Passive-aggressive lace

 At the beginning of December I had a lace lesson, I knew I did, but when I had driven all the way over to the teacher's house, (1hr's drive) she said I was mistaken, and that I was supposed to ring her to say whether it was this day or the following week. I knew that I wouldn't have said that, because I have fixed off-duty, but I didn't really say what I felt, I just drove away, feeling all upset. When I got home I ripped off the lace angel we had been working on, I hate sodding angels anyway, I never chose to make an angel, and also removed the heart that I finished tant bien que mal, and started this motif.

I am using the book by Pamela Nottingham, and doing as well as I can, all the time being aware that being passive-aggressive is probably not the way forward if I want to improve my technique. Oh well, give me time, and I will probably get over it! I have yet to finish it properly, but I am quite pleased none-the-less.

Nothing happening here.

All I have available to show is this heart. I can't work out quite how to do the final bit, I need to join three pinholes, and throw out some pairs...it needs a bit of concentration.
At lace class yesterday they mentioned that IKEA sells tables that are ideal for lacemaking at 19.90 €, what a good idea!
I will try to update when I get back from visiting my mother in the UK. The outer row of the clover doily was chewed by my puppy, and had to be cut off. Luckily the centre wasn't damaged.
Yes-U-can doily, I have done 2 motifs on the next row... a bit bored with that now, I will try to get on with it at a later date.

Losing the thread

 I am always so mean when I wind a shuttle that this kind of thing happens all the time. I need to wind a new shuttle just one repeat from the end.... I will, I will, but not right now.

 Here is a long bit of beaded tatting which I started, but then found I didn't quite have enough beads... I may work out a solution, or I may just give up.

 Then a couple of weeks ago Fox shared some thread, Finca 16 in bright colours, which inspired me to start something new.

 I have made a square...

and also started the Yes-U-Can doily challenge on in-tatters.

Corinne's doily, second round

I know I said I didn't want to continue with these threads, but on the way back from Perpignan, puppy was quiet in her corner, and so I pulled out my tatting bag, and found I only had these threads, also no pattern. I was able to download round two with my phone...which seems to me to be amazing. I am afraid I did have a bit of difficulty interpreting it on my phone screen, and so the stitch count may be a bit off, also am I the only person who finds Sulky thread almost impossible to un-tat? It starts to fray very quickly, and I am scared it will snap, so I just carry on even when I have made a mistake, repeating it, if necessary to prevent it from being too obvious.

Here is the puppy, watching me in the car. She is amazingly good, no messing in the house, and no crying at night. She and Bess get on fairly well, although Bess can a tad bouncy for such a tiny pup.
The other photo shows the two of them together.

Brief update, with Corinne's motif

 I recently received a' nudge' from a friend, (*waves*) and so I am just posting briefly to let you know that I am still alive.
I haven't done much tatting. and really nothing of interest at all. I can't remember where I was with this doily last time I posted, but I guess that I am a bit further on. The thread is not nice to use, and it is pretty grubby, but there seems no point in washing it till it is finished, and because I don't like the thread I am not so motivated to keep on going. Hey ho.
I have otherwise just done scraps of edgings or else old motifs that I know by heart, to keep my hands busy when I am listening. I have finished the mental health course, but I am about to take the final exams for a French course that I am doing. It helps to tat when I am listening to lectures.

This motif first came to my notice on Fox's page, it  was designed by Corinne. She has invited tatters to give it a try, and so I finally came out of retirement to have a go. These threads are Güttermann Sulky, and they were not what I would have chosen, they just happened to be on my shuttles. I should have re-scanned because the colours are brighter than this, but it's late and I don't want to disturb the man. I see on her blog that now there is more to add, but I think I will start again in a better choice of threads...these don't do justice to the form.
Tomorrow we are going to Perpignan to fetch a puppy.

Hello there...

I haven't been blogging anywhere, and I had pretty much decided to give it up, especially as I had bought a new computer and it didn't seem to want to link with my old scanner printer. However I needed to print something and so was obliged to spend a bit more time and thought on the problem, and voilà, I now have it working perfectly.
First piece, this is from Adelheid Dangela's book "Occhi Patchwork". The book is in German, but the patterns are diagrammed, and easy to follow. The idea is that each pattern is named after a German town, and you can join together all patterns that begin with same letter. Here I have done Duisburg and Dresden. The thread is a size 100 lace thread in a very dark blue. It isn't really ideal for tatting...however I do like the look of it. I rather fear that my tension is a bit off, because Dresden is a bit bigger than Duisburg, and in a bigger piece it would be difficult to continue. I might try again with a more biddable thread, because I like the general aesthetics of the patchwork design.
Now although I haven't been posting, and I very rarely comment on other people's blogs, I do check out many tatting blogs every day. I love seeing the work and hearing little insights in their lives. One of my favourites is Tat-ology, and it was reading Fox's blog that was the final nudge to get me to post again. She is so energetic, and updates nearly every day.

Now this strip is an old piece of tatting but I am including it because I was struck by the way Fox had chosen to do the same pattern from Julia Saunders book! This is in Valdani size 50.

 Then I saw that Fox had also chosen to do this pattern from Mary Konior's book Tatting Patterns which I received for Christmas. It was an odd little motif, and I was surprised at myself for choosing it, so it was extra weird when she chose to do it too. This is made in lovely DMC dentelles, which are really my absolute comfort zone thread.

And just to finish off, here is another motif from the same book, this time in Gütermann Sulky thread.
I wonder if anyone else notices that someone else has chosen the same pattern as them.

How cool is this?

I may need to give some back story for this, to explain why I am so pleased to have found and made my own brain cell. I left school at 16, partly through my own fault, so I never got to University. When I trained to be a nurse it was a very practical training, we had a couple of weeks in school learning how to fold your cap, and make beds with hospital corners and pillow slips opening away from the door of the ward and then we were out there, learning on real patients. It was great fun, but no-one saw nurses as intellectuals. Deep down, however, that is what I believed that I was, and it rankled. Still, in no time I had two children, and then we moved to France, where I had to work full time. Life carried on, but finally in 2006 I decided to put my money where my mouth was, and enrolled at the Open University and began a degree course in the Humanities. I am now about halfway through. It was much harder than I had imagined, and I realised I was not quite as clever as I had imagined. It does however, feel like a worthwhile thing to accomplish, and I really enjoy the discipline and the challenge.
 It's taking a long time because
 a) I am still a full time nurse, with a house and family, and
b) the courses are expensive so I can only afford about one a year.
 Anyway, this year I am doing a course about Mental Health*, and last week I was studying the biology of the brain, synapses, neuro-transmitters, re-uptake inhibitors and action potentials. During a break I was reading a post on In-Tatters, followed a link, and there was Martha Ess's pattern for a brain cell! It felt like serendipity, and so I had to tat it right away, and then I wanted to share it, but no-one around me is at all impressed....so I am showing it to you.
*What has Mental Health got to do with the Humanities, you ask? Well, absolutely nothing, but I am allowed a certain number of points outside my subject, and my employers are paying for this course, so it gives me 30 points towards my degree, free, plus it is interesting and relevant for my work, which is dealing with alcoholics.

Doing things for the first time!

Here are a couple of motifs, which normally I would be ashamed to share. However, today I am showing you them because they each contain six clunies and two split chains. I had watched Elisa carefully, and with a little help from Jane's instruction page I did it. I will need a lot more practice before I can produce them with the speed and accuracy of Elisa, but only by practising will I get to that. These are my first, and already I see some improvement between the first and the second.                

Here we have another first, because I "designed " this square myself. OK, it's nothing to be so pleased about... but I was sitting in a boring meeting at work, doodling in my notebook, and I drew this. I thought "You could tat that..." and so I worked out a stitch count, and here it is. I never thought I would ever make my own design, and now I have! So I am quite pleased. The pattern should fit with repeats to make a larger square, which is something I might try sometime, for now I am off to watch the latest episode of Downton Abbey, (secret sin!)

My Purchases

I thought you might like to see what I bought. Here you can see some Puy bobbins, fifty bobbins made of Olive wood, only 39€! Some DMC speciale dentelles in shades of red/pink. A ball of Venus in green, which was a mistake because it is so tangly, whenever you tighten the rings it all knots up. There are also two balls of a new make of thread.

 I bought this light with a magnifier, and I am really pleased with it. It is battery powered and I can have it on my lap to check the number of stitches on the finest and darkest threads. I bought some key rings and a little pot in order to show case my tatting...it sort of seemed like a good idea. I also bought some finer hooks, as well as special needles for joining, beading and split chains.

 These are special picot pins, slightly thicker than ordinary lacemaking pins, and you can't find them very easily. These were from a German supplier.

Of course I couldn't resist a couple more books for the library!

These are some beads....I know I don't often use beads, but the blue and the black were small enough to go on size 80 thread, the others are to do the eyes on the sea horses. The white thread is size 120 for the Honiton, when I eventually get around to doing it!

And this is some of the work I have been doing, while trying to improve my skills. The Mary Konior cross is done in the new thread, which was sold as an 80, but I felt it tatted up much more like a 100. The green was that darned Venus, but the clunies are in DMC so there are no excuses there for me to blame the thread! You do need to click on this one to see it properly.

Le Couvige, part 2

So, here is Elisadusud, and she was working on a cluny-split chain combination, to show me how. I have since done a few somewhat misshapen clunies, which I am too ashamed to show anyone, but I now understand a little better how to do them. The split chain, however, is still on the to-do list.

 This is a rather poor photo of Elisadusud's work, which is really impressive, but even if you click on it twice, I am not sure if you will really be able to see it clearly.

 This one might be a little bit better.

 And then my camera battery failed, aaggh! I had to take these photos with my phone, and so they are very poor. This is Pascale Provost, whose patterns I have tried several times. She was teaching, and I was really happy to have her constructive criticism. It is difficult to learn without an expert to tell you where you are going wrong, but I hope you will see an improvement in my work from now on! Even if no-one else does, I will, I know.
I have challenged myself to produce a piece from both designers for examination next year. (Elisa sells patterns of her designs, with explanations, for those who fancy a challenge.)

 This is Pascal's last book, which I already have, but a new one is in progress. It was fun to see both of them discussing techniques and designs together. Here in France meeting with other tatters is fairly difficult, so I was really enjoying myself and definitely plan to go again, I hope next year.

This is Petalite, which is a pattern I tried about a month ago, but this one is properly finished.
Pascale showed me how to get from one split ring to another with beads, which does require one shuttle to be unwound and threaded through, however it is still less fuss with ends that cutting and tying.
I have been busy trying my new skills, but I haven't anything impressive to show, as yet. I also spent rather too much money... I will maybe show my purchases next time.

Le Couvige

According to my book "La Dentelle du Puy" Lacemakers don't enjoy working alone, hence the tradition of coming together in groups; un couvige (from the Latin cum vicinis: with the neighbours) In the days when the mothers and daughters throughout the area around Le Puy all were involved in lacemaking these were frequent occaisions, but now they are rare but none the less enjoyable for that. The couvige at Blavozy was my first experience of such a gathering, and I had a wonderful time.
Le Puy is an interesting place for anyone to visit. The long drive through the Massif Central was picturesque.

 When I saw a poster in a window it was reassuring.

 This is the cupola of the Vervaine building. and below is the nightime skyline. You need to click on the photos to see them properly.

 This is how it looked when I entered the hall.

 Here you can see people working on their lace, and showing their best pieces.

This man is doing Tambour work, which is so well shown in the beautiful film Brodeuses . Do watch it if you love French countryside and embroidery.

 He is working from the back of the work, this is what it looks like on the right side.

 This is Mick Fouriscot presenting the conference. She has been working to further the continuation of the many kinds of lace making in France since 1974, based in Le Puy. She is also very funny, quite a character. The conference was interesting, but much more about the history of prostitutes than lace. 

 All kinds of bobbins were available.

 I thought this patchwork a very effective way of displaying the lace.

 There was a stall selling antique and vintage sewing materiels.

 Including a book and a couple of bone shuttles, and I was quite tempted....

 There was also this, someone's amazing work in progress, which was really pretty, and a bit sad that it will probably never be finished.

 And also a hanky, probably made by the same person.

 When Saturday was over I went back to the town, looking for food. I hadn't ordered lunch, and there hadn't been any sandwiches left so all I had eaten all day was a croissant and several cups of coffee! I looked at the local speciality macaroons.

 And these cute cakey things!

However, in the end I settled for this salad with smoked salmon, local Bleu d'Auvergne cheese, and hiding underneath all that some Lentilles du Puy, with a baked potato and creme fraiche. Tomorrow I will tell you about meeting with other tatters, and you will get to see Elisadusud actually working on a point d'espirit!