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

I wasn’t gonna …

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I wasn’t going to tat a large doily this year, but I did

I wasn’t going to tat a 4^th Renulek doily, but I did

I wasn’t going to post these rounds till after completion, but I did

I wasn’t going to begin the last round now, but I did

I Was going to have Fun, which I Did, YAY !!!!

Renulek’s Wiosna 2016  Rounds 13-16

A doily tat-along by Renulek

Reason I am posting these 4 penultimate rounds is that I finally found what I wanted to do with the last round & I’m hoping it will deserve a post all to itself ;-) Will start tatting the last round this very evening.

Round 13 -  14¼" in size 40 thread

I loved this round ! And it finally unruffled the previous work, too. Used reverse stitch (direct tatting) for the chains & it went pretty fast, switching shuttles.

I'd forgotten to take pics of this round & was well into the next round before remembering. Hence, not blocked or ironed.

The 20 gm ball of size 40 thread got over after this round.

Round 14 - 15¾" in size 40

 Techniques involved 2 shuttles since there were thrown rings.

Climbed out to next round with split chain & split ring.

I like the scrolling effect. 

Round 15 – >17” in size 40

This round took much longer than I thought.

I tatted first half of the round using reverse stitch for chains; then I switched to reverse work. Both worked well.

Round 16 – 19” in size 40
A very very quick & enjoyable tat , probably because of lack of picots !!!! And a very pretty round, too, with the layered rings.

I ran out of threads many times in this round (once because I accidentally picked up a short length of ball thread) & I used different ways to make optimum use of the last lengths ....

Twice, I made the last ring a SCMR ; once I switched to reverse stitch for the short chain length ; in the last stretch, I had enough thread in one shuttle, so instead of a lock join, I used Reverse Join to switch shuttles - no need for that visible SLT !!!

Since it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, this round hasn't been blocked or ironed either. I simply laid it out & took the pics.

In Conversation 

I must apologize for not being able to respond to your lovely comments (I wasn’t expecting any) in my previous post – they are very much appreciated & I will respond when my internet link starts to work nicely again – it’s going in fits & starts – loooong fits & short starts ! Will also be able to bloghop again, hopefully very soon.

happy tatting :-)

Related Posts : 

Rounds 1-3 ; Round 4 ; Rounds 5-6 ; 

Round 7-8 ; Rounds 9-10 ; 

Round 11 ; Round 12

hits and misses

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Early last year I had bought variegated thread online, and though the colours were gorgeous & thread good to tat with, it turned out to be thicker than even size 10 – probably a size 7 or 3? Nevertheless, I was impatient to tat with it, having used only one of the 5 variegation thus far. Both coasters were tatted in 2015 & some parts of the post may appear dated due to my subsequent learning. I have given away all my circular coasters (tatted up until July 2016), so I don’t have exact measurements or photos after blocking.

Melt into Spring Snowflake * ‘coaster’

Marilee Rockley 

Started : 15 Feb 2015

Challenges come in many forms, when/where least expected !

I was so happy when Marilee posted & shared her latest Melt Into Spring Snowflake pattern here. Daisy Picot was on my to-learn list. So the snowflake came at just the right time. Also, since it is a 6-point pattern, it could work well with the Chicken Wing Coaster I had recently made. So off I went & printed it out.

Materials : Bliss (India) variegated thread (no colourway, dye details or size mentioned). Probably a size 7 or 3.

South Maid Mercer Cotton (USA). Art. D-54, White. Size 10.

2 shuttles

Techniques : directional tatting, daisy picot, thrown rings (Josephine knots/rings)

Now, one would expect all the challenge & difficulty to lie in the daisy picot round. But that went off quite nicely ! What with her instructions & pics, as well Riet Surtel’s technique posted by Jane Eborall here, it was a very smooth & enjoyable round. No mistakes, no unpicking & retatting. Perhaps working with a large thread helps when doing a new technique.

The 2^nd round is simply rings & chains ….beginner level. Yet, I kept making mistakes in stitchcount, joins, horrible thread sensation, you name it ! Finally, very frustrated with all the unknotting & retatting, I snipped it off. Glad Jane had gifted us these scissors ;-)

Started the 2^nd round afresh the next morning & it was a breeze. But I learned something else about my own tatting….

The pattern indicates that the 2^nd round is worked counterclockwise. Hence the chains are tatted on the front/right side, but the rings after RW, on the reverse/back side.

I found that my shuttle movement is such that the already tatted trefoils interfered with the shuttle, coming in it’s way. That’s when I realized that perhaps I tatted more easily, more smoothly if it is clockwise ?

So, when I started again, I went round clockwise, with FS/BS tatting & it Did work ! Must keep this in mind for future.

I anchored the JRs, by adding picots on either side & decreasing the stitchcount to compensate.  

Marilee kindly permitted me to make any changes I wanted, but I am deeply unsatisfied & ashamed with what I did in Round 3. That was the reason I hesitated to post it for so long….

I loved the curves of the outer chains, but wanted the trefoils at the tips to be smaller or different. All I came up with was to make daisy picots like a corona/outline around the central ring.

Someday I will tat this again, in smaller thread. 

Triangle Motif Doily * 

Anne Bruvold

tatted on 20^th July 2015

Spot the Odd One out !!!

My notes reveal that I had taken a hiatus from tatting last year as well, for a week. I think I was sewing during that time. Anyways, this simple but lovely doily was my ticket to get back into tatting mode. It was quite a rage on Craftree at the time, where I first came across the pattern.

Materials : Bliss, India.  Variegated thread (no colourway, dye details or size mentioned). Probably a size 7 or 3.

South Maid Mercer Cotton, USA . Art. D-54, Color 430, Cream. Size 10.

2 shuttles.

Techniques : directional tatting, thrown rings (trefoils)

 

Started with this colour placement, but switched to the other because of thread size mismatch & also it seemed like the central flower effect was being lost.

This is one of those easy, almost generic, triangle motifs that can be used to create large fabric when joined in different ways. 

Very quick tat, joining individual motifs as one goes.

One realization about working with variegated threads in directional (fs/bs) tatting dawned. I had started the 1^st motif with normally tatted inner rings, & RODS for the chains & trefoils. Since this latter was a larger chunk of working, in next motif I switched to RODS for the inner rings & normal sequence for outer ecru part. This reversed the colourway (from clockwise to counterclockwise)!!!

Can you spot the odd one out ?

Again, many thanks to both designers, and my apologies to Marilee. 

Hope I can do a better job next time.

happy tatting :-)