4 months of spring …

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4 months of wiosna lasting through the hot hot lato & the muggy dreamy monsun

Renulek’s Wiosna 2016 

A doily tat-along by Renulek

Started on 14 April ; completed yesterday !

4 months of this glorious Wiosna, spent with Renata (Renulek) has come to an end. Luckily, we all have something material to show & display & ogle at for many decades, thus the blissful lace carries on. This is her 4^th doily I’ve tatted in 3 years - the Spring Doily 2014 ; Wiosna 2015 ; Snow Doily 2012

Not without a few boos-boos in the last round, though …

ROUND 17

Materials : 2 shuttles

Anchor Mercer size 40 : cream 0300 ; shaded red w/ black : 1206

Techniques I used : directional tatting, thrown Josephine rings, SCMR (to use last lengths of thread)

Final Measurement : 21 inches

the boo boos !

1^st start  – joined to wrong picot. Could’ve carried on, but decided to snip it off so that I had normal (DS) rings & reverse order (RODS) chains.

2^nd start – One would’ve thought that at this age & experience, one has learned to count. Huh, not so – 6 inner rings instead of 7! Another snip. Can’t afford too many snips, coz running low on thread !

3^rd start – all is well, phew.

 

¾ths of the way round, I came across 1 snipped joining picot in previous round :-(  At the time, in a panic, I dabbed some fabric glue on the cut ends to keep them in place & continued with the ring, adding a picot where it was to be joined. After completing the entire round, it was time for repair. Here’s how I went about it – sorry no pics . It might have been done before, but I haven’t come across it, hence sharing ….

Repairing a Chain with snipped joining picot

1. Unravel 1 half stitch on either side of cut thus exposing the core thread. (preferably, do not apply fabric glue, because it becomes extremely difficult to unknot).
2. Insert a doubled-up scrap thread length, & pass the looped end through the joining picot on next round.
3. Pass the 2 ends under the previous round (where cut is), then over & through the loop. Tighten & snug.
4. We now have a double stitch ! This lies on the core thread exactly as a normal ds would.
5. I whip-stitched the 2 ends of the scrap thread on either side of the ring.
6. I had to leave the cut picot thread glued back, since it was very difficult to unravel.
7. However, without glue, one can unravel back along the chain on both sides of cut & use the scrap length to make stitches along both sides just as in a split chain or larkshead in macramé or in embroidery buttonhole stitch. Then hide all 4 ends.

There is one last major boo boo, that I will share at the end …shiver me timbers !

the tweaks
(I hope Renata doesn’t mind)

This is a beautifully designed round & I Love the slight overlap between the scallops in Renulek’s working, but failed to achieve it in mine. Can’t understand why. Or was it merely because I couldn't block it properly ?

Made a couple of tiny tweaks, in consultation with my DH. I was going to ask you wonderful tatters, but he was already in sync with me ;-P Added some colour finally, as an outline to the lovely rich cream. Since it was to be merely an outline, I left out the chain picots.

Also, preferring curves & arches to points, I substituted the thrown ring with a smaller thrown Josephine Ring – I love the perfect circle of a JR. This was done in directional tatting, starting with 1RODS, 10 1st half sts, 1RODS, post shuttle & close.

TIP : to make the JR lie flat, start & end with a double stitch.

in general

Used up 2 full balls, 20 gms each, of size 40 thread. Wouldn’t have lasted if I’d made the last round as per original pattern. This is all that’s left of this rich cream.
Here's an interesting observation - the first 13 rounds used up only 1 ball (20 gms), while the last 4 rounds consumed 1 ball !!!

This “Roll & Store” using a pillow cover is what kept the growing doily clean & flat. It was probably the reason why unblocked doily pics in my previous post came out okay.

the learning

Large projects can be time-consuming but they also offer the possibility to practice & improve. I got to practice direct tatting (reverse stitch), gaining speed. Climbing out with split chains also improved as the rounds progressed. I applied different ways to add new thread & hide ends & loved the whip stitch to sew in ends.

Made me think of the different ways of keeping projects clean while working/storing, especially large ones.

I finally got nicely closed rings in directional tatting due to experiments emerging while tatting this doily.

Working with a single colour has a Lot of practical benefits, but it can get a bit boring at times, especially when fellow tatters were using such lovely colours & transforming their work into a personalized statement.

I added colour in the last round, only for chains, as an indication of the finality of the tat-along; to give a feeling of closure to the single-colour pattern. This is what led to a major boo boo !

major boo boo

I love the variegated red w/ black. BUT the colour runs !!! Never faced this problem with Anchor threads.

When I dunked the doily in water for the blocking process, I suddenly remembered the recent thread colour travails of Eliz & Carolyn. Pulled the doily out, quickly laid it flat on the marble & dabbed it with a white towel. Sure enough, there were reddish imprints !!! Colour was just beginning to seep into some adjoining rings :-( Worked super fast, dabbing the doily dry with the towel. Phew, saved for the present. Might have to handwash it flat in the future, or experiment with small pieces …

Funnily enough, while I’m happy that this is over & I can shift my attention to other smaller projects, I’m sad to let it go – kind of an empty feeling, you know ?!

Many many many thanks to Renata, 

for sharing her elegant patterns with us, 

& organizing these tat-alongs … 

it is always fun to tat along !

happy tatting :-)  

Related Posts :

Rounds 1-3 ; Round 4 ; Rounds 5-6 ;

Rounds 7-8 ; Rounds 9-10 ;

Round 11 ; Round 12 ; Rounds 13-16