Just a bookmark

Nothing whatever to do with Christmas or anything like that.  

I've got two little girls (10 and 7) living opposite me.  They are truly delightful little ones and I love when I get to do crafts with them and their their grandma too.   

Well they've discovered that they've both got dyslexia and struggle with reading and writing so just for a bit of fun I thought I'd make them a bookmark each.  To see that silly face poking out of the top of a book might just make them smile and encourage them to read,  Fingers crossed.

From Julie

I had this lovely message last week from Julie.  Cheered me up no end while the snow was - well, snowing.

"Love your patterns. I made the small bugle bead snowflakes for the single mom's at my church for Christmas this year. I  showed them to my lace guild and they want me to show them how to make them. They are new to tatting having learned earlier this year. Can I have your permission to share your pattern with them?"

These are her flakes.  Aren't they lovely?

Marie’s pendant

I haven't looked at this pattern for YEARS.  In fact I'd completely forgotten about it until Marie asked for permission to use it for a newsletter (or was it a class) ages ago.  

I have the original one which I still wear from time to time but, as I said, I'd long filed it in BC3's vaults!!!!  Now I've seen Marie's I may well make another one - or two even.  It's stunning in white and I feel I could hang that as a dangle in my living room window too.

This is what Marie-Claude said.

"Dear Jane,

Here is your pendant that I made. I had the idea to do it all in white - I don't know why, haha...

I think that the members of our association will appreciate it. I like it a lot and I will wear it with great pleasure!!

Thank you again for your creation and authorization and see you soon for the next TIAS maybe.

Marie-Claude"

Finally - FREE snowflake earrings

It's only taken a year to get these down on paper - well, cyberpaper.   If it hadn't have been for Sue you wouldn't have them now!!

Why?  Well she publicly and carefully 'nagged' me on Facebook.   To get my own back I asked her to look at the pattern and she managed to do sterling work on it.  

  

I think she probably regrets it now although she has got herself a pair of snazzy purple earrings out of it!!  Thanks to her eagle eye and well thought out suggestions as a test tatter the pattern is now ready to 'rock and roll'.  

Although the pattern looks complicated it is only 4 rings - with lots and lots of beads!!!  Each earring has some added to picots, some on the core thread and others lurking at the back of the hand before starting the ring!!!!  Read carefully and enjoy.

It's very difficult to get good pictures of things that sparkle.  Bit like that when I have my photo taken - I sparkle too much!!!  That's a JOKE!!!

Ah, I bet you'd like the link, eh?

Shawl finished

Remember this?  Well I carried on until my circular needles were almost full and I was BORED with it.

What happened next?  Well I’d got a fair amount of yarn left so I cast off using a crochet hook.  I’m sure this method must have a name but I call it a lazy way that I often use.  

Having cast off I then had a nice edge that I could crochet into and that’s what I did!!  I did a row of double crochet (that’s the English double crochet!) and then a few rows of ‘spaced out’ trebles to give a lighter look.  The final few rows were trebles into each space and tops of the previous trebles and then finally another row of double crochet.  I also went round the inner side with dc too.  The photo shows the finished shawl and the second one shows the remaining yarn - although the colours don’t look quite right on that photo.

I wore the jumper on Saturday with the shawl over it as it was very cold.  My daughter thought it was part of the jumper!  I pronounce it a success!

Date of TIAS

Well it’s almost time to play the Tat It And See again.  

I’ve got a new pattern which I’m going to start on Wednesday January 11th.  

The introduction to the TIAS can be found here or here.  

This will be (probably) the 14th year although I did miss two years when I thought the game wasn’t such a good idea.  Lockdown made me think again so I resurrected it in 2021.  I remember the first one was a hippopotamus which can be found here.

So just to whet your appetites here are a few of the past TIAS results.  Remember - when you play this game you do NOT know what it’s going to be at the end of the game and guesses are what makes it such fun for all of us.

A ‘just because’ gift

When I was at the Friday knitting group over a week ago I was wearing my snowflake earrings.  Julie (one of the ‘ladies who knit’) commented on them and said she liked them.  So, last Friday she got a pair of her own!!!  

This is a pair I made last year for myself.

I now have enough pairs of snowflake earrings and the pattern is being put together so I should get it on my pattern site by the end of the week.

Monday moan

Today’s moan is a bit complicated and offers the reader a look into the psychology of my BC3 (my brain has only three cells - called brain cells (one, two) three.

I was looking around my main computer the other day and came across quite a few patterns that have not been finished but left abandoned.  I got to asking myself why and this is what I reckon.  

The thing about doing what I do for free is that I’ve very little idea of who my ‘audience’ is and whether anything I do is ever used.  If I were selling patterns I would have a good idea of what people like as I’d have money coming in and a record of what the people like/want.  

I’d also have feedback if the pattern didn’t work or turn out as expected and comments on places like Etsy when people were happy.  Now I do get comments on the blog which I’m always grateful for but blogs seem to be not as popular as Facebook nowadays.  I don’t really ‘do’ Facebook and don’t understand why it’s used as everything gets ‘lost in perpetuity’ shortly after a post is made.  I like blogs as I can search for things I’ve done in the past easily.  I love reading blogs too and have lately seen a slow return to blogging.  

I also got to thinking that people might assume that if they pay for a pattern it’s bound to be much better than one that’s given away for free.

All comments welcome and I’ll leave you with a picture from one of my walks.

Next I made a green pair!!!

As I already have a red pair and a replacement white pair I thought it was time to make a green pair too!!!

As I had the white thread out and the gold beads it only took a minute or two to find the green beads and here they are.  

As I already have umpteen Christmas tree earrings I didn't think I really 'needed' anymore.  After all I already have these two guys as well.  

I see I'd sort of promised to write and draw the pattern for these but since that was last year and nobody's asked for the pattern I'm just going to keep quiet!!!!

A missing earring

Entirely my own fault.  I should remember that in the winter I HAVE to wear 'stoppers' on my earwigs.  Do I remember?  Of course I do - but not until I've lost one earring!!!

Here is the remaining earring when it had it's partner.

I couldn't find the larger beads to make a replacement and anyway, there's always a difference when there's an 'age gap' so I made a new pair as I do like them a LOT.

Leftovers

I don't think I ever got round to showing you the finished jumper I was knitting but here's a link to show you when it was 'almost' there.  

I've worn it a LOT since I finished it and am currently researching knitting another.  Next time I want something more challenging and interesting and also including 'short rows' as I want more 'shaping' at the top.  

I had leftovers from this jumper so have decided to knit a shawl or cowl or something with that.  As I have little experience with 'how far it'll go' this is going to be an interesting experiment.  If I'm not pleased with it I can easily undo it again and start over.  This is what it looks like at the moment!!!!

A sad story with a happy ending.

I like knitting gloves as you probably know!!  Mad, crazy and any other adjectives you know may be applied to this addiction!!!  

Well a sad occurrence happened last week.  I was wearing the pair you can see below.  I knitted them back here and they became my favourite pair because they’re distinctly ‘odd’ and made from two balls of mismatched yarn.  Also they remind me of a lovely friend in Canada - Terry.  See this link and this one too.

Imagine this OG in a hurry and about to get drenched yet again.  I was dashing off to a friend’s house and realised I’d dropped one of the gloves.  When I got back later I searched for the misssing glove but couldn’t find it anywhere.  Daft as I knew I’d dropped it very close to home.

Finally I gave up and carried on with life etc.  

On Thursday when I was on my way home from somewhere else I spotted the missing glove.  It was soaked and filthy and had obviously spent the few days it was missing under a car in the pouring rain!!!

Both gloves had a good ticking off and a much needed bath!!!  Here they are - reunited!!!

New gloves

To  continue my obsession with gloves I'm showing you this pair which were made out of the same ball as this pair!!!  Well there should've been a link to that last statement but I couldn't find the original pair on the blog!!!  You'll just have to take my word for it!!  

I do have a few 'takers' for my gloves and these are already promised which made tomorrow's story about another glove even more worrying as I thought I might have to keep these for myself!!!

Abbi's gloves

This is a pair of gloves I made for my granddaughter.  She chose the yarn from Hobbycraft - I had a voucher from them for my birthday!!!  Again I've used my own variation of this pattern.  

I do enjoy knitting this style and am going to do another pair for Liz - when I find the yarn I've put away tidily!!!!

5 more snowflakes

Five more done and dusted.  I could bore you to DEATH if I showed you ALL the snowflakes I've made this past week or two so that's why I gave you a break over the past week.

That's my excuse and I'm STICKING TO IT!!!!

So pleased

When you do things for free - whatever it is - you rarely get much feedback.  So I was delighted when Kay sent in this comment and her pictures to show me.  The comments tickled me pink as, when it comes to the technique for adding the bugles, I have exactly the same ‘problem’ when I make the first snowflake of the season.  Yes, I’ll admit, I’ve found that this is the best snowflake for ‘mass production’ for giveaways.  This is what Kay said

“I must tell you that I had some issues initially with your very well-written pattern.  There are days when I simply should not attempt something new.  So after utter failure, I began again.....My SCMR was not done correctly (and I thought I had those sorted out), so I had to check the directions once again for them.  Once I did, I corrected that.  Then, you mentioned that the Bugles could be a bit fiddly. For me they were more than a bit.... HA!   So I solved that the next time I made one and numbered my little markers to try to keep them in order easier.  I must have twisted and twisted that first one to the point that it took forever to straighten it.  Nevertheless, I stuck to it.....  And, what did I do with my next one?  I only added five bugles instead of six.....so it turned into a type of star.  I really don't mind it that way, so I didn't toss it.  Thought you'd get a kick out of my "issues".  Now I'm ready to make a few for Christmas as I do like them.  Thanks once again for sharing your lovely ideas.  If only I could follow the directions as written!    Ha!”

Monday moan - sort of!!!!

Last week I saw a video online from one of the designers who sells on Etsy.  I was a little concerned to see that the technique used had been misnamed.  

This happens quite a lot and it's always easier to shrug the aged shoulders and walk (or hobble) away and 'let sleeping dogs lie'.  I thought a lot about this situation and realised I'd been in a similar predicament before.  Do you leave it alone and let others believe and start to use the misnamed technique as the new name or do you point out the situation to the person concerned?  

I've had a really unpleasant experience when offering my help in the past so 'once bitten, twice shy'.  In that case it was test tatting and we live in a completely different time zones.  When I'm asked, or offer  to help someone I'm always keen to 'get the job done' so time zones do mean waiting around for comments back.  

In the end the person I was trying to help gave me the 'sack' and has banned me from seeing anything she does on any platform.  Not that that's a problem as there are always ways round that - IF I could be bothered.  Anyway in that past situation I could've just put what I felt the problem was out in the public domain but I don't like Facebook so veer away from it.  

The recent problem I saw in a video last week did worry me too so in the end I decided to send a private message.  With great trepidation.  

I can honestly say I had a lovely, lovely chat with this lady and in the end she realised that the name she'd made up was, in fact, a well known technique that had been around for many many years.  Thank you to the person concerned for listening to me and being such a lovely person.  I may offer to help others again in the future thanks to this pleasant experience. 

New FREE pattern - a change of snowflake!!!

If you remember - back here I said I'd be looking at this snowflake again.

After that initial 'foray' into extending it I came up with slightly longer 'arms' to the pointy parts.

Now this (obviously!) meant a bit of a re-write of the pattern and that's what's kept me out of mischief (almost!!) for a week or more.  

So here's the new one.  

Yet more snowflakes

Are  you getting bored with seeing these?  Well I am!!!  Also getting a bit bored with making them but I still haven't made a big dent in the rice beads yet!!!

Two more Scintillating Snowflakes

Well I really ought to get a life but I really enjoy making these little snowflakes as giveaways.  Also I've got a LOT of bugle beads and these rice beads which have been staring at me whenever I take a dive into my tatting cupboard!!!!  

They're really quick to make and I can (if I don't get sidetracked) make two in an evening.  The pot of Christmas giveaways is filling up!!!