Might start tatting again soon

Some how I have lost any interest in tatting, but still knitting which is something I suppose! I found this necklace in a charity shop today amongst a bundle of jewellery.  Thought to myself why don't I tat around those butterflies?   Anyway no big deal if I never get around to it as the necklace only cost 50p.

And my knitting so far, still a long way to go, another few sections and then to complete crocheting the outside.   Why do things take so long?  Answer I hardly have time to sit and do them!

Now off to vote as it is the European Elections  today, which would not have taken place if we had come out of the European Union, but the country is in such a mess with all that hanging over us. Big sigh.

Where has this month gone?!

April has been manic for me and therefore decided to have today off work mainly to tidy and the clean the house!  Still a lot to do but decided to have a break to show you some pictures of the items people created at the Craft Evening at the beginning of the month.

'Im in the garage' cut out some geckos and crafters had a lot of fun either burning designs in them or trying their hand at painting.  I am already starting to plan for the next Craft Evening in July.  

As we all know if you enjoy doing crafts it creates its own stack of equipment and materials.  At the moment we are hoping to extend the church so that there is more room for activities especially has most of the time the building is shared with a pre-school.  It is a standing joke that I am asking for a Craft room, not going to get one,  but people are getting used to the office being a storage place for Crafts in progress! 

Craft Evening

On Monday I organised another craft evening for adults.  Lots of different items to create using wood, string, material, paper and card.  Here are a few examples that I prepared before the evening.

The hedgehog is made from an old book

There were actually seven very different items to create,  I will show you what people achieved at the end of the evening in the next post.  

Tatting shuttles

The garage is getting a little warmer so it is time to make more shuttles. They will be mainly pop-a-bobbin ones but we had a special order for some ebony post shuttles, one of which I have photographed on a white hyacinth. Actually they are going to a customer in England who could not find any wooden ones in our part of the world. Not a brilliant photograph, this morning is dull and it is drizzling with rain.  This shuttle has a dimple on the top and bottom so that you can comfortably hold with your thumb and finger without them slipping off.

The next two have also been promised and will be setting off on their long journey any day now.  This time pop-a-bobbin ones, a  Cocobola Rosewood and an Olive shuttle.

I really do need to get back to tatting but there doesn't seem to be any spare time at the moment.

Button Bow

I am still knitting, but doing other things as well.  When I first received Martha's book 'Button Jar Tatting' I made two of these bows, but can only find one!  Sometime in the future I intend to make it into a choker, there are two large picots at the top on each side to work a chain, you can just about see them.

Then I decided, rather foolishly, to try my hand at macrame.  The reason being that I want to teach people to do it at the next adult craft club.  So ended up buying a job lot of string off e.bay and wondering if I have done a wise thing, now in a right knot about it all, the idea is not going to plan!

Also 'im in the garage has been making more shuttles, only this time to order as people have found out about them. 

Having a break from Tatting

Sometimes you need a break from things, call it a holiday (vacation), respite, whatever.  Don't get me wrong I enjoy tatting but I was finding the time I spent doing it very limiting. I needed to do other crafts, so  decided on a bit of knitting, haven't knitted for years.  The aim is to knit a throw. I am in no hurry either, was going to crochet one but the wool I have is a little diverse and did not think it would look good if used for crocheting. Below are the two plain colours to start the project.

The picture does not show the true colour it is a dull lilac and the pattern is Harebell.

Again this green is dark but probably not as dark as the picture and is knitted in Daisy Stitch. The aim is to knit lots of strips like this in different patterns and then join them together. I will have to crochet around the edge, but expecting this project to last at least a year!  Need to return to tatting at some point!  As I said just taking a break!

Still playing with threads

After awhile I always come back to Martha Ess's Canopy Bookmark especially if I am winding two threads together as I love the way the long picots show up the different strands.  This was so difficult to photograph as I was trying to get some natural light to show up the colours.

I think it is time to get back to some one strand thread tatting as this method was beginning to get a bit of a challenge when I got into a tangle after starting another project!