Renulek Spring 2016 WIOSNA Doily (in progress)
All threads are size 80
DMC #743 (Yellow - MED)
DMC #3052 (Green Gray - MED), Lizbeth #601 (White)
DMC #52 (Variegated Violet)
My goal as I tat these days is to take the time to try new techniques or to practice techniques I have not yet mastered. I practiced Jane Eborall's Joining with no blips! on the first three joins in the green round. Then I lost my concentration and joined normally. The blipless join does not produce quite as smooth a join as my traditional method and the blip was so hard to see in these colors and this size thread that I decided to give it up for this project as long as I'm joining the purples to the green.
Another opportunity for practice came with the latest round. I've chosen to work with ball and shuttle. When I reached the first place for a second shuttle chain, I tried Lene Bjorn's technique for changing shuttle positions as described in 24 Snowflakes in Tatting for her block tatting. I did an unflipped first half followed by a normal second half and counted it as the first double stitch. The next chain was done by tatting unflipped double stitches in the same half stitch order that I usually use for the second half of a split ring. The third chain was tatted with unflipped double stitches with the half stitches reversed. It was my favorite of the three, but, unfortunately, you can't see it at the moment. I was so busy concentrating on my experiments that I joined to the wrong picot of the previous round. So that's where I shall start with my next session on this project. By the way, I found Lene's method of changing the shuttle location very convenient and, at least in size 80 thread, it looked fine. I definitely prefer her method over the Shoelace Trick.
A third practice area for me with this doily has been the job of hiding ends. After having some ends pull out when using the Magic Thread Trick in some previous projects, I had decided to go back to sewing in the ends. However, I find that this really effects the look of the rings and chains in size 80 thread. Perhaps that is because it is so hard to carefully place the thread as I work it into the double stitches, but I'm not happy with it. I sewed the ends in on the yellow center and on the white and purple round. So with the green round I decided to use the magic thread trick, but sewed a couple of stitches back the way the ends had come to lock them into place. It still isn't a perfect solution, but I like it the best of what I've tried so far for these small threads.
6 comments:
I love your experiments, perspective & observations. Thanks for sharing them :-)
I have reached similar conclusions with a few of the techniques you described, but since I am working with single colour this time, the reverse stitch (direct tatting) is proving very handy for those short linking chains - no need to consider change of shuttles, phew).
Your colours & composition are emerging beautifully - will be a pleasure to watch it grow !
Love your colors! I, too have been figuring out those ends. I'm using size "tatting crochet"-must be 70 or 80 and am pretty unhappy with sewing in, it's really changed those stitches for me. On the round with the fourth round, I was using variegated for both and din't want to change the colors by switching threads/shuttles, so I just tatted those chains between with the ball as my shuttle!
I love your doily already!!! :) The colors are beautiful and your tatting looks wonderful too!! :)
Great idea to learn and practice new techniques while tatting!! :)
What a lovely doily! The colours are gorgeous.
About sewing in ends, I find that for Size 80 it's still okay to sew under caps if you use a fine enough needle (I use a Size 11 beading needle). But there's another way, demonstrated by Ninetta Caruso on her blog: http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.sg/2015/09/ready-to-be-sewed.html She used whipstitch through and over the caps to hide the ends for her wedding ring pillow. This was in DMC Size 100.
Thank you very much, Grace. I'll check it out and give it a try.
I love this and the wonderful colors you have chosen it great. I do the whip stitch too, to hide ends and if it appears to stretch it out then give it a tug and it will pull it back to normal size then cut it off.
Post a Comment