Still monkeying around!

First of all a bit of a confession!!!!

The Funky Monkey wasn't the first monkey that I did. I did the 'lot' that are on the web page today first.

I started sort of aiming for the standing up version and then somebody I was talking to said 'why not the 3 wise monkeys'?

This meant another google search for a good picture and the rest was relatively straightforward.

Oddly enough the 3 wise ones have longer bodies. The arms and heads vary slightly but tat's all.

The old bag lady strikes again!!!

While I've been teasing about the monkeys (don't forget to watch the index page for the next pattern) I've also been busy with the bags.

Below are some that are finished along with two further pink bags (Sherry, I've got yours put by, so don't worry!).

The pale blue one is covered with music notation. Also some musical references written on it too. As I've never been interested in the least in music I've no idea what it all means!!!

If anybody would like one of these bags please drop me a line on lovetotat @ gmail.com and I'll send you one!!!! Oh, you'll get an invoice from Paypal too!!!!

I doubt I'll list these in Etsy until I get back from America. I will be taking them to Palmetto tat days with me!!!

Ta de dah!!! Here they are!!!

First of all the rest of the guesses.

Sunela said:-
"I think it is a KANGAROO!! May be the MOM who is expecting."

Marty came up with this idea:-
"It can't be a soccer guy -- they don't wear hats. It's Archy the Cockroach, yes?"

Mark (Tatman) said:-
"With a black top hat(it appears) it could be Abraham Lincoln. Didn't he have tentacles????!!!!! I think all tatters should grow tentacles so that each pair of claws could hold a shuttle and tat. How else are we to get a lot of tatting done before we leave this earth??!!!! :-D "

So, those who were guessing 'naked' were right. Except for hair,/fur that is!!! May I introduce you to the Funky Monkey!!!!

I've also done a 'City Monkey' (notice the rolled up umbrella and bowler hat) and 'Lady Monkey' (hat and handbag).

I bet somebody can come up with other versions too!!!!

I hereby issue a challenge - 'dress a monkey'!!!! How's tat?

Now if you go to my web site you'll find something intriguing on the index page!! Down next to the link to the monkey pattern. Any further guesses?!?!?

Final day for guessing!!!

I think a lot of you have got there by now!!!

This is the final guessing day. Tomorrow I will reveal all (NO, not my naked body - don't want to frighten people off).

Some of the comments from yesterday and earlier!!

TatForFun said this:-

"How should should we wait until the picture's revealed? haaaa...I'm dying to see the whole picture...pleeease ^_^
But I think it's not a man or a boy...the color is to girly LOL
Is it a peacock? "

Gina D said this too:-

"Goodmorning. I've been following your hints and my guess is that it is a pink dragon. "

Valerie said:-

"me thinks it's something with tentacles... hmmm. "

Jenny's doing aerobics and says she's sticking her neck out!!!

"Ok I'll stick my neck out and say it is a mouse. Thanks for the fun"

Marty said this:-

Tentacles? How about a pink tree with waving branches? Nah, what ever it is it's not wearing nuthin'!

Tia's got another idea:-

"OOOOH A Jelly Fish?"

Jon has VERY good hearing!!!

"The picture is showing the tail of a rattle snake. I can almost hear it rattling. "

Day 7

I think you'll all 'get it' today but I'll wait and see!!!!

Carol Amich said yesterday:-

"I guess an octopus or squid!!"

Bev came up with this rhyme:-

Some see pink elephants,
some see a man,
some see what ever they can...
but I've stood on my head,
and spun around and all I got
was on the ground.
From down here, all I see..
isn't pink elephants; but a pink monkey....

Elizabeth said:-

"Looks like a chicken laying a bunch of eggs.LOL"

Tia said:-

"well....that could be a hand...if the picots had been in diffrent lengths....or it is antennae for a naked...Snail...Yup definatly going with Snail."

Jenny Griffin thinks this:-

"could it possibly be another ballerina?"

Day 6

I'm getting worried. Very, very worried. Seems to me that people think I'm a 'dirty old woman'!!!!

This is a remark that came in from Snowy:-

"Now with this new element I am alternating between pink elephant or naked man....scary thought! LOL "

Ginny's remark is fine - nothing to worry about there!!!:-

"Is it a Owl?"

Marty said:-

"Nah - it's a soccer player -- that's a leg! "

Jon said this:-

"I can see that it may be a pink elephant, but I don't know which part Snowy sees the naked man, ;-/, lol. "

Personally I think you're all mad, mad, mad!!! Then again it takes a mad woman to see/know a mad one!!!! Here's today's piece!!!

HOTP

That means Hot Off The Press!!!

Just had an email from Pat @ Roseground Supplies. They now stock the new Lizbeth thread. How COOOOOOOOL is that?!?!??? For prices and colours (the thread isn't listed yet) please contact Pat directly on pat @ roseground.com

Day 5

Today we have another part of the finished 'thingy'!!!

Yesterday Bev suggested this:-

"Could this be a critter that swings from trees? Do we get 20 questions? Animal? Vegetable? Mineral?"

Now how she could get to that from what she saw yesterday is puzzling to me!!!!!

Thelma says

"Is it maybe a tatted cross???"

Christine has come up with a good answer:-

"It has to be a pink elephant."

Day 4 - something different!

Now, just to confuse you and add to the tease I'm putting up the completed first part of this pattern.

This would be the first 'part' you would work if you chose to work it. BUT, here's the problem.

Have I shown this diagram the right way up?!?!? Of course it could be shown partly turned round or even upside down!!! That's the conundrum!!!

Yesterday Lynne said the following -

"A crinoline lady with tiered skirt, this is the bottom layer of the skirt and day 2 is the tier above it!!!! or shall I wait for the white coats!!!!!"

Lynne, I suggest you hold in there. Don't let them take you just yet!!!

I'm worried about Steph too. What sort of mind does she think I've got?! This is her suggestion:-

"I've got it!! It's a little naked man, isn't it? I just knew it!! ;)"

Day 3 of Tease a Tat

This is day 3. Things will get a bit more interesting tomorrow.

This remark from Eileen really tickled me. She said -
"I knew right away what it is. It's a caterpillar with sunburn, saw one in my garden yesterday. You know what they say........"ask a silly question" etc."

Do please remember I have a perverted sense of humour so things might not always seem the 'right way up'!!!!!!

Day 2 of Tease

OK, we have a clown in tat land!!! His name? Mark Myers!! This is what he says as a guess.

Um.....the goat I diagrammed for you???? strange color for a goat, anyway. But with you tatting it......WHO KNOWS!!! LOL!

He sent me a diagram of a goat two/three days ago with the challenge to make a pattern to fit it!!! I mean, dear Mark, you know what a busy person I am and how houseproud I am and how I'm always dusting and vacuuming. How did you expect me to get it done so quickly?

But then I do tell some terrible lies about my love of housework and I did have half an hour free the other day!!!!!!!!!!

HOT OFF THE PRESS
Just in case this has not been noticed in the comments section I have put the link from Laurie here

New game - Tease a Tat!!!!

Now this is how this one works!! IF anybody wants to have a go, that is!!!

I'm not asking you to do anything except guess what this pattern will finally be! I'll be posting little 'bits' of it either as scans of the finished item or as diagrams. If you're any good at jigsaw puzzles you should be able to copy and paste them together later to make up the item!!!

All you have to do is email me on love to tat @ gmail.com with your guesses.

I'll blog people's guesses and any drawings submitted too. Drawings can be a pencil drawing on the back of an envelope or - well, anything really.

Does this sound like fun or just downright stupid?!?!? As usual - answers on a postage stamp!!!

New in my shop!

I was going to start showing you the new patterns today but unfortunately I'm not quite ready just yet. Tomorrow. I'm hoping it'll be tomorrow.

The sewing machine has gone on holiday! Well, not really but it's going to have a rest for a few days!

I managed to finish off and list some of the bags yesterday.

Houston, I have a problem. I like them all but particularly the pink one followed closely by the butterfly one. I DON'T need another tatting bag, do I? But this is SUCH a useful bag!!!

I'm just going to have to keep one but not one of these as they're now in the shop. I do have 'spares' of each at the moment so I've got time to choose. Here are the new ones I've added.

One of my needle tatting adventures

Another piece from my old suitcase!!! Remember the small giraffe pattern on my site? Originally the giraffe was made as an earring to amuse the kids I was teaching. I then heard about needle tatting.

Goodness knows how I heard about it because it was in the days of stage coaches and the penny black stamps!! Well, not really but it was a long time ago.

I heard about Ed and Selma Morin's needle tatting book and took the enormous risk of putting dollars in an envelope and writing to America which was (in those days - the 1970's) somewhere over the other side of the moon.

I bought needles too. Not sure who I bought these things from but I did. So, having bought the needles I tried them out.

Oh, watch this space tomorrow. There will be news of the new patterns!!!!

Somewhere I've still got the ghastly (truly ghastly) needle tatted top I made. I was quite pleased with the giraffes but didn't like needle tatting one bit. I've never gone back to it even though some years later I bought finer needles.

Bags again!

This is one of the finished new bags. I must say I was very pleasantly surprised with these. The colour (which didn't show so well on yesterday's post) actually glows.

I'm also adding the fabrics I'm going to be working with next - pretty, pretty patterned one and the stunning pink.

Next set of bags!

Well the next set of bags will be paisley. This is such a pretty print and I already have one order for a bag!!! I cut them out and got a good start yesterday so may well finish them today. Below is a picture of a completed butterfly bag too.

The £%&$*" pattern is progressing well. What a relief. The new way of working is going well.

I also managed to take the mower for a walk round the garden. It enjoyed the experience. Mind our garden is a postage stamp size compared to the yards you see in America. I'll take a photo sometime and show you.

It's a real English garden, I guess, with walls on two sides. It's a very easy garden to manage and most of the stuff seems to grow in spite of me!!!

Yesterday saw the completion of the three other butterfly bags AND one matching poke proof pouch. One of the bags and the pouch have already been spoken for!!

I spent a little bit of time on the new set of patterns I'm working on. I'm hoping that they'll be ready to go soon!! I'm really excited about them all and can't wait to see what people say about them. There's still some work to do on the set as I've changed my mind about how to work part of them so I'm having to re-work them all AND alter drawings!!!

Also I have to add some fun bits to two parts as well. Just to keep me amused, of course!!!

Also because of this set of patterns I have made up a new technique page. It's one I've used before but never quite got round to putting a page together. Now who was that who said 'typical'?

One down - three to go!!!

What with housework, shopping and other boring stuff I didn't get much time to sew yesterday!! However I did manage one of the butterfly bags and I'm delighted with it. Hopefully I'll get the others done today (hmmmm, difficult typing with my fingers crossed!) and then I'll list them.

Oh, I noticed a few days ago that I'd got 100 followers. I mentioned this to Nick who said (rather dryly) 'one of those is the Inland Revenue'!!! Which reminds me - must do some more to my tax return!!!!

A rose by any other name!

Seems like I've put the aged and gnarled old foot in it!! Apparently the double double ds that Rhoda shows in her book turns out to have been published under the name of the balanced double stitch by Ruth Perry!!! If only Rhoda was contactable I'd have a word in her ear for causing me this bovver!!!

I'm adding this link here as it gives food for thought from a well known local chap!

Anyway to turn to nicer thoughts! I'm showing a picture here of some of the prettiest fabric in my stash (well, that's my opinion for today) and to let anybody know who's interested that I've cut four bags t of it. This piece (the leftover) is enough to make a matching poke proof pouch!!! I'm hoping to get to sew one or two of them today!!

I'm delighted that I've already sold three of the six bags I listed two days ago in my Etsy shop. I wasn't intending to list them as I was trying to make a batch to sell in the vending room at Palmetto to help towards the cost of flights. I think I'll just have to make more!!!!

More about the double double idea!

Yesterday I managed to squeeze in time to do this page explaining Rhoda Auld's idea. There's a picture at the bottom of the blog of what it eventually looks like.

I'm not sure it's going to be a lot of use but it's an interesting idea!!! Well, it interested me for a few hours! I'll be returning to Rhoda's book for another look now she's woken me up again!

I also managed to list two sets of coasters and the tatting bags in my Etsy store yesterday. It was another of those occasions when I'd finished listing and wandered off to do something else. I returned half an hour later and one of the bags had already sold.

I'm now wondering whether to use the butterfly fabric or a rather nice brownish paisley print that I've got. Mind there are so many it's very hard to choose out of my stash.

How did I get so much done when I was out all morning teaching Silver Surfers?

Ever heard of a 'double double' stitch?

Back in 1974 or 5 I bought Rhoda Auld's book "Tatting the Contemporary Art of Knotting with a Shuttle". I bought it for patterns, of course, as it was in the days of 'no tatting patterns'.

There are no patterns in the book BUT it's a mine of information and inspiration. I still take it out from time to time to just read for sheer enjoyment and whilst doing that the other day I came across the following paragraph.

I decided to play with this idea and found that it works well for chains too. I'll make up a technique page for it and maybe call it the 'double double' stitch (dds). Not that it really NEEDS a page as it's so simple and SO obvious!!!

This evening I'll play with it and show you what happens tomorrow. I was going to play yesterday evening but the latest project 'took over'!!!

On the horns of a dilemma!

Well, not really but I do need to decide which fabric to use next!!!

I LOVE these butterflies but also the sewing notions too.

So hard to decide which to use.

First of all here's a close up of the bobbin fabric that I used for the last two bags. Isn't it lovely?

Oh, before I wander off for a shower, breakfast etc I must share this link with you. What FUN. I wish I'd been there to see this performance - I'd have tried to join in, knowing me!!!

Two more bags

I dragged myself away from the computer yesterday for long enough to finish these two bags!! The print is of bobbins which is one that I love. I've only got enough for these two bags - I think. Must check that!!!

I started them on Thursday but time and tide waited for no man (nor me either!).

I'm getting more and more excited about the tatting design I'm working on at the moment but I'm NOT giving any clues - yet!!! I think I might be able to make a sort of challenge/game out of part of it too. That's the reason I was spending SO long on the computer yesterday - I want to make the drawings VERY clear so that most people can make it/them/whatever!!!

I HATE not sharing - just isn't in my nature!!!

Yesterday

Yesterday I wore these earrings for the first time when I did something a little 'naughty'. I made them about two years ago and they've been in a box since so had never been worn before.

I did something VERY brave yesterday - I gatecrashed a 'do' which I thought I ought to have been invited to!!!

I was greeted with great big hugs and had a FINE time talking to people - some of whom I hadn't seen for forty years!! Everybody to whom I spoke thought I should have been invited.

Moral of the story? Don't exclude Jane from things as she'll turn up anyway!!!! The proverbial 'bad egg'!!!!!!

More of the past

When I was looking through the ancient suitcase the other day I came across these two necklaces. I've never worn them and can't for the life of me think why I made them either!!!!

The cat is out of the bag!!

First of all I can let the cat out of the bag!! I only knew last weekend but was sworn to secrecy. Something which I find difficult. I've always been able to keep other people's secrets (years of being a teacher saw to that) but NEVER my own!! Mine just don't seem important enough.

Now I can give you this link so you can see MY secret.

I've found out where this motif came from which means I must've done it a looooong time ago as it's from the Penelope Book 3, page 4 bottom right!!! This is the book-:

I gave up using these leaflets many years ago when they started falling to bitsl!! I've now got them all scanned and saved onto the computer which means I don't have to get them out and if I want to make the odd pattern then I just print the page!!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday? What a pointless wish when the person you're talking about has been dead for more than four hundred years!!! Still, happy birthday, Shakespeare and happy St. George's day to all my fellow Englishmen and women!!!

Right, that's got that out of the way! Back to business.

This the first proper finished bag and I'm VERY pleased with it. Thanks to a tip from my friend Aileen over the inside pockets, it's turned out very well. Below are the pictures.

I stiffened the base with some very thick vilene which is washable and dry cleanable. I stitched it onto the bottom of the base so that it won't 'shift' between that and the lining. The holes for the ribbons to run through are double buttonhole stitched too. Inside you can see the pockets. Those have worked brilliantly.

The first picture of the closed bag does contain the scissors which fit in just brilliantly. More (I might add) by good luck than by good judgement. I think my scissors are slightly longer than usual - I'll check that out later. Now I need to work up a few more so that I can work out prices.

I've got some fabric with sewing notions on and (I think!) some with lace bobbins too. They'll be my next task. Once I've made a few then I'll know how long they take to make. If I charged according to the first one then I'd be overcharging as it takes hours of mithering to get the pilot one made!!!

Times gone by!

The other day I found a suitcase I'd forgotten about!!! This is full to the brim with old tatted pieces of mine. It's not a huge suitcase and most of the stuff was made for exhibition purposes or just for fun.

I'm going to show you a few of the things I found while I wait for the finish of the first bag!! Actually, it's nearly finished but I had SO many interruptions yesterday it never 'quite' got there!!

Today I'm showing some coasters I made about 15 years ago. I tried to sell these in a local handicraft shop but they didn't sell. I think this was mainly because I asked a realistic price for them of probably around £1.00 an hour of my time!!! Nothing changes - handmade goods just don't get the prices they should do!!!

I've no idea where the pattern is from but the thread is number 20.

I'm SO excited

What is the saying? Little things please little minds? That's me. A (not so little) thing with a little mind. I love it when inspiration hits me and makes me excited.

Remember I was going to make a new 'line' in bags? Well I looked and looked online for ideas but couldn't find any that I really, really liked. I thought of a Dorset bag and then cried off as they are bulky when finished and not all that suitable for popping in another bag. In the end I decided on a Dolly bag which would be something like this.

The first three pictures below show the first trial one. I like it a lot but don't love it - YET!!! It's just the right size but if you look at the third picture which is looking down onto the inside (incidentally it should show as navy blue) you can see I put a pocket right across the middle. This is fixed and could be useful but I DON'T like it!!!

In the last picture below that you can see the next idea in progress. The bag will look the same as the first one BUT this is going to be a sure winner, I think. The last picture is showing the lining and how I will put small 'pockets' on the inside of the bag.

If people have got time and inclination to let me know what else they carry in a tatting bag then I will incorporate it into the lining. I can go no further until brain cell # 3 makes the final decision.

Oh, I'll also be putting some stiffener into the base of the bag so that it stands firmly on it's butt!!!

Oh, before I go and get on with the day. Please go and visit my sister's new blog for more tatting.