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.

My first HDT order

Some of the blogs that I'm reading use the most amazing thread colours in their tatting and some of them dye their own threads.

They kept talking about HDT and I didn't know what it was. Obviously I have found out now.

HDT - Hand Dyed Thread.

I got my first order of HDT from Jess at Tat-ilicious and I love it.

The light colour (1 skein and 1 bobbin) is Whoopsie #40.

The dark colour (1 skein and 1 bobbin) is Grackle Mess #40 and is a lot more interesting looking in real life - it has blues and purples kind of like abalone shell colouring.

The large bobbin at the bottom is Dark Rainbow #20. It was the last of that colourway which is why I only bought the one.

I am getting soooooooooooo many ideas for things that I would like to do from all the blogs and pins that I am connected to.

I have put in another overseas order for bobbins and other accessories but the AUS$ is falling in value so instead of paying less than US$ I'm starting to pay more. Oh well, it was good while it lasted!

Unfortunately my headache has now gone on for more than two weeks and I have had to cancel over $600 worth of maths tutoring students - which means no more internet spending for a while.

Honey Napkin 5 and 6

round five

Looking at rounds 5 and 6 I thought that I might try using a split chain to climb out of 5 and a split ring to start 6.

I joined the InTatter's forum a short time ago so that I could look up patterns and get help with things like 'I've heard of a split chain, now, how do I make a one'.

close-up of split chain

I went to the Questions section and found that someone had recently asked about split chains so looked through the answers she was given and was directed to a YouTube video which gave a good run through of both the split chain to climb out of the current round and the split ring to start the next round.

There was also a pdf file with diagrammes of another method of doing the split chain. 

round six

I went with the pdf version of the chain (I've tried the split chain once previous to this that went sooo wrong...) and this one went perfectly.

I then used the split ring technique from the video and it also went well especially since I was using one shuttle and a ball thread.

I have done a lot of split rings recently in THE peacock's tail but they were done with two shuttles and I worked them out as I went.

Honey Napkin round 4

So round 4 was finished Tuesday night and round 5 is now halfway done.

 I have just joined up with a 25 motive challenge - not the best timing when I am only up to round 4 of 18 in this project. 

Just before I started on the Honey Napkin I made Jon's Quantiesque Snowflake in Lizbeth #40 Falling Leaves.  

I'm going to count this as motif#1 of my 25.  When I finish the Honey Napkin I'll count it as one as well.

Honey Napkin round three

round three finished

Did I finish this round on Friday or Saturday? I don't remember now. I've had a debilitating headache most of today (Sunday) so I haven't done any tatting. I am nearly finished round 4 though. When I finish each round I go back to Renulek's blog and copy down the instructions for the next round.

As I am doing my blogging from my Tablet the linking doesn't work. When I next do an update from my main computer I will update the links back to Renulek's blog so that other people can find it in the same way that I found it.

Updating now (9May2013)

Honey Napkin round one and two

I've been told that I will need a lot of thread to get through this one - there are 18 rounds.

The designer is Renulek, in Poland. The instructions are in Polish which I am translating with a lot of help from Google translate. The pattern name translates to 'Honey Napkin'. 

The centre of the project (these two rounds) are from the "Priscilla Tatting Workbook 2". 

Unfortunately there are at least two versions of this book in print and the one that I own doesn't have this pattern in it. 

It is available online. 

You need to make sure the publication is from Maine (the picture for it is 'figure 92' on page 26, but the instructions are on page 32).

rounds one and two

One of the bloggers that I follow was in the middle of this project when I started following her and has also worked another of Renulek's large projects. 

Many thanks for introducing me to Renulek's blog - although I may be cursing in 10 rounds time.

I am using DMC Cebelia #20 in Ecru.

What a difference a thread makes!

Mary Konior's Ring a Ring O' Roses

WOW

My first go with the new thread. It is so smooth and easy to work compared to the cheap perle thread I have been playing with. This one is Lizbeth #40 Jewels.





My second go with the new thread. Lizbeth #40 Latte Foam.


This doiley is from Tatting Doilies & Edgings edited by Rita Weiss

There was supposed to be a central ring to connect everything to, but I decided to put it in after. I'm glad I did, as it all bunched up on me. It has taken a lot of stretching to get it to sit flat enough to sew a thread through the central picots.

As you can see, I haven't done any blocking yet, as I don't know how.

There are only two repeats left on the second last row.

The last row is chain and picots and then I'm going to have to learn how to block. Any hints?

...and now for some new threads...

I have just received my first order of Lizbeth thread. Clockwise from top left I got Autumn Spice, Jewels, Latte Foam and Falling Leaves, all #40. I found a supplier in Australia so that I would only have to pay local postage rates.

I don't know what to do with them now that I have them. I didn't have any specific designs in mind, I just liked the colours and other things I have seen made with them.

I also don't have any empty shuttles at the moment. When I finish the peacocks I will have 2 shuttles to play with. Maybe by then I will have worked out which colour I want to use and what to make.

...and from the new book we have...

I have been busy in my new book since I last posted. One of my other tatting books has a list of common tatting words in other languages, including German, so I have been able to work out some of the written instructions. There are a lot of split-rings, which I haven't done in a few years, and some other techniques which I haven't seen before that are making the work interesting. Not something you want to be doing with a headache late at night when I usually start tatting.

The round motive was one of the reasons why I wanted this book. I had tried to work it out from photos on Pinterest but couldn't get it to sit properly. I now know why - all the rings and chains have different numbers of stitches in them and I was doing them all equal. 

This flower has four layers of petals attached to the central motive. There is supposed to be another row around each of the last two layers, but I thought it was too big a jump in size from the first two layers. I have a pin to attach to it - one day.

This flower edging I did to finish off two shuttles so that they could be refilled to start a new layer on the flower, rather than join in ends.

It doesn't much look like it, but this one is a peacock (in progress). The diagram, written pattern (in German of course) and the photos don't match each other. As a result there are a LOT of mistakes and the peacock's body has mostly disappeared. 

The Peacock on the cover of the book is what seems to attract most people to this book, so I had to try. I haven't put his feet on yet as they weren't in the written pattern and I haven't worked out exactly where to join them. One of my friends said she preferred the look of him without the feet anyway. There are also a lot of mistakes in there, but I don't think anyone will be finding them without a magnifying glass. 

So that is the finish of this episode. I'll find some food now and see what I can do with the peacock. I need to refill both shuttles soon, so need to work out a good place to do it so that I can hide the ends.

New Book !!!!! (in German)

My New Book !!!

My new book arrived today and I'm SOOOO excited!!! I ordered it through Amazon, who said that it would be coming from Germany, but the packaging said Rome - very international.

Mum - start brushing up on your German, I want to know what it says.

I spent an hour over lunch in a coffee shop looking through it and examining the diagrammes. It looks SOOOOO good!!!!!

I can't wait to get started on it.

Did I mention I was excited yet?

Refreshment Set ... ummm?

from Tatting Doilies & Edgings ed. Rita Weiss

I love tatting in the round and don't like having to join motives together to form the pattern. This set gives me a coaster size all-in-one motive which I can join (if I want) to make a larger item. I found it in a Dover Needlework Series book which is a collection of patterns originaly printed between 1920 and 1944.

I had only made three mistakes up to the time I took the photo. Since then I made another four - two times I joined the ring to the wrong picot and had to open the ring to fix it. The other two mistakes I didn't discover until after doing a three ring clover each time and couldn't fix.

I am using another of the 50 cent balls of perle 8 thread. The dusky rose colour seems to change slightly under tension, so it looks faintly variagated.

Mostly Flowers

My friend in the craft shop had 2 bags of craft books left at her front door last week, one bag completely tatting!! I now possess Mary Konior's Tatting in Lace, Elgiva Nicolls' Tatting Technique & History, Tatting with Anne Orr and Tatting Designs J&P Coats Book No 380. There was also Rebecca Jones Complete Book of Tatting which was the book I learnt to tat out of, and the Macrame and Tatting book which has the pattern for the big doily I started my blog with and which I still can't find in my house.

Corsage of Flowers (mine on left)

While I was looking for the "book with the doily" I rediscovered my Lyn Morton book Tatting Patterns, which I have not done anything out of yet - I can't understand why, some of those patterns are sooo beautiful.

So, the weekend just finished I had fun working on different dimensional flower patterns, starting with Lyn's Corsage of Flowers - I made 2 6-petal flowers and 1 5-petal flower. I haven't joined them together yet.

Tudor Rose (mine on right)

Next I had a go at Lyn's Tudor Rose. But only the outside section as I didn't want to play with the beads.

Wrought Iron

Moving on to my new Mary Konior book, I had seen a Wrought Iron recently on Pinterest, so when I saw it in my new book got very excited and had to try. I made two noticeable mistakes which I didn't notice until it was too late to fix. As I haven't started working with two shuttles yet, the rings on the outside of the onions were worked with the one shuttle instead of a second shuttle.

Carnation

Going back to dimensional flowers, I am part way through Mary's Carnation from my new book. It says to make two, wire them separately, then join them together. Her picture looks good, we'll see about mine when it's finished.

Convulvulus

This last piece I have also seen regularly on Pinterest, but no-one had referenced it. As soon as I saw it in my new Konior book it had to get a try out. Unfortunately I was nearly out of shuttle when I started, and I didn't read the pattern properly, so there weren't any picots on my first flower to join the second flower on to. I will definitely be doing this one again.

Today I was expecting a 9am to 9pm working day - didn't know when I would get a chance to do my update.

My 'day' job I arrived half an hour late and left half an hour early, so I will have to work late on Friday to make it up.

The 4pm student arrived at 3:55 while I was still eating lunch. My 5pm student went home from school sick so didn't come. The 6pm has just arrived (at 6:10 - their first lesson).

(Back from tutoring at 7:10) The 7pm student had already cancelled due to a school meeting. 8pm should arrive at 8.

All in all, I'm having a much quieter day than expected.