Well – it’s getting there slowly. Actually, they’re digging up the road so my bus journey is very bumpy. A little too bumpy for tiny picots, if you ask me, so I did a bit of this at home tonight. I’m really tired though, so quitting while I’m ahead!
Category: commutercraft
Threadbare
Look! I actually managed to make a flat one this time. It’s not finished, there’s another round to go, but I was rather pleased with getting this far.
As always, I made it on the bus & train to work – a few different journeys. It’s size 100 thread. It still needs blocking and the ends sewing in, but I thought I’d post it now incase I manage to wreck it in round two.
Lets hear it for small creative triumphs for the commuter! It kept me calm while the bus was being diverted.
New tools
Still here! And still making a few little things… Actually I would post more, but every time I take a picture of the things I’ve been doing, it never comes out quite the way I want.
Anyway. Just imagine all these photos are wonderful, and we’ll be alright.
I made these little roses a while back:
They’re crocheted in Perlé size 12. This thread isn’t bad for crochet actually, but I don’t like it for tatting. That’s a hairslide I made potentially as a little gift for someone, but I keep forgetting to give it to her. Not sure what to do with the others, they’re in a tiny jam jar at the moment, and I can’t help but get them out and look at them now and again. They’re really pretty in real life – even if I do say so myself.
This is actually a very delicate looking scarf in real life. It’s been impossible to photograph so far though! I’m probably about 1/3 of the way through. It’s ‘angel hair’ weight yarn – very thin, basically, and I’m using a 1.75mm hook. Why on earth I decided to make such a dense looking scarf with such a light thread, we’ll never know – but the different tones of green are really beautiful; it looks like dark moss. I did actually crochet quite a few rows on the train, which is a first for me, as that time is usually reserved for tatting. Usually i think crochet projects are too big to carry around, but in the beginning this packed up really small.
I’m also working on another broomstick lace scarf. It’s in the same bamboo yarn as the previous one, but in blue. No photos of that yet.
I had a few friends’ birthdays recently, so made some more lavender bags. Three in fact – one of which is above.
Then I made another one the same as that – and yet another the same as the one in the post before this. I know. I should mix it up a bit, but when under pressure on the train or bus, it’s easier to tat what you know!
I also got some new toys! A Hera marker (the white thing, above), which is for marking cloth by putting in a visible crease, and a rotary cutter. They’re both great actually and, well, given time, I might actually be able to make my lavender bags square, or at least straight. Ahem. No point rushing into it though. Both of these tools came from Quiltessential in Derbyshire, where a very nice lady let me try out two different types of rotary cutter before I made my choice. I also bought some lovely fabric, but more of that another time. If you’re anywhere near Derbyshire, it’s worth a visit.
And finally, this was another little experiment. Its supposed to be flat, but it’s so pretty as it is. It’s size 100 thread, and I made it on the bus. Sometimes it amazes me that I can make such delicate things. Not because I’m amazing personally – but you know. I just need to make one flat, and then I can get on with the next round. Believe it or not though, I have yet ANOTHER Mary Konior posy on the shuttles to finish first. I’m such an idiot.
Bye!
Win some, lose some
I’m a bit behind with updates – although really, I’ve not made anything major. I finished the primrose posy that was on the shuttle last time I posted – and it’s already been rehoused with a friend. She’d not seen tatting before, and was very complimentary, which was really sweet. My sewing leaves a lot to be desired, but she was nice enough not to notice that bit…
This is the hand dyed thread from Yarnplayer – which is lovely actually. I have made another one, which I might put on black, if i can find something black to attach it to – really makes the colours stand out.
I decided it was time to make up my own design, so I’ve been doing that on the train recently. I thought it would be good to make an edging, so I’ve been sketching a bit – but with thread instead of a pencil:
I finally decided on a design I liked – very simple, and probably been done before, but actually, while it tats up nicely, it looks pretty terrible on the bag:
If you ignore the clash with the ribbon – which kind of goes without saying – it just looks terrible sewn straight into the fabric. It needs to be sewn into a border of some sort. What do people normally do with this kind of thing?
It’s also too long I think. Getting edging the right length could well be an art in itself.
So that was all frustrating. I need a new project to work on. I’m making another broomstick lace scarf as a gift for someone, and I have another stashbuster crochet scarf knocking about, but nothing I’m that excited about. Time to get the books out maybe…
Doing something with my tatting
So, last week (the week before?) I mentioned I’d been tatting and chatting a bit, making some Mary Konior posy designs. I’ve also finished the pieces I was doing on my commute, so I thought for once i should do something with them.
At the end of last year, I was given a 1930s Singer sewing machine. It’s hand cranked, very gentle, and to be honest, all you really need to do is turn the handle – it’ll guide the fabric through pretty straight on it’s own. I’m scared of sewing machines on the whole, but I do love this one. It was given to me on the death of a neighbour of mine – she’d been a neighbour for about 30 years. Also, my parents went to a great deal of trouble to get it all fixed up and working again, so I love it because it’s simple, beautiful and sentimental.
As you can see, I’m taking it pretty slowly! I decided to make some lavender bags…
The top ones are smaller, so they have little hang tags to go on a hanger. The ones directly above are slightly larger and I finished these off with ‘piping’ – which is actually just a crocheted linen chain. I hand-stitched that and I think it was worth it – does finish them off quite nicely. I’m half tempted to tat a border for them, but they’re quite small, and I have a feeling a border might overwhelm them. They’re just to slip in a drawer to make your clothes smell nice.
How big are they? We’ll here’s a little helper for scale:
And finally, the whole lot. They smell amazing – I bought the lavender, as it’s too early to pick in the uk. I have some left too, so I’ll get tatting and make some more.
The good thing about these, is that at least they have a use… Even if you give them to people and they don’t really like the look of them, they can still chuck ’em in a drawer and they’ll do what they’re meant to (make things smell nice). Otherwise I have a terrible habit of just chucking the tatting in the drawer as it is, and that’s not a lot of use to anyone…
Now I just have to ween myself off the posy pattern. As I do most of my tatting in transit, it has to be *the* ideal pattern. I know I’ve said that before, but actually, the more I do it, the more I love it.
Commuter tatting
I’ve been tatting a lot on the bus and train recently. I decided to work on something that had the possibility of becoming a larger piece, while still being portable and easy to memorise. I have a terrible habit otherwise of not having a pattern in mind to start, and then faffing about – taking forever to find one, and in the meantime sitting bored, on the train…
If you’re a tatter – and you’re familiar with Mary Konior, you’ll recognise this design as one of hers, from Tatting with Visual Patterns…
I really like this pattern – interesting enough, without becoming boring and… you do need to pay some attention too:
If you don’t, you might end up switching from the train to the bus, and find yourself impatient to start- only to find you’ve made a wrong join, and need to adapt it into something new… (It’s pretty hard to unpick a ring in size 80 thread on a bus on London’s bumpy streets, so if I go wrong, I consider it lost). And thus we have Mary Konior’s little known triangle design right there.
All of which makes it fun when you finish up the very last bit. It’s like Russian roulette – the thought of going wrong right at the last minute is occasionally too much to bare.
In the end, I decided to make the group of four twice. I didn’t love the first version – wasn’t as neat as it could’ve been. Second time was much neater – although after blocking maybe you can’t tell? I think you probably can though, and besides, it was nice to just tat a pattern with out a big decision as to what to make next.
(Sorry for the dodgy colours on these photos, by the way).
I do have a plan for these. Now i have a sewing machine (Singer, handcranked, reconditioned from the 1930’s – an inheritance from a kindly neighbour), I’m going to… well. Make a few odds and ends. They will only be things that need simple stitching in straight lines, as that’s all I can do, and all the machine can do, but it and I will have fun together. I hope.
In the meantime, what to tat on the train? Same again but bigger? We shall see.
Hearts and clunys
I’ve got back into the swing of commuter-tatting this week, but the light here’s not been great, so no photos of that as yet.
You may or may not’ve noticed that there’s a link at the top of the page now to tatting patterns and tutorials. I usually use the bookmarking site delicious to save my bookmarks, but there’s been chatter recently about it closing down, so I thought I’d post them here too. They’re in no way comprehensive, just things that I’ve found as I’ve needed them really. Hopefully I’ll add to them over the coming months, maybe they’ll be handy for someone else too.
While I gathered the links together, I decided it was time to tackle clunys again… I did have a bit of a go last year, in size 20 Lizbeth thread. Just as I thought I’d got the hang of it, I switched back to my normal size 80 only to find they were a bit of a disaster. (Thread kept twisting in on itself making it impossible to close them).
This time I tried size 16 finca, which I’ve had knocking about for some time..
Now, it’s in no way perfect, but I’m still rather pleased with it. The joins are wrong in the middle (temporary mind-wandering), and the leaves are in no way tidy, but hey! I’m gettin’ there. (I think?)
I still quite like the softness of the finca thread incidentally. I know it can get a bit fluffy, but it’s actually lovely to tat with.
The pattern is here, if you’d like a go. You might need a translator, but its relatively straightforward. Only thing i couldn’t seem to spot is how many cluny passes. For the record, 20 is too few, 30 seemed about right.
Tatted snowflakes in action
What with the actual snow, I got a bit behind in sending out my tatted snowflakes. This is good and bad. Mainly good – it means I have a few for my own tree!
I must admit, I took a step back and was really very pleasantly surprised by how nice they look. I’m not claiming to be the world’s greatest tatter or anything – but they really are pretty. Tatting works so well for snowflakes. If you were going to invent a snowflakey art, you’d probably invent tatting.
I loved Jon’s book of patterns. Having said that, I got really fixated on this one design (above) as once I had it memorised it was the ideal commuter-flake! (I tat most on the train). Once the Christmas rush is over, I’ll try a few more. I love the fact lots of them use split rings etc – techniques I’d sort of learnt but had yet to use. There’s so much work that’s been put into the design and writing of the book, it’s really fantastic to be able to buy it and support/say thanks to someone who contributes so much to the community. If you’re in the mood for some new patterns I’d strongly recommend it.
A tatted flurry
So, I’m back from my travels, and very nice they were too. I took some tatting with me – for the journey, and incase I had the odd spare moment. Actually the days were so full I barely had a moment to think. In the end i just made three and a half snowflakes:
I bought Jon’s book of tatted snowflakes and took the whole book in my suitcase, but just one page for the flight. This is the reason for the snowflake at the bottom being slightly wrong! I read the pattern a bit wrong (instructions for reading it where in the case, of course) but manageed to work out a way to carry on, just with extra picots in the middle.
The one at the top centre I made half on the flight back, and finished on the train to work. I kept having to ‘retro tatt’ that one – found it really difficult getting back into the swing of tatting on a packed commuter train. (I’m sort of back on track now, I started the on the bottom right this week).
I love this design – really pretty but very snowflakey too. The plan was to put these in with Christmas cards, as decorations or whatever. At the moment I’m in two minds as to what to do about a hanging loop. I bought that ribbon yesterday, as they didn’t have any white but… I dunno. Feels a bit thick, even though it’s the thinnest they have. I’ve got half a mind to tatt a length of split rings as a chain-loop thing instead. What do you think? I’ll see how the time goes.
For now, I’ve almost finished the broomstick lace scarf and I must sew a monkey together, before his intended recipient grows up and gets old!
Autumn tatting
After writing the post on Friday, saying I was almost too nervous to start tatting with my new (HDT) thread, I shut down the mac and started loading up a fresh shuttle. By Friday night, I’d finished! I had to head into town, so tatted on every form of public transport, finishing the last few rings when I got home. It’s Mary Konior’s Posy pattern – but in this instance, it’s a little autumn wreath:
I’ve never guessed the amount of thread I needed so perfectly! I kept thinking ‘Argh! It’s never going to make it, you’ll need to add more in for the very last ring!’ – but it all worked out amazingly well. I had, perhaps, 6″ of thread left on the shuttle, if that.
After tatting with size 100 – just for one project – it was really odd to switch to size 80. It was like tatting with rope. I got used to the change pretty quickly, but was surprised how weird it felt. Anyone who gets annoyed with size 80 twisting in on itself should switch to 100, just for the joy of switching back! It tatted like a dream.
It’s such nice thread to use too. If I had to use one thread forever, I would use this thread, in this colourway. As you can see from the pictures (overdone, I know – I just got a bit over excited) it’s in perfect autumn colours. The yellow is spot on – that real mustardy yellow that looks so great in the sunshine. I actually don’t think I’ve ever tatted anything I’ve liked this much!
Oddly, I’m not a massive fan of variegated thread. Often it has white between the colours, or there’s quite a harsh line between each colour. This one feels like it blends in really well – and all the colours work properly together – there’s no jarring colour thrown in. I’m now wondering if I should buy more, just, y’know, incase. It’s from Yarnplayer’s etsy store.
I think the thread works well with this pattern as it’s not that complicated too. A complicated pattern with a complex bunch of colours can often be too much for me. I’m thinking I might use more of the thread to tatt around a ring though. And then I’ll hang them up maybe – two little autumn wreaths.
That aside, I went to the Knitting and Stitching Show with my mum yesterday, and it was great. Feet-achingly busy, but fun having a wander round. I bought some new yarn for crochet), which I’m itching to get started with – but am resisting. I have to make another elephant, for a friend’s daughter, and a monkey for their son. So far I’m two ears, two legs and half an elephant head down, so I guess I should get back to it.
Hope you’re having a nice weekend, and maybe even seeing some sunshine too.
Occasional Crafter 