Remember, remember the 5th November........

My neighbour had an abundance of lavender this year in their garden and so they let me gather as much as I wanted.  Last weekend I made these bags and filled them with the pieces I had dried.  I now owe them a bag or two for letting me pick the lavender.   The only tatting is the little butterflies which I have sewn on the ribbons.  

It has been an exciting evening watching the pop-a-bobbins fly out of Jane's Etsy shop together with listening to the fireworks as it is Guy Fawkes night here in England.  We remember the day in 1605 when Guy Fawkes was found in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament in London with several dozen barrels of gunpowder.  Obviously we never forget these things!

Remember remember the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder, treason

Should ever be forgot...

As most of you probably know, Jane lives quite a distance from me, over two hours drive away.  Down in this neck of the woods 'Im in the garage' has been busy today starting to make the next batch of shuttles.   Some more wood has kindly been sent by one of my blogging friends, which I am going to tell you about very soon.  In the meantime a slightly different pop-a-bobbin is being worked on, same principle just the design has been modified.  I can't show you any pictures today as it is evening and the light isn't good enough even with the firewords banging and popping outside.

So congratulations to those who managed to buy a shuttle this evening, you might even remember the 5th of November!   As I publish this there is only one left in the shop!

1.1.11 - and would you believe it another one?!

Today is one of those rare combinations with all the ones in the date.  It is also All Saints Day in the church calendar.
Yesterday though marked 60 years since the introduction of zebra crossings in the UK   The first appeared in Slough, Berkshire, in 1951. However, more than 1,000 have been removed over the past five years and the threat of them going altogether has just been announced in the news.  Some have already been replaced by more sophisticated alternatives with lights and flashing signs.  The number of deaths on the crossings has doubled since 2007, in part because of a growing reluctance of drivers to stop at them, which they are supposed to do when they see a pedestrian waiting or actually stepping on to the crossing.
So let me introduce to you a piece of Zebrano - otherwise known as Zebra wood. This wood was recently purchased to make more pop-a-bobbin shuttles from and it is still in this state so I cannot show you any yet.    The stripes in it are very distinctive.  As you can see the ends of the wood are a different colour as they have been waxed.  The wood originates from Central Africa but we purchased it from a wood supplier in the north of England.

One of the most famous zebra crossings in the world is probably the one that appears on the Beatles Abbey Road album.  And yes we do have the LP -  here it is, not thrown out in the latest clear out!

This particular zebra crossing in London was given a Grade II listed building status (of historical interest) by English Heritage in December last year, so it should therefore be safe, indeed it is a tourist attraction.
           
                                                     Today's date as a zebra crossing!

Hope you have been over to Jane's blog to give your opinion as to the time of day the latest pop-a-bobbins should be listed.

The Clocks go back tonight

Before going to bed this evening we in the UK are required to put our clocks back one hour, which means an extra hour in bed, great!  The British Summer Time Act of 1972 stipulates that GMT begins on the last Sunday of October and BST on the last Sunday of March (when the clocks go forward an hour).  However, there is talk of a trial period with a view to eventually adopting a Central European Time, which would mean BST plus one hour in summer and GMT plus one in winter - confusing us Brits even more!  The main problem is that those in the north of the country, particularly Scotland, would definitely not relish an extra hour of darkness in the winter.  Between 1968 and 1971 the government carried out the same experiment but was forced to end it after complaints in Scotland and northern England.   So we await to see what happens.  In the meantime the pop-a-bobbin shuttles arrived this morning at Jane's and she is wondering at what time to list them, and might need your help with this, taking into account the different time zones across the pond.

I have managed some seasonal tatting, Martha's pumpkin teapot and might even get around to doing some more tatting if time allows, with an extra hour coming up, who knows?!

I just have to show you this little chap.  It is an alarm clock purchased when my eldest son was young in Germany.  It has travelled a bit and was found in a box in the attic, minus a leg, but a week or two later when we were sorting through my son's belongings the missing leg was found!

Here is a Ticki Tack clock on youtube although the one we have is not battery operated it is a wind up one - but I was thrilled to find it.  Enjoy!!

It is good to see both his legs working!

"Parting is such sweet sorrow"

William Shakespeare's words from Romeo and Juliet, mine may not have quite the same sentiments, but during the last month or so I have been parting and saying goodbye, not to people but to objects.  The attic clearance continues, but the end is in sight.   Just finding it hard to throw away items that have been up there for years but have no use and are just kept out of sentimentality.
Another parting which will take place next weekend will be these pop-a-bobbin shuttles, they are ready to go to Jane to list in her Etsy shop.  There is a good selection of different woods, most shuttles have hooks on them but there are a few without.  In a way it is sad to see them go as they do look so beautiful.

And here are a few items from our time in Hong Kong many years ago, no idea why the inflatables were kept but the children's pajamas are so cute.  They are though well worn so all are destined for the dustbin in the next few days.  "parting is such sweet sorrow".  But we do have many other items to remind us of our time in the far East and they are at least on display, not stored in an attic.

I was surprised and delighted that so many people viewed the pendants that I made in the last post and thank you to all who generously commented.  Kathy asked how I managed to attach the findings, beads and tatting.  Well here are the findings, no idea where they came from just found them amongst some beads that I have had for years. Basically I tat around them (including the beads on long picots) and cut tie and hide the ends.  Then to finish I take another piece of thread which is doubled,  attach the top ring finding then pull the threads  through a small bead then a larger bead which the tatting/finding fits snuggly around and then it is a matter of threading more beads and using a single thread for the last dangle and that is fed up to the middle where the ends are tied.

Pendants

Last week there was someone in the church foyer selling a selection of knitted scarfs and jewellery she had made, she was raising money for herself and for the pre-school which meets in the church hall.   The  pendants she had made were primarily of beads and were hanging on long chains.  Um,  I thought, they remind me of aborted earrings that I started ages ago.  I looked for the single green earring I had made, and eventually found it. Part of the reason I was reticent in making the other one was because it looked rather large.  So I  put it on a chain and it looks much better now, and so I proceeded to make another two pendants.

The original idea for this design was from an earring pattern on Jane's blog. We have a Christmas Fayre coming up soon and I am going to see if they will sell along with some other tatted items. 

Martha's Angels

Martha Ess's new tatting book "Playing with Picots" arrived in the mail on Friday. So  I just had to make the angels for this bit of heaven. As Martha has called them 'Big Sister Angel and 'Little Sister Angel' I named them - well what do you think?! 

Actually Jane looks like she is dancing!  Well come to think of it I'm doing a sort of wiggle too!

The book was waiting for me when I returned home after conducting a funeral service.  Before the service I spoke to the organist (a farmer) to confirm the music etc and learnt that the funeral director had asked him to play for this service after delivering a bull to his farm earlier in the week! The funeral director also keeps cattle. After the service another farmer who was in the congregation started discussing the price of lambs to the funeral director. But that was not the strangest thing about the funeral, apparently some people who attended the service found that they were at the wrong one.  They had read about it in the paper but there was also another deceased lady bearing the same surname and who had died at the same age 90 yrs in the same town and they had obviously read the wrong entry. Apparently they could not understand why I was referring to the deceased as Mary when they thought her name was Betty! This particular funeral service was in a church with a burial in the graveyard, whilst the one they should have been attending was later on in the day at the crematorium, so they had to sit through two funeral services on Friday!  So that is probably why I settled down to tat these angels after a bizarre day.

Martha's new book has many other interesting patterns, and I can't wait to try them out.

Thank you Martha  you are an angel!

Oak Leaves

My attempt at an oak leaf has progressed into these, not sure if anyone else has designed such a leaf so will not claim it as my own, but I am willing to share this particular pattern if there is interest.

Some oak leaves which have been blown off the trees in the wind and the rain we are now having, the temperature has dropped at least 12 degrees since last week.

And some acorns turning a golden brown, just right for those greedy squirrels of which we have many.

"Great oaks from little acorns grow" - an old English Proverb 

meaning 

Great things often have small beginnings.

HOW TRUE

OAK LEAF PATTERN © Sally Kerson 2011

Abbreviations:

R ring

Roch ring on chain

seta first half of double stitch

setab second half of double stitch

Ch chain

Cl close

vsp very small picot

+ join

Lj lock join

T & C tie and cut

Materials required: size 20 thread

Wind 2 shuttles with the continuous thread method 1 ½ yds shuttles 1

3 ½ yds shuttle 2

Begin by securing with paper clip or safety pin forming 1^st picot.

Ch: p 8 SS

Roch 1: 6 (seta x 6 setab x 6) 2 vsp 4 Cl SS

Ch: 6 SS

Roch 2: 4 + R1 4 (seta x 6 setab x 6) 6 vsp 2 Cl SS

SCMR ch 5

R3: 2 + R2 12 (seta x 6 setab x 6 ) 10 vsp 2 Cl

Ch: 5

R4: 2 + R3 6 (seta x 6 setab x 6 ) 4 (seta x 6 setab x 6)

4 (seta x 6 seta b x 6) 6 vsp 2 Cl

Ch: 5

R5: 2 + R4 12 (seta x 6 setab x 6) 10 vsp 2 Cl

Ch: 5

R6: 2 + R5 6 (seta x 6 setab x 6) 4 vsp 4 CL

Cl SCMR

Ch : 6 Lj to bottom R1 (opposite) SS

Roch 7: 4 + R6 2 (seta x 6 setab x 6) 6 Cl SS

Ch 8 join to first picot

make tail with which ever method you wish. T & C