Holiday!!

Am on holiday!!!

In my lifetime I have had only one holiday which wasn't just 'visiting family'. I am currently on my second ever HOLIDAY.

OK, so it started by staying with my baby sister for 5 nights, but then Mum and I caught the XPT (train) from Sydney (NSW) to Melbourne (Vic).

We had 2 nights there with a 1/2 day bus/ferry tour of the city.

The other 1/2 day we spent walking.

I found a thread-craft store which had Lacis shuttles - so I bought two (my first of this brand).

Now on the Overlander (another train) on the way to Adelaide (SA).

Mum and I have both been tatting and I have photos to show for it (on mum's camera and her cable is in the luggage compartment).

I am doing the last round of the Renulek doiley, while mum is working on her first Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel.

Mum had numerous attempts at learning to tat, and got it Christmas 2011 just in time to teach tatting at the U3A (University of the Third Age - seniors mostly, sharing knowledge and interests).

Mum has also taught various techniques in card making, scrapbooking, patchwork, embroidery (many, many different styles).

She Looooveees Pinterest and uses it now instead of buying magazines to get ideas.

I transfered my thread from the cheap shuttle I was using onto my new Lacis first thing on the train today.

As the shuttle is larger than any I have used, it took a little while to get used to the longer pass needed to get the shuttle through.

That said, it is a NICE smooth shuttle and it will take a LOT more thread which will be good on this round of the Renulek.

Photos will be coming soon.

In the meantime ...

Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel

When I started back tatting I had a week of holiday from my day job and I sat in a friend's shop in town and tatted each day in her workshop area for 3-5 hours.

She has been very supportive of me, including giving my some threads to try out - that she wants to get rid of, the threads that are selling I still have to pay for.


I mention this as the smaller of the motives in these two photos are each done in a Metallic Machine Embroidery thread that had been sitting in the shop when she bought it. We thought it might be fun to see what it tatted up like - it is horrible.

from p101 of Occhi Schiffchenspitze Frivolite
(THE Peacock Book)

It tats up with a wonderful metallic gleam, but as it is metal fibre wound around a very fine core thread it tends to kink easily making it hard to pull rings up.

At one point I managed to break the metal fibre and had to tat numerous double knots just using the core thread until it caught the fibre again - it doesn't show up at all.

The larger of the two motives are each done in a perle 8 from Madame Tricote Paris (Made in Turkey) colour number 187: this thread tats up a bit larger than my other perle 8 threads (DMC, Anchor and the cheap/nasty 50cent balls) but has a good feel to it.

I kept putting off using it as it is brown and I don't do brown: when tatted though the light colour comes through as golden.

These are  motives #6, #7,#8 and #9 of the 25 Motif Challenge

Mary Konior's Posy

MK's Posy is done in Lizbeth #40 thread, Autumn Spice. I did a bad join on my first go around so cut it off the shuttle and started again. I plan to use all the cut offs to decorate clothing (at some point in time).

Motive #10

A Rose

I have finally used some of the HDT I bought from Tat-ilicious - Whoopsie #40. The flower pattern is from Tatting Patterns, Julia E Saunders - also known as The Priscilla Tatting Book No2. There are a couple of different editions of the book having different figure numbers. In my book it is Figure 82 Collar - just the Rose section. It still needs something to finish the centre. The pattern has a flattened croched ball sewn in. I'm thinking more of a mother of pearl button.

from Rebecca Jones' book
Figure 197, p67

When I first started tatting (who knows how many years ago now) I taught myself from Rebecca Jones' book The Complete Book of Tatting. I had been looking for it in my house for months without success, when it turned up on the table next to my tutoring table - I had brought it out to show a student what tatting was.

from Rebecca Jones' book
Figure 199, p67

I needed it to get the patterns for these two bookmarks which I wanted to do with another of the HDT from Tat-ilicious - Dark Rainbow #20 this time.

I found half a ball of black DMC #20 thread in my stash and wanted to get the stained-glass effect  in the cross bookmarks.

Motives #11 and #12

I do have more, but I have to have something for the next post. I mentioned on someone else's blog that I would put up photo's of THE peacock as he is being done.

I have his head (and a comparison shot with the head of my last peacock) but you will just have to wait a little bit longer.

Hopefully not as long as last time.

I will return!

... how many weeks?

It can't be!

Round 17

I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but 10 weeks is ridiculous.

I have been in the grip of another long term headache (32 days so far) and a viral infection (only day 8 for that).

Here we have Round 17 (second last) of the Honey Napkin by Renulek.

I can't find a photo of rounds 14, 15 or 16 finished, but I do have two photos of round 15 in progress where I nearly gave up!

Round 15 with 5 joins left

Round 15 makes little triangles using two joins on the previous round.

THERE ARE ONLY 5 JOINS LEFT!!

After a LOT of searching I found the missed join in round 14.

Can you see the missed join?

I am not a perfectionist - if I can find a way to compensate rather than undo or cut, I will.

I did.

The last triangle ended up as just a single ring joined to the previous round with a single ring upwards and a slightly shortened chain from the previous triangle and to the initial triangle (no there is no picture - no there will not be a picture).

How big is this!

This is now measuring about 55cm across: there is only one more round to go.

I wonder how long I will procrastinate before the project is finished?

It has already been 3 weeks since I last touched it.

And now for something a little bit different ...

My 20th Post

 Woo Hoo!!

Here we have three completed pansies (pansy's?) worked three different ways.

#2 #3 and #4 of 25 motif challenge

On the left is the first pansy done according to the pattern, or at least my understanding of it - central ring with petals worked off it. Lots of screaming as the petals insisted on twisting around and I couldn't keep track of the front and back.

The centre pansy I worked the purple part of the petals, made the central ring and joined the petals to each picot as they were made, then went around each petal with the contrast colour. Still lots of screaming as the petals twisted.

On the right, again I worked the petals separately in the main colour. This time I worked the contrast colour around the first petal, made a chain to the next petal and repeated that, joining each petal as I came to it instead of using a central ring. The centre is more open but there was much less screaming.

These are motives #2, #3 and #4 in the 25 Motif Challenge.

Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel Glass Mat

 I have two balls of Anchor multicolour perle 8. The colours are #1325 (blue/purple/pink) and #1315 (pink/orange/yellow). Does anyone know Anchor is still available in Australia? My web searchers are not working well at the moment.

I tried doing a Spinning Wheel mat out of the #1325, got half way around, ran out of shuttle thread, then realised I only had one ball and couldn't refill the shuttle without cutting the ball thread.

I put it aside (for 9 months) then picked it up on Thursday and undid it.

I have now made the Spinning Wheel mat using the #1325 for the rings paired with a DMC perle 8 Black for the chains.

 #5 of 25 motif challenge

The DMC is finer than the Anchor but they look good together.

I like the idea of colours with black - it makes me think of stained glass windows.

This is motive #5 in the 25 Motif Challenge.

HDT

My latest order of HDT from Jess at Tat-ilicious.

The top two colours are in #40 and the bottom 6 are #20.

I still haven't used any of the first order, but I couldn't help myself - they just look too good.

Honey Napkin up to round 13

Round 10

No, I haven't fallen off the planet - it just felt like it for a while.

My headache lasted over two months continuously.

No idea why it started.

No idea why it stopped.

Round 11

In the meantime I have completed the Honey Napkin up to round 13.

Rounds 11 and 12 needed two shuttles again.

I am starting to get used to this but I still tend to have a shuttle hanging in mid-air trying to get itself tangled.

Round 12

I had only copied off the pattern to Round 13, so I will be on to Renulek's blog again this afternoon getting the pattern for the next 2 or 3 rounds.

It is almost too big to photograph in my usual place - on the tutoring desk with the lamp on.

Round 13

It is about 22cm radius (or 44cm across) now and there are still 5 rounds to work.

Honey Napkin round 9

Round 9

Round 9 is lovely!

I'm trying to think of other ways to use it now.

This photo was taken over a week ago and nothing has changed since then.

My headache is coming up to 5 weeks old now and I took a weeks holiday from the tatting in the hopes that it would help settle my aching head - no such luck.

Knowing that it is going to take longer and longer to go around each row of this beautiful project, I decided a few days ago that I needed to do something small that I could finish.

from Priscilla book 2

Introducing: the Pansy pattern from Priscilla Book 2.

 
I have almost finished two pansys (pansies?).

The first one I followed the instructions, as you do, did the centre ring and then made the petals off the ring.

I nearly screamed many times - the petals insisted on twisting around so that I couldn't tell how they were joined and which direction I was going.

The second one I made each petal separately then joined them together with the centre ring.

OK, so I haven't actually joined them at the time of writing this, but I am hoping that when I get home from Saturday brunch (where I am at the moment) that I will do the joining ring.

the latest delivery - YAY

OOPS! I accidently hit the publish button. Sorry.

My most recent delivery from OS: A metal shuttle with spare bobbins; Coil-less safety pins in gold and silver; and patterns for crocheted cobweb shawls.

This was my last purchase before the $AU went below parity with $US - just means I have to pay more now to buy in $US.

The crochet instructions say to use mohair weight thread. I don't get on well with most woolen threads so I will be using a soft 4ply cotton that I have (a lot of) at home for my first attempt.

Going now to put the second pansy together.

Oh, I nearly forgot, there is another row to go on the outside of the petals - a light cream if I can find one.

These will count as #2 and #3 in my 25 motif challenge.

Honey Napkin rounds 7 and 8

Round 7

I know that I usually pull my chains too tight, so in round 4 I left them a bit looser. It's looking like I did it too loose now.

Rounds 1-4 sat flat.

Rounds 5-8 would sit flat if they weren't connected to the centre 4 rounds.

Round 8

I'm hoping that when I learn how to block it comes out flat.

At Round 8 it is approximately 28cm diameter.

7 and 8 are 'similar' in the mathematical sense that one is an enlargement of the other and mirrored. These two rounds are also the first that needed two shuttles.

It took few repeats before I could stop looking at the pattern for round 7.

Doing round 8 it took longer to stop looking as the order of components was the same but the number of stitches was different.

It has taken longer to do these rounds than the previous - they were harder, and it is getting further around - but not as long as you might think from the gap since my last post.

My tablet computer which I use to take the photos keeps not wanting to upload to the net.