I’ve only just developed a shuttle obsession. The internet is to blame of course, because I’ve only ever seen about 2 shops with shuttles in the UK, and usually they’re the Clover ones with a pick on the end, or the Pony ones with a hook.

On the internet there are loads. Vintage, modern, plastic, wood, Bakelite, celluloid, silver, brass. With hooks, with picks or with a gentle point.

I’ve always been intrigued by the Boye shuttle, purely because it’s metal. And actually, it looks a bit brutal. It’s not an airy fairy messing about shuttle for frivolous lace. It looks like a shuttle that means business. The only thing I’ve always wondered about was the flat hook. Looks a bit… well, dangerous, obviously, but not that practical. Looks like it would catch a bit.

Anyway. We all know where this is going – I bought one. It was listed as ‘vintage’ and came with a celluloid shuttle too. To be honest, I have no idea if either of them really are vintage, (you can still buy metal Boye shuttles brand new), but the price for two was the same as the prices I’d seen for one, so it seemed like a fair enough deal.

And here are all the types of shuttle I own. On the right is the Boye shuttle, and next to it the celluloid. Next there’s the blue Pony (like an Aero, but I have a feeling, not as good) and then there’s the good old Clover. Until now I had no idea how small the Clovers were. LOOK AT THE BOYE SHUTTLE! It’s GIGANTIC.

Usually I use the Clover as my main shuttle, and the Pony as a hook. I did try the Pony as my main shuttle for a while, but the bobbin got a bit loose and it annoyed me. Anyway.

The Boye arrived this week, and I started to use it – it was already loaded with thread, all be it rather brittle. It takes some time to get used to. I found I was holding it with my fingers further to the back, and when you pull it through a loop, you have to sort of hold it more upright than normal, to clear the hook from snagging. There were moments when I thought it was ok – having a hook attached is brilliant – and moments when it was not ok.

As expected, I didn’t love the flat hook. The rounded one catches less – and should the thread catch, it slides off. With the flat hook, if you get caught, it’s more effort to un-snag yourself.

I did like the fact it was metal though – feels more like science than craft! There’s also something nice about the bobbin tension – it’s actually pretty tight, so wont let out thread unless you really want it – which is the problem I had with the Pony.

In conclusion – I think it’s just too big for me. I love that it’s metal, and I like that it has *a* hook – I just don’t like *this* hook. Having said that, I hate to be defeated, and so I think I’ll persevere a bit longer. In between speeding along with my Clovers, of course. (Also, now I’m hankering after a small David Reed Smith wooden shuttle with a hook but I’ve notice they have flat hooks too…)

Talking of persevering and stuff that is bigger than expected – I decided to try again with the size 40 thread. Above you can see the same thing in size 80 (left) and 40 (right). I was using up some of the 40 thread I had left on a shuttle (just didn’t have enough to finish this). I’m not in love it with it. It still feels too big for me. That was a test to see if this motif would be more useful in a bigger size – and I’m not sure it would, especially if I don’t like it!

One thing I do like size 40 for, is clunys. I’ve still not really mastered them, and so I’ve given myself cluny homework. I’ve made this pattern before, but I still don’t think I’ve mastered it. The finished one was made in one pass, with a large split ring at the top. Not sure why but it never seems to come out quite the right shape – the clunys might have too few passes? (Should they be bigger?) Also the joining picots in the middle are too big and it looks really messy.

The ones in the middle of the half finished one are a much better shape. The one sticking out is a bit rubbish as I finished it on the train. If you’re a tatting commuter, this is an FYI: if you can get away with the embarrassment of getting your fingers into the right position for a cluny, then that’s awesome – but do remember they’re a lot harder to chuck in your bag unfinished when your train arrives! Packing away a half finished ring – or even a join – is ok, not so sure about a half finished leaf.

If you fancy learning clunys, there’s a bunch of links to videos and tutorials in the tatting pattern section. They’re by no means exhaustive, just ones I’ve found that have helped me.

Previously, on Baby Blanket: The Occasional Crafter was in a panic. What could be the final visit to her pregnant friend before her friend gives birth was fast approaching. The Baby Blanket needed more yarn, but the forces of evil were conspiring against the Occasional Crafter and the yarn shop was failing to deliver. Could this be the end of the line for Baby Blanket? Would Occasional Crafter finally admit she should leave more time to finish things? Only the postman could tell, and you know what they’re like. Hope was fading fast…

The final Episode: A swift email was sent to Texere customer support. They didn’t see fit to reply. In desperation our ‘heroine’ orders another ball of yarn from Purple Linda, which is dispatched immediately. The Occasional Crafter wonders why she didn’t order it from there in the first place. Both balls of yarn mysteriously arrive within a day of each other, despite being ordered a week apart.

Picking up one ball, she sets to work. It’s quite a big blanket, really.

She adds shell stitch to the final two sides and thinks to herself ‘This yarn is a bit splitty. Even after all this time I’m not 100% sure I like it’. Banishing such pointless thoughts she wonders again about blocking. ‘Can you really wet this kind of yarn and block it? Will it dry in time? What on earth am I going to block it *on*’. She remembers the wise words of the Ravelry group and decides to iron it into submission instead. It’s not bad. She’s seen worse.

With a swift glace at the clock, the she spots its fast approaching midnight. ‘I’ll just thread this ribbon through before I go to bed, wont take long’. It’s clear at this point the Occasional Crafter has no idea what she’s talking about. It takes ages. she gets there in the end as the clock makes its weary way to 1am. It’s finished though, and if she didn’t have such a bad back, she’d probably sleep soundly.

Saturday morning arrives, the day of the hand over. She gets up early and wanders downstairs, eyeing the weather. Its neither good nor bad — it’s not really decided yet, and standing in her pj’s she couldn’t really blame it. She takes a bunch of Baby Blanket photos in the less than perfect light and hopes for the best. She wraps the parcel, congratulating herself on the previous purchase of some pale purple tissue, matching ribbon and brown paper.

Annnnd… there is a happy ending! I gave it to my friend (on time) who loved it. For some insane reason she’d not bought a baby blanket yet, and it was also the only handmade gift for the baby she’s received. I thought it was the law that you had to have something slightly terrible knitted or crocheted by a mad female relative? I’m happy to be a substitute on this occasion. My friend is gigantic. She’s at the stage where it looks like she’s got a perfectly round ball stuffed up her jumper. But she also looks brilliant.

A relief all round. One day I might mention to people I know that I have a blog. Only problem about that is that I wont be able to talk about them when they’re not looking

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If you want to make one too, I used:
• This pattern by Alicia Paulson
• 11 balls of this yarn, Kool Kotton
• A 5.5 crochet hook

Now – just incase, You’ll need more than one ball of yarn to do the border! That was my mistake – please don’t make it yours too. Also, there seemed to be a shortage of cream Kool Kotton. No idea why but everyone was out of stock, so I ended up with white.

The pattern is super easy. It’s the ideal chatting or TV crochet project. Question is, what on earth do i make now?

I snapped this little pile while I was packing up. Look at the colour of the ecru thread on the white cotton! It looks so yellow. I know it sounds odd, but I love looking at little piles of tatting like this. I still can’t believe that my fingers can make something this delicate. I’m not a delicate person. I’m a jeans n’ trainers girl through and through – about as delicate as a herd of elephants.

Anyway. I digress.

I was hoping to be able to be able to present a finished baby blanket this weekend, but sadly I need a bit more yarn:

All I need is half a ball to finish the shells on two sides, but sadly, despite ordering from Texere on Tuesday and paying extra for first class post (and the fact that it’s listed as in stock) I’ve yet to receive a even a dispatch notice, let alone any yarn, which is really frustrating. I’m hoping it comes this week, as I need to give it to my friend next Saturday. Tempted to order another ball from someone else as a fall back…

That aside, the blanket came with me to my parents for the Christmas holidays and to friends for new year. With all the travelling, I put my billions of lavender bags to good use, and stuffed them in with the blanket each time I packed it in a bag. It smells great!

These are two I made but never blogged. They’re made from an old sheet, and I gave them an extra seam around the edges. I put less stuffing in than some of the previous ones, and they look quite different I think. (Still not that straight though, which is why I didn’t give them to anyone!)

I finished the other beaded posy I was making – just need to sew in the ends and block it:

These beads are TINY. I thought the red ones I’d used for the other one were small, but these are about half the size of those. They’re bronze, and actually only show up against certain backgrounds, but I really like them.

I’ve been back to work this week, and so back to commuter tatting. As ever, I didn’t have a pattern ready, so I thought I would make use of my ingenious pre-planned project.

Yeah. Not so ingenious when it’s in size 100 thread and you’re working in size 80! So I might have two ingenious pre-planned projects to carry with me in different sizes.

Incase you’re wondering, the ingenious part was that whenever I got stuck on a journey, I could work on a new square if I hadn’t had time to look up a new pattern. I know this pattern off by heart, and it’s a good travelling project. Foolproof, even. Or not, as it turns out.

Anyway. Onwards! I’ve just ordered a new tatting book from Susan Schwenke. There’s a snowflake in it that a lot of people have made recently, and I love it. I had a plan to make a load of snowflakes *now* so I don’t have a panic next Christmas. Will that actually work? Who knows. (It wont, will it?)

We shall see…

(All todays photos are terrible, incidentally. Camera only likes bright sunlight, and I haven’t got any.)

The machine isn’t complicated, it’s a 1930s Singer, and it only goes as fast as you want it to. Only does one stitch, and you can’t really change the tension. (Or you can try, but it doesn’t like it much). I’ve made a lot of lavender bags this year, but I also started my first patchwork quilt. It’s now at the quilting stage, and while it’s not *perfect* it’s going ok.

This is a corner of the quilt sandwich. I bought the batting from a shop I think I discovered through the local Ravelry group – Thread Bear. They were so helpful – showed me the different types of batting they had, made sure I got the right amount for my rather randomly sized quilt. They were also just… kind. They didn’t go ‘oh my god, what have you DONE?!’ which is what I was expecting, because I’ve just been teaching myself as I went along, nor were they patronising, which, I would imagine would be pretty easy looking at my, errr… skills. Even the other customers were nice. So, if you need anything, I would recommend them.

I’m about half way through the quilting – it’s not easy, as I don’t have a walking foot, so you kind of have to use your whole body to get the layers through the machine – but hey, I’m getting there!

I needed to check I could actually get three layers through the machine, so I tested it with this fabric basket. It’s made of patchwork from two old sheets, and some linen. I was beside myself when I finished it – it stands up! I love it! No idea what I’ll use it for, but who cares! I made it using this very easy tutorial.

Once I’d finished that, and looked at the colours, I thought I would make one last gift for someone who likes motorsport – it’s a container really to put another gift inside, using the same sheets and some cream quilting cotton I had anyway:

We haven’t swapped presents yet, so he hasn’t seen it, but I hope he likes it. I used some iron-on interfacing for the bottom, as the cotton isn’t that thick. It’s lined with the grey cotton inside. I know… ridiculous, but I was pleased with it.

So, I still have the quilt to finish – need to finish the quilting itself, make the binding and then actually bind it. Having said all that, I’m starting to think about my next one! In the meantime, I’m about half way through crocheting the Tiramisu Baby Blanket for a pregnant-due-soon friend.

I should really stop writing this, and get on with it.

PS. Following the scarf conundrum, my mum liked them both, and so I gave her them both in the end!

I bought 12 balls of blue baby bamboo and decided I’d make a broomstick lace scarf for my mum for Christmas. It’s been an ongoing project for a while – it’s a good TV making project, really. I’ve made one before – if you haven’t and you’re looking for a tutorial, I used this video – it was the first one I found when I searched!

Like the previous scarf I made, I decided to edge this, as I worry about the bare threads catching. (It’s unblocked in all the photos, incidentally). For this, I did one row of single crochet, one row of double, and finished off with a picot every 4 stitches. It’s a really chunky scarf – which I like, but actually, now I’m worried it’s too chunky for my Mum…

I really like the raised rows you get on one side of the scarf. I usually do the row of looped stitches, and then two rows of single crochet above that. I know some people don’t do the rows in between but I like the texture. Overall, this kind of crochet is great – it looks really clever, without being too over the top, and it’s very easy to do (and quite forgiving if you miss a stitch or two here and there).

In the meantime, I’ve also been making a scarf with laceweight yarn. Actually, it’s a bit thinner than lace weight. Stupidly, I decided to make quite a dense scarf:

Having said that, it looks really nice. For some reason the colour is really hard to get with my camera, but take it from me, it’s a beautiful mossy green – hand dyed, so different tones. It took forever to make this – to the point where I ended up sacrificing tatting on the train for a while to get it done. (I really missed the tatting, way more than I’d expected).

Frustratingly, the scarf looks so nice and delicate in real life and just rubbish in pictures. But anyway, after all this, I think this one will be the gift for my mum, with the option of swapping it for the other one. I have a feeling she’ll like the green one more… We shall see.

Just like everyone else, I’m manically making snowflakes. Well, more or less:

As it happened, I had some spare (size 80) thread on a lone shuttle that I needed to use up. So I *had* to make one of these really. And for the first time, I’ve used beads! I really like it actually. Looks a bit spiky in real life – like a snowy holly wreath. Umm, I also had another shuttle of thread to use up so I’ve got another one on the go, with different beads. They’re coppery, and really pretty. Next year though, must find an addiction for a different pattern, this is getting silly.

So this one, I started, or attempted to start at the local Ravelry group meet up. We met for breakfast (sensible breakfast, in a pub, at 10.30am not too early), and I just couldn’t get to grips with it. For a start, I hate leaving bare threads when I make small flowers like the one in the middle, and so it worked out at 5 rings, not 6. Then trying to chat and read the pattern proved impossible, as it’s not worked in the way I’d worked out in my head. So I came away with nothing done! Managed to get to grips with it at home, and then finish it on the commute.

The one sort of centre in this shot, everyone who tats/blogs has made recently, and so I decided I should make it too. It’s a lovely pattern. From the look of it, this is size 80 thread though (I’ve forgotten), which makes it a bit weeny. Having said that, I’m still tempted to make another one, but with beads added. The beads for that size are too small to thread any way than on the thread at the beginning though, so I can’t do anything too tricksy. Also if you’re adding beads to your tatting, this is very useful to read. It talks about the difference between adding beads to the core vs shuttle thread. (Sadly, on the posy with one shuttle, both threads are the same!)

And finally, I bit the bullet and bought some size 40 Lisbeth thread. I noticed Fox saying she liked it, and recently I’ve been thinking some of the things I tat are a bit tiny to use.

This is one of Jon’s patterns. The left is size 80 and the right is size 40. (I made another of Jon’s patterns in size 40 too, but I’ve sent it out already). I dunno. I’m just not sure about tatting with thick thread. For some reason I just don’t enjoy the feel of it so much. Everything just looks gigantic! I’ve got a few things in mind to try next (like clunys, which always get twisted at size 80), but on the whole, while my eyes are able to cope with it, I think I’ll stick with smaller thread, I’ve got used to it now.

Then, on Wednesday I saw such a cute little pattern I decided I should drop everything and make that instead. I had to wait until the weekend though, and so yesterday was spent making this wee chap:

Believe it or not, I actually forced myself to start with the ears – usually I sew ears on to heads as I go, so it does make sense. As it happens, this was so small it was easier to sew them to the completed head..

The pattern is amazing actually—the head is all one piece (ie, the nose is crocheted as part of the head, not sewn on). It was great to watch it take shape, and for once in my life I counted every stitch very carefully.

The body is made from the feet up. Personally, I think if I made it again, I’d do it from the neck down, as it feels like it might be neater. Instead of the waist being decreases they’d be increases and I think it could look better, also I’m used to working that way for the sock monkeys.

I did also sew little chain stitch rings around the arms and waist for the edges of the jumper. I was quite impressed with myself for remembering how to do it after all these years! The head was so difficult to attach at that size that I did sit there for 5 minutes having a panic about whether it was even possible, but I got there in the end!

It’s size 100 thread, and the pattern is from a beautiful Japanese book I bought via etsy. Look at the patten on the cover! It’s so nice. The whole book is beautifully photographed, and they’ve actually managed to make tatting look stylish, rather than like some kind of 70′s interior design horror, which is what most UK books seem to favour.

As ever with tatting, once you’ve made one, you might aswell make two:

This is one blocked and one unblocked — and I still need to sort the ends out. The second one I started on a week off, and finished on the train & bus when I got back. Once you know the pattern it’s not bad for commuting. (I sat next to a man on the bus who didn’t appear to look in my direction, but as I stood up for him to leave, he said ‘I just want you to know I think what you’re doing is very clever’. It confused me for a second, as i wasn’t sure what he was talking about!).

Anyway. I need a new pattern I think. Back to the books.

I seem to be one of a small number who actually ends up talking to people on public transport. Over the last 5 years or so I’ve acquired a few ‘bus stop friends’ and a ‘tram friend’. We’re a bit of a gang at times – there can be up to 5 of us on the way to work in the mornings. After a chance conversation I found out a while ago that my tram friend makes lace! Odd thing to find out on a tram. So, after another chance conversation last week, in which I found out my tram friend wanted to go to the show but not alone, we made a hot date and went on Sunday.

And a very nice time we had too. We walked our legs off. Me and a lady I’d never spent longer than 15 minutes with before.

Anyway. All that aside, I bought some quilting thread, which I assumed was around size 100. It looked like very shiny Valdani thread – especially as there was nothing else on the stall to compare it to.

When I took off the wrapper I couldn’t wait to get started and see if it was tattable – and so, as ever I started on the train on the way to work. (I have no train friend – the trains are too irregular, so the people are rarely the same!)

Needless to say, starting on the train doesn’t leave you with a ton of pattern options available, so I tatted a pattern that was already in my head – good thing about that being that I have alternate thread versions available for comparison..

So the white you see here is size 100. Looks huge by comparison.

After holding my breath and being very careful all the way round, the thread snapped on the last ring, so I had to join in new thread. It’s very shiny, so slips along easy-ish, but very thin, so breakable. You can also see the thread separating on the picots, which is annoying – and another problem is making the picot big enough to get a hook through.

Still, I enjoyed making it, and it’s nice to see it finished. I have a ton of this thread (it’s rayon) so if you want to try it for yourself, leave a message in the comments and I’ll send you some in the post.

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ps – I did finish the piece in the previous post, will blog it next time!

Well – it’s getting there slowly. Actually, they’re digging up the road so my bus journey is very bumpy. A little too bumpy for tiny picots, if you ask me, so I did a bit of this at home tonight. I’m really tired though, so quitting while I’m ahead!