Starting With Sleeves

 

The traditional way to knit a garment is to start with the back, then knit the front, followed by the sleeves. But I thought that if I started with the sleeves, it would be easier to see how far one ball goes, so I know how much I have for front and back, and be a way to check the number of stitches I need. I've nearly finished the second sleeve. 

Testing, Testing

 

When I bought the turquoise cotton yarn, I was thinking of knitting another Drop Stitch T, like this one. But when I came across this pattern on Pinterest, I thought I might use it instead. According to this post, the pattern is called Ivy Lace and comes from Barbara Walker's  'A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns', though I also found a chart, uploaded by Gosia. I find a chart much easier to work from than written instructions. I tried the pattern out, first with size 5 mm needles and then with size 4 mm needles. I quite like the 5 mm one, but I think a top made using the smaller needles will probably hold its shape better. Now to work out the pattern. I'll use the drop stitch top as a template to help me work out how many stitches I need. 

Flowers and Leaves

 

I like Ninetta's idea of keeping handbag tatting small so that it doesn't have time to get dirty. So I thought I'd add a flower to a short length of leaf braid to make a bookmark. How to finish off the other end? I could add a tassel perhaps. But I decided to put a flower on both ends. The pattern is two layered flower from Cariad Tatting by Jennifer Williams. Both threads are Milford size 20. I'm working the leaf braid continuously, I just cut off a length and unraveled one split ring so that I had thread to sew on the flower. 

Cariad Link

 Yesterday I wanted to look at Jennifer Williams's Cariad website and it turned out that the link on my page no longer works. Oops, sorry about that. I gather that Jennifer has created a new website. I deleted the link and replaced it with the new one, so the link on this page now works. Here it is again https://www.cariad-tatting.com/ 

How Could I Resist?

 

There was no way I could resist a sign that said 'The Yarn Barn'. Up some stairs and round a corner and there was a glorious array of colours. I bought enough cotton yarn to knit myself a top. I also bought two balls of Tulip microfibre thread. I'll have a go at tatting with it, but I remember now that I've used it before for crochet and it's really very slippery, so I don't know how well it will tat. I was hoping to buy black crochet cotton for bead crochet; the Tulip may be a poor substitute. 

Wedding Card

 

We're going to a wedding on Saturday. I thought it would be nice to make a personalised card to go with the gift. I didn't give myself much time to get it done, but done it is. The pattern comes from a book called Donna Kooler's 555 Cross-Stitch Motifs. It's quite complicated for such a small design, with four shades of yellow, four of pink and three of green. It also has a lot of half cross stitches, which is something I haven't come across before. 

We're leaving early tomorrow to travel to the town where the wedding will be held, back on Monday. I'm going to do a digital switch off while we're gone, I'll catch up on blogs when we get back. 

The Problem With Handbag Tatting

 

I have at last finished the ball of Coats variegated size 40 thread and so finished the edging I have been carrying about for many months. The pattern came from the Knotting Nurse Sharon's blog, here.  I love the edging and have enjoyed the tatting, but I have to say that after months of being carried about and worked on in dusty places, it was rather grubby. 

I considered putting it in a washing bag with my weekly wash, but forgot to carry out the idea! I soaked it for some time in water with a liquid detergent added and then laid it out on a towel, pulling the chains into shape. I should really have straightened out all the picots, but thought it would be better to just sort them out when I sew the braid onto something. 

I don't think it would pass muster for a competition, but I think it's clean enough for normal use. I've started another take along tat, in spite of my reservations about keeping it clean. The leaf braid is ideal as handbag tatting because it's easy and has no joining. (And I like it!)

You can read about the origin of the pattern  here and here. There are alternating split rings of 2-6/4 and 4/2-6. 

I think I have managed to get my photos to a better size. I use a resizing app, but even the smallest size  still looked very large with the new blogger. I found a custom option on the app and made the photos smaller than small. 600 pixels by 400 pixels, for the record.