Temptation

Well the title should be ‘trying to resist temptation’!!!

I occasionally shop at Hobbycraft now that we have one nearby and they’ve ‘found out’!!!  I know that because I have one of their loyalty cards and they occasionally send me a voucher for five pounds!!!  

This results in a walk to the store to have a look around.  It’s not a big shop so they don’t have any tatting related ‘things’ so I go with knitting and sewing in mind!!  A few months ago I spent my fiver (well I spent more than five ‘as you do’) and came home with two balls of this yarn. 

The idea was to knit a scarf for a present and that’s what I’m doing.  I found an ‘easy’ pattern from Ravelry and added an icord edging to it.  Really easy pattern to take to groups and that I could do while I chat.  BUT, of course, the best laid plans of mice and men meant that it’s taken me much longer to knit as I keep going wrong!!!  My BC3 just doesn’t always work properly!!!

Here’s the progress so far.  I’m over halfway through now.  See those stitch markers green and pale pink?  They mark the halfway point!!! 

Monday moan - iMac

First of all I want to say that I’m delighted that most people understood last week’s moan. 

My moan to MYSELF this week is that I sometimes regret not charging for my patterns.  Why?  Well I could really have done without a big unexpected bill at the moment.  

The bill was for my trusty old iMac which died.  Died dead too.  I went to use it and nothing happened.  It had closed itself down and wouldn’t re-start.  I read all I could find about how to get past this problem but nothing worked.  Not even the one where you have four fingers on keys (which needs both hands) and then (whilst they’re there) you also press the on button!!!  Thank goodness Nick was around to press the on/off button!  

Next decision was ‘what to do’ and I had two options.  Buy a new one (this one was ‘born’ in 2015) or repair it.  I looked at the current prices of new iMacs and Mac minis and nearly fell over.  Repairing Apple ‘stuff’ is so specialised that I knew it would need somebody who had those skills.

So a trip to the shop in town to talk to Tom (this is his outlet).  He said it was the hard disk that had failed and he brought his ‘ambulance’ round (his car, actually!) and took it into his hospital.  He performed the operation and restored my data from my separate hard disk and after a while in intensive care the same ‘ambulance’ brought it home.  

If ONLY I had decided to sell my work things wouldn’t have been quite so traumatic - or would they?!?!?  

Another Monday moan - copy tatting

I seem to manage to get myself into trouble on Facebook without even trying!! This past week it was because of copy tatting. 

I asked a lady for a link to a pattern of an item she’d made and posted on Facebook.  She didn’t know what the link was as she’d copied the stitch count from a picture.  Which she was very proud of.

This time it happened to be a piece that she’d seen for sale somewhere but had reproduced it from pictures.  Easy enough to do and, in many ways, a good insight into how patterns are made and the process of designing. BUT this has now denied the seller of her income from their hard work. Yes, it is hard work and can be expensive too to make a design when you consider the amount of thread ‘wasted’ and time taken plus the cost of listing and charges for selling too.  

It is actually morally wrong to copy tat as it is considered copyright theft by many and also intellectual theft (which it is) - even if you’re NOT claiming it as ‘your’ pattern it is ‘assumed’, when shared or re-posted many times, that the pattern belongs to the copy tatter’s.  

If you do copy tat I BEG you NOT to publish it or tell anybody what you’re doing. It is clever but it’s encouraging others to do the same which will eventually lead to fewer and fewer sales for those who sell patterns and they’ll give up eventually.

Now, personally, when the internet was young and I put my first pattern on my site (not the current site but another which ceased to exist) I had to decide whether to link to Paypal or not.  I did not have a lot of money coming in and was working three jobs some days.  I did, however, decide that it was more important to promote the craft than to make much needed money so have always given my work freely.  Thus I rarely get copyright/intellectual property issues.    I have had issues with publishers who have blatantly taken my patterns but in the space of 25 years they’ve been very few.  

So if you feel the urge to copy tat at anytime in the future - please think of the designer and KEEP QUIET about what you’ve done.

Below is a picture of a motif I showed last week.  Here’s the link for more information.  

The jacket progression - or not!

Well the fabric is made but unfortunately all is not going well at the moment!!!

I think it will take a little sorting out but I need a space of time to make that happen.  

I had planned to ‘fit’ the fabric over the fleece and make slits in the fabric to give access to the ‘already there’ pockets in the fleece.  However when I got to that point I thought it would be somewhat foolhardy.   The placket around the fleece zip was rather thick and to get the new placket on the fabric to fit EXACTLY over the right place was a risk too far. 

So I’ve made patch pockets instead!!  Now I haven’t just made them out of just ‘patchwork pieces’, I’ve added in some fleece lining to give them a more ‘padded’ look/feel and then added plain lining to hide it.  

Another ‘problem’ is that I’m not happy with the sleeves as they’re too bulky under the armpit.  Back to the unpicker gadget and another ‘date’ with BC3!!!!  When the sleeves are sorted and the pockets are placed in the right place it ‘should’ be quite straightforward - I hope!!!

A new Houtz book

Have you seen the new book by Gary and Randy Houtz?  If not I suggest you take a look at it.  It’s called Tatting Chain Around.

Sue told me one day that she was ordering a copy from America and asked if I wanted to order with her to save on postage.  I’m not sure if the book is available yet in the UK - worth a check, though.  Anyway, I digress.  

The book is full of fun things and it’s interesting to see how those ‘crafty guys’ have managed to make decent sized motifs without ever starting and stopping.  The motif below (which is on page 30) is a classic example.  

I’m now working on the motif on page 36 so you’ll HAVE to buy the book to see what that’s going to look like!!!

My dress is finished too!!

If you’ve seen this post and then this one you’ll know what I’m talking about!!!

If you haven’t then please visit them and you’ll see that I’m not ‘quite’ a copycat as I used a different thread to my sister, Sally!!!

Which leads me to an announcement. Sally has changed her blog address and you can now find her on this one. 

Adding the edging

Once my dress had arrived earlier this week I searched through books to find a pattern I liked and also online but in the end I thought I’d use the same one as Sally!!!! She makes good decisions. 

This is the one we both settled on. We are both using different threads though!!

As Sally is quite a bit younger than me (we have a brother in the middle!) she'll look like a spring chicken in hers while I'll look like my normal self - an old turkey!!!  

Finished the doily

Finally I’ve finished Robin Perfetti’s doily. I’m so pleased with it and also I have an important announcement to make. 

It will NOT be going into a box in the cupboard!!! A friend was watching me make it a few weeks ago and said she liked the colours I was using. I asked if she’d like the doily and she said yes please. So, Joan, this is your doily. Just hope I remember to bring it to Alcester with me tomorrow!!!

Progress on the new jacket

This is going well at the moment. Long may that last!!! All the fabric is made although there may be places which need more squares or adjustments. I’ve also done a zigzag stitch to anchor and give more substance to the fabric. Now to plan how to add this to the original fleece. Bring out BC3!!!

The top picture shows all the pieces laid out on the grass and the second shows the zigzag round the squares. They need a good pressing under the iron and then I’ll be trying to puzzle out how to proceed!!!

A new dress

Sally (my little sister) was telling me about a new dress she’d bought last week. She showed me a picture of it and sent me this link too.

As you can see it’s denim and I love denim. So I decided to copy my sister and buy one for myself!!! We both plan to add some tatting to our new dresses which will be fine as we’ll never be seen together in the same dress.  Sadly we live 100 miles apart. Shame as we never get to meet up nowadays.  Least we have email and WhatsApp etc.  

Monday moan

YouTube. Yes, that’s the subject for today’s moan!! 

I love YouTube in so many ways (I managed to fix the dishwasher a couple of years ago by watching a tutorial) but there are some videos that I find truly a ‘waste of space’. 

Yesterday I found I was watching one which showed a ‘free tatting pattern’ being made. 

This was a generic pattern that’s been around for years so it’s not ‘new’ as such. But it was the quality of the video that was so poor and misleading. No soundtrack (please NEVER play background music) and text on the screen which wasn’t that useful either. There was no explanation of the starting method either.  

Ah well, back off my soapbox and on with the day!

Another round!

This is the penultimate round of Robin's doily called Jan's Doily.

I will be finishing the next round hopefully by next week as I have another project in mind!!! 

What I've loved (apart from the design itself) about this pattern is the way it's been tweaked by Robin so that each stitch count works perfectly on every round. It lies flat, flat, flat and hasn't needed any blocking so far. Not that I ever do block as I haven't the patience!!!

Back next week with the completed doily - I hope!!!

Bookmark by Angie

Angie popped in one day last week with this bookmark she'd made. 

I wondered whether she'd made a mistake as I honestly didn't recognise it!!! I looked it up as this is what she said:-

"I made your bookmark! Thanks for the pattern! 😍😍

I was using up leftover shuttles, so color choices... well they are what they are. Lol."

I like her colour combinations and I eventually found the pattern here on my site!!! 

I wonder where I would've got in my life if only I had been born with a brain!

I have been

Plodding along with my bright green sweater.

Talk about 'straining the brain' - this one certainly has.  It's taught me the excitement of never knowing 'what comes next' in a pattern.

The top picture (look at right side of photo) shows how I finished up with what looks like a ‘strap-y’ top which is NOT what you want a sweater to be!!!  

If you look at the left side of the same picture you’ll see that the ‘strap’ is almost gone.

The bottom picture (although it’s not that clear) shows how I’ve picked up stitches around the armhole and have almost finished the short rows to make the top of the sleeve.  It’s a very interesting experience and not for the faint hearted.  The pattern can be found here.

The next project!!

Well this and yet another project are now 'on the go'!!!

After the huge success of this jacket I decided to make another but this time with squares.

I'd got an old fleece which I rarely wore (the black one in the picture below) and which will hopefully make a warmer piece of clothing. The original is a Spring/Autumn weight and I wear it a LOT. I'm often stopped by people who say they love the jacket - complete strangers (we get a lot of tourists in the town) and it always pleases me no end. Specially when I point out it's homemade and onto an old shirt. 

Here's a few pictures to show you where I'm at as I started this new one a couple of weeks ago. 

The first picture is the fabric for the back completed. Then there's work in progress and finally the 'original' fleece. The thing with doing this sort of project is to not plan too far ahead!!! After my last jacket I thought I'd make all the fabric first this time and then fit it over the fleece. I may top stitch over the squares but I'm not sure yet. Any advice would be VERY welcome!!!

The Coronation

As the world knows we are celebrating the Coronation of King Charles III tomorrow. I hate to admit this but I remember the last one - I was heading towards ten years of age and we had a TELEVISION in our home.

It was a miserable day (weather wise) and all I wanted to do was go to the big party which was happening over the road after the ceremony. 

Anyway all these years later (but not wiser, I might add) this Coronation will be spent watching it on a colour television. 

The day after will be a street party which the neighbours have been preparing for for ages. We've got a road closure and bunting etc so the day should be full of fun. At our local group where we meet to sew, knit, crochet, craft etc we've been working on our annual quilt and this is this year's offering. People will be able to buy tickets to win it. 

One or two (well, all of us!) think it's the best one we've done so far. Jo has done an amazing job putting all our crazy quilt squares together. Thanks, Jo.

Cozy production

Well I'm running out of friends!!!!  No I've not been upsetting them - least I hope not!  I'm running out of people to give these to!

I love making these - they're so simple to do  and so useful when done!!!  

For those who don't know - they're for putting a bowl into the microwave on so that you don't burn your fingers (or laps!) with hot stuff.

Progress on Robin's doily

Now I hang my head in shame!!!  I forgot to scan round 5 of Robin's lovely doily but I've remembered to do one of round 6 - even if it no longer sits entirely on the scanner!!!  

Number 90!!!

Well here we are!!!  

Janet has sent in her aliens and here's the link to what she has to say.

Thank you, Janet.

Monday Moan

Please would designers think about the amount of pages their designs take up AND how many instructions they actually need to write down.  I know I've done this moan before but I feel it's worth going over again. 

I've recently been looking at a pattern which is 32 pages long and would cost a fortune in inks (lots of dark backgrounds) and paper to print out (let's try saving our planet).   If I had been asked to write this simple generic pattern down it would take 3 pages (maybe 4) to describe, draw and present.  New tatters need to learn the craft thoroughly before venturing into designing.  Starting with researching what has gone before.

Another thing that's worrying me now is that due to YouTube people are now using other designer's patterns to show 'how to make' a design (hopefully with full permission given).  I've watched one or two of these and feel we're doing our craft no favours at all.  Why? We're teaching people to follow like sheep and not have to think.  This is the same for some of the patterns that are being sold online too. Pages and pages telling and showing how and when to turn or reverse the work but not necessarily writing it down in the pattern instructions.  Again this is going to lead to laziness in understanding how and why the lace 'works'.

My biggest moan of ALL for today is that these patterns NEVER give you a comfort break!!!! I know - I'm being silly now but soon they will be including instructions on how and when to take that break too!!!!   Too many instructions will lead to the death of tatted lace and  our brains too.

Must stop now - I need a comfort break and another cup of tea!!!!  A picture of some pretty flowers I saw on a walk the other day.