Thursday, September 22, 2016

'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!

9 comments:

Michelle said...

Whatever the ou call it, it's beautiful!

God's Kid said...

Your doily is awesome!!! :)

Eliz Davis aka Tatknot said...

Thank you, Michelle and Sue. I really enjoyed tatting this one, too, which is always nice.

Jane McLellan said...

It's beautiful! Worth the pondering the direction to tat to get the colour changes you wanted.

Suztats said...

That is a pretty doily! I usually find that as a needle tatter, I'm tatting in the opposite direction than the pattern indicates for shuttle tatting. I've often wondered if that's the way it is for all needle tatters, or if it's just me. I was intrigued by Muskaan's post, so I'll be watching and maybe I'll finally find out.

Eliz Davis aka Tatknot said...

Thanks, Jane and Suztats.

I hope some other needle tatters join the explorations, Suztats, so that you will have some comparisons. When I first learned to needle tat, I discovered that there was more than one way to do it at that time. It's a method I only use when I want to work with a special fiber that doesn't work well with the shuttle. It's been quite a while since I've used my needles, and I haven't followed the trends in that method. I look forward to reading your feedback.

muskaan said...

I love your doily and the 'wavy' outer edge !!! Nice work on the chains, too :-) It is always interesting to see how different the same piece can look against different backgrounds and lighting !


I cannot thank you enough for all the time & effort you spent on my project, even test tatting each diagram to confirm ! And your feedback, perspective, and ideas have helped me no end. Thanks for the promotional pitch, too ;-P

How it is viewed and adapted by needle tatters and left-handed tatters will make it truly comprehensive.

Margarets designer cards said...

Lovely doily,
I am in the same position, I am sorry this comment is late as I have been on holiday

Fox said...

This is truly wonderful! Nice work.