Start of a new motif

Look at this really simple looking motif.  Doesn't it look easy?  Two rounds only.

This is a wee motif that I started after the Roundabout motif.  Looks OK but I didn't like the 'bare midriff' in the middle so I've sorted that out (I think) - more over the next few days.

Taffy pendant

I bet you've guessed what today's post will be!!!  I'm afraid I don't have a lot of imagination!! 

Yes it's a Rainbow Taffy pendant to go with yesterday's earrings!!!  Now I did have a pendant almost exactly like this but the scissors 'took it'.  Mainly because I couldn't find the same beads for the earrings that I'd used in the original pendant AND I didn't like the way I'd added the finding at the top.  Here's the original.  Well if you read that post you'll find that was the replacement for yet another 'original'!!!!  

Can you see how I've changed the way I've added the findings?  The original sort of tilted forward and was pulling that part out of sync.  This one will hang a lot better.  I must apologise for the picture - I scanned it before I slightly stiffened it.  I was in a hurry!!!

Taffy earrings

I must first apologise if I haven't made sense over the past few days but I've had an invasion of small people who are totally delightful but tiring.  I'm hoping that 'normal blogging' will now be resumed after today when they go home!!!

Having made the last pendant to match the button earrings I decided to break out my all time Lizbeth thread - Rainbow Taffy.  I've no idea who thought that name up but it's as cheerful and bright as the thread itself.  I just love this one.  So, today I have a pair of button earrings to show you using Rainbow Taffy.  Don't they look fabulous?

Pendant

First of all today I'd like to show you this link which Margaret found yesterday.  Now we all know where to get these findings from.  Thanks, Margaret.

A looooooong time ago I made a pair of earrings and I've worn them no end of times.  I used that trick of putting beads over a button which I love doing.  You can see one of the pair at the bottom of this page.

Anyway, sorting out my 'ensemble' to take to America I realised I hadn't got a pendant to go with them.  So the other evening I made one.  Here it is.  Again I've used a (to quote Diane, Lace Lovin Librarian) doodad which was part of some earrings that I bought just over a year ago - see this link.  I do hope I haven't lost the other earring or I'll have to make another pair!!!  This is one of my favourite Lizbeth threads.  It's called Mountain Breeze.

If you look closely you'll see I've actually joined to a space within the doodad and not on the very edge.  I like this idea as it makes the tatting look as if it's 'growing out of' the doodad.

Red for danger!

This is a new bracelet I've made to go with my reddish top that I bought to take with me on our trip.  

Originally it was like this and I wore it only twice.  Why?  Well it just kept annoying me.  The metal findings that I used were 'cupped' and although the bracelet was a good fit they still kept turning over which annoyed me intensely.  So the scissors were brought in and it was demolished.  

Here is the new version - below.  I had to put an extra split ring in to make it fit my wrist in spite of careful measuring and lots of muttering.  Still, once on nobody will notice - except me.  I HOPE I don't feel I have to cut this version up!!!

By the way - the clasps at each end are my very, very favourites for bracelets and I just can't find them anywhere.  If anybody knows of a supplier then please, pretty please with sugar on the top - would you tell me?

Messing around on the river!

Well, no, not really but messing about with an old pattern again!!  Actually it's this one.

So, I decided (yet again!) to check this pattern out and see if it could be written any better.  This was a nightmare to annotate in the first place and I've a feeling that it might stay 'as is' - at any rate for now!!!  Below is the original pattern with the picots and then below that a modified version with more doubles in the body and no picots.  Least I think that's what I did!!!  

Oh, I also used the two colours to make lock chain antennae which look a lot snazzier than the originals  don't you think?

Tested again and sorted!

After mumbling about 'ups and downs' here's another of these bracelets!!  It's a good job I've got a few victims to give them to when I get to Tat Days or we'd be over run with the darn things in the house!!!

I've finally sorted the pattern out and it's here and ready for anybody who wants to tackle it.  I'm hoping it's more understandable now.

A visit is on the agenda

Tomorrow I have two grandkids coming to stay for a few days.  SUCH excitement.

Abbi is nearly five and loves to have my odds and ends of tatting so there's quite a collection on the end of my table where she 'finds' things!!!  Nathan aged nine has grown out of this so I'll find other things for him to 'find'.  Anyway I've added this ballerina to the collection - 'just because'.  If anybody wants the pattern then it's on my site somewhere.  Oh, hang on - here it is!!

Meantime I must get on with the day - we had to have a new central heating boiler and yesterday it was 'the' day it was installed.  Fabulous guys who didn't make any mess and were very pleasant.  Gallons of coffee were drunk and they worked tirelessly all day without a break. Now I have to sort the bedroom out where the boiler 'lives' and make some space for the kids!!!

The horrors of writing patterns down.

I'm not sure if I'm the only person who spends so much time on the writing and illustrating of a pattern but if others do too then I'm normal.  If they don't then - well please send for the 'men in white coats' as I'm obviously NOT normal.  Then again you all know that already so what AM I blathering on about?

So having tested the second bracelet pattern I went off to do the drawings and put the page back together again.  

Horrors of horrors when I read the instructions for the first bracelet whilst doing this I was convinced they were wrong.  Back to making the first version again with a fresh brain cell and a tad more concentration.  

Another bracelet

So I showed you the bracelet I was working on here but what I didn't mention was that there are actually two versions of this on my site - both on the same page.  I thought I'd better check version two while I was still in the right frame of mind and that's what I've done here.  

Well I thought it was all going very well until I'd finished this one and started putting the drawings back into the page.

DUH, was that join up, down or in between!!!  I've now got to check the first version once again.  I'll not be beaten by a few yards of thread and a few hours of work so it's 'back to the drawing board' again!!!

IF I win the lottery (fat chance of that as I never buy a ticket) then I'm going to invest in an extra brain cell.  What do you think?

SSSR LCh bracelet

Going back to the lanyard and the bracelet I thought I'd make another type of bracelet but with a more 'flowery' look to it.  

If you look closely at this one you'll see that there's an extra chain going round the SSSR's too. I do like to see what brain cell 3 can come up with!!!  He needs a bit of stimulation from time to time just to keep him awake in the evening!!!

Thank you

I'd like to say a big thank you for all who helped with suggestions on my 'avoiding the folded join' join page.  If you can follow that!!!  Particular thanks go to Suzanne who spent ages on the task.

It was reassuring to find that I wasn't the only one who just 'didn't get' the idea of folding the one bit over to make the join and also it was great that it might help one or two people to be able to tackle the 'problem' from a different perspective too.

As a result of the wonderful input (Saturday blog posts are normally very quiet when it comes to comments) I was kept busy all day nattering to friends all round the world - great excuse for another 'H' word free day!!!

This morning I have added the page to the 'tips and techniques' page and a direct link is here if you want to see what I've now done.  Of course I'm always willing and able to discuss this further and make other improvements/adjustments to the file!!!!  I'm a slave to tatting!!!

A conundrum

Many many times during my life in Tat land I have tried to get my head round the 'folded join'.  This is the join used by so many when the final ring is joined to the first ring - see picture below.  This is a much needed technique when the chains are facing towards the centre of the motif.

Now i have a confession.  I've never understood this folded join and have never found the 'need' for it either.  I suppose I've never 'needed' it because the way I do it instinctively means I don't get a twisted picot anyway!!  This is the reason so many people want to learn the join - to avoid the twisted picot!!

Well I've been trying to put a page together to show how I avoid the 'painful experience' of the folded join.  Here it is.  This page is NOT on my site properly yet as I'm still working on it.  I'm appealing for help here and suggestions.

I THINK this only applies to the 'up' join but I'm not sure.  I've never used down joins very much except on rare occasions to avoid 'blips' of colour.  PLEEEEEESE, pretty please take time to look at this and tell me what isn't clear and what can be improved.  My email address is in my profile.

Bracelet

As some of you will know - I'm never completely satisfied with what I've done and I'm always checking and re-checking my work.  

Over the years my notation has changed a bit and also the drawings.  Well the diagrams had to change when I converted from PC's to Apple.  Anyway, I digress.  I decided the other day that it was about time I re-visited this pattern again. 

When I first did this pattern (which turned into two versions) I used 4 primary plain colours.  This time I've used all Lizbeth threads - two variegated and two plain.  Believe me - this bracelet (needs finishing with clasps) really ZINGS.

New shuttles

Look what arrived the day before yesterday - a complete set of the new Aerlit shuttles as a 'thank you' from Barb of Handy Hands for testing the black ones she sent me some time ago.  I've used the blacks (which weren't the 'final' ones) constantly since they arrived (the hooks weren't finished off) and found them really good.  Thank you Barb - it's a pleasure to help you at any time.  Such a generous lass is Barb.

These will be travelling with me to Tat Days and I'm hoping to get some of them wound with my lesson threads today.  I also plan on doing my visa online today too as that's becoming a 'nighttime worry'.  Why?  Goodness knows - it's not hard and doesn't take long but the silliest things seem to bother brain cell 3 in the middle of the night!!!!!

Oh, Barb did add that the shuttles would be shipping mid to late October so for all you Aero addicts 'out there' keep an eye on the Handy Hands site.

The end of the tease!

Ta, de, da.  It's a Mug Mat.  A Jane Eborall style mug mat!

Miranda and God's Kid got it right yesterday but my sister was WAY off the mark!!!  

I started making these for us but then Nick found some more coasters in a drawer so we don't need them.  

They have a heatproof lining and are washable which makes them really useful.  I've got about ten made so I'll be taking them to Tat Days and putting them in the vending room.  If they don't sell there they'll make their way into the Etsy shop.  I must close the shop down over the next few days as the rest of the bags are going on the trip too - plus the bookmarks which have already left the shop.  

Another teaser

OK, now I've finished the project.  BUT what is it?  Any further guesses?

This one looks a bit 'scruffy' in the picture but I assure you it's fine in 'real life'.  Notice - this is another colour combination again!!!

Send for the paramedics!

After the car crash here I managed to send in the paramedics.  This is what they did.

So, what's going to happen next and why the very carefully pressed in creases?  More to follow in due course - OR when I remember!!

OK, you can see that this time I'm showing a different variegated thread.  Why?  Well because that just happened to be what was near me when I decided to scan another stage.  

When I was teaching 'smallies' I used to tell them a story (or, part of one) and always left it on a 'cliffhanger'.  This reminds me of one of those.  'What will happen next' times.  

I guess nowadays you'd say 'follow me on Facebook' to see the next instalment.  Which reminds me - I am starting to use that place more often as they haven't changed things for a while and confused me.  I'm sure that's what happens - the whole world is conspiring to confuse me.  Little does it realise how little it takes to do that!!!  I do have a page called 'Jane's Tatting Adventures' and I'm starting to put the odd thing on there.  Also I use facebook to catalogue my daily walks.  Why?  Purely to keep the OG interested!!!!  I'll never give up on my blog, though.  It's my very special own space!!

Is this a car crash?

This really does look like a car crash to me - pretty colours but a car crash!  Actually, no - it's a shuttle crash.

Now I'm going to ask you a question.  What am I doing here?  Doesn't it look a mess?  Well actually I'm hoping it does turn out to be better than it looks in the end.  If not then I'll have wasted a lot of time!!

Answers on a postage stamp please - sent to the OG.

Ros's bracelet

My friend Ros and I 'do' the charity shops on a Monday.  Not every Monday but most of them!!!

I was showing her the new bracelet last Monday and she liked it a lot.  So I got her to choose the colours she wanted so I could make her one.  Here it is.  I was being a bit sneaky as I really wanted to make another as I do enjoy the process of making the SSSR's!!

The pattern is now ready and can be found here. Believe me there were so many combinations that can be made with this idea that it was a hard time trying to keep brain cell 3 to one 'theme'.  

If you like this idea then please go and re-visit this page as the lanyard is done in much the same way.  It's just really a matter of getting the hang of the technique and then just 'doing your own thing'.