Lemon Oil

'Im in the garage decided that he wanted to try some different oil to finish the shuttles off with.  I have managed to wean him off using varnish as the natural finish of the wood is far more pleasing to the eye than a shiny one, well that's my opinion.  

The aroma of this oil is really lovely but I fear that by the time these little shuttles make their way to new homes it might have worn off a little.  However the oil does give a lovely matt and natural finish, previously he used Danish Oil on the shuttles.

I made this canopy bookmark by Martha Ess, just love this pattern especially when you work two different coloured threads and thicknesses together.

Work in Progress

There has been talk of a need for larger bobbin shuttles which will hold more thread.  So I found some sewing machine bobbins which we bought originally to put in the shuttles 'im in the garage made'.  However, in the early stages of making them we discovered that these bobbins made the shuttles rather large. 

As an experiment they are going to be used in some pop-a-bobbin shuttles.  So far there is very little difference in size between them and the shuttles that use the Aero bobbins, mainly because the shaping of the shuttles has been finely tuned after years of practise. The ones you see in the picture are far from completed and we are not sure if they are going to work at this stage.

Also lined up in the garage are some standard pop-a-bobbin shuttles in the process of being made, together with some post shuttles.  As you will see there are some interesting woods on the far right including violet rosewood and snake wood. 

These will not be in Jane's Etsy shop until next month, as they have a fair way to go before being finished, but thought I would give you a quick peep in the garage!

Clip-on Earrings

Okay so I never got my ears pierced but have still managed to wear fashionable earrings and most people don't know that I am wearing clip-ons. I am also able to adapt most earrings so that they can be worn.  Jane gave me some clip-on  findings recently and I was eager to use them especially the flat ones which require a bit of glueing and not hanging something from them.  

The middle of the earrings I bought in Singapore and just tatted around them then got the glue gun out and fixed them to the findings. 

I don't  want to frighten you with another photograph of me but they really look great on and I will definitely be wearing them.

Three Rachels

After having such a disastrous run of tatting mistakes and disappointments 'big sister' advised me to try Rosemarie Peel's Rachel.  So I did, not only once.................

but twice

and finally to get my confidence back, a third time...............

I think I am now on the road to healing!

A hat for Winter

At the moment every time I pick up shuttles to do some tatting, I just fail to achieve anything. Whatever I try to make ends up being thrown away, so much time is wasted not to mention thread.  So I decided to crochet a hat, now I have had a pattern for such a hat which must be 40 years old and I never seemed to manage to actually sit down and make it.  So on Friday I did, went out and bought some wool and came home and crocheted the hat. Although it does not look like the one shown with the instructions, only because I made some adaptations. 

And now a selfie!  The colour of the hat looks a bit different as the photograph was taken in the evening with artificial light.

Here is what the hat is supposed to look like but I wanted it taller so it came down a little more over my ears, to keep them warm!  I also embellished the hat with crochet flowers and of course added buttons to the middle of them.

Also the model wearing the hat is a lot younger and more glamorous and she obviously did not take the photograph herself, there were no 'selfies' in those days.  I bet she didn't crochet the hat either!

A Car Story

I was given some interesting material earlier in the year and when I made this bag I just thought no one would want to buy it, but they did!  Perhaps the person who now owns it likes vintage cars, I did not ask at the time.  I got rather attached to the bag, especially after embellishing it with buttons.  Fortunately I do have more of the material to make another one.  

In May my brother (also Jane's brother!) e.mailed us to say that he had seen the car that he owned 50 years ago (his first car) amazingly it was still 'road worthy'!   The log book also has his name and the address where he was living at the time.

The car then 

The car now

We both urged him to buy it back, but he said no.  He used to pay me to clean it all those years ago, of course not enough for the privilege of doing it!   As you can see there have been some changes made to the car, but the fact that it wasn't scrapped long ago is truly amazing.

A Chameleon

I've not had chance to blog or to look at other people's blogs until today.  This Chameleon is the only thing I have made in the last few weeks, therefore not much tatting has been achieved.  Spent a few days in London last week walking along the canal, so relaxing.

Not sure that this Chameleon has been tatted exactly as Jane's pattern, but a very good attempt was made and I finished it without loosing the plot!    The reason Jane called the pattern Karma Chameleon (just  in case you didn't know) is because it comes from the song of that name sung by Culture Club in the 1980's.   Boy George being the lead singer and this is what he says about the lyrics "The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing. It's about trying to suck up to everybody. Basically, if you aren't true, if you don't act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, that's nature's way of paying you back."

All too often we can act like a Chameleon we fit in to whatever happens at a particular moment in time, including our appearance, interest, opinions whatever, instead of being true to ourself and others.

This Heron was seen by the canal, searching for fish and you will notice how quite well disguised he is blending in with the surroundings