.

You can see I managed to sort the pockets too and they were actually very easy and add a bit of interest to what is otherwise a very plain waistcoat. 

Now, what shall I do next? Who knows!!!

Moaning Monday!

I’ve decided that when I want to moan about something it should be on a Monday!! Why? Well simply because it sounds good and is an alliteration - Moaning Monday!!!

So this won’t happen every Monday as I’m not normally a moaner - in fact I am  a happy little soul. Or should that be old git!

My moan will be of no interest to most people this week as most readers don’t run a blog but it may get me some help with mine.

As you’ve noticed I run adverts on my blog as they give me a little income towards the running of my pattern site which is here. 

Recently I keep getting warnings on my Adsense dashboard that my ads aren’t running on a lot of my url’s and that I was losing income. 

That’s going to hurt if the income dries up.  I earn about £60 every 7 to 9 months when readers click on the adverts.  Now, come on, Adsense, I thought I had one url which is/was https://janeeborall.blogspot.co.uk but apparently not!  This is one of the url’s that is a problem too!  

Is there anybody ‘out there’ who has the same problem or could guide me on ‘what to do’?  I’ve clicked links, read stuff (which BC3 doesn’t quite ‘get’) and even changed the blog quite a bit (did you notice?).  The warnings are still there!!! 

So, that’s the end of Moaning Monday and here’s the warning I keep getting!!

Lots of Roly Poly bags

Well I'm 'bagged out' for now!!!

Thank you to those who ordered roly poly tat bags back a couple of weeks ago. All orders are now fulfilled and the table is cleared and machine put away!!! 

There WILL be more in the future but I'm just going to grab my chances when the weather is warm enough to sew in the conservatory (and BC3 is in the mood). Here are a few I made.

Pattern finished!

These three are, I think, made with Karey's HDT.  I'm in a 'gold bead only' mood at the moment as they 'go' with everything. 

I did fall out with them the other evening when I sent them flying (the beads, that is).  A trip to the bottom of the tatting cupboard for the stocking that I have living there, a few minutes with the hand held vacuum (stocking over the long tool thingy) and they were all safely 'gathered in' again. 

Here's the link to the pattern - at LAST!!  Please take time to read the history and to add to it (via comments or email) any other information you may have.  

I'm extra careful over copyright as I've had my work taken a few times and know how upsetting it can be so I wouldn't want to do that to anybody else.

More progress

Just realised I blogged this picture before but things are still going well.  Maybe I need a new BC3, though!!!

Well the waistcoat is progressing well. Although I took this picture a week ago I'm still knitting up a storm!!! 

This is the pocket in place but there are no instructions on finishing it so I'm going to have to 'wing it'!!! Shouldn't be too hard, though. Knitting is so much more forgiving than tatting where one double stitch can make the world of difference!!

I'm back snowing again!

I'm still playing with these little snowflakes and am hoping to get them up on the site later this week along with the background stories to them.

I think the yarn is a Yarnplayer one and I've been keeping it for 'best' for ages!!!

New Snail

I thought I'd better get this snail onto my site PDQ (Pretty Darn Quick) as I am in danger of forgetting him/her!!!

This is a similar one to the other on my site which I amended slightly to make it 'class friendly' for Palmetto. 

While I was doing it I devised a simpler way of getting the beads onto the ends of the feelers without too much pain to do!!! I may well use this idea for another design which is lurking in the aged brain!!!

Here's the link to the snail!!

More progress

I'm afraid that not much tatting is getting done at the moment. I'm 'hooked' on knitting since I got home from America.

As you can see I'm now on my second front so just hope it fits in the end.

I LOVE the bamboo knitting needles Joanie gave me. They're really easy on the hands. You can see the pocket that I'm making on this. It's gone a bit 'curly' at the top so I will probably put a few rows of ribbing on it when I've finished. It doesn't say to on the pattern and, in fact, doesn't give any instructions for finishing the pockets. 

What I love about this old fashioned pattern is that it gives you the stitch count at each stage which a lot of patterns I've worked in the past don't.

Whoops a daisy!!!

Last week a new store opened about a mile away from me - just 'out of town' but within an easy walking distance.

Why am I mentioning this? Well because it's a miracle. 

Prior to this our only two fabric/yarn stores had closed down in town and it was hard (almost impossible) to buy even a sewing needle although we do have an EXCELLENT curtain/yarn supplier just on the outskirts of the town. 

Of course I had to go and check out the new Hobbycraft last Thursday. It's wonderful (apart from no tatting supplies) to have such a resource so close to home. I wandered around and found some boxes which I thought might be 'just right' for my sewing stuff. Mine is around forty years old and a bit small for what I try to put in it. So I found what looked fine to me and took one out of it's polythene sleeve, opened it and decided that perhaps I didn't really 'need' a new one and this was a bit 'flimsy' too. I carefully put it back in the sleeve and popped it on the display. Just as I was turning round to leave the whole display fell down!!!

Now it made quite the clattering noise!! What you might call an embarrassingly  LOUD clattering noise which went on forever. Finally I found I couldn't move as the boxes were literally all around me. Two assistants came and sorted it out (they decided to take them all out of the sleeves) while I discretely took a photo. Hope I'm not barred in future from Hobbycraft.

Just a reminder

As it's 'that' time of the year when some people celebrate (if that's the right word!) Halloween I thought I might put a reminder that I do have a couple of 'suitable' patterns lurking around.

The witch is an old one and she can be found here.

There's a skull here which is a quick tat.

I have two spiders as well. First this one and then there's my favourite which I really love wearing and they're here.

More fabric for Roly Poly Tat Bags!

Although I’ve got even more fabric than this - these are some that I find are really appealing for the bags.

Another one made too - cherry ripe would be a good name for this one!!! It's ready to send to Sue (Pigmini).  This one has a white lining (which is what I usually use) so that a tatter (or whoever!) can find things inside it easily.

I was hoping to make myself a new one next and I think it'll have to be the crazy cat fabric I showed back here but fortunately I have other orders that have appeared so my 'spare' time is going to be busy again.  That's good as idle hands (like mine) get up to mischief!