Tatting and not a lot else!

A new pair of earrings

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:08:00 +0000

This pair is incredibly sparkly and I used this pattern to make them. Well probably with a few changes!!!

The last pair

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 08:30:00 +0000

Well, probably not the last EVER but the last for now. Please don't ask for the pattern cause these were made 'on the hoof' as the saying goes.

I'm pleased with them and they'll get worn but I now need to part company with some of my older pairs which are still hanging about - but not hanging from my own ears!!!

Getting trickier!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:42:00 +0000

Sometimes it would be sensible to follow a pattern but where's the fun in that? Where's the challenge too?

The coat continued and in the top picture you can see I've tried fitting it over the fleece. The sleeves are progressing slowly too. The next stage of this project took AGES. It was hot and it was complicated getting the sleeves the right 'shape' and putting them in.

More about my coat

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Here are some more pictures showing the construction of my winter coat.

The top one shows the back and the sides joined together and the bottom one is the start of the sleeves.

Looks like it's all due a date with the iron!!!

More new earrings

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +0000

I love my earwigs (earrings) and I quite like making them although they do take quite a bit of time. First of all it's deciding which colours of threads and beads I want to use!! Next problem is what pattern!!!

This is such a simple idea that I don't consider it a 'pattern' as such but I did do a technique on it which you can find here.

Making a start on the winter coat

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 11:15:00 +0000

In the end after lots of thought and angst I decided on oblongs/rectangles. I thought this would be easy but it wasn't that easy in the end!!!!

I sewed two oblongs together and then another pair which I put 'sideways on' against the first one. I'll show you.

In the pictures below you can see that I started three 'parts' - a back and two sides. This proved to be a 'good idea' until I started putting them together.

Next decision - what colour?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000

If you look at this post you’ll realise that I made a strange start with the new coat by buying the ‘lining’ first!!!

Next I had to decide what colour to make it. This time I really wanted to stick to ‘more or less’ one colour so I got all the fabric odds and ends out and realised that the main colour I'd got was blue and a bit of purple. Great.

Next decision was trying to decide how to use this and how to put the fabric together. I often get asked when wearing my patchwork coats/jackets how I make them and the obvious answer is - I take fabric, cut it into bits and then sew it back together again!!! Does seem a bit stupid when put like that but that’s what it is!!!

Here's a small selection of some of the fabric.

Next decision - what 'sort' of patches should I make?

While I've not been blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 09:56:00 +0000

While I've not been blogging I have still been busy. Not just with the hassles of life but also with crafting of all sorts!!!

Once I'd got settled into my new place (with the bonus of having a dedicated craft room) I decided to try and downsize on my fabric stash. How to do that?!?

First of all I had to decide what to make and the obvious 'thing' was a new winter coat. I decided I wanted a long, warm winter coat. First a rummage in my wardrobe to find something suitable to use for warmth and there I found a very old (probably 20 years) fleece. BC3 decided that was a good start! The only problem was that it wasn’t long enough so I found a fleece throw and cut that into strips of about 8 inches deep and attached them to the bottom. Afraid I didn’t take pictures of that, though.

Tatting with friends

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 10:39:00 +0000

There's a place in America that I would love to go to but never will, sadly.

That's the Finger Lakes Tatting convention which you can find here.

I 'nearly' got there one year but it wasn't when the group were meeting and I was in a plane flying from Toronto to Newark on my first leg home from another tatting convention!!! I was looking out of the window and saw the lakes but I didn't have a handy parachute so wasn't able to float down.

All reports I've heard about Karey's group have been wonderful with great hospitality and super teachers.

I have 'sort of' been involved this year as I have test tatted the snowflake that Martha is teaching. It's the Mrs. Mee Pearl Snowflake. This is SUCH a pretty tat and I love the picots and how they're formed.

Martha is a challenge to test tat for as her work is always, but always perfect so trying to 'catch her out' makes me concentrate even more on each instruction. The picots worked so well following her text that I would love to incorporate them in future designs of my own. When/IF I ever get back to the shuttles!!!

Thank you Martha for letting me play with this. Here's a picture.

ANOTHER rainy day

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 11:36:00 +0000

I think it's rained nearly every day this year and it's doing it again today so it's a good excuse to stay home and add things to my web site!!!

There's another new pattern from Tat Days 2024 now available on my free pattern site. Look in the section 'odds and ends'!

This is one of the rare patterns that I'm really pleased with!!! Takes a lot to please me, I'm afraid!

On a side note - I'm fed up with two of the Facebook tatting groups that I belong to. One at least I'm going to leave purely because there's now more crochet being shown than tatting. I've reported this to admins and then messaged them too but nothing changes. I do love to crochet from time to time (and knit) but I don't like to see it in tatting groups. As I only go to Facebook to see what's happening in Tat Land I can easily leave those groups and life will become simpler!!!

A new pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:00:00 +0000

Now this is one of the patterns I offered to teach at Palmetto Tat Days in 2024 - but they chose others!!!

Finally found my copy on the geriatric computer so have now added it to the pattern site under jewellery and earrings.

When it comes to designing earrings I find that it's hard to come up with ones which don't 'bend' after being worn a few times. I tend to mainly use mercerised cotton for my work as I'm not very fond of the 'newfangled' polyester threads. I've called this one the One, Two, Three earring. Don't ask me why - it's just the way my addled old brain works!!!

Valentine's Day Is coming up!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 10:00:00 +0000

Well I've never ever had a Valentine card or present from what I can remember. I may have when I was a heck of a sight younger but I think I'd have remembered!!!

I was fiddling around a week or two back looking through my stash of doodads. I felt an urge to make new earrings even though I’ve got quite a collection of them!!! I found these little heart shaped doodads so decided to play around with them. This is what ‘happened’.

Constant wet weather has kept me in and walks would’ve become paddles if I’d tried to get out and about. My umbrella is grumbling about doing ‘overtime without pay’!!!

Finally managed it!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 09:30:00 +0000

What, you may well ask!!! I’ve finally uploaded one of the patterns I taught at Tat Days (Palmetto’s wonderful event) back in 2024. If you look under ‘Motifs’ it’s the This Way and That Way Motif. You’ll see that I’ve split up the original page that had motifs, snowflakes and ‘something else’ into three separate pages. I hope it’ll be easier to find things.

It must be about eighteen months since I last uploaded anything on the site and, to be totally honest, I’d almost forgotten how!!!

I pay for the site and I like to get my money’s worth out of it so I started a week or so ago trying to re-learn how to do it. First of all I use SeaMonkey to make the html page for the index. That’s the first page you come to. That’s not easy at all when you’ve got a geriatric computer and a brain like a leaky bucket. I’ve now decided CATEGORICALLY that I’m truly OLD. People tell me I should slow down but nobody’s told me how to!!!

I’m still working on the site but hope to get it finished soon. I’ve managed to lose the ‘search’ facility and I am struggling to work out how to put it back!!! I’ll have to leave it until another day as I’m totally flummoxed!!!

For those who don’t know where to find the site - Here it is!!!

How to display your shuttles

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 09:00:00 +0000

When I moved into my new place I decided not to put my nice and important shuttles in to the printer’s tray I’d had for years. Mainly because they kept falling out and I wasn’t prepared to stick them in place in case I damaged them.

I pondered for several months on what to do with them and in the end ‘scrounged’ a rod from my friend Tim and he helped me put it up. I love the way I can see them all (well, I think I’ve got more but haven’t located them yet) and that I can easily rearrange them if I want to.

From a student at my last Tat Days in 2024

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 09:42:00 +0000

For the life of me I have no idea whose work this is but I recognise the mouse as ‘one of mine’!!! It’s my dear friend Ann who can be found here. She was a participant at Tat Days too!! I’ve no idea what the face is about but isn’t it fun? I simply HAD to leave it there as it makes me smile. Hopefully the ‘owner or owners’ of these two items will jump up and tell me!!

This is the last of the posts that have been sitting in my drafts for well over a year so now I’ll be updating you all on the other projects I’ve been working on during my absence!!

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!

Katie’s snowflake thingy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 09:00:00 +0000

I’m now exploring some draft posts that I’d done and not published back in 2024!!! This is one of the patterns which I taught at Palmetto Tat Days back then.

I’ve a feeling this must be Katie Verna’s snowflake but I’m not sure. It’s one of my designs but again I’ve ‘lost track’ of whether I’ve posted it on my site or not. I’m sure somebody will let me know!!!

You’re NEVER going to believe this but ….

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 12:04:00 +0000

I’m BACK.

I’ve let my blogging slide over the past year or more due to ‘circumstances’ back in the old git’s life. Several situations I found myself in caused me to be rather busy and blogging is one of the things that’s suffered. I’m not going to tell you all about the circumstances as I’ll probably bore y’all to death but I’ll try and start from my return from Palmetto Tat Days last autumn. No, sorry, the autumn before (2024). That’s if my poor old BC3 can remember back that far!!!

Just to tease you I’ll add a picture that was part of the reason I’ve been so busy. I’ll leave you to guess what I was ‘up to’.

Oh, you can blame Diane (Lacelovin Librarian) for my return as she’s started blogging again!! I may change the title of my blog to ‘Tatting and Crafting’ as knitting, sewing and crochet have also been part of my life. I do have at least two new patterns to share soon, I hope.

A bit of my history!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000

It was waaaayyyy back when I was raising kids and working full-time that this article was published in the local newspaper. I hope you can read it!!!

Well, that's if you want to, of course!!!!

Monday Moan - beads

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000

No I'm not complaining about beads at all but I do have a gripe about how they're used by some people in their tatting designs.

I test tatted a design for a new designer a while back and was gobsmacked to find that she was telling people to sew beads onto the work. WHAT? I could scarcely believe it. Why would you tell people to sew on beads unless you're a new designer who doesn't know the craft from the inside out.

As it turned out this particular lass really didn't know the craft of tatted lace at all. She'd only been tatting a short while and had then decided she'd become a designer. Great idea but ..........

Back to beads. I think (do tell me if I'm wrong) there is only one situation when a bead MAY need to be 'sewn on' after the piece is finished (I'm talking about the traditional way of tatting with a shuttle) and that's when it's a very large bead that is required to sit in a ring. Sometimes called a focal bead. Even THAT can be avoided in many cases by including it in the tatting like this or this. You can also add the focal bead to the centre of a split ring too.

For those who sell on Etsy with some of these wonderful tatted jewellery pieces I do hope you're including ALL beads in the actual work and not sewing on afterwards. I'd hate to be a customer who's glorious piece of jewellery fell apart when the sewing came undone.

So my advice (whether asked for or not - and NONE of you did!!!!) is please, please, please don't sew beads onto tatting - include them safely while you're working.

As you know I don't 'do' videos as I feel they're making people lazy about reading patterns but in this case (techniques) I think they're valuable. I do have a bead technique section here on my pattern site. Free patterns are available here too.

May I add that none of the beads (except when added to a picot) were added to the thread before starting the work - see the Fantasy Flower here.

The new cardigan - progress report

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000

I told you about the new cardigan project back here. It’s time to report on my progress!!! OR lack of!!!

I really haven’t read through the pattern to the end! Although I knew it was knitted from the bottom up I didn’t realise quite how many stitches would be needed for the rows!!!! There are 245 stitches. Those include the button band. It takes considerable time to knit a row but it does get more interesting as you get further up the body. Least I hope it does!!!

IF you look very closely at the sides you’ll see where I’ve started the patterning. Well I did a few more rows (well, quite a few more!) and then decided I’d made a mistake so ripped it all back to where you see it now!!!! Ah, well it’ll mean I’ll be kept out of trouble for a while longer!!!!

New FREE pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000

This is the final pattern from my Palmetto teaching trip. If you want all the patterns taught by the designers/teachers then please take a look here where they can be found on the Palmetto Tatters site.

This is the pattern that I taught and this is where you can find it.

A Monday moan to make you laugh?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000

As you all know there are many, many books ‘out there’ on tatting and the new books now hitting the shelves are ones that really are hilarious. I think they’re a joke. I DO NOT recommend you to buy them.

They’re generated from other people’s work and often include sections of text ‘lifted’ from older books/web sites. But what makes me laugh is this new generation of books. You don’t even have to look very closely to see that in the first picture for needle tatting the cover has bobbin lace on it

The second ‘author’ appears to have ‘stolen’ her cover photo from the first person which is amusing.

Now when we come to the third picture “Mastering Shuttle Tatting” you’ll notice that the book cover has some type of lace which I can’t identify but it certainly isn’t shuttle tatted!!!

Finally the last book says it’s an advance guide to beautiful lace and also needle tatting essentials!!! I’m sure the producers of these books have never seen any tatted lace as none of the covers show any. I feel sad for those who waste their money buying these misleading books.

Another new FREE pattern - snowflake

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000

Well here's another of the Palmetto patterns that I taught at Tat Days about six weeks ago.

This has become another of my favourite little tatting projects and I hope you like it.

For all the patterns that were taught this year please go here where you can buy them.

Well I guess you want to know where this little snowflake can be found? Well, shall I tell you or shall I keep it a secret?

Hmmmmm - I guess it won't be a secret for very long so I may as well tell you!!! Here's the link.

Needle tatting 2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000

Well I did warn you that you wouldn’t like this post!!! If you read this post you can see what I said!!!

I think this was the worst tatting I ever made. I can remember making this not long after I bought the Ed and Selma Morin book on needle tatting. I actually made this up myself (designed!!??) and it’s needle tatted with double knitting yarn (which is what was available cheaply and locally) back in the 1970’s.

I never wore it and I think the reason was because it’s a ‘nasty’ shade of pink!!!! I like pink but not this shade!!! Also back ‘in the day’ it wasn’t fashionable, I don’t believe, to layer your clothes. Well, whatever the reason it never got worn and last week it took its final trip to the charity shop. Even though I never liked it I’m now wondering if it went into the ragman bag or was put for sale in the shop. Whatever/wherever it is all I can say is that I’m glad to be rid of it1!!

I did keep the giraffes, though!!!!

Rings a Bell?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 06:30:00 +0000

This is another of the patterns I taught at Palmetto Tat Days. I wanted a relatively simple design and one that could probably be finished during the lesson.

Over the years I’ve tried to offer designs that can be worked during the given time but also found that that isn’t possible for most of us. I know that I personally couldn’t get a design done during a lesson as I find it hard not to talk to other fellow students!!! It’s called ‘gossiping!!!!

Anyway the bell is now on my website here but don’t forget that you can buy ALL the Tat Days patterns as downloads from here.