Back again, UN squares

 

I haven't been doing any tatting for ages...new relationship, life is complicated, problems with my job, all these factors have meant that tatting has not been a priority.
I am going to show firstly the incredibly slow process of my heart doily...

I think I will stop  this once I finish this round because the next round is a lot of motifs needing to be made and attached, which I think will be too much for me. I can't even remember where the pattern came from!

 Then I have been trying to make the Rosy Ironbark book mark, (pattern on Etsy) but I am not concentrating, it will probably be just a first effort, and I will try again to get it perfect. My eldest daughter became an Australian citizen last year, here she is wearing a T-shirt that represents the indigenous Australian flag, receiving her certificate. My father was also very interested by Australian plants, so for those reasons I want to make this book mark perfectly!

This is the progress so far, but it doesn't look like the photo on the pattern!











Something else that has caught my attention was a post on Yarnplayer's page, a Belgian tatter who has a project to build a "monument" from pink tatted squares, she explains her project here.
Anyway, I have made two, neither is perfect, I need to have another go. If anyone else decides to have a go I recommend using two shuttles, because otherwise you need to use the shoelace trick to keep on the right track.

Snowflake project

I am working on snowflakes because my lace teacher wants to have an exhibition this year. We never seem to manage to have enough pieces to justify our existence, but it is difficult to attract new students if there is nothing to be seen.
I was doing ok, but then I had my accident. Still I am soldiering on.

These are the first few flakes, mostly tatted, but one in torchon.

Another torchon flake, but I haven't had tried to continue with it since the accident.

Some point ground which I was trying to learn, with the idea of doing a point ground snowflake...I don't know if that is going to happen!

Round 2 of heart doily

I am so tied up with puppies and work and bobbin lace, however I do get a little bit of this doily done most evenings. I like the colour of this thread, a gift from Fox, and this is very relaxing. I have begun round three but wanted to show this stage finished, before adding the next row.

Stuff that has at last been finished...sort of.

Gold braid, torchon bookmark, two snowflakes, and a bit of the heart doily, which has increased a little bit!
Ok the ends are still waiting to be sewn in, but I am pleased to be able to record a bit of progress.

I love to work while listening to podcasts, I can absolutely recommend one called "No such thing as a fish" which is from the QI elves.
Funny and fascinating at the same time, if you love knowing useless facts give it a listen.

Bobbins, shuttles and a cat...

Here is James, offering to help with my gold lace braid.

 And this is the aforementioned braid.

And here is a bit of land of lace's heart doily round one. Let me just say that it's a pattern that is quite a brain teaser, and I have done a lot of unpicking and re-tatting...and I am still only on the third repeat!

Ooh look, gift!

No-one knows where I live, nowadays, so I get no post...however Fox did manage to get this package to me, and I was really excited to find this in my post box after a fairly difficult day.

I thought I had taken more photos, but anyway here are two lovely tatted motifs and a motif of Romanian lace, which will inspire me to have a go, also some shuttles and thread which are beautiful, but I will show you when I manage to get tatting. I have made some bobbin lace this week, I may show later once I have done the tatting as promised.

I am back!

 Look, some lace! This torchon bookmark has been made over the last three weeks, even though I have many other things going on.

I have even dug out some shuttles, and so I am almost finished with this snowflake. I am using size 50 DMC, and a pattern from Tatting by the Bay. Fox has inspired me to look into knotted lace, but I need to wait for pay-day to buy the book...

(I just want to explain that my life has changed course...so that I am now living alone, in a cute little flat with my adored deerhound, her eight puppies and three somewhat disconsolate cats. I work with profoundly handicapped children and young adults. I am very happy.)

Kitty Fisher found it!

My bag was at the Mairie! I went to Prayssac with some posters to put up, and the ladies at the Boulangerie said to ask at the Syndicat d'Initiative and the Mairie...and there it was. I nearly kissed the Policier who gave it to me.  So happy, especially as it had a special Shuttle Shop shuttle with my name on. However I seem to have lost my tatting inspiration, and everything I try goes wrong, ah well, perhaps I need to look for that as well!

Lucy Locket lost her pocket...

Somehow I have lost my tatting pochette, which is in this picture. :(
From DS9 designs it has been with me for 10 years or so.
It was in my bag yesterday, but when I came home from the bank it was no longer there.* It has some shuttles, scissors, hooks and my current bits of work, so I guess they will never be finished.

Heyho, many far more terrible things happen, I hope whoever found it treasures it, even if they have no idea what it is all about!

* I did go back today and ask, but no one has seen it.

Et hop...

Onto the bandwagon.
 My first attempt at the Spring doily, mistakes a go-go!

Second attempt, both are worked in Majestic thread, which is a little bit twisty, but the colours are wonderful.

Delia finished at last

I have at last finished Delia, but I haven't been making any kind of lace/crafty stuff.
I have hopped onto the bandwagon which is Renulek's Spring doily, and I hope to share a photo tomorrow of the rather disappointing progress so far.

Lace class, 3 February

 This tiny patch represents three hours in lace class! Of course much was done, then undone, then redone. I am learning to throw out pairs from the half stitch section, as well as the 12 legged spider! I know it looks easy, but I really struggled...I must try to keep going because I leave to stay with my mother on Saturday, and if I don't practise I will forget how to do it. :(
Plus as luck would have it I need to work today and tomorrow.

 Oh, I am including the finished pincushions, with the buttons sewn on.

They were fun to make and I have some more evenweave, so I might do some more blackwork...although the evenweave is green, so I am not sure how well it will work.

January update.

 I had to make a bobbin roll for all 52 pairs I needed for Monday's lace class.

 Delia is still causing me problems, I had to cut again...I have lost my enthusiasm. I get like this when something takes too long, hence the heaps of WIP hanging around on my desk.

 I am continuing this edging slowly, I have a plan for it.

 I made this while waiting for David, and having nothing in my bag but a lonely half wound shuttle!

 Lace started, a torchon ground, called chemin de Rose.

 Another view.

Somethings are finished!

 My blackwork project is done, well I still need to finish stuffing and add the buttons, but I am happy with it. I might even make another one.

 This lace butterfly was quick and easy, except I will never try to finish with a cluny again! Another time I will start the two antennae, then join at the head and then work the wings.

The cream and black one was worked by a friend at lace class. She also had difficulty finishing with a cluny!

Serendipidity?

The week before Christmas my friend closed her patchwork shop, after two years business. She had some tatting thread that she had ordered, when we hoped that people might be interested in learning, but now unsold it was just unwanted stock. I felt duty bound to buy some even though they were not colours I thought I wanted. The photo isn't very good...but they are classic DMC variegated threads.

Then last weekend, having not tatted for ages, I was travelling by train to Paris. I didn't want to take any of my multiple WIPs, as they are all at stages where I have to do something fiddly to carry on. I decided to do an edging, which means that I don't need to refer to a pattern, and it doesn't matter how much I do.
I chose an old favourite and the new unchosen threads, so that it wouldn't matter if it got lost or mistakes were made.... and I did this:

To my surprise the colours worked well, and it looks really pretty.

By the time I came home again I had done eleven repeats!

This is me tatting in Le Jardin des Tuileries.
We had a great time, and now I love those colours.
I wish everyone a happy and healthy new year, Bonne Année, Bonne Santé à Tous!

This week I have mostly been...

 Doing Blackwork. This is the kit I received the other day, with the first half finished. I changed some of the filling patterns, and I tend towards more open fillings, so I have not filled as much as in the pattern, but as it is all still on the frame I can add more if it looks too empty at the end.

Blackwork is not very portable, but I can do it while watching television. We haven't got a signal at the moment so we are working our way through episodes of Jonathan Creek on the computer via an HDMI cable.

More lace

This is a sample of Torchon ground showing four different stitches.

This is the finished sample of Flanders, with the (not very) heart shapes.

Wittering about lace

This photo shows the first heart completed...yes, ok it looks more like a kidney than a heart, but still...

 I want to insist that this is probably the most bobbins I have ever worked with, and it can feel a bit daunting sometimes.

Yesterday I received this excellent book from Jo Firth lacemaking. I had been looking for it for some time, but mostly it was way too expensive. This copy is in mint condition.

 Who wouldn't want to make this cute kitty edging? I think it's a bit too complicated for me at the moment, as just working out the bobbins for the heart shapes takes me ages.

 The patterns are so pretty though.

Right, today I want to finish heart number three, ready for the final lesson on Monday. (This is the backside of the lace, it looks better from the front.)

Oh D--n!

I had started Delia, using Perfect Quilter colourway Pansies. Here it is, after I had done the first repeat, and I was quite happy with it.

But then I started to make mistakes...and after I had cut and restarted I realised I had made a mistake way back...and the scissors need to come out again. Oh, it is so frustrating!