Working on techniques

I've been working away on technique pages over the past few weeks.

This 'need' to add to the 'tips and techniques' section of my website has been brought on by questions asked by beginners in a group (or two) on Facebook and a recent realisation that some of my technique pages are quite useful.  

When I started the original website I was only interested in getting rid of patterns.  I honestly can't remember when or why I started adding techniques but eventually I did.  Actually it was probably to explain some of the things I was doing in patterns.

Then a few years ago I began to think that my printable techniques were 'old hat' when people started putting techniques on youtube.  I stopped doing them for a while but recently I've found that they are being used.

So I'm off on another adventure!!!  I need help, though.  I have 'my ways' of tatting and using techniques so need guidance and information about other ways.  

The first page I've re-done is this one.  Simply putting beads onto threads before starting a piece of work.  If you can add to this page then please let me know.  Simple but probably needs explaining.  

Next project is going to be about beads within/on rings and chains and any suggestions will again be VERY welcome.

Crafternoon

Yesterday it was 'Crafternoon' at Alcester library - the second meeting. 

I have two great friends who I volunteer with on Wednesdays/Thursdays and they'd asked if I would teach them to tat. 

It's ages since I've taught people right from scratch and I found it so interesting.  I realise that my hands are 'trained to tat' and that holding a thread is no problem because of that.  It's hard for new tatters to first of all 'see' the flip and secondly to achieve it.  I try very hard not to be a prescriptive teacher but to watch and see how a new student is comfortable with holding the threads and then work from there. 

Actually they did very well for a first lesson - just hope they come back for another 'go' rather than hit me over the head with a mallet!!!!  If you don't hear or see me after next Friday you'll know that the mallet came to Alcester!!!!

Remembering

A day to remember Gina. 

It's hard to believe that it's two years today since Gina died. She was my buddy for such a long, sweet time.  Although we live thousands of miles apart her quiet humour and patience with me was immeasurable.  A true lady.

I know lots of you have seen this picture before and I was really lucky to take it as we'd spent the whole day together without any cameras being taken out of our bags!! Gina was just leaving (you can see her car keys in her left hand) when I realised and took this one picture.  This was only a few months before her problems started.

Between this picture and her untimely death we spent hours emailing each other and talking about the dreadful fight with the cancer she'd got.  Always, but always Gina was positive so it came as a terrible shock when it won the battle Gina  had so bravely fought.

Miss you, Gina - the TIAS hasn't been the same since you left.  I miss you testing the pattern beforehand.  

Second version

Now this is the second version of the motif I showed you yesterday.  I went to make one of these a few weeks ago and couldn't follow my own directions.  I was tired and BC3 was on a short break away from me - said I was causing him too much stress.

Anyway, I finally got the motif finished and then decided that I really needed to do the directions again from the start.  It's only the final join that's the problem and really it's easy.  The hard part is explaining it.  In the end I decided to do it with pictures rather than drawings.  I hope this works for you.  Here's the link which I forgot to put on yesterday with this version at the bottom.

Playing around and updating.

This has always been a little favourite of my older designs.  Not sure why but I think it's cause it makes an ideal pendant.  

Often pendants swing round when you wear them and the backs aren't always as pretty as the fronts.  Well, in this case - that's not so.  As you can see - both sides are the front (or back if that's what you want to call them).

During this 'reincarnation' I decided to add beads.  Well, more beads!!  I've also changed the centre and got rid of a large picot that all the SCMR's had to join to.  Instead I've put in small vsp's and added beads to the rings on the SCMR.

Tomorrow I will show you the other version - IF I remember, of course!!!

Crafternoon

I have two things I enjoy in life - one is my crafts (mainly tatting, of course) and the other is teaching elderly people computer skills.

I teach on Wednesday mornings and nearly all day on Thursday. In the morning on a Thursday the sessions are in Alcester which is a few miles away from where I live. So ten days ago one of the library staff came into the silver surfer sessions and put a poster on the table advertising their new 'Crafternoon' which was starting on the 6th. 

Well, you know who was tempted, don't you? Yes, me. What a wonderful atmosphere in that room. Betty arrived who also attends silver surfers and she had us in stitches. Not the knitting, sewing or tatting ones but the 'can't stop laughing' ones. 

The library staff had kindly baked cakes - YUMMY and provided tea and coffee. It was a wonderful afternoon meeting new (and YOUNG) people who do a variety of crafts. I'll be back next week with a garment a friend gave me which I'm trying to felt as there's a smashing lass there who does that. I'll be picking her brain!!!

Maybe I'll pick up a few tatters along the way but mainly I just loved being with people who 'make'.

Last day

Last day of the TIAS - link here.

Another new member

First of all - tomorrow will be the final part of this year's TIAS.

Now today I'm going to introduce you to Margaret who has been making baubles for years. I've added her to the exclusive club which you can find on the tab at the top of the page.

"She says:-

"Right, Jane, nice sunny day here at the moment and I've been able to get a reasonable photo for you.

The hedgehog was made, about 10 years ago, at a tatting weekend, from a Shuttle Brothers pattern.

The bee, tatted as part of the Tatters Across Time course, was done about 5 years ago. After all the talk of tatted baubles on your blog, I got busy and did a whole bunch to add to purses for presents!

They sure are fun and the possibilities are endless!

Thank you for including me in your Exclusive Tatting club.

Margaret"

Chicken coaster/doily

Well this HAS to be the last for a while. I'm not bored with them but need to move on to other things. 

The coaster at the top was made with - mmmmmm, not sure but it's an HDT and a plain. Least I think it's plain!!!   Yes it is in the coaster.

So I made the coaster and was very surprised at how the thread worked out that each flowery part was dark pink in roughly the same places all the way round. Once finished I thought that the plain outside was a bit light and it needed the doily round to contain it and add some definition.

Doesn't that sound posh? Well that's actually not quite what I thought - I really thought 'this darn thing needs the outer round' with a bit more colour!!!  So, that's what I did.  

Out of the blue

First of all - here is the link to day 12.  Next one is the last!

Quite out of the blue (don't you just LOVE blue?) came this book the day before yesterday. It's HUGE and it's WONDERFUL and I must thank publicly the very kind person who gifted me with this.  She wishes to remain anonymous so I can't tell you her name.

This hardback book is by Edwige Renaudin who has put a LOT of work into the publication. The ISBN number is 978 2 84167 685 9. You can see the title on the picture. La Frivolity Aux Navettes.

At first glance it may look like a pretty basic book but on further exploration there's loads and loads in there to make BC3 sit up and think. AND try things out. It's all in French (obviously!) but with my schoolgirl knowledge (which is over half a century old and not as sharp as it used to be) and the help of Google translate, this book will be no problem. Why? Well, simply because it's so inspiring anybody would want to understand it.

I've posted a very small picture of a page - just to inspire you.  I'm very, very wary of posting pages from books because of copyright theft so I'm hoping the second picture will turn out REALLY small!!!!

Yes, another one!!!

I really must find somebody or several people to give all these coasters to. I think I'll soon be stopping people in the street and handing them out to passersby!!! 

When not doing these coasters my day job (when I'm actively avoiding housework etc) is working on more technique pages for the web site. 

These will be very basic bead pages at the moment but if anybody has any suggestions for other pages then please let me know. I'm 'in the mood' to draw and make pages!!!!

Another exclusive member

Don't forget - day 11 is now available on this link.

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Sara to the Exclusive Tatting Club. She's sent in a mouse to share with us and says:-

"I have made a mouse too, so maybee I can join your exclusive club now!? My mouse eyes and ears is a bit funny looking, maybe I made something wrong there, but it was a lot of fun making it! I thought I should find it boring to just do knot after knot, but it was just fun to see the mouse be created between my hands!Have a nice day, and thanks again just for beeing Jane who makes tatting even more fun!!"

She's really right about the 'not being boring'. I find it fascinating to see the little critters forming in my hands. Hats off to Randy and Gary for devising the whole book. There's not just critters in there - there are flowers, baubles of all types. I reckon it's really good value for money compared with a lot of books.

Well I am biased, I suppose but then I love making the critters and have several pairs of earrings too.

Day 10

Day 10 is now available on this link.

Day 11 will be ready on Monday. After that there will be two more until it's all over!!!!

Yawn, yawn, yawn!!

Another chicken wing doily, I'm afraid. I think I've got another one or two 'inside me' waiting to come out!!!

This one is again done in Yarnplayer's thread - size 20. I think this one is Fall Garden with another plain. The plain is probably a Flora one but the label is long gone!!! 

I'm sure I've told you this before but I'll say it again as it might be a useful tip for others. 

When I make something I always fill up shuttles. When I finish the project rather than make small doodles with the thread remaining or winding it onto a piece of cardboard or a thingy that you wind embroidery thread onto I always wind the thread back onto the ball. 

Of course, if there is less than a yard left it's not worth it. Why do I do this? Simply because if I put it on an embroidery thingy then I'd never know which ball it came off!!! By putting it back on the ball I know it's the right colour and shade in the right place. I also put a slip knot on the end that you can see so that I know that the thread I'm about to wind back onto another shuttle for another project in the future isn't going to be a full shuttle's worth. 

Does that make sense?  If not then file it under 'silly old woman rambling'.  Which actually is the truth!

A grump.

OK, today I'm going to do something I don't often do. I'm going to have a major grump.  Now, you may well ask, what have I got to grump about. Well, personally, not a lot as the subject of the grump doesn't affect me.

My major grump is about what is happening to my friends.  I'm grumbling about places like Pinterest and other similar boards where you can 'pin' things like patterns from books and magazines etc.  This sort of behaviour also happens on Facebook to a lesser degree and on blogs too - but not so often on those platforms.

I can understand why people scan books/patterns - I do as I want to preserve the book and not use it in case eventually it falls apart.  So, why DO people scan them and then put those scans online?  What do THEY actually gain from doing that?  Fame?  Fortune?  Followers?  It truly puzzles me.  All they're doing is denying another person or company of their income.

This action boils down to theft. Stealing. Robbery.  It's robbing the person who created the pattern/book of their income. Sometimes it's large companies and other times it's the self employed self publishing designer.  Even the large companies are affected and are less likely in future to invest their time and money in producing more pattern books.  Same with the small self publishing designers - they will give up too and probably even sooner.

Our craft only survives because of the patterns we already have and those who have the talent to provide more - don't let's destroy it.

So, please, if you're thinking of scanning and uploading ANYTHING that's from a  printed book or magazine THINK FIRST and please DON'T. Wherever you put something online it can be accessed and passed on.  

Would YOU publish your banking details online?  I think not.  By doing this it is exactly the same as publishing somebody else's bank details so that others can steal from their bank accounts.

Right - grump ended.

Day 9 and a mouse

Here is the link for day 9.

Well here is another new member of the Exclusive Tatting Club.

This time it's my friend Sue - also known as Pigmini. Her mouse arrived yesterday evening in a search for cheese, I think.

This is an unusual mouse as it's an albino one. If you go to this page you'll see him/her in the exclusive section of the club!!!

Another associate member

Yesterday was again thankfully busy with the TIAS but I'm going to hang back with day 9 until Wednesday to give the stragglers time to catch up. Also it gives me a day or two to catch up with myself too!!!!

Yesterday morning I had another application to join the Exclusive Tatting Club - see the page above this post. This time it was from Kristen who sent in a bauble so now becomes an associate member. I bet we'll soon be seeing her mouse!!!!

She says:

"I would like to apply for an Associate Membership in your exclusive club with this, my very first bauble attempt!!"

I hope to see you in the Exclusive club shortly, Kristen!

Do you like pink?

Now I DO like pink!!! Any sort of pink will do but pink it's got to be. Another chicken wing coaster for you to see.  Actually any bright colour is a favourite!!!

I am doing other things but with the Tat It And See taking a lot of time (which I LOVE) there isn't much left to do new things. 

I am trying to develop another pattern from the TIAS one and have been working on the new version since before the game started. I just find that some days BC3 just won't cooperate!!!!

Day 8

Day 8 is now ready on this link.

Just thought you'd like to know that I've been tatting along this year too!!! Well, I usually tat with everybody so I can help people out if they need it. Here's my offering!!!

More of the same!

Day 8 tomorrow!

Well here's another coaster. I'm afraid I'm going through a 'just playing with colours' phase at the moment with no real reason!! I think it's cause the Tat It And See is stopping me concentrating on one thing for very long. 

The thread for this one is Pansy by Yarnplayer (that's the pretty one) along with a plain something or other. Least I THINK I've got that right!!! Not sure what size this is but it's probably 20 but there again it could be 40. Sheeeeesh, I wish I had a brain that could do 'remembering' properly.

Having said that I'm 'just playing' - I am also working on another old pattern on my site as it's one that I love but could never quite explain the final join on the second motif. That's caused me hours of struggling to 'get it right' which I hope I'll eventually manage!!!