My Personal Tatting History

It's now about 50 years since I learnt the craft of tatting.

When I was eleven years old I was allowed to go on the first ever school trip run by Broad Street County Primary School to Belgium. I remember that it cost my mum and dad the tremendous amount of thirteen pounds and ten shillings. I knew I was very lucky to be able to go as I had a younger brother and sister who would also be going in future years. This was probably my very first lesson in 'how expensive' things are!!! A lesson which was well learnt and has stayed with me throughout the rest of my life!

We travelled to Bruges and one of the things I saw was this lady making lace.

This made SUCH an impression on me that for the following two years I nagged and nagged about learning to make lace. I must have been a real pain!!!

In 1956 my gran then aged about the age I am now, decided to go to tatting classes at the old Technical College in Henley Street here in Stratford upon Avon. She wasn't really sure whether she wanted to learn or not! Gran was an extremely good artist but never did a lot after her marriage.

Anyway, after her first lesson she asked if I'd like to learn. Woweeee, nearly, nearly bobbin lace!!! I went to her house and we sat down to try this new fangled craft out. Oh dear, gran had forgotten about the flip!!

To this day I clearly remember seeing what should happen and together we got it under way. Many, many hours we spent together swopping ideas, patterns etc. My pocket money was spent on the only threads we could get hold of - white and ecru (Coats) and the old Coats & Clarkes books and Penelope Books were our only source of patterns at that time. We did manage to borrow a Norma Benporath book from the library (they had found one in a library up north somewhere) and this was very inspiring.

When my gran was just into her seventies she decided to take a trip round the world to meet her brother whom she hadn't seen for fifty years because he'd emigrated to Australia. Whilst she was over there with him she advertised on TV and radio asking for copies of the Norma Benporath book and she managed to get one good copy. I now have this and an original Mrs Beeton's book (also gran's) in my possession.

In later years I learnt bobbin lace, knitted lace, crochet, netting and filet but throughout I have always, but always tatted!!! I've done a lot of sewing and patchwork too in the past.

Back to the bookmark!

Back to the bookmark and after the very constructive comments after the initial attempts I've managed to 'get rid of' the green colour on the centre 'flower'. This meant running a chain forwards and then going back and instead of using a SR with rings thrown off I've used a SCMR. The two other SR's simply have to have one side of green!! The problem now is the second side (oh, and the ends!). I wasn't happy with the original ends as they didn't lie flat enough so I shall 'fiddle' with those. In the scan below I need to remove one SR following the end (on the left) and before starting the long chain. Now I really, really need to resolve this second side. Up til now I've been putting the shuttle through the gap so that the chain and shuttle thread can do a SLT around the gap between the two SR's but I now think that I'll probably use an OTT join instead to give me more scope to play with this second side. All comments would be VERY welcome. I shall now have to leave this again for a day or three as I've an 'out of ebay' order to fulfill!!!

If you have ever noticed this butterfly on my site http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~nickeb/butterflyring.htm then you'll see that the following are the same but with a tatted centre. I will amend the pattern in a few days. First of all I want to work this again but without all the picots as I think it might give a clearer outline - all comments welcome!!! Oh, these haven't been pressed yet!!!

Fleur finished.

Well, that's finished!! Taking out the silly little 1 ds chain, shortening two SR's slightly and adding two picots to two chains to stabalise the feathers seems to have done the trick. I shall put the web page together over the weekend and then test tat the whole thing again next week to look for further mistakes.
Glad this is finished - I'm going to make some badger bookmarks to sell on ebay and then get back to the bookmark that needs tweaking. I think I'll try some different colours and take on board some of the suggestions kindly put forward by people.

Nearly, nearly, nearly

I think this is nearly done. There is no way that I can make this in one piece so there will have to be a T & C after the lower half is done.
I've made the chain leading up from the central feather much shorter. Down to 1 ds. I'm going to try it without the chain altogether today which will bring the central feather slightly lower. I'm also wondering if it will then allow me to put in a joining picot between the central feather and the two outer ones to 'stabilize' it. All comments welcome .........
If you look at Mark's splendid Fleur de Lys http://www.tat-man.net/patterns/fleurdelis.jpg you will see that he's done his in two or three parts. If the maestro has found that this is the only way of doing a piece like this then who am I to argue!!!! Hi Mark!

Nearly there!

A good evening. As usual at the last minute and without me really noticing it all fell into place!!! The picture is a bit lopsided cause I haven't pressed it or anything! The bottom part (end of the feathers) needs something different but if I use 'just a chain' it doesn't work! I'll have to fiddle around with this. Also the 2 chains leading into the central feather need either drastic shortening (1 p only) or getting rid of completely. I'll also have to re-draw most of the diagram too which should keep me out of mischief for a while!
I still cannot see a way of making the Fleur in just 'one hit' unless I find a 'returning' way round those lower feathers. There - just set myself another challenge. Whoever said designing was easy should have my convoluted brain! Why can't I just be satisfied with it 'as is'? Trouble is that I'm now itching to get back to the bookmark and I want to make some badger bookmarks to sell on ebay - oh, and what was that other idea that jumped into my head while I was talking to Hope yesterday?

I didn't get much done yesterday evening due to several phone calls. I did get the base of the Fleur de Lys done, however, so this afternoon/evening should see a good attempt at the upper part. I cannot see a way of making this in one 'hit'. Dissapointing!
I was also monitoring my ebay stuff yesterday evening. I've listed a few tatting items - some of those earrings which are SO hard to assemble. I shan't be making any more of those in the future. There's also a clown, sunflower, tatting needles etc. I do hope I sell some more of the stuff as I really need to re-charge my Paypal account so I can start shopping again!!!!
Oh, my ebay ID is simply janeeborall!!!!

Finally the right shape!

This is the right shape but there's still a LONG way to go. This has been worked in two parts (darn tying and cutting) so I've got to start again and try to eliminate that problem. I also need to 'design out' the hole in the middle.
Now a bit more about 'why a Fleur de Lys'. My sister (also a tatter) is a Beaver leader here in the U.K. Here's a useful link http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/6to25/beaver/ Next year is a big anniversary for them (can't remember which one!) and she asked if I could make a Fleur de Lys as that is their emblem. She wants to make some as giveaways.
First of all Sally sent me their logo and I pasted that into a lower layer of Serif DrawPlus in order to 'trace over' it on the layer above. I then did the first two attempts as posted on previous days. It then occurred to me that this was getting me nowhere so I tried popping some rings etc over the top of the logo. I've added that to the blog too. I'm hoping that this will show my many and devious ways of designing. I can't say that I have any particular way of doing a design or that any of it is 'set in stone'.

Another small step for mankind!!!

I didn't get very far yesterday evening - fell asleep in the armchair!!!

What am I up to now?

Any guesses more than welcome!!!

A Bookmark - I think!!!!

I've finished this sample but I think it looks better in the picture than in 'real life'! May play with this a lot more before I 'launch' it on my web site. All comments for improvements are welcome!!! Brain's gone to sleep on this!!! I shall also make it into and edging with corners when I next get 'inspired'. If anybody comments on this would they please also email me privately so that I can reply!!!

Finished Another Project!!!

I finished the little faces which will be zipper pulls for children's clothes (and mine!) last night. The one on the left and the one in the middle are a pattern which needs SCMR and a split chain. The difference between these two are the size of the ears. The third face is a completely different pattern.

Funnily this wasn't easy to design as a lot of detail had to be put into a small space and they had to be dense enough for the piece to stand up to small fingers constantly pulling at them. Now to finish off the text (adding abbreviations etc) and to submit it to the new Welsh newsletter. Do hope they like it.

Tying up Loose Ends

Well, you do when you're tatting, don't you?!?!?
I managed to resolve one of my zipper pulls yesterday evening and will certainly get the other versions done this evening. They can then go to the group I've sort of promised them to for consideration for their newsletter. I also made a pair of giraffes to send to a friend but they've worked out too big for earrings - I'll do some smaller ones by jiggling with the stitch count. I don't have any finer thread in black and I don't think they would make good earrings in a finer thread!!!
Third thing - another heart. Realised that the ones I'd made were now sewn onto tshirts so I didn't have any for my sample book! Duh, am I stupid, or what?

A simple bookmark idea

This has been on my mind now for weeks and I found a 'space' to play with it last night. Just need to check whether it's been done before!!!

After a hectic few days with family problems I finally got round to playing with this idea again. I've started off on a new 'tack' and these are the results. The first one on the left doesn't match from side to side as after the join to the nose I thought of a 'better idea'. The one on the right is much better. I shall now play around with ears, hair and other enhancements on both designs!

Changed it slightly but think it's more to do with colours. Probably larger beads for the eyes would help. Now I want to do one with a tongue sticking out and play with hair!! Perhaps that would help too. Below is a 'big ears' version and a 'small ears' version.

Not sure about it now. Probably start all over again on this one!!!

Another day, another play!!

I think I've cracked it!!! Forgive the nasty colour but I use up old and much hated threads when experimenting with new ideas. Here are the latest attempts. These faces will be for zip pulls for kids. Takes a kid to make these!!! I will next use bright, bright colours and beads. Keep watching for the final versions to be shown on a blog near you!!

Experimenting with a new idea!!!

Three false starts but I had a better idea during the night. Yes, even dream tatting - sad, isn't it?

New Heart

Now this one just 'fell' off the shuttle!! The pattern is being offered to a tatting group first and will eventually appear on my site. I've been playing with the idea of clovers on the second side of a split ring but this time I've used beads to move them further away from the ring.