Secret Santa arrived

My Secret Santa package arrived last week.  Yup, it was late BUT that was really good because it was a surprise!!!   Also nobody else had one last week so I was the only one to be bragging!!!

I'd convinced myself that it was totally lost on it's way from 'wherever' but it arrived safe and sound and it was from that all time one off STINKER called Erin!!!!!!   I'm calling her a stinker cause she teased me about it unmercifully saying that there was a ransom note from her postie on it too.  

What was in it?  As we say here in the little old UK - 'everything but the kitchen sink'!!!!

Here's a picture for you to see.  There will be more on this subject at a later date.  Believe me, Erin, there will be more!!!!

A coincidence!!!

T'other day I was browsing the blogs (as an old git HAS to do to avoid doing the dreaded H word) and was looking at the HDT's on offer.  I'm a fussy OG when it comes to variegated threads so have never really been that interested until I saw celery by Yarnplayer.  This one caught my eye.  I've got some lovely Lizbeth threads and others in green but really you do need an variegated one for leaves as I found out when I was playing with the beaded one a week or two ago.

Well, having convinced myself (yet again) that I didn't 'need' more thread I wandered off to other blogs.  Well, imagine my surprise AND joy when a packet came from Sue Anne Scriber on Saturday with - go on, I know you're better at guessing this than the TIAS - yes, some celery HDT in it.  Not only 20 but 40 AND some sugar maple in 80!  There were two wee butterflies that Sue Anne had made out of the celery and which confirmed what I'd guessed - there is a lovely graduated colour change in the dying.

Oh in the picture you'll see some chocolates there.  Ummmmm, there was one more but it got 'lost' on the way upstairs to the scanner.

Thank you, Sue Anne for the surprise package AND especially for the lovely letter which came with it - I'm still blushing.

Day 6 now added

Good Sunday morning to all in tat land!!!

I've just added the link to day 6.  This, along with days 7 and 8 will be slightly more challenging as you do a few changes of direction and adding in and taking out of your THIRD thread.  After day 8 the rest will be 'plain sailing'.

Please don't give up now as you are roughly half way and I'm sure you will like the result!!  I will be here to offer advice, support and extra drawings should they be needed.

Happy tatting!!!

P.S.  I thought I'd just add the following comment from Isa after she'd done day 6.  I asked her (because she was SO fast) whether she'd had any problems.  This is what she said:-

"Yes the was a little difficult but I read all the instructions very carefully twice and after I understanded all.

I'm so happy with this play because I'm a begginer. I'm learned in May 2009 to tatting. Today I'm addicted to tatted every day. "

Day 5 link is now 'live'!

This is the link for day 5.  Hope you enjoy this one - after this things change!!!!!

Re-inventing the wheel!

Well sort of.

I'm working on something new and part of it involves this wee sample.  

I did it one way and (as usual, having a butterfly brain) as soon as I'd finished I thought of a better way of working it!!!  So I decided to do just that to find out what the difference would be.

Can anybody spot the difference?  Same stitch count.

Day 4 is out

Wednesday morning and I think it's now time to release day 4!  How do I know this?  Because my inbox has quietened down!!!  There are one or two to add to the blog but I felt I ought to drag the aged bones out of bed early to post the new link and I'll sort the drifters in later.

There is no such thing as 'being late' with doing the stages of a TIAS.  Take it all in your own time.

A useful piece of information!!

Yesterday while 'sorting through' and listing the TIAS offerings I visited Isa's blog which is all in 'foreign'!!!!  

Thankfully I noticed a google translating gadget on there so clicked on that.  WOWEEEEE.  It all suddenly became English.  THANKS ISA.  I've now put a gadget on my blog so that anybody can read it - if they're brave enough!!!!

Day 3 now up on the links

Let's see if I can get the links right today!!!  For those expecting another boo booo on my behalf - sorry!!!!

Here's the link for day 3!!!  Remember this is a 'new start' but please don't lose the other part which you've put to one side!!!!  You WILL need it later!!!

Up-date!

Well I let myself down yesterday - I made a mistake on one of the blog postings - took me most of the day to find it too.  Thankfully Katie V and Wendy told me about it and Sally pointed me to the right place.  I've been trying to say thank you to Wendy but my message keeps bouncing.  So, thanks, Wendy from here!!!

What had I done wrong?  I'll explain!!!  As we're snowed in (I did manage to stagger out and get milk and bread 'on the hoof' yesterday) I thought I'd have a lie in and read in the morning.  So on Thursday evening I did a draft post but put in the link for day 3 by accident!!!  DUH, where IS my dear number 3 when I need him!!  So a few people picked up the wrong link.  I will NOT be doing draft posts again on the TIAS unless I've had a glass of red wine beforehand which might help, of course!!!  

I did explain to myself that it wasn't really the 'end of the world' as I'm not charging for this so in the end I gave myself a good whack on the bum, smiled and got on with the day!!!!

Tomorrow is day 3 and a whole new 'part'!!!!

Day 2 now available!!!!

Still 'snowed in' here in my part of tat land.  Beginning to go 'stir crazy'!!!  Who said that I'm already crazy?  I know I am!!!

Anyway, here's the link for day 2.  Now that everybody has got into the swing of it I think I'll be 'hotting up the pace' for a few days although things do get more 'challenging' later!!!!!

Only 1, so far!!

This is the first of a set of 3 small crosses which will go in my Etsy store later (or tomorrow).

I'm really enjoying doing these but need soon to get back to designing!!  I've got a brilliant idea (with a nudge from a friend) for another ............

It snowed so I Etsy'd!!!!

Yesterday it snowed here.  Why do I mention it? Simply because it's a rare occurence here in this town.  Even 10 miles away people can be badly affected by snow but not here!!!

So, that's got the boring bit out of the way so now to tell you what I got up to while it snowed!!!!

First of all I launched the Tat It And See and all went quiet.  VERY quiet!!  Is that good or is it bad!!!!!

I decided to list some crosses that I made over the Christmas period on Etsy.  You can find a link on the sidebar to the shop.   I am VERY pleased with these.   There's one with a flowery centre, a Celtic one and an Iona cross design.  I'm not going to put these on my site for a while as I may offer them to other places first.  We'll see!!!!  I used some of Lyn Morton at Tatting and Design's threads - two sorts wound on the page together.  It required care to tat them but well worth it.

TIAS - Link to Day 1

OK, here you go!!!!!  I'm putting this link on both blogs just so that I 'catch' you all!!!!  

I will publish all comments and work in progress on the other TIAS blog which can be found HERE!!!

Here's the link you've been waiting for.  Happy tats to all!!!!

All about shuttles

Yesterday I rambled on at length about not needing shuttles to tat with and how tatting is basically manipulating the thread 'as is'.  But when making a larger item it can be useful to own the odd shuttle or 100!!!

Well, today I'm going to ramble about something dear to my heart - shuttles!!!  I started off in tat land using the Milward shuttle as that was all my gran and I could get our mucky mitts on!!!  I loved the 'dip' in it but not the separate hook which usually found it's way down the side of the chair never to be seen again!!!  I then 'progressed' onto the Aero - which I still use and also the Silent Tatter which again I like loads.  BUT I now have another shuttle.

This one is the prototype that Sally's husband is making in their garage.  I haven't told you before because it was sort of TOP SECRET but now I'm going to share my opinions of this shuttle.

Well, it's light, it's wood and it feels great.  During the design progress several improvements have been made and the latest design (which I saw and held yesterday) are really lovely to hold and use.  Nick (Sally's husband) is even making the hooks to fit in the ends!!!!  There's a lovely 'finger dip' in them too.

We've been discussing marketing them and are thinking about doing that through my Etsy shop.  When that will happen will depend totally on the temperature in the 'factory' - AKA Sally's garage!!!  You can't lock a guy in a freezing garage!!!

More to follow on this subject!!!!

Hmmmm

TattingChic and I were having a 'natter' via email a couple of days ago after a remark at her Lace Guild about something and this got both of us thinking and talking!!!  I've had the same thing said to me many years ago when I abandoned the lace bobbins to return to the shuttle.

'They' say that tatting is NOT lace.  DUH!!!!  So off went dear old brain cell 3 into the unknown territory of the internet (without his safety gear too!!).  


First of all IS it lace or not?  The first link I found was this!  This defines for the clothing industry that tatting IS lace.  Then onto Wikipedia for this link.  Very interesting as it certainly does define tatting as lace.  

Another thing that number 3 learnt whilst on his outing was that the definition of TATTED lace was that it was made with a shuttle!  No mention of the needle at ALL!!!!  Personally I always call it a knotted lace made using a shuttle too.


This is really not at all surprising as the current way of needle tatting is a relatively recent idea - certainly within my lifetime.  In the 'dim and distant past' a needle was sometimes used instead of the shuttle to make the transferred knot.  The way the thread is manipulated using a needle nowadays is entirely different to the shuttle method.  I like the name of 'faux tatting' to define the difference between the two ways of achieving ALMOST the same thing.  I tried needle tatting in the past (actually as soon as I saw it advertised back in the 70's).


At first the needle appealed to me as a 'teaching tool'.  One that may help to show people and get them comfortable with the way the knot should look.  I realised that there were WAAAAYYYY too many ends to sew in and the resulting piece didn't 'do' it for me as it wasn't firm and was a a lot bulkier than that which I could achieve with the shuttle.  So tat was the end of tat and a rapid return to the traditional shuttle ensued!!!  

Nowadays there seems to be a 'zone' where shuttle tatting is being 'needled out' (get the pun?!?!?!) by the needlers.  Actually as you don't need either 'tool' I wonder what I'm talking about!!!  


Hang on, what did I just say?  


Actually that's right - you don't need a tool to tat - you can just manipulate the thread without.  Nowadays it's called 'finger tatting'.  VERY useful for many reasons.


BUT you can't 'do' needle tatting without a needle - you can't 'finger tat' it!!!  Tatting IS the formation of the stitch by reversing the thread as a reverse-hitch stitch onto it's own thread. The needle needs something for the thread to wrap round - without which it's a 'lost cause'.  AH, perhaps it could be called 'wrapped tat lace'!!!!  Somebody could then write a rap for the wrapped tat lace'!!!!  


BOY, all that thinking was hard work for number 3 to work out!!!


Hey, ho, this is all heavy going for only the third day of the New Year!!!!  

Announcing the start

It's all ready to go!!!

TIAS 2010 (well, hopefully the first of many this year).  

Here's the link to the introduction and the start date will be 

TAH DE DAH - hmmmm, hang on a minute let me think.  

What have I got to do next week?

Which day shall we make it?

Ah, here we go - Tuesday 5th January. 

Ah, before you go may I just say thanks to all those people who left comments yesterday.  I honestly didn't think I'd said much that was worth commenting on!!!  I made the leaves during the evening, scanned them on the new 'toy' and then did that 'off the cuff' post!!!  Maybe I shouldn't think before posting in future as I normally do?!?!?!?

On second thoughts.

On second thoughts and after thinking hard (well for about ten seconds) about the rigmarolle of making New Years resolutions I decided that (as usual) I wouldn't bother.  No point really as I never get past the first day!!

So instead I decided to turn over a new leaf.  Here's one of them!!!!

DARN.  Now I have more decisions - which one do I turn over and what WILL I find underneath!!

Houston we have problems!

Well, only a small one!!  Yesterday I managed to sort the TIAS finally during the day.  Lots of 'titivating' of drawings and text.

All I need to do now is to put each day up on the web site AND do the links!!  That'll take time!

Meanwhile a 'follow up' to the TIAS is almost sorted too - one more to go (or maybe two)!!  I'm thinking I may be ready by next week but will know more by tomorrow!!

The problem yesterday was putting Windows 7 onto my little laptop!!   Took/is taking longer than we thought but now it's on and all I have to do is install the 'other' software.  Shouldn't take long as I don't use a lot of fancy stuff on it as mostly I use it for internet access and writing down patterns 'on the hoof' in the evenings.  Beats watching the television any day!!!

So, yesterday evening I made two more butterfly bookmarks. 

Talking to myself about the TIAS

Well after an 'interesting interlude' called Christmas things are getting back to normal in my corner of Tat Land.

I decided yesterday that I really should look again at the proposed TIAS (Tat It And See).  I left it alone about a month ago because I got confused with myself and 'it'.  So I sat down yesterday and got to about day 7 and was thoroughly 'lost'.

This (for those who are interested) is how I work.  I work on a design/project until I'm reasonably satisfied with it.  I then move on to something else and let the project 'fester' for a while.

A few weeks, days or even months later I return to it with a well scrubbed brain cell number 3.  This works for me.  Yesterday after number 3 was well rested and full of mince pies etc I got back to the TIAS.  


It was worse than I thought!!!  When I first started on this I'd done the drawings on the PC.  Fortunately not many but then had to learn the new software and re-do them.  Hopefully I'll get more time today to put the project 'to bed' (as 'they' say!).  Once that's done I'll be able to work out a date for the start of TIAS 2010!!!

A leaf for the quilt square

Sometime over the last week or so I made this leaf for the quilt square.

I did write the pattern down sort of so I should be able to make another if I need to!!!!