I have finished Cornelia

I am so pleased, I finished Cornelia this morning. I had just enough thread.

Time isn't the only thing that is running out!

I am due to go to Australia on the 8th November, to spend some time with my eldest daughter. The travelling time is 36 + hours from when I leave home on Sunday lunchtime to arriving on Tuesday morning in Melbourne, and obviously much of my awake time I would like to be tatting, while I listen to my Mp3 player. But which pattern, which thread? I haven't made my mind up at all yet.


Cornelia is making slow progress, and I would really like to finish it before I leave, as there isn't enough work to last for a whole journey. I am a tad worried that I won't have enough thread to finish, again. I had thought two skeins would be plenty, after the business with Beatrice, but of course Cornelia is a bigger doily. I would recommend the David Reed Smith shuttles for work like this, my one holds the most thread of any of my shuttles while at the same time being light and maniable.


This is another of the Myra Piper designs in black. Not finished or blocked, but quite pretty, nonetheless. Perhaps I should stick with several small designs during the voyage, but then I would need a book of patterns....

I haven't done much tatting all through the summer, just a few motifs from the Myra Piper book kindly sent by Diane. This is the only one I can find at the moment, and it was made with some thread that was given after David came back from his mother's funeral. She had been a keen lacemaker, and tatter, but I think this wasn't tatting thread, it wasn't six ply.

Then I decided to make Cornelia, from Iris Niebach's book of doilies, in Sherry's lovely silk thread. This colour is Vickie's Lilacs. It has taken me a week to do the first quarter...it may not be finished as speedily as I would like, so I am showing the work in progress.

Holidays and Hobbies

This is just a thought...but I was listening to a radio programme about the way people like to take holidays that link with their hobby, and I thought that it would be fun if there were tatting holidays. I don't know if anyone would be interested, but I asked David if he would allow some tatters to come and stay a week in the gites, and he said that anytime between September and June would be ok. I wonder if anyone would be interested? Leave a comment or e-mail me if it sounds an interesting idea to you. (I know this bit of France isn't exactly lace-making territory, but if we all got together it could be fun?)

Hommage to Pamela and Jane

I was very impressed by this pattern from the first time I saw it...but felt it was much too complicated for me to attempt. If anyone else has been put off, then I encourage them to give it a try. I did not try to do two colours or add beads down the back, and I still managed to have the eye beads on the wrong shuttle but despite that I think he looks cute. The thread is an vintage reel, probably about a 60, as my little fellow measures 4 inches long. The beads were a couple of those little seed ones from my daughter's beading box. The pattern is from Jane's site, (not the naughty one!) and is called Pamela's gecko. On Pamela's page you can see her collection of geckos, which are truly brilliant, but if like me you were afraid to try then don't be. You do have to follow the pattern step by step, at no point can you just "wing it", or you'll find yourself unpicking, but otherwise it's quite easy.

lace and kittens

This is a picture of my first attempt at Honiton Lace. I bought 36 bobbins on ebay..(oh, what a tempting place that is...I have just bought myself Mary Konior's Tatting in Lace for £5.52) and so I attempted the first two practice strips from Suzanne Thompson's Introduction to Honiton Lace. The threads are very fine, 120 perhaps, and I pulled the first strip to bits as I pulled the pins out. :(

For the link...it's now in my blog list under "life, death and what not to wear..." but I'm afraid the kittens still haven't opened their eyes yet, they obviously haven't read my particular cat care manual which suggests a week as the correct time.

Missing link

I took down the link to my live journal a while back, because I didn't think it was very useful, but if anyone was interested in my other life please let me know and I will put it back. Todays entry for example, contains kittens! (Yes, not that exciting, really)