Another!!!

Here's another of the new magnetic bookmarks.  I am using the one I made for MEEE and can report that it's really and honestly the best bookmark I've ever had.  

No more scrabbling around in the bed for the 'missing bookmark' when I'm sleepy and need it.  This stays exactly where it's put.  In fact I'm using it almost as a 'timer' when I'm reading in the mornings.  

As it 'reaches' over 20 + pages I tell myself that when the two parts 'meet' then  I must get out of bed!!!!!  I move it to the  right hand edge of the book so that I can turn the pages without taking it out and thus when I get the two magnets to meet without pages between it's time to get up - unless I've reached an exciting part, of course!!!!

Not sure if this will go in the Etsy shop as nothing seems to be happening there very much.  My fault entirely.  Shall I admit why I love that shop?  Well, it's a bit like selling on Ebay.  I like to look every day (sometimes several times a day) to see how many people have looked at the items!!!  One of the bookmarks has now reached 105 views already!!!!  Now, isn't that sad?  I wonder if any other shop owners are like me - come on, fess up!!!  Poor old woman sitting here really only interested in who's looking!!!   

Perhaps I need a psychiatrist or even the 'men in white coats'.  One of the many ways I amuse myself!!!!

A looong time ago!

Selling off the leaflets last week brought back memories.  When I was young the only booklets with patterns that were easily available were the Coats and Penelope ones.  I had little choice (like most of us 'back then') on what I could make.  I used to buy them with my pocket money as a teenager.  I did actually use some of the doilies I made but wouldn't ever put one out now as I'd have to find room for them (IF I still had any!!!) in all our 'clutter'!!

Penelope book 4 on page 11 was perhaps the only doily I ever 'took to' and I remember making it many times.  I certainly must've made it in size 20 white as that was all I had available but I do remember making it in a fine silk sewing thread too - for the sake of working in colour.  Do you want to see the pattern?  Here's the picture in the booklet.


A few days later and a miracle has occurred at Chez Eborall - I found the silk doily still backed onto a piece of manilla card!!!  It must've been done about 40 years ago at a guess (certainly a looooong, looooooooong time ago!).  Not bad for it's age, eh?  Remember that I'd never seen or heard of picot gauges or blocking in those days either.  


Now I also found another doily in silk but that'll have to wait for another day!!!

Moaning Monday

Let's see!  What can I moan about today?

Well, not a lot.  I do have one or two moans and this is one of the smaller ones.

Front side/back side tatting.  Back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth and when I learned to tat there was no such thing as front side/back side tatting.  Well, if there was it was NEVER mentioned in ANY of the publications I ever had and they varied from Mrs Beeton's Book of Needlework to the entire series of Coats and Penelope booklets and via Norma Benporath's book too.  Now it may be that the designers 'presumed' that you'd know about this 'method' but I very much doubt it as in none of the 'how to tat' sections of any of the books was it ever mentioned.  Indeed I'd never heard of it until I was in my 50's and had the pleasure of meeting Gary Houtz (ooooh, I do love a bit of name dropping) at Rosemarie Peel's (another name I have great pleasure in dropping) house.  

He showed me this method and I was totally unimpressed.  I didn't see the point.  This (I might add) was in the very, very early days of the internet and before I ever dreamed I'd be able to use it as much as I do.

Anyway, I did finally adopt this method of tatting - BUT for only one very simple reason.  I like my work better when it's done that way and scanned to show you guys.  

I DO NOT believe it's essential to tat that way and if I'm making a gift like a coaster, a doily or an ornament for somebody I don't use it.  People who don't tat would never know which way was the 'right' way or the 'wrong' way to place something down on a table.  I therefore don't think it's essential to tat that way at all.  After all what a person sees is the overall design and not the intricacies of whether a piece is upside down or not!!!!

Now for a picture to brighten the blog post up.  Why a banana?  Well, why not?!?!

At last!!!

Finally I've got a good result on this earwig. I started back on tackling it late yesterday afternoon. My main 'problem' is that I'm trying to make it simple enough to do a lesson with it.

Now a lesson is totally different from a design that I put on my web site. I like to get most of the 'new' stuff in the first part of a lesson so that a student can go away with the item probably not complete but in a state that I know that they'll be able to complete the task. This makes for a lot of thought which isn't easy when you keep 'losing the plot' like I do!!!

Anyway, below are the earwigs finished - well, apart from the hooks!! Next will be the pendant.

When I last worked on that I used a number 40 thread for the centre and a 20 for the outer part. I later realised that this could be a problem for students and/or people who pick it up from the web. So I've got to tweak the stitch count on the centre and use 20 throughout.

This afternoon I'm doing a talk at the Widow's Club in town. I did a talk for them two years or so ago and they want me to do another! I said that I would only be talking about the same thing but they seemed keen to have me back! I think they're desperate for speakers!!! Mind I've got some new stuff to show and I have had a few adventures in tat land since then. Ooooh, I could tell them about brain cell # 3, couldn't I?

Actually I enjoy doing these talks. I do have a sort of 'agenda'/notes (which I usually manage to forget to take) but find that once I get started I have a job to stop!!!! I bumped into one of the club members in town two days ago and she said she was looking forward to Saturday - should I send for the 'men in white coats'?

This is the truth

The whole truth and nothing BUT the truth.  It's official - I've REALLY lost the plot.  

Over the years I'm still asked whether I've got a technique page on this, that or t'other.  One of those being joining the second side of the SR to a picot on a previous element.

Sadly I'd never 'quite' got round to doing it.  BUT the other day after doing the 'joining in a new thread' page I decided I'd settle down (yes, the weather still isn't much good) and do the SR join.  

When I start on something like this my first task is to set up the folder and files to store the drawings, documents and pictures in.  So, in my enthusiasm off I went to do just that.  First the  new folder (in my tips and techniques section on the computer), then a text document (safely stored in the new folder) and an EazyDraw file too.  Great - but then I wandered off to do something else!!!!!  

I got back to the computer an hour or so later and thought I'd left the aforesaid files open but I hadn't.  That meant going to 'finder' to do a search.  What did that reveal?  TWO documents of roughly the same name!!!!  On further snooping around my filing system I found a whole folder (with a slightly different name) on the join in question and actually started in September 2011!!!  I'd almost got it finished too and then I must've forgotten!!!  Send for the men in white coats!!! 

So, I finished it off and here it is!!!

Another trip

Down memory lane!!!

This was prompted by a visit to our local Hospice secondhand bookshop in town. I pop in there from time to time searching for craft books and occasionally bring in the 'Eborall rescue team' which has a membership of one - me. I found an old Coats tatting book there a few years ago and that got rescued and relocated to Atlanta and Sandra cause she lost everything in her house fire. 

Yesterday I found this little gem. 'Pillow Lace, Book 1' by Margaret Hamer. 

I met Margaret when I was in my late 20''s when she was demonstrating in Stratford (she lived in Bedford and came from a family of bobbin lacers). I approached her as I desperately wanted to learn but there was no time during her visit. We exchanged addresses and she asked if I'd be a guinea pig for this first little book of hers. Obviously there was no such thing as the internet and Youtube in those days!!!  Thus I was in on the birth of book 1 and at least one other little book of hers.  On an aside - her sister (Margaret Waller) was an avid tatter and gave me a lot of encouragement with my work over the years.

Now that was lovely enough but when I opened this book you'll see that it was owned by a Caroline Cramp. That brought back more memories of Caroline who used to belong to Rosemarie Peel's tatting group 'way back when'. Sadly Caroline died way too young. I wonder how this little gem of a book got from Nuneaton (where Caroline lived) to a bookshop in Stratford. We'll never know the answer to that. In the last two pictures you'll see samples worked by Caroline.

Now, if anybody would like this little gem - I paid £1.50 for it and would happily let it go for that plus postage. If you want it and live in Canada and will be attending the Fringe then I can bring it with me.

During the search

During my search for the Coats leaflet I came across the following which I thought you might be interested in.

Please remember that this was before the internet and that I would've had to go to the bank to buy dollars and then wait anything up to three months to get these.  

So, what have I here?  I'd heard somewhere that there was a 'thing' called needle tatting so decided that I really needed to research and try it.  I had somehow found out about Ed and Selma Morin so wrote (along with bank notes) to them to buy the necessary equipment and their book (which is somewhere on my tidy bookshelves).

So, as I've mentioned in the past, I gave this new fangled idea a whirl.  I thought it was OK for yarn but was hopeless for thread so soon gave it up.  As you can probably see from the picture below - the needles in those packets don't appear to have been opened.  

I found even back then that trying to get a good tension using needles just hurt my hands too much.  Anyway, thought you'd like to see my bit of history!

Meeting tatting friends etc!!!

Yesterday I went to the Lace Day which is held about twenty miles away from me. Being a nervous driver and a real 'home bird' my attendance at these types of events is quite rare!!!! BUT I needed to go and meet friends and LOOK AT threads, beads etc. Hmmm, did I say 'look'? My purse is now empty!!!

The meeting with friends was great. I met up with Jennifer Williams - the new chairman of the Ring of Tatters, (also an excellent designer who hides her light under a bushel) and other friends - including one who nearly didn't get there - need I mention your name Eileen? Story goes that Eileen was still sound asleep when Jennifer and Julia went to pick her up. Wish I was sleeping so well lately, Eileen - can you give me some tips?

I also saw Pam Palmer - a lady who I admire greatly. I did drop a hint that we'd all love another book from her but ......... Keep your fingers crossed everybody.

Lyn Morton of Tatting and Design along with her DH was there with her supplies and I bought some silver thread to make some wings with. She told me that her new book would be out next year. Not telling you any more as I love to tease!!!!

Roseground Supplies was also there with lots of goodies including some of the Coats Artiste range although I was really looking forward to seeing the range what I did see was disappointing (colour wise) apart from the variegated lavender which is really pretty.

Mary Helen - another supplier was there too. She doesn't have a web site but I can thoroughly recommend her - look in the Ring of Tatters newsletters for her details.

I took my Teri Dusenbury turtles to show off and they were much admired. By the way, mentioning Teri, have you visited her blog lately? Well worth seeing what she's up to. Teri's recommended c-lon thread for tatting with and I found some at the Fair. Can't wait to try it out.

Yes, I did buy more thread and a few beads too. Well, a girl (translate that to old git!!!) has got to have fun, hasn't she? When I finally got home (via picking up a lawnmower and meeting my sister) I was WAY too tired to tat. I hope to start sleeping again soon so that I can get back to finally uploading the 'dangly flower' pattern and other stuff!!!

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!!!

What happened to my resolve to change my ways?

I seem to have got myself into the same old state as usual.

I was determined that I would work on just one project at a time.  So once back from our trip I decided that the most important thing to do was to decide on my Christmas giveaway design.  Not easy because it has to be something that isn't 3D and which is not too time consuming to make.  So, brain cell # 3 was commisioned to start on this task.

Well, half way through I remembered the earrings.

A few days later I decided to start on another pattern I'd been meaning to do for two years.

Then, on top of this I realised that a design I'd been working on before the trip really needed to be 'progressed'.

YIKES - what's wrong with me??  Are the men in white coats about to visit - again?

On the way

BE WARNED. I'm on the way!!!

No, not the men in white coats coming to collect me but me going to AMERICA. Yes, I'm delighted to say I've been chosen to teach at Palmetto Tat Days in September!!!! In fact you can now see a list of all the teachers who will be there. Some friends from past years (and via the internet) and (hopefully) new ones too. 

I've just 'stolen' the logo off their site and put one of the designs I've had accepted below it too.

 

Left overs

When I was a kid and learned to tat I used to buy the old Coats and Penelope booklets with my pocket money. In those they always said 'two balls of size 20 thread' or whatever. It never occurred to anybody to actually work out how much thread was needed for each item and that was the 'status quo'.

Roll on another forty to fifty years and it's now become the 'right thing' to do to add the thread quantities required to a pattern. I try to do this - just to keep up with the fashion!!!! However, I find it hard to make myself do this for anything larger than a doodle as I am aware that people's tensions are different and so they may well cuss and swear at me when they run out of thread before the end of a pattern!!!

Just for your amusement is a picture below of the amount of thread left on EACH shuttle after making a bracelet the other evening!!! I always wind thread back onto balls after I've finished a piece (frees up shuttles and keeps the 'right' thread on the 'right' ball) so when I wound the shuttles for the bracelet it was with threads put back on the ball from the time before!!! 

What a lucky old git I was, eh?

Book sale part 1

Last week I won around 20 tatting leaflets/books on Ebay.  From the pictures I could see that a lot were ones I'd already got - several times over.  Some of those I bought new in the fifties/sixties and I've long since replaced them with 'less battered' ones.  Amongst the books were these three which I'd not got so I'm keeping these for little MEEEEE.

So, what to do with the rest?  Let me tell you why I bid on these booklets.  The seller had tried to get rid of them the previous week but there were no bids at all.  Odd, I thought, so put them back in my watch list.  I realised (things take time with me!) why they weren't selling - they were listed as 'buyer collects' which limits the take up for any item.  So I wrote to her and said I was interested in all of them (they were in two 'lots') and what would she charge for posting them.  We struck a 'deal' and eventually I won them all.

Now, as I don't want the following ones and as I don't want to make money out of them (just to cover my costs) I'm going to sell them at £1.50 ($2.50) each plus packing and postage.  

So if you see any you want below then let me know (please send me your email address and I'll put your name on it.  I'll hold on until you've seen all of them over the next few days then work it out and let you know what it will cost to post.  You'll need a Paypal account too.  Does that all make sense?  OK here's what I've got!!!

1.  Coats Tatting number 919

2.  Penelope Tatting Designs number 380

3. Penelope Tatting book 5

4.  Penelope Tatting book 2

5.  Penelope Tatting book 3 (I have two copies of this)

There will be more tomorrow so please take a look at those too but by all means 'reserve' any that you want of today's straight away.

Success which I will build on

At last a pair of earrings which I can and will wear!! I finished off the blue ones from the other day and then decided that blue had stopped the creative juices. (What nonsense I talk!).
I went through my stash and decided it had GOT to be green's turn next. Here are the completed earwigs. I've found a lovely easy way to put the bead in the centre and have it held by the two rings. I put it on the core thread of the ring but allowing it to hang below with a safety pin to hold it in place until I joined in later to a SR. This is probably not a new idea but it was 'new to me'!!!! Wonder if I should draw it down as a technique?
The thread I used is a sewing quilting thread (I'll look it up later and add to this blather) doubled and with a single strand of Madeira sparkly.
OK, later in the day and I've got the details of the thread. It's by Coats & Clark and is a 100% mercerised Egyptian cotton. It's called 'Star Machine Quilting and Craft' thread. The spool holds 1,200 yards which should keep me out of trouble for a while!!! Especially as I've got lots of bright colours too!!! I got it from a sewing machine shop in Blue Ash, Cincinnati but I believe it can be bought anywhere. Here's one outlet I found online and a few of the colours are at the top of the page.

Why DO I do it?

I like to have an ongoing project during a designing phase that I can pick up and put down at any time (usually late evening) and which requires little to no thought.  This is one I've just finished which was started over a year ago to have something to do while I was in America last September.  Hmmmm, I hardly touched it as Sally and I were SOOO well looked after and entertained (plus the hummingbirds at Joanie's were a huge distraction) that I did very little on the travels.  So, the question is - WHY do I do it to myself?  

No, not the ongoing project bit but the fact that I choose to do so many hanky edgings.  

When I started tatting back in the fifties there was very little around that a budding teenager (crikey - I was one of those once!!) could make as patterns were few and far between.  All I really had available were the old Coats and Penelope leaflets.  A hanky edging was one of those things that was recommended as a starter's project as there weren't many motifs around.

Now, when you start tatting you're so slow that an edging like this must have put a lot of people off.  Yet here I am all those years later still doing them as a relaxing project!!!  How stupid is THAT?  Not only doing them but occasionally even designing them too!!!  This is the 'Oh, so Simple' one which you can find here.

Yes, I'm a lot faster now but I still get bored by them but can never leave a project unfinished so eventually rush to get them out of the way.

Now, what am I tempted to do for my next ongoing project?  You'll never guess but BC3 is already thinking of another hanky edging.  HELP!!!!  Where's the escape hatch?

Last brooches

Bet you thought you'd seen the last of these!!!  Well, you haven't.  Well, you have NOW as these are the last two.  Still debating what to do with them all as I can't wear them all!!!

I'll keep one or two to put on my winter coats to 'cheer up' those dull, grey days which will be here all too soon and some I may put into Etsy along with the one that's already there.

All this will obviously depend on whether I can find them when I want/need them next!!  My filing system, as you know, consists of chucking things in a box!!!!

Latest project

This is what I've just finished.  I do like to have a simple project on the go so that when I get foxed by a design I can go and do that.

This is one that really grabbed my interest - I was going to keep it for when we are on holiday but it just kept calling me to get it finished!!!!

I used the tiger eye number 80 from Yarnplayer that Ridgetatter sent me.  Love that thread.


The plain thread is an old Coats that I've had since the dinosaurs roamed the earth.  The pattern?  I'll leave you to guess!!!!

Spring is in the air!

Before I start today - just to let you know that blogger (bless them) are having problems with scheduled posts.  A lot of us are finding that our posts (which we've set to go at certain times) just ain't behaving.  Easy to get around if you've got a brain and are near a computer at the time or shortly after - but ..........

Even OG's like me get mildly excited when Spring shows itself!!!  

After the flurry of sorting out all the patterns I submitted for a teaching job at Palmetto I wanted/needed pure relaxation and a thought occurred to me!!

I usually (as  you've probably noticed) use number 20 threads for most things as this is what was readily available in local shops when I was a kid.  I also think it's ideal for most of what I use my tatting for - throwing in boxes in the cupboard!!!  Seriously I do wear/use a lot of my stuff and I find this thickness is wearable and washable.

BUT I DO love using size 40 and finer and love size 80 too.  So for pure relaxation I turned this time to size 40.  I have been a very spoilt old git over the past few years by people sending me lots of lovely HDT.  I had quite a few eazy bobs with size 40 on so out they came along with my container of 'all 40's').  So this wee mat was made with - HDT, Omega, Coats, Lizbeth and probably  other threads too!!!  I finished it a few weeks ago then forgot it - as usual!!!!

I think this has turned out to be very 'Spring like'.  Oh, the pattern is this one.  The version without the SCMR.  It's the same as the HWT one that I showed you yesterday but this probably 'needs' a finishing row.  Not sure.  Maybe.  One day.  Perhaps!!!!

The horrors of writing patterns down.

I'm not sure if I'm the only person who spends so much time on the writing and illustrating of a pattern but if others do too then I'm normal.  If they don't then - well please send for the 'men in white coats' as I'm obviously NOT normal.  Then again you all know that already so what AM I blathering on about?

So having tested the second bracelet pattern I went off to do the drawings and put the page back together again.  

Horrors of horrors when I read the instructions for the first bracelet whilst doing this I was convinced they were wrong.  Back to making the first version again with a fresh brain cell and a tad more concentration.  

Mary Konior

Since the death of Mary Konior two weeks ago I've thought a lot about this lady.  I never knew her or anything about her but her books were published at a time when I needed to tat something different.  Most of my books and leaflets up until then had been the old Coats and Penelope ones with just doilies, hanky edgings and antimacassars in.  I think of her with the following memories of how and when I bought the books.

Back in 1985 I bought her first book just after publication.  I can't fathom where I got it from as there's no sticker in it to say.  It cost me the sum of £6.50 though and it has my married name in it so I was 42 when I bought it.  This would have been at a time when I was happily married with teenage daughters and a full time teaching job.   The book is A Pattern Book of Tatting. 

Her next book came out in 1988 and is the one called Tatting in Lace for which I paid £8.50.  Interestingly this hasn't got my signature in it but the following year when the next book came out I have signed it again with my married name.  That book (Tatting Patterns) again cost £8.50.  I can even track the time of year I bought this book as my ex 'went walkies' in November that year with my friend.  So I must've bought it earlier on if I was using his name to sign with!!!  I ditched 'that' surname shortly after he went and returned to my proper name!!!

The final book was published in 1992 and is called Tatting with Visual Patterns.  I must've REALLY valued this lady as I was having a tough time around then financially so to pay out £14.99 on a tatting book was a BIG DEAL.  It must've been an 'egg on toast' week that week!!  It was a real inspiration to carry on tatting.  

Which is my favourite of the four?  ALL of them.  I've enjoyed many hours not only making up the patterns but also just browsing these wonderful books.  

Thank you, Mary for being in my life when I needed you most.  We never met and never will but I feel I know you through your work.

Lucky Clover part 2

Tomorrow will be Day 8 of the TIAS.

Well I've been quietly working away at the Lucky Clover doily that I showed you here.

Now I thought it might be a bit overpowering in just the variegated thread so I decided to use plain for the chains.  The problem is - I hadn't got any plain thread of the same sort (Perfect Quilter) so I went and dived into my stash and came up with two threads that matched - one thinner than the other.  The thicker one is a quilting thread which I picked up in Ciincinnati many years ago.  The thinner one is a Coats and Clarkes polyester.  All I really know is that they work well together!!!

I'm really pleased with this but am now wondering what to use for the final round.  Time to put on the thinking cap OR send for brain cell 3 who seems to have been on vacation recently!!!