Pretty in pink!

Here is a pink set for a young teenager.....matching scrunchie and earrings!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to do much tatting as my mum has been very poorly with pneumonia! Brought her over for Christmas on the Friday (19th) and had to call for the paramedics on Saturday. She was able to come out of hospital by Christmas Eve but went downhill again so that I had to call the emergency doctor out yesterday. She seems to be a little better today but at nearly 82 years old it is going to be a slow recovery!

Snowflake earrings

These little snowflake earrings are done in DMC size 80 with Swarzoski crystal beads.

Cakes again!

Tatting has had to take a back seat this week while I made and decorated some cakes. I have done my brother's 60th birthday cake and decorated with a fishing theme as he is greatly into fly and course fishing. I hope he likes the fact that I have depicted him as a frog! LOL

The other cakes are a Christmas cake for a dear friend with a frog sledging down a snowy slope and an upside down frog in the snow with just his bottom and legs sticking out! LOL and just a plain covered Christmas cake for home! I never seem to have time to do anything exotic for myself, hence no picture!

Celtic Bookmark - my own design

Here is a picture of my latest design....a celtic bookmark.

I started with an idea of making central motifs joining through each other as I tatted them and then the outer rounds just sort of emerged!

It has been tatted with Coates cotton size 40.

I won't be doing the pattern for as I think it is too complicated to write out!

Heart Bookmark

Browsing through a Mary Konior pattern book I saw an edging pattern that I thought I would be able to adapt into a bookmark and this is the end result!

Another Star Attraction

Nita sent me a photo of the Star Attraction doily that she has completed.

Bookmarks for presents

I needed a few bookmarks for presents, both birthday and Christmas and decided to try Eliz Davis' celtic style one. I think that it is a pretty pattern and is sturdy enough to do the job well....some bookmarks, although very pretty, are more for show than for actual use!

First Aran Jumper Finished

Here is the first Aran jumper in the Christmas present bundle to be finished.

I managed the V neck OK and the guesswork with the number of stitches in the neckband worked first time! I wasn't sure if I had enough stitches in the neckband and therefore decided to do it double length, fold it over and instead of casting off, catch each stitch down when sewing down the fold. This way I could ensure that the neck opening would not end up being pulled too tight!

DH also decided that he wanted the sleeves to be narrower than knitting patterns usually are as they always seem to bag under the arms. I did this by reducing the amount of stitches increased on every 4th row by 4 stitches....doing the same amount of increases every 6th row as the pattern stated therefore ending up with 4 stitches less overall....then compensating on the decrease section by continuing with just decreasing 2 stitches every other row all the way up instead of changing to decreasing 4 stitches every other row at the top section. I hope this all makes sense!

I am pleased to announce that it fits DH perfectly! He is extremely pleased but it now has to go

off to Santa for delivery on Christmas Day! LOL

The Aran Marathon has begun!

I decided to knit myself an Aran cardigan/jacket, with pockets, as I couldn't find one in the shops that I liked. I haven't knitted for a couple of years because of arthritis in my right wrist and right shoulder, but now that both joints have been operated on successfully I thought I would try knitting again.

I am delighted to say that I have not had any problems in the actual knitting, but I have had one great big problem!!! This problem goes by the name of Dear Husband! "I want you to knit me one first" says DH. So I dutifully start doing one his size. When I have knitted the back he kindly informed me that he didn't want a cardigan, he wanted a V neck jumper! The pattern booklet I bought didn't have a V neck jumper in it and so I have had to make one up as I went along!

This is what I have done so far!

Oval Delight!

Here is the finished oval doily that I have called Oval Delight. I think that I will make some alterations in the future as I can see that if I did it a little bit differently it would make it even better. I will write up the pattern in a few days time, but then I need a break from tatting doilies. I'm going to spend the next few weeks knitting! LOL These will be for Christmas presents and so I had better get a move on!

Oval Doily Progression!

I thought you would all like to see how I get to a finished tatted item.

I wind a couple of shuttles and off I go and see what turns up. Before I started, the only vision I had was that this doily was going to be an oval.

The first attempt was a good shape but there were too many stitches and I could tell that to continue was only to going to make it worse and only keep bunching up.

The second attempt seemed to start well but as I progressed I was not happy with the shape! The 6th round had too many stitches but the 7th round didn't have enough and was starting to stretch and cup.

The third attempt, so far, is coming along nicley. I am happy with the shape and the rounds are lying beautifully without resorting to the iron!

I hope this shows that, even if the finished article ends up looking like any other doily, I am working solely out of my own head. Naturally we designers are all influenced by the years of tatting we have done in the past, but we are not re-inveneting the wheel here and there are only so many shapes that can be achieved. Having said that, when I have finished, I will scour my pattern books and surf the internet, hoping not to find something almost identicle! Only then will I put the pattern out to the public.

Oval Doily Coming Soon!

I am in the process of designing a new oval doily. It would appear that I have the doily bug at the moment! I have made a couple of false starts, but everything seems to be coming together now. I will post pics in the next couple of days.

What a compliment!

This is a picture of my Star Attraction doily tatted by Mary Harris. Isn't the colour combination absolutely devine? Thank you Mary for choosing to tat this doily and for helping to iron out a couple of glitches in the pattern.

Star Attraction edited

Just to let everyone know that Mary Harris has been doing this doily and has found a couple of mistakes. I have now corrected the pattern and done a new PDF. Anyone wanting the new PDF just email me.

A pair of edged doilies

I have done this pair of edged doilies for putting under bedside lamps in my guest bedroom. The edging pattern comes from the Classic Tatting book by Anne Orr. I decided against doing dolies with just tatting as the base of the lamps is 6 inches across and would cover most of the tatting!

I have chosen a cream cotton to go with the maroon tatting as I have a maroon throw over the base of the bed, the main coverlet being in cream and beige.

Variation on a theme (now called Star Attraction!)

I decided to make a pair of doilies in brown and cream to go with the new decor in my guest bedroom and thought that my new Starburst Doily would be just the job. But after the second round my designing head reared up and the doily ended up like this! I am now half way through the second doily but of course this one has got to be exactly the same otherwise it won't be a matching pair!

And here is the link to the PDF pattern of this latest version.

All my books on CD

For those tatters who only have dial-up internet and find that they cannot purchase my patterns books because the PDF files are too big to download I have now put the books onto CD. All five books on one CD for £27 (including postage). If you would like to buy this CD then contact me here.

Sweet Pea Arrangement

I thought you would all like to see a little arrangement of sweet peas, for which the pattern can be found in my latest book Summer Collection of Tatted Flowers.

I have now added the sweet pea pattern to my free list and here is a link to the PDF.

New book now on my web site

Just to let everyone know that My new book Summer Collection of tatted Flowers is now available to purchase from my web site or click on the link in the list of Items For Sale.

To purchase Summer Collection

I am having a few problems with my website at the moment and therefore cannot upload my new book for sale "Summer Collection of Tatted Flowers. Anyone wishing to purchase it (the price is £6) just email me here with your PayPal email addy and I will send you an individual invoice. As soon as I receive the funds into my account I can send the PDF for the new book.

Summer Collection of Tatted Flowers Book is almost ready!!

My new book Summer Collection of Tatted Flowers is almost ready for sale! As some of the flowers in my new book were submitted to the Birthday Flower Book that was launched at the Palmettos Tat Days, I have been unable to publish my own new book until now. It was one of the conditions of the submissions that the designs had to be completely new and never been in the public domain before!

Even though I didn't know if any of my patterns had been used at all (and I still don't know!) I still couldn't publish my own new book until the other one had been published.

The Summer Collections will be available within a few days time.

Can you imagine how difficult it was? Designing brand new flowers and not being able to shout about it! LOL

Starburst Doily All Finished!!

Here it is at last! It took three attempts to get the outer rounds to lie just right but it was worth it! I shall photograph it tomorrow in natural light and then I can complete the pattern.

Here is the link to the PDF pattern, all test tatted by Clyde.

It's getting there!

At last I think I have got it! Round 11 is lying beautifully flat instead of cup shaped and I think round 12 will be just fine! Just have to work out the last 2 rounds now!

Unfortunately the qualitiy of the photo is poor....today is a dark rainy day, but if I use the flash I find that it alters the colours drastically!

Have you noticed how I keep alternating the colour scheme? On every row of split rings I change the order of shuttle 1 and shuttle 2 and on the other rows I alternate the colours of the rings and chains. Neat hey?

It's not right yet!

It's still trial and error with the outer rounds of this Starburst Doily! I had re-designed the outer rounds on a small sample piece but when I did the new stitch count on the full size it wasn't right, there were too many rings and it ruffled. I changed round 11 again, but again as you can see from the picture it still isn't right! Now the round is too tight and is cupping. Also the next round is too full and if I carry on it will just ruffle and not lie flat! Arrgghhh! Back to the drawing board!

Two-tone Starburst Doily

Here is my first offering of the Starburst Doily in two colours! I have done the first 8 rounds in size 20 cotton and it measures approximately 8 inches in diameter. I shall now continue with the rest of the doily (with my edited instructions) to see how it pans out.

Starburst Coaster

I decided I needed to re-tat my Starbusrt Doily only this time I used size 70 white cotton instead of size 40 ecru. You know how it is, you think you know your own pattern and don't take a lot of notice of what is written down. Needless to say I did it wrong, but oh happy event, it turned out well! I forgot to repeat a couple of the rounds before I did the first scalloped roound, but it shows that the pattern works well as a motif/coaster. The doily can now be done in three sizes, 6 rounds makes the coaster, 8 rounds makes a small doily and 14 rounds makes the large doily!

Gold Medal!

Some of the members of Here-be-Tatters have been joining in the Olympics by doing tatting events like the Motif Marathon, the Handkie Edging Hurdles and the Snowflake Slalem, to mention but a few. I have been doing the Snowflake Slalem and am so pleased with the amount that I have made (in spite of life getting in the way) that I have awarded myself a gold medal! LOL

Another snowflake & a ruffle!

The on-line tatting class will be doing "ruffled" tatting this evening and this is my practice piece! Pretty looking but quite labourious to do!

Also another snowflake for the Olympic event.

Snowflake Slalem

For the Olympics I am tatting some snowflakes to deocrate my Christmas tree this year. So far I have completed 4...3 of my own design and one an adaptation of an Anne Orre pattern.

Peregrination of a design!

This picture shows how I altered the stitch count and combinations of stitches in my Starbusrt Doily. As I said in a previous post I was not happy with the outside rounds....I think they are too busy.....and it is near impossible to make it lie flat! These new outside rounds should make a huge difference and as soon as I finish my Olympic tatted snowflakes I will re-tat the whole doily!

Notice in rounds two and four how I tried two different ways to do the chains.

Stitch re-count for Starburst Doily

I have now re-designed the Starburst Doily with a new stitch count for the rounds after the first set of scallops. I feel quite sure that this will make a huge difference and allow the doily to lie flat properly. Wonderful Clyde is test tatting the doily (with the new instructions) and so we shall see what it looks like when he has finished!

I named it Starburst Doily!

Now that the doily is completed I have named it "Starburst Doily". I am not 100% happy with it, as the outside rows are a bit too full and don't let the doily lie flat without a lot of pulling into position! I shall have to have another look at the stitch count to see if I can adjust it. In the meantime, Clyde has graciously agreed to test tat it for me and hopefully he will be able to help me to rectify it.

The first 8 rounds fitted perfectly and indeed the doily could end here, but I wanted a larger doily. The pattern repeat idea, I think, was good, but I just need to get the stitch count sorted out!