The promised shameless plug for Elgiva's book listing on eBay

As I said in my last post I would have a shameless plug for my book listing on eBay so here it is!

This is for the rarest of Elgiva Nicholl's amazing tatting books. It was published in 1959 and is SO before-its-time it is really incredible to think she was doing things like this over 50 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!

It really is very hard to find and the last one I remember seeing for sale (before the one I bought that is!) on eBay was Jane's one (over 2 years ago) that she posted about here & here. There isn't much point me giving much more info than Jane gave in her posts (it really is worth checking them out) as she really did cover it all - except to say that it is not a pattern book per se but instead gives instructions & ideas for various floral elements & in my personal opinion it is one of the most important books to own either for the serious collector or designer. I'm only selling this copy as I, very luckily, managed to get another copy.

As the listing says the book is in good to very good vintage condition - the covers have separated at some time and have 3 small strips of aged tape at the front and a line at the back, the very top & bottom of the spine have a split a little and are bit worn, and there is a supplier label stuck to the inside back cover but the inside pages of the book are in very good to immaculate vintage condition.

I haven't listed the Mary Konior duplicate as yet as I can't find my original copy!!! It is "Tatting in Lace" if any one is interested.

I have 3 more snowflakes to show but that is for a later post.


TTFN

One World One Heart

I am going to make a conscious effort to be more active here....... so to start - Let's go on a magical carpet ride..................



I first saw this great event last year but too late to participate. This year will be different as I made great friends last year and hope to make more this year. The idea of this event is to make friends with other people who blog so to enter my giveaway you must have an active blog. The magical carpet ride is because you never know where you may end up on your tour of the worlds blogs!

Who am I - Well I am a 4th generation tatter who is obsessed/passionate about my craft. I collect tatting shuttles and patterns particularly vintage ones. I dabble in designing but haven't made much public as yet as I am rarely happy with the end result! That's the problem with being a perfectionist! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) I was brought up to believe that if you don't do it properly then there is not much point to doing it at all!!! You wouldn't believe the arguements this causes between DH & myself - he has the "doesn't matter how badly it's done as long as it is done" attitude!

Anyway to get back to the giveaway - my gift is a collection of tatting items - a shuttle, some thread (new & vintage), some beads (not in photo), a couple of vintage books and a surprise tatted item (as I haven't finished it yet).





You must have an active blog to enter. Please leave a comment on this post by midnight GMT February 14th with a means of me contacting you if you win. Happy Tatting & Good Luck.

One of those days........

You know when you have one of those days where everything that happens is not right - well recently we, as a family, having been having quite a few. Like, when Ally decided to open some of his Xmas presents before Mick & I got up, which put a complete damper on Xmas day; or having a stinking cold and wrongly going to work to realise that by 11.45 you were not going to last much longer & then having your normally understanding boss shout at you when you asked to go home which was what happened on Monday; or finding out that your FIL has inoperable pancreatic cancer and having your DH pretend it doesn't matter (he doesn't get on with his father), which was what happened in November.

Anyway, finally on Friday I had one of those days where everything was right (finally). I had seen another pot-luck lot on eBay the week before - it was decribed as "YOU ARE BIDDING FOR A JOB LOT OF SEWING ACCESSORIES, COTTONS ETC. IT IS ALL THAT CAN BE SEEN IN THE PHOTO." and the photo was as below.



Now if you look very carefully in centre left, near the bobbin of sewing thread I spied what I decided could be a tatting shuttle. Basing my hunch on this and that the tangled mess that looked like tatting, I thought it was worth a chance and decided to bid the princely sum of nearly £3 (about US$4.50). To cut a long story short (well at least shorter, LOL) I got the lot for 99p (~US$1.43) + p&p, which was a grand total of £3.98 (~US$5.85) as no-one else bid. It arrived on Friday in a shoe box, which when opened revealed a tangled mess of thread & tatting. After over half an hour of untangling this is what I found.

A couple of fine crochet hooks, a thimble & several offcuts of material.....








.....a whole lot of pieces of edgings and insertions.....











......... various balls of thread........


...a lovely doily....


.....and TA-DAH (drum roll)......not one....






........not two........


....not three.........






........not four........




....................not five (and an Aero England in its packet!!!!!)..........



...........................but six shuttles and the cherry on top - another Aero England still in its packet.





I just sat there with my mouth open (it must have looked a sight LOL) - I simply adore Aero England shuttles, they are what I learned to tat with and no matter how hard I try I just cannot like the non-bobbin type (eg Clover) shuttles - so as you can imagine I was (and still am) in seventh heaven.

Still avoiding it

I will have to apologise profusely to Karey - I am still avoiding the issue with the "thing" for her. I did unpick the mistake a few stitches back and then very carefully put it away!!!!;) I really must get back to it.

Instead I started on the edging for my Valentine tea-towel - now I remember why I don't normally do edgings - I don't know about anyone else, but no matter how pretty the edging I find them intensely boring to tat. I would much rather tat a doily, mat, earrings, motif etc - in other words anything else rather than an edging or insertion. The pattern I have picked is really pretty and I have modified it slightly so it has more attachment picots so I have the option of adding it as a proper edging rather than on the tea-towel itself, but I still struggle.

I finally got my belated Christmas present from Ally (DS) in the post from Malaysia today - he picked Jon's Snowflake book (available from Jon at her blog) as I frequently do her Rings-Only Snowflake as an exchange gift and he loves it, so he chose the book. I have been very good and only had a quick glance so I don't get tempted till after Karey's & the Valentine exchanges are finished.

Must finish & New beginnings

Life is a bit complicated around here at present (long story which I'll tell another time) and I ran out of time to finish all I had wanted to send Karey for the Secret Santa, so I must finally finish the last item for her (the others were sent pre-Xmas). I have also been procrastinating as the pattern I chose to do is great but I made the mistake (in this particular pattern) of adding in an irridescent thread to the plain white and they are constantly getting tangled - it has been finished all but the last 2 or so cm since before Xmas, but I got so frustrated spending all my time untangling it that I am having a hard time picking it up again. Once Karey has received it [assuming I finish it ;)] I'll post a picture.

I am going to do the new Valentine Tea Towel exchange so I got a tea towel today - it is okay but not what I had wanted. I wanted a plain white or very pale coloured one to enhance but you try getting a non-patterned, non-checked, non-striped, etc tea towel that doesn't cost an absolute fortune up here!!! Now all I have to do is see if all the things I have planned for it will work out to give a decent look?

Tatting by any other name

Having finally put all (& more) back into my blog list, I thought I would add that quite a few I don't read just look at the pictures, as I am not proficent in Russian, Japanese, Chinese, etc. I can manage French & German at a push, but have learned to recognize the word "Tatting" in many languages, so I thought I would share all I can remember. Please correct mistakes and add any I've forgotten.

German - occhi, schiffchenarbeit, schiffchenspitze
French - frivolité
Dutch - frivolité, frivolitet
Spanish - frivolité
Russian - фриволите
Chinese/Taiwanese - 梭子蕾絲
Japanese - タティングレース
Hungarian - frivolitás; hajócsipke
Finnish - frivoliteetti; sukkulapitsi; käpyily
Norwegian - nuperelle
Swedish - frivolitet
Danish - orkis
Polish - frywolitki, frywolitka
Estonian - süstikpitsi; süstikpits
Czech - frivolitky
Italian - chiacchierino

New Things

I really have to learn how to customise this blog as it is not pleasant to look at, at the moment. I'll also have to work out how to post pictures too. I don't suppose it is difficult, but it is just a matter of familiarising myself with new things.

I really love listening to Arlene's Podcast (now lets see if I can attach the link) but couldn't do it myself - for instance, I have just had to leave the computer to break up a fight between DH (DH does NOT stand for dear husband in my instance, but at present "damned husband") and 7 year old DS. I know which one is older in his mentality!!! They just about drive me to distraction. Enough family in-fighting!


Tatting wise I got some really beautiful things from Erin in Gina's SS exchange

-an absolutely stunning tatted tiny purse (like an amulet purse) bedecked with beads with a sweetie inside














-Ruth's 2008 celtic snowflake
-a gorgeous tiny pink tatted angel (I must find out from Erin what pattern she used)














-a skein of Sherry's Royalty thread (now I'm part of the HDT brigade too!!!!)













-a packet of Mill Hill petite beads
-a packet of tiny heart buttons
-a packet of gems

and a large bag of sweeties (the remnants seen in the photo)










OOOHHHH I've just managed to do the same trick as Sherry, though not as badly. I hit the toilet seat (of all things) - oh well I had to cut my nails anyway but that one will be in the quick!!!!!

Having taken the photos now all I have to do is find the usb cable to download them onto the computer - that could be easier said than done! Once I remembered where "the safe place" was it was easy!!!!

Now to add them...................... okay let's see what that looks like? Well, so-so, but alright I suppose for a first attempt - must do better.

Must go - haven't fed the 7yr old & he is fading away...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!