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.