Leap Year

The last day of February, the month when snowdrops are seen. The dove is made out of the oak wood left over from the making of the font, there are another 30 resting in a basket.  A few bits of wood have also been reserved for some shuttles, so as the wood was originally in the church for many years (underneath the altar) they will be very holy shuttles!

It is of course a Leap Year and today 29th February gives us an extra day which only happens once every 4 yrs.  These extra days are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the Earth's revolutions around the sun. It is also the year that women are supposed to be able to propose to men, what's new?!

Leap stands for something that jumps, or taking a leap in a different direction,  in my case it stands for leaping from one country to another.  I am travelling to see my son in Singapore this year, and have another trip in the planning stage, but more of that later.

Time to leap over to the wood pile!  We are delighted to say that more Mahonia wood has been sourced and these pieces have been cut trimmed and are now drying out.  It is the yellow shuttle on the top of my blog and is quite popular.

Also this plum cherry was found locally and so it is also drying -  look at that lovely pink stripe in it.

Pop-a-bobbin shuttle making has commenced again as the font is finished.  The new crochet hooks have arrived so the hook holders can now be made for them.   My 200th blog post is also nearly here and I am planning a giveaway but cannot decide what - will have to see what is in the garage!

Oliver Twist

This year marks the bicentenary of Charles Dickens who was born on 7th February 1812. One of the many books he wrote was Oliver Twist about a poor orphan boy in Victorian England.  Probably the most famous line from the book is when Oliver asks for more gruel and says "please sir, I want some more".

So it was with some amusement that I walked in to a charity shop this month and picked up a reel of machine thread called Oliver Twists, for it just reminded me of this character which Dickens portrayed so vividly in his book.  By adding some brown fine sewing thread it became a bit more manageable but sadly the original colours disappeared.  The star motif is Janes and can be found here.
Next I tatted it with a turquoise colour size 60 Coats thread.

     

This is the Canopy Bookmark from Martha Ess's book Playing with Picots, I thought it looked complicated to tat but was amazed how easy it was and what such a lovely effect.

And finally the thread bare without any additions, using another of Jane's patterns 

called Oh so simple edging  as Oliver Twist said "please sir I want more!"

Special Book Marks

It goes without saying that the 'tatting world', as well as the 'blogging world'  is poorer since Gina from Threads of a Tatting Goddess passed away on Monday  There have been so many tributes to such a lovely lady, that all I can say is that she will be greatly missed by so many people near and far.  I won this bookmark when Gina held a giveaway for American Independence Day (which also happens to be my birthday) and it will be for ever treasured.

On Monday I was given this bookmark from someone who is a lace maker and admires tatting. Gina was also a lace maker, in fact she was so talented, and this bookmark will also remind me of her.

She has gone to the real 'tat's heaven'

Button Necklace and Font

I made quite a few button necklaces before Christmas and have either sold them or given them away. So more are now in the process of being tatted so that there will be a variety to offer, should there be a sudden demand.  Having attempted designing my own tatting patterns I have never actually seen any of those I have published on this blog ever tatted by anyone else.  This must because either my patterns are hard to follow or they do not appeal to other people, I am not disappointed though as I continue to use them and enjoy them.

The font is now finished, it is made out of oak, and the wood comes from a plinth that was underneath the altar of this church, it is covered by a red carpet in the picture.   The plinth was removed last year and most of it was found to be solid oak.  The knob on the lid is made from an old piece of wooden furniture that belonged to 'Im in the Garage's' grandfather, the same person that taught him to work with wood. The cross is made out of the wood that had to be removed from the porch of the same church and be replaced with new wood.

At the moment the font is still in our home as it is not being dedicated by the bishop until next month when he is also visiting the parish to dedicate a new stained window at the church from which this wood has come from. The font is replacing a stone one which is a little unsteady and so is going to be removed from the church.  We have saved a little of this oak to make pop-a-bobbin shuttles with, and estimate that the plinth must have been in the church for at least 100 yrs,  so they will be very holy ones!

Button Picture

Instead of my button supply decreasing I seem to have acquired many more recently, so in order to put them to good use, other than tatting of course, I made a picture out of some of them.   The frame was in my parents house and my mother had put dried flowers in it, but they were faded and so when my father died I acquired the frame.  When removing the contents I found it was quite an old frame and there was a nice gap between the glass and the back board.   This photograph was taken before the glass was put back to avoid reflection.

I wasn't sure about adding the tatting but in the end decided that it enhanced the fish.  Every button is sewn on, I thought this was better than gluing them so that if any had to be repositioned (which frequently happened) they would come off easily.  For the background I used some calico material which is of a reasonable thickness and then painted it.  I would like to make more of these pictures, but probably not so large. Also next time I will probably use a frame without any glass as they are quite bulky so will not always accommodate glass.

The pattern for the thistle is now on my blog.  Today I received a lovely note from the hostess of the Burns Night  thanking me for the thistles, this is it showing the house where the event was held.

As you can see there is snow in the picture, we may be having some of the white stuff coming our way very soon!

Burns Night

Burns Night is annually celebrated in Scotland on or around January 25. It commemorates the life of the bard (poet) Robert Burns, who was born on January 25, 1759. The day also celebrates Burns' contribution to Scottish culture. Burns' best known work is "Auld Lang Syne".   To mark the occasion I tatted some Scottish thistles, here is one I wore as a brooch yesterday.

Although I do not live in Scotland, last night I went to a Burns Night celebration in a country house where the host is Scottish.  I tatted 80 thistles to be placed on the table, you can just see one on the right of the picture.

I designed this particular pattern for the thistles myself, it is quick and easy, well it had to be with so many to make!  The picture does not show up the table cloth very well,  but it is pure linen and over 100 years old.

The evening was great fun with the traditional  haggis accompanied by neeps (swedes or turnips ) and tatties (potatoes).  This is when  potatoes sound very much like tatting!

A haggis is a very old Scottish dish, which combines meats, spices and oatmeal to create a very rich unusual, but none the less delicious feast!  There are many traditions associated with Burns night, one being toasting the haggis as well as the "lads" and "lassies".  So as you can imagine a fair bit of the hard stuff was consumed.   There was no dancing but we did sing some Scottish songs including "Auld Lang Syne" at the end of the evening.

A book mark which I gave to someone yesterday morning who is Scottish, he helps with the computer group held in our church each Wednesday.  

Robbie Burns was truly remembered in style yesterday and I am sure he would have appreciated the celebrations in his honour.

THISTLE PATTERN © Sally Kerson 2012

Abbreviations:

R ring

p picot

Ch chain

Cl close

+ join

LJ lock join

SLT shoe lace trick

VLP very long picot

T & C tie and cut

The thistle is made in two parts (green thread and purple thread), with no ends to sew in for either part. Ring one, when looking at the thistle, is the second ring on the left, you go back and work the first ring on the left with the second shuttle (R4)

Materials required: size 20 thread green and size 40 purple

Bottom part of thistle using green thread and starting with second ring from left:

Wind two shuttles CTM. 1½ yds on shuttle 1 and ¾ yd on shuttle 2.

Using Shuttle 1

R1: 4 – 3 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 6 Cl

R2: 6 + (R1) 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 3 – 4 Cl

R3: 4 + (R2) 1 (5 graduated picots with 1 ds between each and making the third one the longest) 3 Cl RW and change to shuttle 2

R4: 4 + (R1) 1 (5 graduated picots with 1 ds between each and making the third one the longest) 3 Cl RW

Tail

Shuttle 1 make a lock chain to the length desired cut and finish with an over hand knot.

Top part of thistle using ball and shuttle.

Wind ¾ yd of purple thread on to shuttle.

First row: join to first picot on top of thistle (R1)

Ch: 1 Lj (next p) – Lj (next p) – Lj (next p) – Lj (join between ring 1 & ring 2) - continue as before until last but one picot - Lj to last picot SLT & turn

Second row: LJ to first picot 3 VLP join to next picot. Repeat to end but only making 2 VLP before joining to last picot on R2. After that join tie a knot and cut the same length as the VLPs, cut the other VLPs to match.

Hint: I used PVA glue to make the head of the thistle stand up straight!

Necklace and progress on Font

My first attempt at a pattern from Marilee Rockley's book Tatted Jewelry which Sue Anna kindly sent to me.  The aim was to start with a pair of earrings, but instead I went straight to the necklace featured on the front cover called "Newcastle Necklace" I was intrigued at the name of this necklace as we have a city of Newcastle in England, perhaps Marilee can tell us what prompted her to name the necklace as I am sure it had nothing to do with England.  I think I might rename mine "Celtic Dream" only because the charm looks celtic and of course it is green for Ireland.  Actually I had little choice on the colour as apart from some HDT which I am saving for the other necklace in the book, I only had green in 10 that was usable, the border was the combination of two threads.  The charm was also the only one I had in my stash so hopefully it does not look too out of place.

As promised this is the progress on the font, designed by us, we had the plans drawn up for it by a qualified architect.  They were then submitted to the diocese and had to be approved by them with a proper signed and sealed document.  Before this final approval was given a notice was posted in church for a period of time so that if anyone has any objections they had a chance to put them forward.  There were no objections so work has commenced.

The font was going to be made out of this mahogany originally purchased for coffins but there was a change of plan which I will explain when the font is finished as it has a lovely story behind it. The piece of wood you can see on the top is going to be turned into a knob for the lid, it has nothing to do with the other wood as it comes from a table leg!