Category: commutercraft

A wandering mind tats no joins

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Lots going on at the moment. My brain feels like a ball of thread too tightly wound – but pull one end and the whole lot will unravel in a heap on the floor. Lazy analogy, but you know what I mean.

I was tatting around a plastic ring and screwed it up, so with a full shuttle and no ball attached I thought it might be nice to try Mary Konior’s Posy pattern. It’s just made of rings, so a total joy to tat on the train. Also – it’s really pretty! I’ve been meaning to make it for ages.

Only bad thing is that I wasn’t really concentrating on the last group of 5 petals. I missed the joins – and so now I have a quite neatly tatted (even if I do say so myself) crescent of tatted flowers.

Were I a human of pocket-sized proportions, I’d probably be quite pleased. Would look quite nice as a miniature collar.

There are several upsides though. The first – I’ve found out l like tatting this pattern. It’s nice n’ easy for the train and it’s a good one for those times you find yourself with a shuttle full of thread and nothing to do with it. (I have a habit of winding on too much thread). Also, I’ve made my mistake now on thread I’m not that bothered about – which means this is the perfect project for some HDT I’ve just ordered from Yarnplayer, as hopefully I wont make the same mistake again. We shall see…

WIPs: crochet and tatting

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Gah! I knew it. Yesterday the sun was shining and everything looked lovely. Today? Grey, overcast, everything looks a bit… Meh. When did I decide to take some photos? Today, of course.

Anyway. Just a quickie to say that I’m still going with the broomstick scarf:

Actually, I’m really enjoying it. Turns out it’s easy to do this when catching up with old series of 24 (for some reason we’ve seen everything but the first series, so a remedying that now). It’s the perfect pick up, put down project.

I’m on ball 3 of the baby bamboo yarn – and I imagine there will be a few more to come yet. I do like this yarn though. Very soft, and does have a really nice sheen to it – without looking cheap. I’d use it again for other things.

I guess the only bad thing is that I’ve made this scarf quite wide. On a bad day, I think too wide, on a good day, I think y’know, stylishly wide. There’s a lot of draped knitted fabrics out there at the moment, and a lot of capes and wraps… this is a… oh no…

It’s a scrap! A cross between a scarf and a wrap! What have I DONE?

Never mind. It does actually look really nice as a piece of fabric (even if I do say so myself). If it’s too wide to wear in public I’ll drape it artfully over the arm of the sofa and pretend we’re in Country Living.

I’m also continuing my commuter project of tatting the Primrose Path doily, by Mary Konior. I really couldn’t get a decent photo of it – I hate photography – and so I can only apologise. Here it is resting on my cammo tatting travel bag:

Doily and bag

I’m in two minds about this. On the one hand, I know what’s left of the pattern well enough by now to just get on with it and on the other…

Well, it looks a bit crap, and I’m not sure I actually *want* to finish it. There’s various things that look a bit odd – like the fact that some of the first row of chains are almost stright lines, rather than curves, I’ve pulled one chain completely out of shape (thank you Southern Railways)… and… I dunno. So I know I wont love it that much when it’s finished. Actually the more I think about it, the more I think I should scrap it and start something new.

We’ll see. I should actually be working right now, so we’ll see how the day goes. I might not have time to dig out another project before tomorrow, so maybe I’ll carry on. I’ll let you know.

Tatting with rings

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So, I get it now – not just how to do it, but why people love it! It’s kind of addictive… I had tried before, but I’ve realised a couple of things. First, I think I was only doing half the stitch each time – it took a wee while to work that one out. Second, I was using horrible thread, and the only plastic rings I could find really needed something thinner.

Tatted ring

So this is one of Jon Yusoff’s patterns, in size 80. I made two alterations – on the middle flower I had to leave a few stitches out to make it small enough to fit, and on the outer ring I used picots instead of Josephine knots as I didn’t have a spare shuttle to hand and I wanted to get started *right then*!

How big is the final thing? Well, it’s about this big:

Ring to scale

It’s about the size of a minifig lego Stormtrooper. I had a feeling that as soon as I called Death Star for help there’d be trouble. And there is. Despite being a little short for a Strormtrooper, he’s taken the tatting and is now holding it to ransom. SEND HELP.

ransom

Stitchin’ and Bitchin’? Tatting & chatting.

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I met up with some friends this week at the Royal Festival Hall, for a stitchy get together. There were two knitters, one embroiderer, a crocheter, and a trainee crocheter. I took my tatting, as I’ve recently finished the crochet elephant, and for some reason, taking crochet anywhere always requires too much planning… and to much pattern reading. I always end up missing an increase or decrease and confusing myself. With tatting, patterns are easier to memorise and so it’s a bit more sociable.

I’ve started the primrose path doily again. I made the middle section a few weeks back, and kept it as it was to give to someone. Since then I’ve been planning to remake it, but not quite had the chance. This time I thought I’d make life easy for myself, and make it in one colour.

Tatting and thread

This is a DMC thread, size 80, in ‘dark ecru’ and I really like it. It’s almost a muted gold colour. Looks nice.
doily

I must admit, I never thought I would be the doily making type, but I just fancied making something a bit bigger… A bit more involved, maybe. As it goes, this is quite an easy pattern – I made two of the middle sections with friends and the other two on the train, to and from work.

Tatted casualties

There were two casualties though. I did try again with the grey Venus thread – managed to make one section and realised I’d got my rings up the wrong way! I love the colour of this thread, but it’s just terrible to tat with. It breaks far too easily and makes it very difficult to close rings. The other one I forgot to join before I closed a ring, so just carried on anyway. I guess I’ll hide the ends and use them for… y’know. Something.

Elephant racing

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Things are still pretty busy on the work front, and so I’ve been getting into work earlier. This means standing with your head in someone’s armpit on the overground and the underground as they’re packed in the mornings – and this in turn means it’s not the ideal tatting scenario. (I can tatt like this – but look what happened last time!) Also I’m itching to make a few new things – and that means I need room to read a pattern, which is tricky. So, I’ve been reading where possible, or studying the finer points of other people’s ear hair. You know how it is. (Or if you’re lucky, maybe you don’t.)

An elephant's head

Ages ago I promised someone I’d make them an elephant for their birthday. They’re birthday is *next weekend* and so today I thought I really should get a move on. There’s a lot going on this week and I’ll never have time to finish it in the evenings. Why didn’t I start it ages ago? Silly me.

Anyway, I’ve made a head, arms and legs. I actually started with the arms and legs first as they’re the least exciting bit and it’s good to get them done. Also, as I’m so bad at sewing, I like to do as much as I can as I go along, to tuck the ends inside. I made the ears before I started the head too, so I could sew them as I went.

Deflated elephant

Poor wee thing. I’ll start on her body next – I might just get this done – if not sewn up – tonight. I think I’m using a different hook to last time. I have a feeling last time I used a 2.5mm and this is a 3mm – its a bit odd, as the stitches look completely different. Anyway. It’s all neat and tidy, which is a good thing, as I really worry that I’ll give things to people and they’ll be really embarrassed about how rubbish it is.

I think if i make another one, I might modify the pattern ever so slightly. I think I made a mistake on the first one – which resulted in the trunk having the tiniest upturn at the end, and it looks really nice. It would be easy to do, just need to add in maybe one decrease a couple of rows in. Having said that, I need to finish this one first, which I shall go and do now…

Busy busy (work not play)

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These last few weeks have been rather busy, despite a ‘week off’. The week off ended up with me trying to fit two full time jobs into one working week, rather than just one, but broadly speaking, I succeeded more or less. I haven’t done much in the way of tatting though.

I did pack up the Mary Konior bookmark I made up for my mum. It’s her birthday next week. (Don’t worry, she wont read this, I haven’t actually told anyone I have a blog as yet). I put it in with a card, and all the colours worked together rather nicely, if I do say so myself. I’d love to take the credit for that, but it was just luck, to be honest. I’m just not that organised!

I do have a few days off this week though, and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve bought myself some new tatting threads and I’ve been trying *not* to do anything with them all weekend. (I should be working.) I got them from Buttercup Miniatures again, and again, the service was great. If you’re in the UK and like DMC tatting threads, they’re a great alternative to Roseground, who only stock a few colours in DMC. They send things out really quickly, and were very gracious about the fact I’d given them an address for home and a postcode for work, by accident. If you like dolls houses, miniatures, tiny delicate crochet and other such things, check them out. I’m not affiliated with them at all, I just like the fact they ship as soon as they get your order 🙂 The two smokey greys are actually Venus thread, which I’ve not tried before. It’s size 70, rather than 80. I also bought a variegated green, to use in small doses, but it looked weird in the photo, so I left it out!

That’s the last bit of unblocked tatting I’ve done. I started it on a train, and finished in a car park. It looks a wee bit wonky here, but I’m hoping blocking will fix it. Oddly, it’s the first time I’ve used Josephine Rings in anything. It’s another Mary Konior pattern, of course.

Incidentally, this was done in size 12 DMC. I don’t like the thread that much  – but after using size 80, it’s so quick, thick n’ fast! I actually loaded it on my shuttle to practise clunys, but ended up making this by accident. I did try clunys in size 80, and I can make them fine, I just can’t pull the thread through to finish it off, without it coiling back on itself and snarling everything up. (Has anyone out there made clunys in size 80? Is there a way to get it not to coil back on itself?)

I’ve not crocheted anything for a while. Too hot, I think, and I’m still undecided as to what I want to make next. I need to make another elephant (a request) and I’d still like to make the Sunshine Day blanket, but need to buy some thread.

And finally, I *was* going to take a photo of the flowers in my garden. They look blooming marvellous, but sadly, every time I open the backdoor and try and take a photo a small gathering of very nice, but very bored people next door come out to watch! So take it from me, they look lovely.

Clunys! (Tatted, not George’s)

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It’s a busy (and rather long) week. I flew to the USA from the UK last weekend for a conference, and it was a long flight. Eight hours or so to Chicago, with no in-flight entertainment. Luckily, I’d already thought to take my own:


This is actually my second go at this pattern, by Mary Konior. It’s oddly hard to get into the rhythm of it, but it’s really pretty. I only made one visible mistake this time around, but I’m letting myself off the hook, as it’s not that noticeable, really – and the reason I made the mistake was because a very sweet lady started talking to me.

She spotted me tatting in the departure lounge as we were waiting for a connecting flight. I could see her looking out of the corner of my eye, and I knew she wanted to talk. Eventually she came over and said ‘Is that tatting?! My husband’s grandmother used to do it and I haven’t seen anyone do it since.’ She was so thrilled, it was really cute.

She also congratulated me for keeping a dying art alive. I pointed out that it was far from dying, she just needs to spend some time on google! As she was a knitter, I suggested tatting might be good to try for in-flight craft, as I know knitters are number 1 terrorists these days, with their oh-so-pointy, devilish needles. Tatting shuttles are less fiendish, at least according to airport security.

Poor little Ele, I’ve been using her to hang my smaller bits of tatting on. She had this on her nose for a while, but recently she’s been wearing three different coloured ones on her head. I’m trying not to lose them (my desk is a real mess). She’s doing a very good job of looking after everything.  These were also experiments in tatting with two colours – and joining the thread into a different coloured ring. I’ve kind of got it – it sort of depends on the day, how I’m feeling and whether or not the tatting gods are smiling on me 🙂

cluny

I’m back in the UK now, and jet-laggy. I’ve been thinking about tacking clunys since I spotted them again recently on Fox’s site. She’s been making a few different things with clunys and linked to a video by the Mistress of them all, Elisadusud. So last night, at around 12.45am I thought it might be a good time to start learning. Believe it or not, it wasn’t bad.

Tatting videos are so good, mainly because you can watch them frame… by…. frame… until…. you get what on earth is going on. I’ve got some size 20 Lizbeth thread, which is what I’m learning on – and at the moment, I cannot imagine how you’d do it on anything thinner – but I guess I’ll get there eventually? It’s the thread that makes the above photo look so nice – I can’t take credit for the colours. Also, it’s photographed surprisingly well – not sure it looks quite that good in real life!

So I’ll keep on practising for a bit, and if I ever manage to make a cluny in size 80 – which is my favourite thread – I’ll let you know!

Tatting in two colours

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After getting my new thread haul the othe week, I’ve been itching to try tatting in two colours. Nothing dramatic, but I just thought slight tonal variations would be good. The downside of buying online is that you can never be *that* sure of the colours you’re buying, but I think the ones I got are working together ok…Blue and green options

The blues are very close to eachother – but in a nice way actually. When you see them in real life, they’re really delicate. The greens are a bit further apart, but they still seem ok – and as you can see, I’ve had yet *another* go at the Mary Konior pattern. I had a longer uninterrupted train journey this week, so it was a chance to try it out again. I’m back to onion rings again and I think it does look neater.

Onion ring

Also, I think the pic at the top shows the back, rather than the front. As it happens, this was just a test to see how it went, so I didn’t wind on much thread. I’ll start again on a real one soon. I keep thinking the second ring could use a few picots to keep itself in place actually. I’m really tempted to try again and add some in… or is that just getting ridiculous?

In the meantime, I’ve been trying out an afghan pattern. I’ve been looking for one to make for ages, and I must admit, there’s something really lovely about this pattern – or is it the colours? The colours are really lovely.

I tried out one square with colours I had knocking about – you’ll recognise the grey from the elephants, maybe.

Crochet & tatting

It’s so weird to work with such chunky wool after the size 80 thread. But the square is so cute in real life! I should think it makes one hell of a warm blanket – it’s really chunky, but so soft and puffy! It’s like a crochet marshmallow. I have a vague feeling I might be 90 by the time I start and finish it as an afghan, but I am tempted… Time to go yarn shopping? Maybe.

Oh! And talking of elephants, one of them has err… flown the nest (you know how well elephants fly!) and reached her destination…


Happy Elephant

(I mentioned to the recipients mum that I’m on hand for repairs when needed ;o)

A big fat, annoyed, tatted sigh.

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I’d really enjoyed working on  this. Took me four attempts to actually get it started, and although it was’t looking *amazing* it was at least getting finished.

Until the very last day.

All messed up.

No seat on the train, so standing up in the isle I thought, ‘well, there’s only a bit left, I might aswell finish it’. In the squeeze, in the rush, I joined two wrong rings and now it needs unpicking (unlikely to work, the thread is size 100, so I don’t fancy its chances) or a bit chopping out. It’s really not worth it. It’s not neatly done, and so I didn’t have great plans for it, I just really wanted to finish it.

Never mind. Better luck next time I guess.

I think actually onion rings did look neater, when I do remake this (I still think I will) I might switch back again. Has anyone else made this pattern, incidentally? It’s Mary Konior, Ring a Ring O’ Roses.

New thread!

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My little thread stash has arrived already from Buttercup Miniatures. I must admit, that’s pretty speedy, I ordered it on monday night and they’d posted it by Tuesday morning. This is the first time I’ve bought anything from them (found via google) and I already want to buy some more.

New thread

Here’s my little stash, modelled by an elephant duet. The elephant on the left is going to a new home next week, and she’s most excited. (I *love* making things for people. I’m already excited at the thought of packaging her up. I hope her new owner(s) like her).

Anyway. I was right. The thread I liked for tatting but lost the info for was size 80. I think size 100 is ok, but it’s a bit fiddly to close rings and keep them neat and tidy, so I think carrying on with 80 is good for now. I’m going to make a few little things to send to people, and then something bigger… Although I’m so close to finishing this now, I’m tempted to make another one in two colours… we’ll see. I’d like to prove to myself that I can make a nice neat version. I do know that one’s a bit messy.