Wednesday's WIP done

Motif #20 in 2nd 25 Motif Challenge of 2016

10 cm x 6 cm in size 20 Flora 

the little flower is my own addition

I'm determined to finish up some of my smaller Works In Progress in order to empty some shuttles. I have no idea how many summers ago I started this one by Nancy Tracy, but it wasn't this past summer. Isn't it a cute idea! You should visit Nancy's webpage and check out the links to the patterns she makes available for free use. It was my enjoyment in tatting many of those patterns that inspired me to purchase this book.  

I apologize it took me so long to get this posted. There was one day to finish the tatting and block it, a second to combine the parts and photograph, and then a third for photo editing and blogging. Whew! :D

Helga Found Earrings in a Bookmark

Helga Schilders, a member of the Dutch Tatting Circle, recently asked my permission to share the pattern she developed for these lovely earrings. She got the idea from the Blooming Trellis Bookmark.

I thank Helga for reminding me that the elements of a design can be used in multiple ways. She was making some small revisions to her pattern pdf which is written in Dutch. If Helga wants to add her pattern to the pattern page of my blog, I will be happy to host it here.

Thank you, Helga, and 

Happy Tatting to all!

This Way or Tat Exercise 1

Exercise 1 in muskaan's This Way or Tat series

Motif #19 in 2nd 25 Motif Challenge of 2016

Dotted Snowflake by muskaan

6.5 cm in diameter using size 30 DMC Cebelia

The link directly under the picture will take you to the post in which muskaan provides the introduction to this series of exercises to help us understand the whys and whens of why our tatting sometimes progresses in a different direction to that of our diagrams. Muskaan provides the diagram for this snowflake.

In exercise 1, muskaan encourages us to tat as we would normally, but to observe closely the direction in which our work progresses. The goal was to establish a baseline for future comparision. All of the true rings in this design are without picots and the chains, their picots, and thrown rings are, in my opinion, the primary focus of the design, so I tatted with traditional double stitches for both chains and rings using reverse works between the elements with the following exceptions.

I actually chose to use the 2nd shuttle for the split ring that allowed me to climb into the final round because I considered using RODS (reverse order double stitches) for the attaching rings of this round. The attaching ring immediately to right of my start was made with RODS and then I formed the next one with the usual double stitches. It was very difficult to tell the difference since there were no ornamental picots. In fact, if I had any preference at all, it was for the appearance of the rings made with normal double stitches. That means that in this snowflake you are looking at the back side of the rings that form the center of round 1 and those that attached to that round in round 2 except for that split ring and the ring immediately to its right.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else used different stitch combinations and came up with any differences in direction.

'Geocities' Doily Complete

When you don't know what else to call a design that is not your own, you make something up. In this case, I found it on geocities.com back in March 2008, so I've been calling it the Geocities Doily. It was the wave of the outer round of motifs that drew me to the pattern.

Motif #18 of 2nd 25 Motif Challenge of 2016

Designer unknown

Retrieved from http://www.geocities.com/orange_on_black/MFF.html on 3/30/2008

I apologize that it has been so long since I've posted. I've even gotten terribly behind with blog reading and participation in the Craftree forum, but the demands of work and family lately had to override those of my hobby. (I do think I might have heard my shuttles calling out to me from my bag on a number of occasions, because, of course, they went with me everywhere just in case.)

The timing of this post fits perfectly though with a project that muskaan has been working on. Let me explain what happened with this doily.

First, I remind you that I don't usually care about front sides and back sides to my tatting. I even like the flexibility of being able to display things either side up. However, the option does sometimes come in very handy. Notice the round with the green thread? I wanted to use two colors so that the lighter color would be repeated in the clovers between the purple motifs. This round joins to the previous round with a large ring and has both inward and outward facing chains. Some shuttle switching was necessary to keep all of the chains green. With traditional tatting, those chains were going to be flipping back and forth in direction and that really didn't appeal to me. I wanted them to flow and, to me, that meant they needed to face the same direction. 

Since I like to hide threads in areas of the same color whenever possible, I chose to start with one of those outward facing clovers. When I got ready to join to the doily, I realized I was going to be moving counterclockwise. It took me a bit to figure out where to make that first join and to get myself oriented properly to follow the diagram. 

Several times in the last year or so, I've noticed that my tatting direction fails to match the tatting direction indicated in a designer's diagram. When the pattern is a simple one, I make the adjustment without much bother. With a more complicated pattern, though, more thought is required to figure out where I am and where I need to go. I rarely tat with a proper front and back side, so it didn't seem likely that this was the problem every time.

Muskaan has spent a great deal of time searching for the keys to this by asking the questions of "Why?" and "When?" You don't have to have a passion for searching out the details to benefit from her research because she has come up with some fun little tatting patterns for us to use as we learn from her discoveries. I'm very excited about participating. Check out the comments she has shared in this post just to get us thinking and watch for more in the series of "This Way or Tat." (I think I'm beginning to sound like a commercial, but I did tell you I'm excited about this. I do hope some of you will pull out your shuttles and tatting needles to play. After all, the more the merrier!)

Happy tatting!

Geocities Doily Progress

Both of these images were taken by lamp light, so I apologize for the quality. The fabric they are resting on is white if that tells you anything. Still the variegated colors in the lighter thread are more obvious than in some of the other images I've taken.

In the top image, you see the round I incorrectly tatted. I still love those two variegated colors together and really must do something else that uses them both. Unfortunately, there isn't much left of the lighter one so it will have to be a small project.

I've already started the final round of purple motifs. I'm going to wait to show it to you when it is complete. I think you'll be delighted with the designer's arrangement of these motifs. It is what first attracted me to this pattern.

As you can see by that fact that I'm making progress on the doily, my hands are much better. I'm so thankful the severe pain is gone. It's been eight months since the previous flareup. Hopefully it will be even longer before the next. I wouldn't object a bit if it never happened again. :)

Typing is one of the activities that has not irritated my hands at all, so I've been organizing the tatting files in my computer. I've found so many lovely patterns I'm eager to tat. It's like thumbing through your collection of tatting books. One gets excited again about all the lovely patterns you forgot you had at hand. As I'm about 3/4 of the way through that project, I hope to complete it this week. It has also helped me fill some of the gaps in the Elemental documents. I'll be posting an update to both documents before the end of the month, I think.

Happy tatting!