Another alien

Excellent news - another alien arrived yesterday and is now on the TIAS blog. As I said to Susan who sent it in - I’m going to use it as a reminder to those who haven’t sent theirs in yet.  

At the moment we only have 77 and I like to get close to 100 before I make the effort to start on another TIAS design.  So, calling all aliens - would you care to join Susan’s over here and see if we can get to 100?  

Monday ‘sort of’ moan

This isn’t really a moan but it IS Monday and it’s what my BC3 does once a week - it thinks!!!  Yes once a week and for a few minutes!!  

So over the past few days I’ve ben thinking about onion rings.

Not long ago I spent time with Judith Connors (she lives the other side of the world to me!!) as she has a super way of doing really neat onion rings. Here’s the link to her way.

So when I decided to make a doily (more to come on that another day) with onion rings I thought it was a good opportunity to really practice this. 

WRONG!!! The onion rings in the pattern aren’t really onion rings. They look like them but they aren’t. I must admit I’d never thought of this before and I’ll also admit that it’s the way I used for the pig and the elephant but I’m now thinking they ought to be called 'mock' onion rings!  Why?  Well because the outside of this onion ring just ISN’T a ring - it’s a chain!!!  I know I’m stirring the pot a bit but does anybody else think that they ought to be called a MOR (mock onion ring)?

This is a blurry picture but you can see what I mean - not (to me) an onion ring but a ‘mock’ onion ring!

Jumper finished

I’ve been knitting! No shuttles while the TIAS was ongoing and definitely no designing either. I thought knitting would be relaxing but as my BC3 doesn’t ‘do boring’ very well I found this jumper.  It was a huge challenge. I’ve finished it now and have actually worn it too.  I bought it off Ravelry and it can be found here.  Least I hope this link will work.

It’s worked from the top down in 4ply yarn and it took me about 8 starts to ‘get’ the German short rows and the pattern straight and into my poor old BC3!!! Finally it’s done and I’m very pleased with it.  So were my wonderful new friends at the Friday knitting group who gave me wonderful advice and help.

Another message from Mary Jane!!!

This came from Mary Jane yesterday afternoon!!! I know the feeling about things 'going missing'. 

"Thank you for showing my heart and clown. Hope to find my sweatshirt with the Santa Claus on it. I moved to Santa Claus Indiana in 1992. Found your pattern put on sweatshirt wore to IOLO convention. Where? Can’t remember been too long ago. Before the clown."

Then later in the afternoon I got this message AND a picture of the missing sweatshirt!!

Well done for finding it Mary Jane!!!

Mary Jane’s clown

I’ve had a bit of a break from this blog whilst dealing with the Tat It And See. I then took last week off while getting my BC3 back into ‘back to boring’ mode!!!

The aliens from the TIAS are still slowly coming in and I’m hopeful that we’ll reach a hundred eventually. Once we’re near that I’ll start thinking of a new TIAS design for next January.

Meantime one of the bonuses of doing the TIAS is that people get in touch and sometimes we have a good old ‘natter’ on email. I find out too that people do actually use my patterns which is very reassuring and when they send them to me that makes my day. Mary Jane sent in her clown - the pattern is here and that cheered me up LOADS. 

Mind it was a bit frightening when I saw the date I did it - over 20 years ago. Where does the time go?

Debra’s Doris

Halfway through this year’s Tat It And See I had another arrival from Debra of her TIAS 2022!!! It’s never too late to send in a TIAS!!! Here is Doris done by Debra along with her comment.

I wanted to show you the birthday card I made using Doris the Dragon. My grandson will be 9 in March and he has decided to learn Japenese do I googled how to say happy birthday in Japanese. 

Further knitting progress!! - 2

It was weeks ago that I took this photo. I’m now well on the way to the finishing line but the TIAS has kept me busy so haven’t taken photos. I’ll wait until I’ve finished now as I don’t want to bore you any further!!!

Final day of the TIAS 2023

Today is the last day of the TIAS and the link is here.  

When you send in today’s final part could you mention where you come from and the thread you used, please?  It might also be interesting to see how you made the alien - shuttle or needle.  Thanks.

I will be slowly returning to this blog over the next few weeks as I find things to talk about.

Mary Jane’s heart

Mary Jane sent this little picture of the hear I uploaded a week or two ago and she said

“Jane. I just finished your heartLove it. So this is my valentine heart to me. Thanks for pattern

Mary Jane”

So glad you enjoyed it, Mary Jane. 

Day 13 ia now available

Here’s the link to the TIAS blog for day 13.  

This is the pnnultimate day of the TIAS 2023.

A new project - a doily

This is the centre of the new project.  I’m not going to tell you which pattern it is until I’ve done round one!!!

Day 12 now available

Day 12 is now available on the Tat It And See blog which can be found here.

Julie’s heart

Julie tatted the Dutch heart shortly after I published it on my pattern site here.

It gives me such a big buzz when people do that and tell me about it too. Thanks, Julie. This is what she said.

“I tatted your heart as a diversion awaiting day 8. It was a fun pattern. It reminds me of the fox bookmark from the tias a couple years ago. I have not done much Block tatting. I need to practice some more to improve the tensioning of my chains. Thank you for sharing the pattern.

Julie“

Day 11 now available

Day 11 is now available on the TIAS blog.

Day 11

Day 11 of the Tat It And See will be available tomorrow.  Meanwhile you will need to prepare for it by doing the following.  

Wind 2½ yards onto shuttle 1. Pull off another 1½ yards and wind CTM onto shuttle 2

Day 10 now available

DAY 10 OF THE TAT IT AND SEE IS NOW AVAILABLE ON THIS BLOG.

Day 9

Day 9 of the Tat It And See is now available here.

Jaycee’s heart

I launched this pattern on 23rd of January and was really, really surprised and mega pleased when Jacee wrote a couple of days later to show me her heart. 

She said this

Dear Jane,

It's 4th day of CNY and I'm free from those dreaded chores for a couple of days before the grand ushering of the Jade Heavenly King on the 9th day of CNY. I took this opportunity to tat your Dutch Heart and if not for the less than perfect long picot at the lower end, I would say I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. Thanks so much for the make over of this vintage pattern and great fun to tat it in one 'hit'👏🏻

Hugs,

Jacee😘

This is one of the bonuses of doing the TIAS as it keeps me in touch with people from all over the world and I learn such a lot about different cultures, religions etc.  

Day 7 of the TIAS

Is now available on the Tat It And See blog here.

Knitting progress!

Now this project has been a NIGHTMARE for poor old BC3!! 

I think it’s a personality problem that I have but I don’t like doing something that is easy. I like a challenge in everything in my life. Not just crafting but all other areas too. 

Last Saturday I was asked by a neighbour if I could set up his smart television. I’d not done one before and told him so. Nonetheless I was prepared to try. It was sooooo easy and didn’t take long at all. 

Now this is pretty amazing when I tell you that I don’t even know how to switch ours on (or off etc)!!!! 

However this knitting project has really stretched me. I think I made 8 starts but now it’s going well. Fingers all crossed!!

Day 6 of the TIAS

Day 6 of the Tat It And See can be found here. 

The TIAS blog is here with all the links to the previous 5 days.

Dutch heart - finished

Finally I have a heart that I’m pleased with!!!  

It's all worked in one 'hit'.  You start and finish without any cuts and ties which is what I like to achieve in a design.  

Just in case anybody wants to make it - here's the link.

Day 5

Here is the link to day 5 of the TIAS.

Progress on the heart

Now you know me!!!  I do NOT like stops and starts in my patterns!!  I have NO problem whatsoever over adding new threads in or anything like that but I just like to do a project all in one ‘hit’!!!  These are some of the experiments on the heart which I showed you the other day!!

Day 4

Day 4 of the TIAS is now available here.  

How my brain works

One day I was browsing through an old Dutch book once more and spotted this edging.  I thought it looked like a heart but I didn’t like the fact that the chain heads all face the same way and I started to play!!!

More another day!!

Day 3

Today I’ve put up the link for DAY 3 of the TIAS blog.  Please visit the blog to find it.  

Day 2

Link to day 2 of the TIAS  

Please send any finished parts to the TIAS blog here.

Start of the TIAS

Here is the link to the start of the Tat It And See game.  

This blog may be quiet on and off if I’ve got nothing to say.  When the TIAS is operating my time is taken up with not only updating the TIAS blog but also with helping a few people.  I will be here and I do have a new heart to launch during the next week or so.

Tomorrow's the DAY

Well, day 1 of the Tat It And See!!!

This is a card that Janet made from a previous TIAS.  It's the medium sized mermaid which can be found on the TIAS blog in 2018.  

It's also on the pattern site as a 'whole' pattern too.

Moaning Monday - it IS about tatting!

TWO DAYS TO THE TIAS!  STARTS ON WEDNESDAY.

Tatting can be so useful as well as decorative.  Yesterday, here in the middle of England, it was a windy day - just right for getting the washing dry.  I filled the line up then went out for a while and when I came back glanced out at the back garden to discover that the washing was partly tangled up in the shrubbery.  The line had broken right at the shed.  

So out came some pliers (or something like that) and the offending ‘end bit’ that had broken was cut off.  I still had the chain part so joined the line to that.  Two tatted double stitches and (after a bit more cussing) I managed to get the line back up!!!  The story in pictures below!!

Bookmark

Don’t forget - the Tat It And See starts next Wednesday. Just saying in order to keep reminding MYSELF!!!!

Another bookmark was made.  I’ve now got five with my self imposed target of six well in sight!!!  I need this sort of pattern to work on when the knitting or designing gets too hard and I just want to relax.

If I do what others do - relax by sitting reading or watching telly then I promptly fall asleep!!!  The only way to relax for me is to keep my fingers busy!!

Knitting? Did somebody mention

Knitting?  

After the success of this jumper I thought I’d try another pattern.  The first one was done with double knitting yarn but this next time I decided I wanted to use 4 ply.  Am I MAD or am I MAD?

So off I set on my journey through Ravelry.  Well we all know how long that takes but I eventually found ‘just what I wanted’ right here.

Now I’ve always tried to stretch myself to do more and more complicated things but I think this was probably a ‘step too far’ this time.  

I think I started at the beginning of December but progress was dismal and disastrous!!!  I think I started about eight times.  As there are only four rib rows of knit one, purl one before the start of ‘German short rows’ it was really hard to unpick ‘just to the ribbing’.  Each time I’d pull out the rows and try and pick up after the four rows of rib and I failed time and time again.  I was about to go searching Ravelry for an alternative pattern when I thought I’d have ‘one more go’.  This turned out to be pretty successful.  

The main problem was that the pattern is condescend at the start and expands as the garment moves outwards towards the shoulders.  I think I’m now ‘on track’ to succeed eventually!!!

Happy New TIAS

Yes today is a global warning - not warming.  

I will be putting out several ‘warnings’ over the next week or so.  They will be about the start of this year’s TIAS on January 11th.  For those who are new to tatting or those who have been tatting forever this is a game in which I release parts of a new pattern every few days.  The introduction to the game can be found at the top left side of this blog.

Most of the fun is in seeing other people’s work (which they send to me and I add to the TIAS blog) and their guesses as to what the finished piece will be.  

The reason for the name ‘Tat It And See’ is that nobody knows what the end result is going to be!!!  Well, I know and my test tatters know but I’m not telling you their names either!!!

Please do try and join in.  Even new tatters should be able to take part and I add in additional help in the pattern and am also here to give further advice as needed.

All I ask is that if you put pictures of your piece on Facebook or elsewhere that you also send them to me for the blog.  Not everybody ‘does’ social media and I don’t have time to ‘harvest’ from other places.

The picture?  Well it’s one of the past TIAS patterns!!!

Beaver doodle

Well here he is in all his - well, I could say 'glory' but not sure that's the right phrase!!!  

It's amazing what you can get done when housework is calling.  My eyes are trained to not to even see dust let alone deal with it!!!

Two tiny penguins

Now you’ll have seen my origina penguin on my website and he’s been there for a few years alongside a beaver.  Last year I was playing with another wee penguin and hadn’t got him ready for the website.

Over the weekend I sorted the penguins out and they now both live here.

I’ll get the little beaver done today and he should be finished by tomorrow - fingers crossed!!!  

A Christmas card

A week or so ago I’d settled down for the afternoon and was getting on well with my knitting when my two friends from ‘round the corner’ texted to say meet up in M&S for a natter. 

Well who could resist. 

On the way home afterwards they took me into their house and gave me the THIS card. The back story is that I’d taken care of their laptops while they were away. Both computers were very old and they decided that it was now an end of life time for them. So they got out their hammers and started to trash them. 

What fun. 

As they were bashing them the keys started popping off so they put them to good use. 

I’m tickled pink by the card. It won’t get thrown out after Christmas.

The second bookmark

This is for the other little girl I mentioned yesterday.  

I have suddenly realised that my stash of bookmarks is sadly depleted.  I try to keep around half a dozen as little 'just because' gifts or even emergency birthday ones!!!  I think I'll be making more but need another pattern as two the same is quite enough for BC3.  He does like a little variety in his life!!!

Here's the pattern again.

Just a bookmark

Nothing whatever to do with Christmas or anything like that.  

I've got two little girls (10 and 7) living opposite me.  They are truly delightful little ones and I love when I get to do crafts with them and their their grandma too.   

Well they've discovered that they've both got dyslexia and struggle with reading and writing so just for a bit of fun I thought I'd make them a bookmark each.  To see that silly face poking out of the top of a book might just make them smile and encourage them to read,  Fingers crossed.

From Julie

I had this lovely message last week from Julie.  Cheered me up no end while the snow was - well, snowing.

"Love your patterns. I made the small bugle bead snowflakes for the single mom's at my church for Christmas this year. I  showed them to my lace guild and they want me to show them how to make them. They are new to tatting having learned earlier this year. Can I have your permission to share your pattern with them?"

These are her flakes.  Aren't they lovely?

Marie’s pendant

I haven't looked at this pattern for YEARS.  In fact I'd completely forgotten about it until Marie asked for permission to use it for a newsletter (or was it a class) ages ago.  

I have the original one which I still wear from time to time but, as I said, I'd long filed it in BC3's vaults!!!!  Now I've seen Marie's I may well make another one - or two even.  It's stunning in white and I feel I could hang that as a dangle in my living room window too.

This is what Marie-Claude said.

"Dear Jane,

Here is your pendant that I made. I had the idea to do it all in white - I don't know why, haha...

I think that the members of our association will appreciate it. I like it a lot and I will wear it with great pleasure!!

Thank you again for your creation and authorization and see you soon for the next TIAS maybe.

Marie-Claude"

Finally - FREE snowflake earrings

It's only taken a year to get these down on paper - well, cyberpaper.   If it hadn't have been for Sue you wouldn't have them now!!

Why?  Well she publicly and carefully 'nagged' me on Facebook.   To get my own back I asked her to look at the pattern and she managed to do sterling work on it.  

  

I think she probably regrets it now although she has got herself a pair of snazzy purple earrings out of it!!  Thanks to her eagle eye and well thought out suggestions as a test tatter the pattern is now ready to 'rock and roll'.  

Although the pattern looks complicated it is only 4 rings - with lots and lots of beads!!!  Each earring has some added to picots, some on the core thread and others lurking at the back of the hand before starting the ring!!!!  Read carefully and enjoy.

It's very difficult to get good pictures of things that sparkle.  Bit like that when I have my photo taken - I sparkle too much!!!  That's a JOKE!!!

Ah, I bet you'd like the link, eh?

Shawl finished

Remember this?  Well I carried on until my circular needles were almost full and I was BORED with it.

What happened next?  Well I’d got a fair amount of yarn left so I cast off using a crochet hook.  I’m sure this method must have a name but I call it a lazy way that I often use.  

Having cast off I then had a nice edge that I could crochet into and that’s what I did!!  I did a row of double crochet (that’s the English double crochet!) and then a few rows of ‘spaced out’ trebles to give a lighter look.  The final few rows were trebles into each space and tops of the previous trebles and then finally another row of double crochet.  I also went round the inner side with dc too.  The photo shows the finished shawl and the second one shows the remaining yarn - although the colours don’t look quite right on that photo.

I wore the jumper on Saturday with the shawl over it as it was very cold.  My daughter thought it was part of the jumper!  I pronounce it a success!

Date of TIAS

Well it’s almost time to play the Tat It And See again.  

I’ve got a new pattern which I’m going to start on Wednesday January 11th.  

The introduction to the TIAS can be found here or here.  

This will be (probably) the 14th year although I did miss two years when I thought the game wasn’t such a good idea.  Lockdown made me think again so I resurrected it in 2021.  I remember the first one was a hippopotamus which can be found here.

So just to whet your appetites here are a few of the past TIAS results.  Remember - when you play this game you do NOT know what it’s going to be at the end of the game and guesses are what makes it such fun for all of us.

A ‘just because’ gift

When I was at the Friday knitting group over a week ago I was wearing my snowflake earrings.  Julie (one of the ‘ladies who knit’) commented on them and said she liked them.  So, last Friday she got a pair of her own!!!  

This is a pair I made last year for myself.

I now have enough pairs of snowflake earrings and the pattern is being put together so I should get it on my pattern site by the end of the week.

Monday moan

Today’s moan is a bit complicated and offers the reader a look into the psychology of my BC3 (my brain has only three cells - called brain cells (one, two) three.

I was looking around my main computer the other day and came across quite a few patterns that have not been finished but left abandoned.  I got to asking myself why and this is what I reckon.  

The thing about doing what I do for free is that I’ve very little idea of who my ‘audience’ is and whether anything I do is ever used.  If I were selling patterns I would have a good idea of what people like as I’d have money coming in and a record of what the people like/want.  

I’d also have feedback if the pattern didn’t work or turn out as expected and comments on places like Etsy when people were happy.  Now I do get comments on the blog which I’m always grateful for but blogs seem to be not as popular as Facebook nowadays.  I don’t really ‘do’ Facebook and don’t understand why it’s used as everything gets ‘lost in perpetuity’ shortly after a post is made.  I like blogs as I can search for things I’ve done in the past easily.  I love reading blogs too and have lately seen a slow return to blogging.  

I also got to thinking that people might assume that if they pay for a pattern it’s bound to be much better than one that’s given away for free.

All comments welcome and I’ll leave you with a picture from one of my walks.

Next I made a green pair!!!

As I already have a red pair and a replacement white pair I thought it was time to make a green pair too!!!

As I had the white thread out and the gold beads it only took a minute or two to find the green beads and here they are.  

As I already have umpteen Christmas tree earrings I didn't think I really 'needed' anymore.  After all I already have these two guys as well.  

I see I'd sort of promised to write and draw the pattern for these but since that was last year and nobody's asked for the pattern I'm just going to keep quiet!!!!

A missing earring

Entirely my own fault.  I should remember that in the winter I HAVE to wear 'stoppers' on my earwigs.  Do I remember?  Of course I do - but not until I've lost one earring!!!

Here is the remaining earring when it had it's partner.

I couldn't find the larger beads to make a replacement and anyway, there's always a difference when there's an 'age gap' so I made a new pair as I do like them a LOT.

Leftovers

I don't think I ever got round to showing you the finished jumper I was knitting but here's a link to show you when it was 'almost' there.  

I've worn it a LOT since I finished it and am currently researching knitting another.  Next time I want something more challenging and interesting and also including 'short rows' as I want more 'shaping' at the top.  

I had leftovers from this jumper so have decided to knit a shawl or cowl or something with that.  As I have little experience with 'how far it'll go' this is going to be an interesting experiment.  If I'm not pleased with it I can easily undo it again and start over.  This is what it looks like at the moment!!!!

A sad story with a happy ending.

I like knitting gloves as you probably know!!  Mad, crazy and any other adjectives you know may be applied to this addiction!!!  

Well a sad occurrence happened last week.  I was wearing the pair you can see below.  I knitted them back here and they became my favourite pair because they’re distinctly ‘odd’ and made from two balls of mismatched yarn.  Also they remind me of a lovely friend in Canada - Terry.  See this link and this one too.

Imagine this OG in a hurry and about to get drenched yet again.  I was dashing off to a friend’s house and realised I’d dropped one of the gloves.  When I got back later I searched for the misssing glove but couldn’t find it anywhere.  Daft as I knew I’d dropped it very close to home.

Finally I gave up and carried on with life etc.  

On Thursday when I was on my way home from somewhere else I spotted the missing glove.  It was soaked and filthy and had obviously spent the few days it was missing under a car in the pouring rain!!!

Both gloves had a good ticking off and a much needed bath!!!  Here they are - reunited!!!

New gloves

To  continue my obsession with gloves I'm showing you this pair which were made out of the same ball as this pair!!!  Well there should've been a link to that last statement but I couldn't find the original pair on the blog!!!  You'll just have to take my word for it!!  

I do have a few 'takers' for my gloves and these are already promised which made tomorrow's story about another glove even more worrying as I thought I might have to keep these for myself!!!

Abbi's gloves

This is a pair of gloves I made for my granddaughter.  She chose the yarn from Hobbycraft - I had a voucher from them for my birthday!!!  Again I've used my own variation of this pattern.  

I do enjoy knitting this style and am going to do another pair for Liz - when I find the yarn I've put away tidily!!!!