Isn't packing boring?

I wish it was the normal packing that I do at this time of the year when I'm heading out of the country to America or Canada to visit Palmetto Tat Days or the Fringe Tat Days. That packing isn't boring at all.  

I'm really, really regretting taking this year off from doing a trip. Part of my 'reasoning' was that it would give me longer to prepare some interesting new patterns for next year but guess what? It hasn't started yet!!!!

The packing I'm talking about is for the sale in the library in October. I'm gradually labelling everything, pricing it and putting it in my suitcase to wheel down the road. I just hope I don't have a suitcase full to bring back home with me!!!

A sad sight!

This is the saddest thing you can imagine. The end of a ball of thread. Not just any ball of thread but one of my favourites. 

It was the variegated green that I used on these Christmas tree earrings. 

It's sad but also a sort of happy time too. It means I've now got a good excuse to buy another ball of thread. Now do I need anymore thread? Of course not.

But temptation is always there, isn't it? Fortunately there's a very similar colour combination in the Lizbeth range. It's number 138 - Leafy Green. I wonder if I've got any in my stash? Must check it out!!!

A 'not so new' new pattern

Well here it is!!! It is new to you but old to me!!! 

Remember I told you on Monday that I'd found two patterns on my computer? Here's one of them. The one with the ridiculous name!!! Ipsy Dipsy. 

I'm not sure why this hasn't seen daylight until now. I certainly haven't 'sold my soul' and the pattern which would then mean I lose my copyright. I just can't think why I didn't post this on the website before.

I'm easily led astray by another idea long before the previous one has been properly dealt with. I wonder if that's what happened - although I did have a few family issues to deal with around that time. 

Well, doesn't matter now as the pattern is done, dusted and flying round in cyberspace - whatever that is!!!  Here's the link to the pattern - before I inevitably wander off again and forget!

Thank you earrings

Remember all the findings and 'things' I was given? Here they are.  Well the person who handed them to me told me that the lady who'd donated them loved purple. 

Amongst the earring bits and bobs were purple shepherd's crook findings so they had to be pulled out to make the following.

Of course that took hours and hours as it's not easy to do such fiddly designs when you've nothing to start from. Not sure I'll do another pair just yet but if I do I've written down the pattern!!! I doubt anybody else would be foolish enough to want to do a pair like this!!

Thinking caps on, please

The working name for this snowflake is 'Snowflake 2018'. How VERY boring is that?

I'm wondering if anybody can come up with a better idea as I always struggle with naming things. Even BC3 is hopeless too so it's no good asking him!

I'm now looking at this and wondering if I could join the outer rings to make an ongoing mat? I really, really REALLY ought to finish the diamond project first but ...............

Names for this snowflake would be very welcome - the sillier the better as those names seem to stick with my brain!!! 

Which reminds me - I found a couple of interesting patterns in my computer the other day and one has the silliest name ever. I'm sure I must've thought it up as it's beyond stupid. More about that as I slowly get it (and the other rogue) 'fit to fly' on the internet.

Meet somebody new!

Two of the ladies were knitting hedgehogs at the Tuesday morning group a week ago and it was so, so tempting.

I asked for the pattern and they shared it with me but I've no idea of the source as it was handwritten. It's a pretty simple one so I'm pretty sure it would be easy to find somewhere on the internet but I though I'd just go with what I was given. 

The finished hedgehogs will go to a couple of teenagers who are doing a lot of very good work round Stratford with saving hedgehogs and they want knitted ones to give away. 

Here's an article that I found from the local newspaper.  They can happily have my little chap tomorrow via my knitting friends.

A bit of bling a ding ding

Just because. 

Honestly - that's all. Just because I spotted some ring 'things' in my cupboard the other day I decided I had to have a new finger ring! I don't wear an engagement or wedding ring but do have another two rings on my right hand so thought that a ring on my left hand might be fun. 

I used the Lizbeth gold metallic thread which I think worked out a bit bigger than I really wanted but it is very much a 'statement' ring. It says 'this woman's bonkers'.

Oh, this is the pattern I used. I think I'm going to make another with (probably) a finer thread - perhaps a size 40?

Refurbished seahorse

Hopefully I've had time and/or have remembered. OR both and the refurbished seahorse pattern is now on my site - here!!!.  I'm recovering from a grandkid invasion but I've put it in my calendar to upload this morning.  I hope to be out of bed and have it done before the blog post goes out but who knows if that will actually happen!!  If not I'll get it done as soon as I surface from my slumbers.

You can see below that I've had to make more of these little critters.  My excuse was that I was testing the pattern - again and again.  BUT who needs excuses really!

One could say that BC3's going through a 'seahorse phase'!

Never say never!

I bet you all thought I'd given up on my diamond project? Well I never give up (well, very rarely) and thought I'd bring you an update on progress.  This is where I was back in May.

As you can probably guess - I'm beginning to feel that this project is now big enough. So on this final set of diamonds I'm trying to start an edging. 

I will eventually do an edging (probably two or three rows in depth) round the whole caboodle. But I felt that it wouldn't really work unless I'd levelled things off a bit first.

So, when the last few diamonds have been done I'll fathom a way of making an edging which will go 'all round' but leaving the triangular 'hole' as a sort of 'match' to the diamond 'holes'. If you understand.

I take this project with me when I'm 'out and about' at crafty meetings as I can make progress without too many boo boo's. I do make mistakes (I blame it on the talking around me) but that's tatting for you!!!

Still busy

I'm still busy trying to get things ready for the October fair in the library.

I've made a dozen bookmarks using several different patterns but won't be making anymore as I'm not sure many people still read paper books. 

Personally I only read digital nowadays. A lot of the reason is because I can adjust the font size and also it's easier to carry around a phone/tablet/ereader than a paper book.

Shame really as I love making bookmarks and there are so many out there to choose from too.

More gifts!

Well, well, well. I was given further gifts by Ali who said that they'd come from the same source. 

They came from the same lady who sent these.

I'm going to share these out eventually but all my findings need sorting so once the grandkids have gone I'll settle down to that job.

Interestingly I looked at the bag of gold rings (under and on the right of the blue bag) and initially thought they were jump rings. I never ever use those as things jump off! I always use the split rings that look like the ordinary key rings. 

I got one or two out of the bag and they didn't appear to have a space where the two 'ends' of the metal meet. I've brought them home (will return them if it doesn't work) to test them with thread. If the thread doesn't wriggle it's way between the join then it'll be a 'win, win' situation. If they don't work I'll pass them onto somebody who can make use of them.

A gift

Now I belong to several drop in craft groups where everybody exchanges ideas and help with all sorts of projects. I go to one of the groups on a Thursday afternoon and last week I went after a two week absence.

Ali, the person who's 'in charge' asked me if I used earring findings. Well of course I do as I always go out with a pair of earrings on. I'd feel naked without!! I never wear makeup (or muckup as I like to think of it) but always wear things hanging from my ears!!! 

She'd been given these and asked me if I could use them. What a lovely question to ask and of course they came home with me!!!

I feel another earring session (perhaps some more seahorses - see yesterday's post) coming on but I will HAVE to make myself throw away some of the older ones!

Seahorse earrings

I had an accident last Sunday evening. A BIG accident too. I knocked over the stand that my earrings hang on. There's a picture below of the rescued and restored stand.

The result of this was that they all fell behind and below a VERY large heavy oak table. I scrambled around underneath and behind and rescued them all except one of a pair which was my very favourite design.  So on Monday morning  and armed with a torch I managed to find and restore the favourite earring. 

Whilst doing that I decided to 'get rid of' my unfavourite ones so the yellow/orange seahorses below HAD to go. I just didn't like their colour or much about them, really. 

I decided a re-think needed to happen. First of all I wasn't happy with the tail. The whole seahorse didn't really 'dangle' well so a bit more weight needed to be added to the tail. More beads, I thought!  Then there were a few more 'tweaks' required too.  Finally I came up with the ones you see at the bottom of this post.  I now have to re-draw, and play with the layout before replacing the link on the pattern site.  I'll be back when I've done that and after I've made another pair or two or three or four etc!!

Playing around

Before I start the daily (well five days a week) ramblings of an OG (old git - me) I must say a HUGE thank you to those who commented either on my blog post t'other day or on Facebook.  You've restored my faith in blogging as I was sort of beginning to flag.  

Little did I know when I scheduled the post that the same day I'd be offered a flight in a microlight which is why I was a bit late responding to comments and didn't get to say this on yesterday's post!!!  I'm not sure my feet are on the ground, yet!!!  

Well hopefully down to earth and down to 'business'!!!

I've been playing around!!! 

I made a bookmark using this bookmark (or bracelet!) pattern a week or two ago and after I'd done it I had a 'what's if' moment!!!

'What if' I did just six SCMR's and could I turn it into a snowflake? Well it took a bit of working out as the stitch count had to be 'jiggled' to make it lie well but this is the prototype. All done in one round too so no ends to hide until you get to the end. 

I must admit that's always an aim in my designs - to make something that avoids sewing in ends. Trouble is it does sometimes restrict the way BC3 works but he usually gets round the problem!!!!

I need to make at least one more 'decent' one to check everything over and then I'll draw it up and eventually (well, you know me!) I'll get it onto my pattern site!!!

Coasters or small doilies?

I'm not quite sure what to call these!!! I know I've made lots of them and have now packaged them ready for the October craft fair that I'm taking part in.

The pattern is in Rosemarie Peel's book and I've shown these many times before!!! Here's a link to more information on where to find the pattern.

I met the other 'crafters' on Sunday as we had a planning meeting.  They're all really lovely people so I'm sure we'll all have fun even if we don't sell a lot of things!

The third top and some questions

Interesting thoughts have occurred to me. Yes, BC3 and I do think from time to time!!!

On Friday I spoke about the Christmas tree earrings that I finally decided to put on my pattern site. Now I don't want or desire fame or glory as you know but it did make me wonder how many people read my blog posts nowadays as there were very few (4 only) comments on that post. So I decided to look back through the past weeks and I think the comments are falling off. 

Now I'll be honest as that doesn't particularly bother me because the reason for the blog is about me keeping track of me and what I'm doing.  I'm wondering if blogs are dying a death or if people just aren't interested in mine? OR could it be to do with the settings I've got on the comments section? OR to do with Facebook taking over?  I'd love to know.  Comments welcome and particularly if you're finding me boring.  I'd understand and then be able to do something about it whatever the cause is - I hope.

Below is the final top I've made. If you look closely you'll see that the print is scissors!!! I also used another neckline on this one as well. Just right for the hot weather we've been having.

Christmas tree pattern

Not new by any means BUT a new way of working it.  This method means no ends until you get to the end - if you see what I mean.  

In the original it meant ends to sew in on every row but you know I'm lazy and  I worked out a way of doing this little earring with only the ends at the end to sew in.

I've agonised over this pattern for ages wondering if I should or shouldn't share it but in the end I've decided to go ahead and hope it doesn't cause any worries  or upsets to anybody.

This was done in 1993 in it's original form and then I found at least one other person had come up with the same idea. Anyway I've gone ahead and rewritten and redrawn the pattern and you can find it here.

An anniversary card

A lovely couple who live almost opposite us celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last Friday. 

The people in this road are amazing as if anybody is in trouble we all pitch in to help. I was one of a team who was privileged to being allowed to help them over the past year or so while they both recovered from operations. 

I was invited to help them celebrate their anniversary so set out to find a suitable card. A diamond wedding card was what I was looking for. There were a few in town but they were far too 'soppy' for me so I was stuck.  I'm hopeless at making cards and have no imagination for them.  

Then I spotted this card which I thought was cute - specially as the manufacturer had left a space at the bottom for a '60' and a diamond!!!!

Simply a cute hedgehog

Teresa has sent in this bauble hedgehog. He's now living in the Exclusive Club which you can find here.

I'm wondering if anybody doesn't know where to find the patterns for these wonderful critters? If you don't know then here's the link to the book by the fabulous Houtz brothers. You can also order from your favourite tatting supply sellers. 

I'm going to tease you now by not telling you what Teresa said. You'll have to go to the Exclusive page to find out!!! I'm a rotten person, I know. You can tell me how horrid I am in the comments.

Problem solved

Well the origami boxes turned out pretty well, I think. 

I always make my own stickers/labels for things as I have a trusty label print software program. Well I thought I did until I went to use it the other day. It crashed, crashed and crashed again.

So I consulted my guru (aka Nick) who said no wonder it did as it was so old it couldn't cope with the latest IOS. 

Off I went to the App Store and found one for the total price of - wait for it. Ninety nine PENCE. Well it was worth the risk so I bought it. A bit of a learning curve but once I'd 'got it' it works well. It's the Orion one (red arrow) below.

So I've begun to make labels for my sales items. First the Christmas trees in the new boxes.