One scarf done

One of my scarves is done.  This will go to a charity unless a friend wants it. 

There's enough yarn left to do another so that'll be my 'nattering' project!!  First I need to sew in the ends!!!

I need something to do that's relatively simple when I'm with the crafting groups that I go to!!!

Small progress on the Sashiko

Too much talking gets in the way of stitching but I need my lovely friends around me!!!  I'm making progress though.  Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey!!!

The cardigan

A good start has been made on the new cardigan.  

It's not easy but the pattern itself is brilliant.  This is where I got the pattern from and this is what it will (hopefully!) look like - but on a MUCH younger body!!!

Monday moan

Here we go again!!! Another moan from the old lady in England!!!

My moan today is really about new designers. My goodness we do need them as I'm going to fall off my perch one day along with others of my generation. 

A few months ago I helped a lady with her pattern which she was going to publish and sell on Etsy. Great. Pattern was nothing exciting really but I couldn't find a copyrighted one so off we went on an adventure. She was a delight to help as she took all suggestions on board (unlike another who gave me the sack and blocked me from seeing their work on Facebook a year or two ago!). 

What really surprised me was her lack of knowledge about the very, very basics of the craft. Even about hiding tails at the beginning of the work and she didn't use an obvious technique to add a bead which made (IMHO) a much better way of working a large bead into the design rather than sewing it on at the end. 

Another issue that has been annoying me INTENSLY is the trend for new designers (and now their followers) to change tatting terms that are already well established. IF ONLY they would get more experience and do more research into the craft they would realise that most tatting terms have been established for many years. 

I'm particularly thinking of the new 'trend' to call a ring on top of a chain (originally RoCh) a 'thrown ring' when a thrown ring is actually a ring thrown off a ring.  This is shown on this video.  The current trend is for people to call the ring on chain a 'thrown ring' or  'floating ring'.  PLEASE can we all stick to the established names?  It's causing much confusion to oldies like me and to the upcoming youngsters too.  

Do your research, PLEASE.

I must be MAD!

No need to agree with me although I think it’s true!!!

I’ve bought this pattern from Ravelry and have just started on a new adventure!!

Please wish me luck with this new challenge!!!  It’s knitted from the top down and probably has quite a few other challenges hidden within it too!!!  Time will tell!!!

Least it’ll keep me out of mischief for a while!!!

Another pair finished

Well you thought I was talking about one pair of gloves but actually this is the second pair I’ve knitted!!!  While I was in the ‘glove zone’ I thought I’d just carry on!!!

The first pair went to the new owner last week and this pair (she’s found the two she’d previously lost!) will stay with me!!  I keep a pair in each coat I’ve got so I don’t have to keep looking for them when I need them!!!

More work on the bag

I’ve made a tentative start on the second side of the bag I’m doing for our community summer party.  This is how far I got last week.  

I tend to just add to it on a Tuesday morning at our local group.  I’ve got a long way to go!!!  

Very enjoyable while chatting to friends and neighbours which is why our group is called ‘Neighbours and Needles”!!!

My nattering project

This project just grows and grows while I talk and talk!!!  

It’s a scarf that will eventually probably go to a local charity.  I’m really enjoying it as it’s so, so simple and I just love the i-cord edging to it too.  

I got the pattern from Ravelry and here’s the link.  

I think there maybe enough yarn to do another scarf - I must weigh the remaining yarn and the scarf when I’ve finished it.

Monday moan - back today

Yes for all the fans of my Monday moans (both of you - you'll be offered a pay rise for reading it!!) I have one this week.

As you know from previous moans I belong to a lot of Facebook tatting groups.  I'm never totally sure how Facebook 'works' but I've got no secrets (only the ones I never share online - like my love of all things chocolate etc!) so rarely have cause to add anything to conversations.  

There was a post on a very popular tatting group over the weekend which I followed but didn't comment on until it was seemingly abandoned.  The group has a strong ethical rule about naming the designer of anything that members post which is a GREAT idea as it means we can all find the pattern either on a website or in a book. 

What a surprise to find that the owners of the group had changed the header picture but NOT NAMED THE DESIGNER AND SOURCE.  It wasn’t something I’d want to make but I do want to see what other designs that person has done.  Those who make the rules seemingly have the rights to break them too!!  I felt sorry for the poor moderator who’s been left ‘holding the baby’ by the admin team.  

Life never ceases to surprise me.  

Meantime another wet walk on Saturday but fortunately, just for a change, it didn’t rain!

Yet more progress with the gloves

I remembered to take a photo of the gloves before I got too far.  

Can you see that I’m working in the round but with two circular needles.  Now you could work with just one or you could use dpn’s but the pattern suggests this way and I really find it so much easier - particularly as my circulars have two different colours joining the needle ends.  

Because of this I use the red needle for the palm of the glove and the grey one for the back.  Keeps BC3 on the right track!!!  First of all you join the three longer fingers and work a few rows.  Then you add in the ‘pinky’ and the palm is then very straightforward until you get to the thumb.  

Sashiko progress

If you take a look at this post you’ll see what a group of us are doing on a Tuesday morning with Neighbours and Needles.  We’re using a technique called Sashiko and you can find out all about it here.

This is my one side of the bag but I’m not sure if I’ve finished it or not!!!  

Gloves again!!

Progress is being made!!!   Each finger has its own label!!!  Another lesson I’ve learned with this pattern/idea is to knit half of the finger (roughly) then turn it inside out and darn in the starting tail.  This saves struggling to turn the whole glove inside out at the finish.

Actually this is a habit I have carried over from my tatting adventures.  I always sew in ends as I go along.  I cringe at the thought of sewing in ends when I see people who make HUGE doilies and then face the task of sewing in!!  Train the brain is my advice!!!!

Anyway here’s where I’m ‘at’ now!!!

Julie's next pill

Julie is back again with more help/advice.  I’m hoping you’re not going to suffer from a drug addiction, Julie!!!!   This is her last post about the pill.  

This is what Julie has to say this time and I must thank her for her advice and for taking the trouble to tell us all too. 

“Here's my second pill. Posing with a needle cover I used for stuffing this time.”

Tim’s take on the Happy Pill

Tim has definitely taken to making Happy Pills and has found another way to make them too.  I like the red lipstick, Tim!!!  Very apt that this should be posting on Valentine’s Day!!!!

Here’s his blog post last week on what he found works for him.

Another pair of gloves

A member of the family has lost a glove so I’m making her another pair.  This is the pattern I use and I really love it.   The only problem I found with this pattern is doing the i-cord fingers.  I just couldn’t get them to look as neat as I’d like so I used dpn’s and forgot about i’cord!!!

The gloves are worked from the fingers down to the cuff which means that if you’re using oddments of yarn you can work them in easily (and imaginatively!) when you get to the hand part.  I quite like the fingers to be the same colour (and the thumb) yarn but I’m not fussy about the palm/back etc.

The main thing to remember is to label each finger as you go along.  I ‘thought I’d know which finger was which on my first pair a few years ago but I was SOOOO wrong!!!  

Here’s the first finger.  It’s pretty hard to start with six stitches on dpn’s (double pointed needles) but using ‘non slippery’ needles is the answer - not metal ones like I’ve used here!!!!   They kept slipping out!!!  Joanie sent me home with a vast collection of bamboo knitting needles when I last visited her in America so I quickly found a set of dpn’s of the ‘right’ size and the rest of the fingers will be done with those.

Time to take a pill!!!

Julie has had a great idea for putting inside the pills - a pen top.  Why didn’t I think of that?!?!

I asked her for permission to share her pill and she said this

“Of course you can!  I was going to try a needle cap but I cut it off too short. I want to try a longer one next time. My co-workers are asking for  them .”

Thanks for showing and sharing, Julie but do you think that the doctors will be worried about losing their jobs if people start giving out tatted pills?!?!

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.