Look, look, LOOK

How to make an old git happy!!! 

Tim sent in a Happy Pill very quickly yesterday.  I love to know that people manage the crazy patterns I do.   

The answer to yesterday’s moan

Well I hope this will cheer you up a bit.  The ‘Tatting Doctor’ has prescribed a Happy Pill to get us all through the winter doldrums.  

I thought this was a great idea and thanks to Sue (who planted the idea in BC3's head) and Stephanie (who test tatted it) it’s finally made its way onto the pattern site.  Believe me it’s not a hard pattern to tat (mainly split rings) but making it make sense proved very challenging!!!  

The pill can be stiffened or stuffed to retain its shape.  

During research on pills I learned a LOT.  I was trying to avoid making them in colours that people would find a bit upsetting but realised that no colour combinations of colours were attributed to any particular health problem.  

Anyway, here’s the Happy Pill.

Monday moan

Well there’s not a lot that can be done about today’s moan but I may have the answer tomorrow.  It’s post Christmas and up here in the northern hemisphere the days are short - no, that’s wrong as they’re always the same length!!!  I’ll try again.

It’s post Christmas and up here above the equator daylight is short and darkness goes on forever.  Here in the UK it’s cold and grey and this can last for days and days, weeks and weeks.  This can cause depression and a lack of stimulation to do anything except curl up in a cozy chair and read or make something. 

Well thanks to Sue showing something on a zoom meeting back in (probably) November/December BC3 came up with a ‘good idea’.  Well he thought it was but little did he know how much trouble that was going to cause ME!!!  

The solution to the winter blues could arrive tomorrow here on this blog/pattern site.  

The jumper is finished

Started last winter, abandoned because of shoulder problems, taken out of ‘storage’ again this winter and finally finished.  I’m pretty pleased with it too for once!!!.

The pattern is worked from the neck down and is quite ‘convoluted’.  The pattern can be found here in Ravelry.

Socks are finished

Actually they were finished well before Christmas but I got behind with posting on the blog!!!  

Remember these guys?  Well they were stuffed into the socks and were given as a Christmas present!!

After this week I’m all up to date with the crafty stuff and the blogging so I’d better get busy again!!!

A new project

This is the start of another project which will be given away - unless I fall in love with it first!!

It’s another free ball of yarn I got from Hobbycraft.  

The only stitch needed is knit stitch and the pattern came from here,  The reason the edges aren’t curling are because the pattern uses an i-cord edging.  You can find the instructions for i-cord in the pattern and its drop down easy.  Or you can look at the instructions here.

Amended reverse join

I’ve been working on a pattern to teach later this year and it uses a reverse join.  I realised that my page on how to do one wasn’t probably as clear as it could be so I’ve changed it slightly.  

Here’s the link should you want/need it.  Here is the link to a simple technique that is very useful.  Thanks to Elaine for bringing it to our attention.

Now for a picture to cheer the page up!!!

Monday moan

As a lot of you probably know there have been some changes in one of the tatting groups on Facebook.  I’ve always enjoyed that particular group because advertising patterns for sale was restricted to three days a month.  The new rules are now allowing people to show business posts every day - but they’re not allowing spamming.  I hope this works as it will serve the community well but we’ll have to ‘wait and see’.  I may even do a bit of self promoting myself each day!!!  IF BC3 remembers, of course!!!

I very rarely go onto Facebook as I get email notifications when ‘things happen’ and 99% of the time I just delete the email and don’t go to have a look.  But when people were posting up to three times a day trying to sell their patterns in the past and on ALL the groups I'm in - well that is a bit annoying.  The emails just kept coming!

Eventually I found the answer - I found I could block the constantly annoying people so that I never saw what they’re up to - or what patterns they have for sale.  Did I miss them?  Actually, not one bit and I didn’t get half as many emails either.  

If the new rules work (and I very much hope they do) I may even resort to unblocking those that used to constantly bombard them with selling posts.

Teddy bear

I got bored with myself and the long haul on the jumper so decided to make this little chap.  Here’s a link to him 

I was going to give him away but I haven’t been able to part with him - yet!!!  I will one day but meanwhile he’s sitting looking at me!!!  

A shawl scarf

This is made out of one ball of Hobbycraft yarn that I ‘bought’ with one of their free vouchers.  This is the pattern I used.

Because the yarn was free I will be donating this to a charity of some sort.  I love it but I don’t need it and somebody else might.  Simple pattern.which was trebles (English crochet terms) and little else.  I did add a shell edging and a couple of rows of doubles on the neck edge too but those came ‘out of my head’. 

I’ve been working on this at my crafty social groups as it’s a ‘no brainier’ and as I’ve only got 3 brain cells (BC3) it works well for me.  I’ve got another ball of ‘free’ yarn so will be making another ‘something or other’ to give away too.  I need simple things to work on when I’m gossiping or I have to undo and redo the same thing each time I get home!!!!  

A sleeve!

Now the first sleeve is finished I can admit to you that it gave me some grief!!  

Well, not the sleeve exactly but the shoulder I’d joined it to just didn’t ‘sit’ right.  My lovely pals at Friday Knitting advised that I should redo the shoulder.  YIKES.

This meant not only ripping out the sleeve I’d started (I’d done the short rows to get the sleeve ‘cap’ done) but also meant un-sewing the shoulder seam which had been done top down.  Think about it!!  That’s a NIGHTMARE.  I took many many hours sorting both shoulders out before starting the sleeve again.  

As you can see I still have another sleeve to do!!!

I’ve been round the Wrekin!!!

Bet you’re wondering what that means!!!  Well it’s a saying here in the UK and this is a link to an interesting story.   If you say to somebody ‘I went round the Wrekin to get here’ it means you took the long way round!!  I always think a heel is a long way round and feel I’ve been all the way round the Wrekin to get to the straight ‘bit’.  Lesson of the day finished!!!

A bracelet and earrings

Last Friday I was browsing the charity shops in Alcester when I noticed this little bracelet and earring set.  It looked sort of familiar.  When I looked closely I realised the person who’d made it had used my pattern .  They’d done a truly beautiful job on it too.  I took photographs and decided to contact the seller.  Thankfully they’d got a website.  

I had a lovely message back from Sally who said she hadn’t made it and couldn’t tat!!!  This is what she said 

“However, I don't do tatting and never have done. My husband and I only do fused and stained glass as you have seen on the web site.

How our label got attached to something else I have no idea. Although the labels usually peel off they do stick quite fast to the glass.

I can only assume that someone thought it may sell better with a label attached.

Many many years ago (about 50+) I did make a macrame plant hanger and i used to do a lot of crocheting but have not done either for many years.

Carry on with the good work and happy crafting.”

So if anybody knows who DID make this bracelet I would love them to pass on the message that I’m very flattered they used my pattern and that they did an amazing job on it too.  

Two white mice!!

Before the ‘silly season’ I decided to make Liz a mouse but you know what mice are like - they breed rapidly!!!  Liz has an affection for the mice I’ve got lurking around our house.  She often moves them secretly and hides them in different places in the house and I’ve even found them in the fridge - once hiding in my steel cut oats!!!  Fortunately that one hadn’t eaten much!!!

Here are the two I’ve made for her own amusement at her own house and they arrived on Christmas Day!!!

Socks again post

Well I made a start on a sock.  As you know I’m a ‘toe up’ sort of person and find that this works better for me as I can make the sock as long as I like and not have to worry about whether I’ve got enough yarn or not to finish the foot.

I work the toe and heel and then use the rest of the yarn weighing the ‘leftovers’ so that when I get to the halfway point I can stop.  Actually I stop a little before I need to do the top ribbing so I’ve got enough for that.

A seahorse swims in

Firstly I’m happy to announce that Just-Tatting is (or will be) back.  What a relief.

It was before Christmas that this lovely seahorse swam into my inbox.   It must’ve been tired as it came all the way from Singapore.

Thank you, Andrew for sending it to show me.  I remember when I first did the pattern way back in the last century.  I wrote a blog post about its ‘birth’ here.  That’s a long time ago!!!

Monday moan

Yes, it’ that time of the week again!!!

My moan this week is very serious and also a real mystery.  

As you know I’m not a ‘fan’ of  Facebook but there was one group where I always felt ‘comfortable’ and it was very well run too.  I noticed last week that it had ‘gone missing’.  Well, that’s not quite true - it’s still there but nobody’s posting.  I put a post to test it out and it wasn’t published.  After a few days I took the ‘still pending’ post down - but the mystery remains.

The page leader ran the group very well and was understanding when I occasionally spoke to her about issues privately.  She’s what I’d call a ‘real lady’.  I’m so sad that she seems to have disappeared and now I’m really worried about her.  Also I’ve lost my favourite group.  

I expect you want to know which group it is?  It’s Just-Tatting.   Does anybody know if Lily is OK?  I miss her and the group.

I'm back!!!

I've been a bit quiet for a  few weeks but that's because life just wouldn't stop chucking problems my way!!! I've got the answer to that now - I just chuck 'em back!!!

Another reason for being so quiet is because I've not actually got a lot of interesting stuff to show.  Yes I have been crafting just as much as usual but it's mostly been boring (to you) stuff like my jumper I'm knitting!!!

This jumper started it's journey about a year ago.  In fact here's a link to it's birth!!

I'm going to tease you a bit over this jumper - just to fill up space!!!  This is probably where I left off last year (maybe in May).

Progress on the sewing

As I’ve not got a lot to show at the moment I’m going to show you the small amount of progress made on this project.

I’m only working on this on a Tuesday morning at the moment.  Sometimes I get sidetracked during the get together with helping others with their work or just by sitting gossiping too!!!  

Anyway, here’s the latest progress picture!!

A new short term project

I was given a brand new poncho some time ago and I just knew I’d never wear it.  The person who’d made it had given it to somebody else who then passed it on to me!!!  So the poor thing felt really unloved.

I took it apart and wound it up into balls.  Having donated three scarves (see here) and (here) to the food bank which they were really grateful for, I decided that they may need some gloves for those really in need.

I’ve never done fingerless gloves before as my favourite (to wear) are the top down to cuff ones that I make.  Here’s the pattern should you want it.  So I started looking for a pattern and came up with this one which was a lucky, lucky find.

This is my first pair.