Autumn

After a few days of windy rainy weather in this part of the world the trees have nearly lost all their leaves, it has been a beautiful sight watching the changing colours, especially living on the edge of the New Forest. The picture below does not really do the area justice but as is always the case, the camera is never at hand when needed!

The tatted leaf took me ages to make, as I kept moving onto different projects, its the maple leaf by Tammy Rodgers which many people have made and so is very recognisable. However, I extended it and added some beads, and also made the stem out of split rings.

The picture of some spectacular looking toadstools was taken in the village where I live very near to the doctors surgery just off a pathway, totally amazed that children hadn't destroyed them. By the side of them though was an abandoned empty cardboard box which once contained beer. So there must have been some very drunk fairies dancing around them!

But they are so pretty especially with the leaves falling on them.

Spreading the Word

Now I know what you are thinking, she is talking about religion. Well I’m actually referring to spreading the word about tatting, although church has a prominent part to play in this for it is where I meet a lot of people. Yesterday was All Saints Day but in the evening we invited the bereaved to an All Souls service (which is really today) and the church was packed. At every opportunity I like to show people my work, and this is what I wear in church and at other services outside the confines of a church building, such as funerals which I conduct in a crematorium. I explained to our local funeral director what it was around my surplice, a couple of years later he informed me that he had solved a crossword clue because he knew the answer was “tatting”!

In one of our parishes we regularly attend a Wedding Fayre which is held in a hotel just down the road from the church. The hotel used to be an old manor house and it is surrounded by beautiful gardens. We are allocated a table and couples who visit the Fayre are invited to take some of our leaflets and ask about church weddings, we don’t book them at this stage. Anyway some have already booked their wedding either in another church or in a secular venue, but we still can give them help - perhaps in choosing music or readings. We used to be situated in a room in this hotel with a wedding photographer and a wedding car firm, which was fine but occasionally people would put their heads around the door and say “it’s the church” and make a very quick exit! This time our table was in a large room and beside us were two sisters who sing at wedding receptions, and so we were treated to their repertoire, they were very good, but it was a bit loud, especially when you were trying to hold conversations with people! The picture shows some of the items on the table including of course “tatting” there are entwined hearts and in the gold container are crosses and butterflies, Jane’s patterns. We invite people to take these tatted items away and invariably that means questions are asked about how they are made.

This necklace was made for a girl of about 12 yrs old who saw some of my tatting and has expressed a wish to learn how to tat, along with her mother, they are in the congregation of one of the churches I minister in – so that’s what I mean about spreading the word!

Tooth brush rings

One of the things you learn in Scouting, apart from knots (not tatting!) is to save the most extraordinary things, in the hope that one day they may come in useful for handicrafts. This is especially relevant, if like me, you are with the younger section, Beaver Scouts who are aged 6-8 years old. Twenty years ago it was difficult to find decent craft supplies, unless you were prepared to pay a lot of money for them, so over the years I have looked at disposable household items such as packaging etc and thought, what can this be used for? Corks from wine bottles are very versatile, although nowadays they seem to be mostly plastic, the original cork ones though could be turned into trains, dogs and even the beaver animal. So it sort of became a habit to collect items that showed potential! That is why I collected the plastic rings from the Oral B electric toothbrushes, not for Scouting but for my own use, and now they have been re-incarnated into earrings!

I’ve been influenced by the patterns that others have designed using plastic rings and thought they looked great, many using HDT. Initially I took the tooth brush rings on holiday and had a play around, my first attempt was given to Tatskool and it is only in the last week or so that I’ve come back to the project with earnest, mainly because I would like to give some earrings away to friends for Christmas. So here are the results.

It wasn't until I made the purple pair that I got the pattern as near to perfect as possible.

Being constantly nagged by big sister I have even written the pattern down! Jane then gave me a few tips on how to write some of the instructions, and the result is the pattern below. I’m not planning on designing much as it is very time consuming and frustrating and I don’t have much patience. But the absolute delight in seeing a pattern that I have designed written down and in a readable format, instead of on a scrap of paper is wonderful! I hope someone may be inspired to have ago at this pattern and tell me if they do not understand anything, after of course they have cleaned their teeth!

Oh and here are the little plastic rings, just in case you

don't know what I am talking about.

TOOTH BRUSH EARRINGS


Materials required (size 20 cotton)
2 shuttles, 13 seed beads, plus 8 seed beads and a larger bead for bottom dangle
split ring finding.
A plastic ring, I used the plastic ring from the Oral B tooth brush! But any small plastic ring will do although you may have to adjust the stitches to cover it.

Abbreviations:

CR centre ring

Cl close
R ring

+ join
P picot

+ B add bead to picot before joining
VLP long picot

seta a first half of p
B Bead

seta b second half of p
Roch Ring on chain
Wsh 1 shuttle one
Wsh 2 shuttle two

6 beads Wsh 1 one plus split ring finding, 7 beads Wsh 2

Using both shuttles cover ring (wsh 2 at this stage is the ball) 5 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5 this should cover the ring when completing all the way round the ring start with 1 SR continue as follows:


1 SR: 2 B 2 / 2 – 2
Wsh 2: Ch 4 B 3
2 R: 3 + B + CR 3 – 3
Ch: 5 B 3
3 R: 4 + B 4 + CR 4 – 4
Ch: 3 seta a, 3 seta b (3 times)
4 Roch: 3 VLP slip seed beads + large bead + seed beads take bead from core thread move into ring and attach VLP to other side 3 Cl R
Ch: 3 seta b, 3 seta a (3 times)
5 R: 4 + B + CR (as R3) 4 – 4
Ch: 3 B 5
6 R: 3 + B + CR 3 – 3
Ch: 3 B 4
7 R: 2 + B + CR 2 B 2
Ch: 5 B from core thread (3 times) 3 - 2 + with shuttle thread to remaining p of CR
8 R: wsh 1 2 + Ch 6 split ring finding 6 - 2 Cl take wsh 2 and shuttle join to CR
Ch: 2 + R8 3 B from core thread 5 B (twice) 5 attach to SR cut and tie

Unusual Tatting Shuttles

I won two shuttles on e.bay last week (yes still can’t break the habit!), they were being sold by the same person but with four days between listings. The first one is a Vintage Bone tatting shuttle 10 cm in length, 2 cm wide and 1cm in depth and described by the seller as “lovely to work with even though a bit larger than average. It is very comfortable and smooth in the hand.” She went on to say “a little stiffness in the fingers prevents me from using this shuttle now."
It certainly is a larger than normal shuttle.
Sad to think that as we get older ailments such as stiffness in the fingers may prevent us from tatting, hope that is a long time coming for me. Another comment that was made by the seller was this "The top view shows a tiny mark that is in the bone itself. The other side shows small very fine hairlines where the pins are. This has been like this for a very long time and has occurred through natural use over many years." A well used shuttle, that is what I like to hear!

The second shuttle was described as a horn tatting shuttle – double thread with two shanks for winding two threads. Again she says “Shuttle has nice tight ends, smooth to the hand when in use”. I have never seen a double one before and trying to think when it would be most useful.

I was quite pleased with these purchases as they were both under £5 each and will now go into my collection although I might eventually find a use for the double thread one.

I am trying to motivate my husband into making tatting shuttles, he made this one for me years ago, can’t remember where the design came from but it was definitely copied.

Obviously the classic design would be better and as he has some small pieces of hard wood stashed away, they could be re-incarnated into tatting shuttles!

Squares

A graduate student at Trinity

Computed the square of infinity.

But it gave him the fidgets

To put down the digits,

So he dropped maths and took up divinity.

A Limmerick to start off this post.

Thanks to Maureen and Isdihara for encouraging me, sadly

not Edward Lear, but this is only the start!

Trying to find a motif that would fit into this metal square wasn't easy, and gave me the fidgets! The samples in the first picture were part of the searching. The first two I found here, although the instructions for the second one do not correspond with the diagram, so if you plan to tat it make sure that on the corners there are six picots not three. The third one is one of Jane's designs, which she had completely forgotten about, so I'm sending her a copy and she might eventually put it on her pattern page?!

To ensure the motif would fit the metal square I had to use 80 cotton.



This is the necklace from which the metal square came from. I purchased it over two years ago, meaning to do something with it one day! Not sure now, that it is in pieces, whether anything else will be done with all the other bits. I could make some Christmas decorations though, any other suggestions gratefully received!

Lavender's Blue

Lavender's blue, dilly, dilly,

Lavender's green;

When I am queen, dilly, dilly,

You shall be king.

This is all I remember of the old nursery rhyme, but apparently it has more verses.

Lavender is one of my favourite plants, it smells beautiful and it is also so versatile. I've used it in cooking to give a unique flavour to biscuits and ice cream and of course in lavender bags to keep away moths from vunerable clothes.

I started tatting the edging to the handkerchief whilst on holiday, taking some ancient cotton with me, I began to sew it on as I wasn't sure if I had enough cotton and sure enough I didn't and there was no more. This was a real blow as the colour matched the lavender motif. I was making it for a elderly lady who said she so liked to see lace/tatting around a handkerchief.

Enter this bag, which I found in a charity shop, not a particularly wonderful bag, a canvas bag, but not wishing to just discard all the hours and hours of work I had put into the edging I attached it to the bag.


Here is it finished, although you will have to enlarge the photograph to see the transferred edging!


In my youth I used to associate the smell of lavender with "old ladies", they would very often use lavender toilet water (popular in England from 17th century; prepared by distilling freshly picked lavender that had been immersed in alcohol). Now lavender is back in fashion, and in an age of stress and depression it is often used to calm us down. Bathing in lavender oil, using a lavender pillow are all suggested to relieve tension and anxiety. Lavender oil can also be used in a massage, or in an oil burner to fragrance the room, the possibilities are endless. I even have lavender wax polish, finding time to actually use it is the problem!

It is said that planting lavender around the house will help deter evil and protect the people within the household.

The Romans introduced lavender and its uses into England and Europe. They used the flower heads in their communal baths not only for their fragrance but probably also as an antiseptic. The ancient Greeks are also thought to have used lavender for treatment of throat infections and chest complaints. A month ago there were purple fields of lavender to be seen in England and they looked beautiful in the sunshine.

Now I have to make another edging for this handkerchief............

Michaelmas

Today in the Christian church is the feast of St. Michael and all Angels. Michael the Archangel, Captain of the Host of Heaven who fought against Satan and his evil angels and cast them out of Paradise.

Not sure which particular angel this one is though! It certainly has remained in my heaven, so it must be a good angel! According to Mark Myers (AKA Tatman) it is called Patty's Angel, from his book Tatted Gathering of Angels, but sorry Mark it had a bit of a "make over" whilst in paradise, I added a few beads and omitted the heart in the centre.

A photograph of some Michaelmas daisies, I went for a walk yesterday and photographed these, they were in someone’s front garden.Though not really a daisy at all, but an aster (and named after the ancient Greek word for star: ‘astron’), a late-bloomer that flowers in September and early October and called Michaelmas daisies because they are at their prime at Michaelmas Day.

The one Michaelmas custom that survives to this day is that you should not eat blackberries after the 29th of September. There is a very good reason for this custom, namely that by this time of year blackberries are tasteless and watery. Although according to an old legend, it is because Satan, when banished from Heaven fell into a blackberry bush and cursed the brambles as he fell into them. It is also said that at this point the devil spat on the blackberries and they became poisonous so they are not to be picked or eaten after this date.

These particular blackberries were photographed by a church, and as you can see there are some yet to ripen. But of course its too late to pick them now!

In medieval times the four quarter days were important holy days, namely: Christmas (25th Dec), Lady Day (25th March), Midsummer Day (24th July) and Michaelmas they were also the basis for financial calculations, and loosely coincide with the summer and winter solstices, and the spring and autumnal equinox.

It is very autumnal here in England and the trees are starting to look particularly beautiful especially where I live on the edge of the New Forest. I am half way through tatting a leaf and hope to get it finished soon, but don't hold your breath!