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.