Before and after

Last week I decided that I was going to 'get rid of' the clothes I no longer wear.  It sounded like a good plan!!!

When I looked in the wardrobe I realised that I hadn't got that many clothes.   I have one wardrobe - not very big and I keep all my summer and winter stuff in there.  

I spotted this skirt (top picture) and decided it 'had to go'.  I must've bought it some ten to fifteen years ago when Cotton Traders had an outlet in a local garden centre.  It was much longer than it is here.  I've worn it and worn it as you can see and shortened it too.  The reason I gave up wearing it is because it doesn't have pockets.  I LIKE POCKETS!!!!

I got it out of the wardrobe and decided on the spur of the moment that I'd make some pockets for it!!!  Over the years I've also got to hate the buttons on the skirt too so they went and I covered the ugly buttonholes with matching fabric.

I have a NEW SKIRT!!!!  The difference in the colours is because I took the first picture in the sunny conservatory and the second one in the living room!!!!  The 'real' colour is somewhere in between!!!!

A bit of a diversion!

Again!!!  

I'm still working on the Dutch patterns and still slowly blogging progress.  Tim is doing well trying to finish Beatrix and has reported that he's doing really well with the spiral chains.  

I daren't start another pattern (yes, I've found two more that I think are worth spending time with) until Beatrix and the oval doilies are up on my site.  I have got a rough translation of another round doily done, though but that's only a very small start!!!

Meantime my good friend Sandra who puts up with me when I go to Tat Days has tempted me off the 'straight and narrow' and into making pot holders/dishcloths.  It was a combination of seeing her knitting lots and a conversation with my daughter and granddaughter that caused me to buy a ball of cotton double knitting yarn.  I tried knitting it but the result was too 'floppy' so I undid the two knitted ones and started on crocheting instead!!!  The pictures below are one knitted square and one half done knitted round one.  Right at the bottom is the CROCHETED square which you can see easily from the picture is a lot, lot better.  I haven't enough of this yarn to make another like the bottom one so will make another single layer one.  The 'recipe' for the bottom pot holder can be found here and I thought it was good fun to make.

The third round

I'm still plodding on with the oval doilies and I think it was a good decision to work all three at once even though I do sometimes get into a bit of a panic with which set of destructions I should be working on!!!

Now this round worked in the tan colour is the slightly more complicated one.  The chains are spiral chains.  They're easy to do once you get 'in the zone' but there is a catch in that the middle doily the stitch count is slightly different.  That's when I did get BC3 freaking out.  

Once I'd done a couple of chains it all fell into place.

Black earrings

I've used the same finding (doodad) as in this post and created a pair of earrings to match.  Will I ever wear these or the set?  I doubt it!!!

I'm wondering what to do with this set and others.  My friend Joanie gave me lots of these necklaces to play with and they're the sole reason I have started to make pendants again!  The only problem I have is what to do with them.  Does anybody want one?  

I think I'm going to give them away for just a small donation towards thread/beads and the price of the postage.  Would anybody be interested?  I've got this black 'set' and another two sets to come.

A present from Abbi

Simple!!

This is just one of the doilies with the second round finished.  I'm not going to bore you with them all!!! This is the top doily, though in case you're interested!!!

Can you see how easy this is?  Don't be fooled - there are some complications to come but they are pretty straightforward.  

PROMISE

Judith's leaf

Just for a change!!! 

I need to have a change from time to time and Judith Connors - the famous tatter in Australia kindly sent me a copy of their Newsletter.

In it she'd put this variation of Ruth Scharf's leaf pattern.  Obviously Judith had discussed this with Ruth as it was her idea in the first place.

The difference isn't obvious at first - wonder who can spot it?  No, I'm not going to tell you unless you come and twist my arm but you're not allowed to do that because of the virus so I feel safe!!!!  I will tell you if nobody's guessed in a later post.

I went through a serious addiction to Ruth's leaf back a while ago.  

The third middle!

Here's the middle of the third oval doily that I'm working on.  

When I first looked at the pictures back here all three looked the same to me.  It wasn't until I settled down to look closely (thank goodness  for magnification on a computer) that I realised there were differences.  

Now to sort out the next round to see what happens next!!!!

Number two!

I wasn't quite sure which was the best way to tackle the three doilies as I didn't want to be starting all over again once I'd done just one in it's entirety!!!

So being the sort of person I am I decided to do all three centres first.  

Here's the centre of the second one.  This was a lot easier as this pattern has been replicated a thousand times by many, many people.

Time to tackle middle number three!!!

Now for some oval adventures!

This is my next task to tackle!!  Again from the Dutch books which I’m still enthralled by.  

I just love these three doilies and they're going to be my next project!!!  If anybody would like to take on the task of test tatting one I'd be very grateful for the help.  They're going to be very straightforward for a test tatter but a bit of a nightmare sorting out the translation as it appears that the outer rounds of all three are the same - BUT with one small exception.  

They're all rings and chains with a few spirals thrown in too - which makes it more interesting.  So, for that reason, I think I'll only need one test tatter!!!

The bottom picture is the centre of the top picture and although it looks 'wonky' I can assure you that it's fine!!!  Just probably needs an iron plonked on it at some point!!!!

Now WHAT would you call this?

Back to the 'was an earring - now a pendant'!

Do you remember that I started this earring back in May?  Well it was going to be an earring but I rather got carried away!!!  It's now a pendant but I am going to make an earring to go with it.  

This is another of the same pattern but unfortunately it's rather sparkly so doesn't show up that well on a photo.  

I need to settle down now and sort the earring out AND get this slightly stiffened too.  Now where did I leave my white glue?

Beatrix is finished

Round six is finished.  

Can you see what I mean about row 6 and how it finishes off the whole doily?  This was a lovely doily to make.

Once Tim has given me the 'go ahead' I'll put it on my site.  It's now called Beatrix after Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.  The original designer hadn't given this beauty a name, sadly.

Moaning Monday

I wonder if it’s a language translation problem but why do some people call thread - ‘string’?  

To me string is something you use to tie things together.  I always think of string as being tough and quite a lot thicker than we use in mainstream tatting.

Is it something to do with translating from another language?

In the end I had to look it up with Mr Google and he says this.  I asked  him again in case he was telling me fibs and this is another definition.  

So today's Moaning Monday isn't really a moan at all - more a query!!!  

Onwards and outwards!!!

Round five now completed and I'm off to start on round six!!! 

This is a replica of round five BUT there are subtle differences on the stitch count in places.  Kept me on my toes - or rather on my butt.  Tat, tat, tat I went as I carried on doing the round!!!

Six is going to prove a challenge as it needs two shuttles and the nun tells you that in the pattern which is a great help.  Lots of twisting and messing about but the final round absolutely makes this doily stand out.  I'm going to devote the weekend to getting round six finished.  Well unless I get distracted which, as you know, often happens!!!

Another task done

I'm not going to wear a mask until I absolutely HAVE to. I've made some just in case, though.

I've made seven so far (four for my daughter's family, one for another family member and two for me) and have a request for two more. 

This is probably the best photo you'll ever get of me as it hides most of my face!!! 

Couldn't resist using this fabric!!! This is the link where I got the pattern from. Really easy to make.

The main problem I have is that when I tried it on I found that I have to stop breathing or it steams up my glasses.  That in turn makes it quite dangerous to walk around - like in a heavy fog.  I probably need to get a snorkel or something to help take the steam away from my specs!!!  Life ain’t half hard for an oldie like me at times!!

It's actually not recommended by our NHS to stop breathing so I'm going to only wear one of these masks IF I have to.  

Again and again!!

Well here's the correct round four!!! Pleased to have got over that hurdle!!!

Snip, snip, snip!!!

This is/was/will be round 4 eventually!!!! I got to the end of round four (middle picture) and realised there was a mistake in round 3!!! 

Well that's a whole round cut out!!!

Guess what? It was totally and utterly my own STUPID fault too. Can you see that in round 3 there is a join to the middle of the two joined picots - where the cut threads are? Well, I missed one join there. I'd checked before starting round four too and it all looked fine. The bottom picture is the sad remains!!! 

When I had cut it off and started wondering quite how to repair round 3 I found that it was actually the last part of that round where I'd gone wrong so I was soon on my way again. More another day!!

Third round Dutch doily

As you can see I’m still in love with this Dutch doily. I’d love suggestions for a name as I feel it deserves one. 

The large oval doily I did was called Juliana by the designer and Tim has suggested (bless him - he’s test tatting this one too) that this could be called Queen. What do you think? 

It’s going to have spiral chains in it so something to do with those may be appropriate?

New earrings

Back here I was trying to make a new pair of earrings but instead it became a pendant - which I’ve mislaid so haven’t been able to settle down to do the pattern!!! 

As I was wanting earrings I started another pair!!! This is a really easy idea so they didn’t take long. In fact the part that takes longest is finding and putting the shepherd crook findings on!!!

After a good start

I had to carry on!!! 

This is round two and as it's only rings and chains it was really straightforward. Wonder how long I'll stay motivated?!?! 

That's the 'thing' about doilies. They remind me of my childhood as they were (along with collars) about the only patterns I could get my mucky mitts on. I have a love hate relationship with them nowadays. I HATE them because they're so darn useless in my home situation but sort of love them because they can be so pretty.

The other 'good thing' about a doily for me is that once a round is learned then it's a good carry around project to take with you. During lockdown, of course, that hasn't been required so I think this is why I'm doing the Dutch project. Also I've got more time to sit at the computer too!!!