valley of flowers

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Valley of Flowers mandala doily/coaster
Eleonore Endrucks Leichtenstern  
Pattern #28 from Schiffchen-Spitzen 1920 

UPDATE: 

NEW VERSIONS- https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/10/bagatelle-to-bagaball.html

PATTERN PDF -  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vG2g0JCVsy8cy2DfGKHEhxleq_7Rveba/view

Starting in 2015, as a summer holiday project for the Online Tatting Class, I have been converting many of Endrucks’ patterns to modern notation in English. These are (mostly) still only on paper as I didn’t get around to actually tatting a sample. The ones I tatted still need a proper presentation. So besides the angel lace and angelette, I haven't shared anything since. I've also come across a couple of errors.

When Georgia shared pattern #28 in this Bellaonline article, I had already written out my own notations. It is such a pretty pattern that I was eager to convert it into thread. 

I took a few little liberties especially with picots to highlight flowers.

The entire book can be downloaded from Georgia Seitz’s Archive (Endrucks 1920 & Endrucks 1920 diagrams insert).

There is some beautifully natural ruffling after some of the rounds, eg. the one above. However I kept tatting and it lays flat easily after blocking with the rolling pin. 
The magenta rings were supposed to be thrown rings on the previous round. Instead I shifted the rings to this outer round and the previous is chains only, so that I could play with  colours easily.

You can see I’ve gone to town with the palette. I had a floral theme (perhaps I was inspired by Jane McLellan’s doily?) and though some colours were changed as I went along, it turned out fine. 

The chains in Endrucks’ tatted model are pretty loose (see last pic below) whereas my tendency is to pull the stitches close. Hence a few stitches had to be added on some chains - starting with the ones under blue flowers, and the 3 corresponding ones in later rounds.

Just shy of 4” in Anchor pearl Cotton which is equivalent to Lizbeth size 20.

I’m calling it Valley of Flowers Mandala – it does have the mandala look about it, right? And I need a Zen-like state to tolerate these soaring summer temperatures of 45+ degree Celsius with no respite for yet another week.

Now for the eye-opener .... 
What I missed while converting the pattern, Georgia Seitz's experienced eye caught!!! Although she wrote in the article, it still took me some time to locate!!

CLIMBING OUT WITH CHAINS : Endrucks worked all 9 rounds continuously WITHOUT any split rings or split chains to climb out. She used simple chains!!! Can you trace these?

Not acceptable by modern standards, yet I think this is a great way to climb out especially when we are doing trials of possible designs – quick and easy and obviously lazy ;-D

Hope you are enjoying much better weather and lots of tatting creativity :-)

UPDATE: For all links and pattern pdfs in modern style scroll through Endrucks 1920 Project document - https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view

accidentally

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a happy design accident

Remember the butterfly that wished to become pretty and my dear tatter friends obliged? And the subsequent Butterfly edging? The origins of that pattern accidentally emerged from this 2018 Design Round Robin (DRR) doily …. Read on.

HEXAFLOWER 

Design Round Robin 2018 , Craftree

Coretta,  muskaan, Tim, Kathleen
Pattern (unedited) link

Coretta Loughmiller designed the center or Round 1 of the Hexaflower doily. Notice how the small rings are left unattached! I love the shape of the inner rings despite the fact that mine didn’t turn out as neatly as hers. They are mock rings made with a shuttle & ball. 
TIP: Working with 2 shuttles, ctm, I threw the central ring from 1st mock ring, making a mock picot. 
Worked in Anchor size 40.

I was next in line. These are my various trials (with numerous elemental tweaks) trying to get a design going. I had intended to work an all-white doily. But the thread didn’t agree with me and I switched to the yellow above.

I got valuable feedback & suggestions/insight from Craftreans which finally led to this. Notice that I did Not set out to incorporate butterflies. But as I tweaked the count during trials, the butterfly emerged. I’ve already shared my tips here on how the colours were switched to highlight shape. 

The orange chains (worked in 2 strands of embroidery thread, but yellow size 40 core) were added to anchor the free rings. 
TIP : Kathleen made a lovely variation by joining directly on the central ring to look like stamens.

This beautiful 3^rd round was designed by Tim Kaylor. Clever use of split rings!

Considering it’s shape, I chose to continue with yellow so that the piece looks like a large flower.

Kathleen Minniti designed the final round. A bit of denseness to hold down the openness of the previous round. Well, in my version, it is perfect as foliage. A sober shade of green keeps the focus on the flower.

Final measurement in size 40 - 4½”.
Techniques used : mock rings, lock join, split rings, colour placement.

I snipped off the orange from below, shifted it above, and added a new calyx at the back.

As seen from the back. Inward facing chains topped with a ring for calyx.
All except Tim's round can be tatted with single shuttle and ball.

I’m very happy with the way this floral story in tatted lace developed, doing justice to it’s name.

In size 20, the doily measures 5½”. Considering it is small, Coretta has designed another round. I am waiting to see how it develops and will participate only if I think the flower story can continue.

The pattern is free to share. However, since it is not ‘cleaned up’, for now it is accessible only within Craftree. Hopefully Coretta will convert it into a pdf soon.

UPDATE (July 2019) : The pattern link is shared, though still unedited, and you are invited to continue the design round robin. You can contact Coretta on facebook, Craftree, or her blog. 

Related Posts

pretty butterflies I

pretty butterflies II

butterflies and edging on card

listing of patterns 

a wee bit bold

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…ummm, perhaps? perhaps not.

Next leg of the design journey from mistaken round to snood-in-the-making which I now think can hold it’s own as a doily.

Continuing from where I left off last -

The outermost beige round ended with 45 repeats. That’s 15 more than the 30 in central beige round. And it measures about 6¾” in Anchor size 40.

The main dilemma was connecting it to the previous round. 

I set 2 guidelines –

1. it should be in brown ;

2. it should be fairly open and airy, yet durable.

That’s when I remembered this post by Lilas Lace – those intertwined/interlaced double picots had caught my eye. She herself has since used the effect in her own doily here.

6. Made the shorter brown round with 30 repeats. All chains.

Ch1  : 5 lp (8mm) 5 lp 5, lock join

Ch2  : [ 5 + 5 lp 5, lj ] x28

Ch30: 5 + 5 + 5, lj

The long picots (lp) are 8mm tall.

7. That round went fairly easily, but designing the next to fit in nicely took a lot of trials. I had 15 extra points to take care of!

This pic (sorry about the quality - it was taken with my tablet) shows the 1^st and 3^rd trials; the 2^nd trial has already been snipped off since it didn't work at all.

This round is a mix of rings and chains.

Ring: [ 7 + 7. rw

Ch   : 5 lp (1cm) 7, lj ,

         7 + (interlaced) 5 lp 7, lj,

         7 + (interlaced) 5. rw ] x15

The long picots (lp) are 1cm tall.

I like how it finally turned out.

Meanwhile I have completed the final outermost round, but will share only after filling in the center.

It was while answering Emily’s comment that I finally hit on the name – Repetition Doily/snood. It is a reminder to the original Repetition Mat (in 'Mastering Tatting') - the round which ended up in the center later. It is also a reference to the alternately  repeating rounds of clovers v/s chains. This is a common theme of Lyndsay Rogers' book where the objective is to take the tatter through simple to complex using simple techniques. 
All rounds in this doily, too, can be worked with one shuttle and ball,  except for the construction sequence. 

Now my question is –

Considering the numerous additions I’ve made, can I share the stitch count for Lyndsay’s round as well?