Saturday 22 March 2014

Tatting A Doily - II

Pin It now!
Renulek’s 2014 Spring Napkin/Doily Tat-along : 
My Experiences & Learnings 

Renulek started posting the her pattern for the 2014 Spring Napkin/doily from February 10 onward. I got to know of it a few days later. After my very first fun tat-along experience with Jane's 2014 TIAS ( Learning Is Fun &  Learning Was Fun), I was very eager to join along in this beautiful pattern.  
( For pictures of Each round, check out my previous post )

My 'Chrysanthemum' version of Renulek 2014 Spring Doily Rounds 1-8

Threads Used :
Anchor Mercerized Crochet Cotton Size 20 in the following shades ---
Brown (Br) : 0355 
Yellow (Ylw) : 0293
Peach (Pch) : 0302
Green (Gr) : 0241
Dark Green (Dk Gr) :  0245


My experience, tabulated : 
I've tabulated each round (linked to respective pattern on Renulek's site) with details & remarks. This will be a concise, ready-reference for the future.

Rnd
Sh1
Ball
Sh2
Width
Remarks / Tips / Lessons learned

Br
Ylw
---
2.5’
I like the brown blips showing as radiating spokes (pistil parts?)
Wish picots were longer still.
Br
Pch
---
5’
In retrospect, could’ve used Brown Only for the single larger ring & peach around. But possible only if 2 shuttles were used. Wish I could’ve made the picots longer.

Pch
---
Br
7.5’
Partially through the round, I finally figured out how to hide the blips. Totally blip-free from then on, using the SLT !

Ylw
Gr
---
8.5’
Most unsatisfactory Rnd. Since I wanted all rings yellow (leaves) & chain green (vine/stem), I encountered a floppy central ring & lots of SLTs !

Ylw
Gr
---
9.5’
If planned ahead, I could’ve done Rnds 4 & 5 in One Pass. Lesson learned.

Dk Gr
---
Dk Gr
11’
Started with Brown but it looked out of place; hence cut it off & ‘graded’ the transition with Dark Green. Easiest round with no SLTs, etc.

Br
---
Br
13’
Another easy round using 2 shuttles.

Pch
---
Br
16.5’
A bit cumbersome round. Needed careful attention but still missed a couple of picot-joins & twisted chain in one place. Wanted more petalled -effect hence peach used in more elements. Also required ironing after finish.

Pattern continues : Rnd 9 Rnd 10 , Rnd 11 , Rnd 12 , Rnd 13 (last round)


This was a thoroughly enjoyable & exciting project. I enjoyed tatting along with so many other InTatters members. Each used their own imagination & color combinations to create beautifully unique pieces from the Same Pattern !!!

It was a learning experience too. I figured out how to avoid color blips , became accustomed to the SLTs , frontside/backside tatting.

I thought it was just me, but many tatters faced problems with Round 4 if they wanted to make all the rings in one color, as discussed in this InTatters thread (pages 21-23) ! This is one round that works best & most easily when either using only one color, or having the rings in 2 colors.

Wish I could’ve made picots in the peach ‘petals’ even longer. I hit some kind of mental block  or finger / tatting plateau when it came to picot lengths. I managed to overcome this only slightly in Round 8.

In Round 8 , I started in the wrong direction. This came as an opportunity to try out frontside/backside tatting for the chains. It worked fine, but I could’ve avoided the added cumbersomeness & complexity that required increased monitoring.


TIP : For relative beginners, it is best to go the traditional way by using Only one color throughout or atleast one color per round. It will be much easier. 
And if one wonders how many colors one can use, & what better example than Frivole's gorgeous & bold statement !!!


Related Posts Staring the Spring Doily

5 comments:

  1. Your doily looks very nice!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely! I will make this one day, but have too many things on the go at the moment. It's a good idea to make notes so you don't have to go through the learning process all over again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow -- not only is it looking Chrysanthemum-ish, all of your notes are amazing! I've never thought to keep such detailed notes. The way you've use the SLT to get your threads the color of YOUR choice instead of the thread's choice is really nice. I might have to make a second one and try that!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Marty !!!
      I figured out a very easy way to keep track of the SLT color. It's pretty silly, actually, but works for me. Your comment has motivated me to share a post on it - something which I'd been hesitant about before - because of its amateurish silliness ;-))

      Delete