Miss Caroline

 

When I was looking through my tatting files for butterfly patterns, I came across Martha Ess's pattern 'Miss Caroline, the Crinolene Belle'. I thought she would make a good candidate for food covers. I have used her before for milk jug covers, but not food nets. My plan is to make a lady for each corner and then tat something else for the middle. Perhaps a different crinolene lady, there are several of them about. 

I was rather generous when I wound the thread for the first lady, so I made daisy picot daisies to empty the shuttles. You can see that my second attempt I was closer to the mark of thread needed. 

Butterflies And Daisies

 

I've finished the food net. I've dawdled a bit because there isn't a deadline. I've written about the butterflies here.  Did you spot that I used Jane Eborall's SCMR butterfly too? I must have one or two of them! 

Sorting Out A Muddle

 For the last few weeks, we've been sewing at our craft group meetings in a retirement home. First we made felt dolls. I showed the sample here. There's a wide range of abilities in the group, so some people work more quickly than others. Those that finished their dolls first made a bed for them. The plan is to give the dolls to a children's hospital, so I thought children in bed might like to have a bed for their doll.

 On Friday we sewed felt Easter egg pockets. They have a 'window' of net that shows off the Easter eggs inside. Everyone went home with a couple of eggs in their pocket.

Someone else will be running this week's meeting, making Easter cards - no sewing. So I thought it would be a good idea to sort out our sewing supplies. There were scissors in the biscuit box, patterns in the ribbon box, needles stuck in random bits of felt... You get the picture. It took me a couple of hours, but now everything is ship shape. And, I solved The Mystery Of The Disappearing Needles. I retrieved no less that twenty needles from the inside of my big pincushion! 

Butterflies

 

I've tatted a few butterflies for my food net. The one on the left is Butterfly with daisy picots by Jennifer Williams. The middle one is called Together we fly butterfly. It's a collaboration between Claudia Huber and muskaan, to create a pattern for a butterfly by an unknown designer. The right hand one is Mary's butterfly by Maria Pop of maryshandmade.blogspot.com. I made a mistake on the red one, so I tatted another one. It's a one shuttle pattern.  I had all the patterns printed out, but I think you could find them online with a bit of help from Google or Pinterest. 

Daisies and Daisy Picots

 

The weather still isn't ideal for washing wool so it's just as well I don't have any orders. I thought I'd leave the wool on one side make another food net. I was tatting daisies when it occurred to me that I was being rather lazy, just doing the same design as my previous one. So I thought I'd tat some different butterflies. I had a look through my tatting file and found several patterns that would fit the bill. 

I think I'll start with Jennifer Williams's Butterfly with 'Daisy Picots'. First I needed to practice tatting daisy picots, so I made a few little flowers. Just as well I did, because the first one was hopeless! On the second one I didn't pay enough attention to tension. Got it eventually. So now I'm ready to tackle the butterfly. 

Slowly

 

I'm making slow progress on the One Skein Wonder scarf by The Public Knitter. That's because I'm only working on it for a couple of hours each evening. It looks as though I'll be able to finish the ball of yarn and reach the dimensions in the pattern, which is good; I don't want left over leftovers. 

Four More

 

I've spun another four skeins, which I intend to knit myself, but the sun still isn't shining, so they'll have to wait.