Response from Jane in South Africa

In my last post, I mentioned that I did not know how to contact Jane from South Africa who updated the bookmark braid pattern I used. Well, she saw my post and wrote to me. Jane does not have a blog due to some unreliable internet access and I asked her if I could share her store with all of you and she gladly agreed to let me post it here.

Jane's story is heartwarming and I know you'll love reading about her life so here it is:

Hi Tatteristic, (that sounds funny, hi anyway), glad you like the bookmark pattern. I’m Jane....from Zimbabwe, but there have been a lot of political problems there, so I am currently living in South Africa. I learnt to tat just before I got married, 30 years ago. I had a teach-yourself pamphlet, but I couldn’t figure out the ‘flip’, so my aunt took me to tea with a friend of hers who tatted, and I got the hang of it. The problem with teaching myself was that it was a few years before someone lent me a book that said ‘NB, the term picot refers only to the loop of thread and not the stitch that holds it’, and I realised that I was doing an extra stitch for every picot in a pattern! Anyway, I used Burda patterns and Coats pamphlets and what not for a few years, until I started a spinning and knitting business. I spent a lot of time stirring a dye pot, and it just wasn’t compatible with tatting. I didn’t do much tatting for many years. When we were forced to leave the farm, I had to close my spinning business. I took tatting up again, and discovered the wonderful world of tatting on the internet. I’ve learnt so many new techniques in the last few years, and am now even using beads, as you can see on Jane Eborall’s blog. I would blog myself, but I live on a farm very far from the nearest town and my internet connection is very iffy. I have problems uploading photographs, and a blog is no good without photos! There is talk of putting a tower near here, so perhaps one day.... Best Wishes, Jane

I'm so glad Jane contacted me and I hope we're able to continue to stay in touch. It's always fascinating to hear someone's story about how they began tatting and who taught them.

Thank you, Jane, for sharing with all of us and let's hope they get better internet connectivity out there in your area so that you can begin your own blog too.

Bookmarks Galore

I was looking through my patterns for a bookmark to give as gifts to a couple of friends and found one that originally was from an Anna Burda magazine (May 1984). The 'braid' pattern was updated to use split rings between the repeats by Jane in South Africa; the revised pattern was posted by Jane Eborall (Mar 2009). 

It's a very pretty bookmark and the picots can be varied in size to change the look a little. All three of these were tatted with Size 20 thread and each one only took an evening to complete. The tatted section of the bookmark measures about 5 inches and I added a 4-inch tassel to the last split ring.

I think I'll make a couple more and keep them around. They are a fun tat and make great little thank-you gifts.

I'm not sure who "Jane in South Africa" is but I'd like to include her name or website or blog in my post so if you know who she is, please post a comment or send me an email so I can update this post.