22 March 2021

Well I did it!!!!

Yesterday I launched my Etsy shop again!!  It's been dormant for a few years mainly because Sally took over the selling of the shuttles.  I left it open (the shop, that is) because it did generate a few sales for her.  
After the poncho life got a little boring so I had to find something to do!!!  

As I know I'll be having to pay for the pattern pages site later this year I thought I'd try and earn some pocket money towards that.  I also needed a project to do while we're still in lockdown!!!   

This time I decided to make things for the card makers, quilters and dolls house people so that's what I'm working on.  

Here are two more of the items which are now in the shop which you can find here.

I'll be adding more items including (I hope) a new hummingbird!!!  Well I say that but the idea is still firmly ensconced in BC3's house!!!!





19 March 2021

Etsy

Here are a couple more additions that I’ve made for the Etsy shop which I’ll reactivate sometime at the weekend.  It’s actually nice to have another project on the go and one that I’ve got lots of choice on what I make next!!!

Yvonne also sent in two more foxes which you can find here.



18 March 2021

Life after the poncho

I am lost.  I realise that I can't cope without a long term project so I've set off on another self imposed challenge!!!  
This time I've decided to re-start my Etsy shop again.

I’m not earning enough from the advertisements on this blog to cover the cost of the pattern site and it’s a self imposed challenge to cover that by earning from my craft.  I don’t ‘need’ to but it sort of makes sense to my weird BC3!!!  

This time I’m doing tiddly little things aiming at card makers, scrapbookers, quilters etc.  Here’s a start!!!


16 March 2021

Finally

I’m now happy with the poncho.  BUT, Houston, I have a problem!!!
I think you may want to see the whole thing in all it’s ‘glory’ but that’s where my problem lies.  I would happily model it but I need a photographer.  As we’re still in lockdown and my able assistant commonly known as ‘im indoors (not to be confused with ‘im in the garage who belongs to Sally) can’t take a photo due to health problems then I’m stuck until I can find a neighbour who’s willing on a sunny but not windy day when we can do it outside.  

So, when all the stars are aligned I’ll ask somebody to help but meanwhile here’s the final neck row.  


11 March 2021

The outer edge - row 2

This is the second and last round for the outer edge.  

Having done the first row I thought it may be enough but then felt it needed a second one to bring it all together.  Here it is.  Finished it a few days ago.  Many hours spent again on this poncho!!!



9 March 2021

The outer edge - row 1

Now I started this a week or more ago. Maybe even two weeks ago. 

This is the outer edge of the poncho and it’s a LOOOOOONG way round!!!! 

I suppose I should measure it.  Right - here’s the answer.  It’s 77” all the way round.  How many hanky edgings is that?  Not sure but it’s a few, I guess!!!!



8 March 2021

Onwards with the poncho!

I should've warned you that this was going to get boring!!!  This is the third row of the neck which is now looking (and feeling) so much better when I try it on.  




5 March 2021

Another row started!

Before I start I want to update you on the TIAS progress.  We’ve now got 102 bookmarks finished and on the blog here.

Yes this row is much faster (although it's not 'that' fast) than doing more Fandango squares!!!  
I'm now nearing the end of the second row of the neckline and it's looking good.  I'm pretty sure it'll need a third row and maybe even a fourth but I'll just carry on as I am at the moment.  

Here's row two almost completed.  



4 March 2021

Well, how do you like it?

Wonder if any of you have noticed the new header on my blog? 

I got bored with the old one and decided - out with the old and in with the new!!! 

It's really not that hard to do but just takes time - two hours yesterday morning. With the 'new look' pattern pages and the 'new look' blog' I'm beginning to feel like it must be a new year too. 

Oh, just noticed that it's not - it's March already!!!  Doesn't time fly in lockdown?



3 March 2021

The poncho - again

Quick edit to let you know I'm 100 today!!!  Here's the link.

I have a bit of a problem with the poncho as I found out when I got to this stage and which I showed you last week. 

The problem is that I could've probably done with another row of 28 motifs in the neck to bring it up further onto the shoulders. I honestly felt that I couldn't face another session of probably a week or more on just doing the same old, same old. Also I felt the neckline (and the bottom too) need 'finishing off'.

Obviously (like the whole project) there isn't a pattern for this. Edgings don't come with a built in 'shaping' of a neckline!!! Pity really. So I'm having to 'wing it' as the saying goes. Courage in both hands (and shuttles) and trust in years of experience and a reasonably well behaved BC3!!!!

Here's the first neck row which I did over the weekend. More to come later - I hope!!!

As those beady eyed tatters will see if you look closely - I've taken the photo showing the back of the piece.  The whole thing is tatted front side/back side and this time I messed up with the photo.  Send me to the naughty step!!!




2 March 2021

Frustration then sorted

Yesterday I decided to split up a web page and make it (hopefully) easier for people to find things.  

I had a page which included snowflakes, motifs and doilies but decided to split it into three.  Not too much of a task if an oldie like me decides to do it in the morning while the brain is ‘fresh’!!!  

All went well until I had to sort out the ‘home’ or ‘index’ page.  Then things went sort of ‘pear shaped’.  

Suddenly I’ll lost all the connections to the images and links on that front page.  Panic set in (well, marginally) while I tried to work out how to fix it.  It wasn’t that hard but was a bit time consuming.  

An hour or so later it was all fixed but it wasn’t a task I wish to repeat for a while!!!  




1 March 2021

Moaning Monday

Before I start moaning I must mention that we’ve now got 99 foxes on the TIAS blog.  Wonder if it’ll make 100?

Now this is one Monday moan I'm allowed to do!!! Mainly it's aimed at ME, I think.

It wasn't until I exchanged comments with my lovely friend Diane (who I had the pleasure of meeting some years ago at a tatting convention) that I realised I'd have to do something about my problem!!!

Let me explain - although I think some of you have probably read this before. I run ads on my blog via adsense. I don't really understand it that well but what I do know is that when people click on the ads a wee bit of money goes into my account. This builds up until I get around £60 every 9 months or so. This I use solely towards funding the pattern pages here. That's the only reason I run the ads and although the web providers I use are called 'freeservers' they're certainly not free!!!! The adsense payments go a good way towards keeping the pattern pages 'up there'. 

Anyway, it's annoyed me a LOT that the ads seemed to be occurring more and more in the middle of a post. I spent Friday morning (or it could've been Saturday!) looking into this and hopefully putting it right. Poor Diane hadn't read the whole of one post because the ad had got in the way. So, now you know why I'm moaning - not about the ads but about their positioning. I'd even tried removing them from the blog but that didn't work either. 

While I was playing with that problem I decided to give the blog a slightly different 'look'. One piece of advice if you decide to do that is please download a copy which you can find in 'Theme' on your dashboard. See the little downward arrow next to 'customise'? Drop that down and you'll find out how to download. Well worth doing in case you really mess up and need to restore or even move to another provider. 



26 February 2021

Another housekeeping task

This was just a 'quickie'.
A dear friend pointed out to me that I hadn't got a drawing for the second version of this snowflake.  

I apologise to my sister, Sally, for not doing it sooner.  I must say I much prefer her version to mine.  

I have also managed to move the TIAS files into a folder on my server.  This takes HUGE concentration as I also have to change the links to each previous page on the files too.  Very happy to have got it done.  What does it mean to anybody wanting to do the TIAS from the start (or anywhere else)?  Nothing!!!  You shouldn’t notice anything’s changed at all!!!



25 February 2021

Catching up with myself


It was during the TIAS that I came to realise that I hadn't got a technique page on how to add a bead to a picot.   
I sort of assumed that people would know how to do that and was surprised to find that I hadn't got a page about it either.

So two days ago I decided to 'do something about it'.  

I'm pretty well organised on my filing system so went to the 'tips and techniques' folder and set a new folder for 'adding bead to picot'.  I knew I could use other drawings on my system for the drawings (with a little alteration) so copied those over into the software and the new folder.   

Luckily I hadn't got far into the task when I suddenly noticed I'd already got a folder with the whole thing described and drawn.  So I deleted the new start I'd made and amended the original.  Now PLEASE DO NOT ask me why it never got uploaded!!!  




24 February 2021

I’m back!

After my long holiday on the TIAS blog I’m now back!!!  
Problem is I haven’t got anything particularly interesting to tell and show you on a regular basis yet!!!  

Do you remember this post back last September?  Well I’ve shown you many pictures of this particular Fandango square.  This one has a ring in the middle as I wanted a bit more ‘solidness’ there.  When I stared out on this adventure I had no idea what I was going to make and looking back it took me two months to decide. Here’s where I seem to have come to a decision.

I now have 352 motifs done and that’s ‘it’!!!!  I’m not doing anymore!!!  To be honest I’ve not been bored at all doing them.  In fact each one has been it’s own small adventure.  The poncho is NOT finished as I need to put a border on the neck edge and the bottom too.  That’s going to be another challenge!!!  

Another interesting fact - each motif took roughly an hour and a quarter to make.  I was still making mistakes from time to time and even had to cut out a whole row (8 motifs) when joining the two ‘parts’ together.  

Another fact is that it’s NOT necessary to have each square EXACTLY the same as the last.  A little variation is ‘lost’ when joining so many squares.  Thank goodness!!!!




22 February 2021

Back with a Monday moan

First of all an update on the TIAS.  We now have 95 foxes completed.  I'm a happy tatter!

One of my favourite moans is about Facebook.  I DO NOT like Facebook!!!!  There I’ve said it.  
Why don’t I like it?  I don’t ever go to Facebook unless I’m tagged or want to pass on news (like the next stage of the TIAS).  I do have notifications that go directly into my email box and that’s where I decide if anything is worth looking at.  Most emails are deleted but some I do follow up if only to turn on 'notifications'.

I appreciate the tatting groups, though but really, really have a problem with the way that people don’t read the posts put on there.  Often they don’t read the question asked carefully but mainly they don’t read the answers already given.  The number of times somebody puts the same answer up to a question can be mind boggling.  I realise that there’s a sort of ‘tree’ of answers and comments but people don’t seem to read them and just repeat the same thing over and over.

I’m sure that there are some very interesting things going on on Facebook in the tatting world but If I wanted to look something up that I’d seen a week before I’m sure I’d never find it.  Things get ‘lost in time’ on that platform.  I prefer my blog (and other people's which I read avidly) where I can look things up and find them easily using the search on the top left corner. 

Monday moan over with and here's an Easter egg to cheer the post up!!!





16 February 2021

Running the TIAS

So, for those who are interested I’d like to explain how I manage the TIAS (Tat It And See) once it goes ‘live’.
I have two email addresses so that I can log into two different browsers as it would be too frustrating to have to log in and out on one.  As far as I know you can't have two blogger accounts on the one email address.

I normally use Safari as I have Apple products and that’s what ‘comes with the appliance’.  For the TIAS I have to find another browser and this year I chose to try out Microsoft’s Edge which worked extremely well.  

Each day’s progress is, as you’ve already found out, placed in a new post so that there’s not so many to scroll down to get to the bottom.  

As the emails arrive in Safari or Mail (depending on whether I’m on the big Mac or the iPad) I select the message, copy and paste it into the post on the TIAS blog (which is on the Edge browser).  I’ve found that this then needs to be formatted to try and keep the look of the blog consistent.  

Pictures are downloaded into downloads on the big computer or into photos on the iPad.  Sometimes I decide to crop them to show the tatting up a bit better and then I go back to the TIAS blog and insert the picture from downloads or photos below the message.  

Next I delete the picture from ‘downloads’ or ‘photos’ so that I don’t get BC3 muddled and accidentally put the wrong ones against the wrong person.  Finally (the bit I like best) I reply to the sender.  All emails come straight into the itatlots inbox even if they’re sent to the lovetotat one.  I set up ‘forwarding’ on the lovetotat one years ago just so it made my life a bit easier!!!!

So, that's how it happens.  If anybody else would like to do a TIAS and use the blog then I can add you to the admin.  It's a fair bit of work but real fun.

I don't have a picture to show you today so instead (just for a laugh) I'm adding one of me when I slid gracefully and elegantly into a muddy field a week or so ago.  

15 February 2021

Back almost to normal

Well on this blog, I hope.  

Christine asked me how I design the TIAS so I thought I’d tell you a bit of what happens and how I work it.  It’s much the same as an 'ordinary' pattern.  First of all I have to decide what I think will work.  It has to be something that people will recognise all round the world.  With animals I use google images and particularly cartoons.  

Sometimes I do the design as per usual but then often realise that that particular design would be guessed too soon so have to start again from a different part of the pattern which throws up many different complications.  

I draw the whole design and do all the notation as a whole pattern and then, once I’m happy with it I chop it up (drawings as well).  This means lots of work checking the chopped up bits especially the drawings.  

After that it's a case of deciding on names to use for each url.  This I do while bearing in mind where they’ll show on the server.  Thus the AADAY1 etc names.  This keeps the current TIAS all together at the top of the server.  Once everything is uploaded I then send the links to a test tatter (thank you Ruth) who gives it a go as if it's a TIAS.  Obviously there are hiccups that have to be sorted!!

More soon on how I then run the TIAS from Planet Jane!!!

Meanwhile Mr Fox (or it could be Mrs) is available as a whole pattern here.






25 January 2021

Forgot to show you

Towards the weekend life got a bit 'out of control' in that several things needed sorting.  The TIAS continues apace and I'm thrilled to tell you that the guesses are really good.  As you know I never admit whether guesses are right or wrong until I have to admit 'defeat'!!!  

So today I'm showing you progress on the poncho.  This has slowed down considerably due to the TIAS but there's no time schedule for it so I just keep plodding along.  



22 January 2021

A couple of changes

Just to let you know that I've done some amendments to the large giraffe pattern thanks to Cheryl who's so kindly helped me out.  
This is an old, old pattern written (I believe) before the birth of BC3 so it had a few glitches.  Now they've been put right thanks to Cheryl I'm a very happy old git.  Oh, here's the link.

Also while I was on the file manager on my site I did a few small alterations to the wording on this file too.  I needed to make the reasons for it clearer - I think!!!  

This is now my preferred way of starting any piece of tatting as there are no knots involved!!!  I also added a link from that page to this one for ending a piece (again I always use this nowadays) which leaves only one end to sew in.  

If ONLY I could find the enthusiasm for housework and stuff then life would be a lot better!!!!  


18 January 2021

Covid

I also had my first Covid jab too which gives a small sense of ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.  

I took some Covid tatty bits with me and gave them to the wonderful NHS staff who’d given up their Sunday to do this mammoth task.  They were very pleased with them but the doctor who gave me the jab was over the moon!!!  I’ll have to make some more for the next time I go which will be in around 11 weeks.  Here's the link again for the pattern.  Wouldn't it be good if we all did that and thus spread tatting instead of the actual virus?

After getting home from the hospital I prepared the evening meal and then decided to go for a walk to get the vaccine moving round the old body!!!!

Meanwhile I’m still working on the poncho and will take another photo sometime this week.


14 January 2021

Trudging along

With my poncho.  

Things get done nowadays in between uploads to the TIAS blog.  Still it keeps me out of mischief!!!



11 January 2021

It all starts TOMORROW!!!

What am I talking about?  Well the Tat It And See.  
I'm sure lots of you are fed up with hearing about it but every time I put out a count down post there are more people who haven't heard about this year's TIAS.  

So, are you ready?  Just a last minute check with the introduction maybe a good idea.

Picture is the result of a previous TIAS.



6 January 2021

Seven days to go

Until the start of the TIAS.  
For those who haven't visited the dedicated blog - here's the link.  

I'm getting excited now and really looking forward to meeting those who take part via email etc!!  Little things please little minds!!!

Another of the past TIAS patterns.



5 January 2021

Going round the bend!

Well you may think I've been round the bend for many, many years and others would confirm that too.  
The saga of the poncho continues and I've now got about halfway through, I think!!!

This is the link I used to get the general idea of how to make mine.  Basically it's two rectangles joined together.  So that's what I'm doing.  If it doesn't work out then I'll be able to adjust it when they're done, I hope!!!

So here are a couple of pictures - one of how it looked a few days ago and the other the ongoing choosing of threads to use.  


1 January 2021

Another snowman!!!

I LOVE this snowman from Mary Jane. A definite improvement with the mask as well as the Covid-19 virus too.


Meanwhile I'm making preparations for the TIAS and am continuing to do the Fandango poncho.  More about both next week!!



30 December 2020

How many?

If anybody EVER says they're bored in front of me they get a humungous glare!!!  In all my years I've never been bored.  There's always something to keep me interested and involved whether it's crafts or people, problems to solve etc.

The only two things I'm not keen on are cooking and gardening!!!!  I could happily skip those but I do them albeit reluctantly.

Even a semi lockdown Christmas didn't mean any boredom - no family visits but no boredom either.  This is the Fandango poncho at the moment.  160 motifs!

I can't get bored with this because of the way I'm working it.  As you can see there are 8 motifs in a row so that means I 'hit the stash of threads' every row or so to work out what I'm using next.  This is part of the way I don't get bored.  

It may look as if one end is wider than the other but that's perspective causing that!!!  


24 December 2020

More planning and more progress

This is another row being planned on my 'not quite sure yet' project!!  Still think it might become a poncho.  
Would you believe that I still make mistakes from time to time and either have to unpick or sometimes even abandon the odd square.  

Also when winding the shuttles I sometimes get the threads sort of tangled. Some motifs have two HWT together and some have three.  Occasionally just one which is a relief!!!


23 December 2020

Another project finished!

After my stupid hiccough with the oven gloves and a few minutes undoing the stitching I was back 'on the case' as 'they' (whoever they are!) say.

First of all I sewed the edge of the lining along the main part and in the right place this time!!

Next I crocheted doubles through the two parts of the outer pocket and including the inner lining too.  That was a bit of a struggle at times!!

I then found that I'd got enough odds and ends of cotton yarn left to add a stabilising couple of rows of double crochet to the joining part between the two gloves!!!

I've since tested them and they work a treat.  All for the price of nothing!!!  Some of that yarn by the looks of the label must've been almost as old as me - if not older!!!!!  



21 December 2020

Where things went wrong!!!

I think BC3 decided he was on holiday far too soon and this is what he did next.  

First of all I divided the remaining pink/green into two and made a treble crochet 'filler' (don't know how to explain it any better!) to join the two pockets and I had 'just enough' to make a good space between the glove ends.  I started from each pocket and joined in the middle 'just in case' I hadn't got enough to reach and had to infill with the cream.
I sewed the two ends to the lining and started to put it all together.  

Then the penny dropped (as they say!) and I realised that I'd sewn the extra lining into the wrong place!!!  Not a huge problem and it was soon undone and put right.  I've done a second photo to show where I should've sewn the lining - follow the black arrows!!



18 December 2020

Progress on the oven gloves

Having done the 'hand pockets' I tested them out and realised that just the one thickness of double crocheted fabric wouldn't be enough to stop my poor old aged hands getting burnt.  So, next plan was another layer.  
I realised that another layer of crochet would make whole hand pockets far too stiff so resorted to knitting a layer to put inside the palm part of the pink/green pockets.  

Good idea and it worked.  (Tested it out on Sunday when I was cooking a chicken).  



16 December 2020

Odds and ends

I've always liked making 'something for nothing' which I think is inbred in all of us crafty people!!  
Going through my yarn stash a week or two back I found the odds and ends of cotton yarn (roughly double knitting size) and wondered if I could use any of it to make some oven gloves.  We have several oven gloves but both of us always go to the one set which are heat proof and ''bendy' too.  

I decided to crochet the two pockets for the hands first.  I knew I'd got plenty of this green/pink yarn.


14 December 2020

I’ve caught Covid-19

Well thankfully I’m teasing although I hope I’m not tempting fate!!!  I've not seen anybody or heard of anybody in Tat Land catching the Covid virus, thankfully. I've lost two friends and had one other catch it and survive (late 80's).  

That and the snowman from the other day made BC3 think.  
As  you know here in the  UK the first vaccine is being rolled out.  I won't get it yet as I'm a mere Spring chicken in my late 70's but hoping it won't be too long.  Nick will get it soon, I hope.  

Anyway, I thought I would award myself a badge/button to show I've had the vaccine.  We won't be given 'I've had the vaccine' stickers or any other type of acknowledgment that we've had a needle stuck in our arms so I'm going to give myself THIS!!!!

There are two versions - one suitable for an earring and the other to wear as a brooch - it’s tatted onto a button.




10 December 2020

A snowman with a difference

I have a friend who lives ‘round the corner’ and who rang me a few days ago to ask if I could make a snowman for her.  Not just an ordinary snowman, though!!  

Well I showed her this one and she said that was fine BUT would I be able to replace the walking stick with a Covid virus!!!!  Apparently it’s a family ‘thing’ where she sends a snowman each year and she likes it to have something to do with the year so what could be more ‘right’ for this year than a snowman carrying a Covid virus!!!

So, here it is!!!



8 December 2020

About halfway to halfway???

I decided after a few rows of the second ‘start’ that it wasn’t a particularly good idea so joined those rows to the original.  Made for an interesting row to work which was a ‘good thing’ as it made it moderately more challenging!!!  One HAS to keep BC3 on his toes, you know.  

This is progress a few days ago.  It now measures 32” in length and there are 118 squares!!!

Meanwhile I’ve been sidetracked yet again onto another project which I’ll show you in a couple of days.  


4 December 2020

Choosing colours

Do you remember the knitted blankets that I did?  If not then here's a reminder!!!

That's the same idea I'm using for the 'supposed to be' poncho.

I lay the piece on the floor and then choose the colours for the next row.  This seems to work really well so that's going to be my plan from now on.  Eight squares in a row is enough  to deal with at a time and I can 'just about' do a row every two days.  Each square takes me an hour and a half and if I get two done in the afternoon (doesn't always happen!) and two in the evening then I can make steady progress.  



2 December 2020

TIAS coming sooooooon

Well it had to happen.  Lockdown finally got BC3 to agree to a return of the Tat It And See which first appeared back in approximately 2008 with the hippo which can be found here.
For those who don't know what it is then please take a visit to this link and this link too.  

ANY questions, suggestions or complaints then please email me directly on my email address (at the top of this blog).  Or leave a comment below.

I try to keep the TIAS (as those who've done it before know) as simple as possible for those taking part.  The only real 'work' is at my end when I receive comments and pictures of your progress (or lack of!!) to put on the TIAS blog.

For the 'rules' of the game or to find further information please read this file.  The starting date is at the bottom.

My email address is in my profile on the left side of

This is what the last TIAS turned out to be!!



30 November 2020

Breaking the monotony

Well that's a silly title for this post as I'm not finding it monotonous at all!!!!  
But I decided that if this was going to fail as a poncho then it might be a good idea to turn it into two cloths or something.  So I've started another of the 'whatever it is'!!!

Eventually I can join the two lengths and make them into the poncho.  Knowing me it'll probably get finished but at the moment I'm hedging my bets!!!  

Please don't miss Wednesday's blog post - something I really need to tell you about.  It's pretty important in Tat Land.





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Happy Beaks

Happy Beaks
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