Tea Cloth - Round 5 of Test Tat is complete

I've been getting some tatting done on those projects that don't require frequent glances at the instructions. You saw the completion of the Concentric Rectangles doily in my last post. Here is the tea cloth test tat with round 5 completed.

I have one more row of motifs to add before the test tat of the center is done. If you would like to see how this doily looks in color, check out Jessica's. Jessica has done a great job on the pattern update of this doily. 

You don't have to tat for very long to discover that occasionally you have to make a small modification to a pattern to make it work with your finished product. Maybe your picots aren't quite the same size as the original design or your tension is different. It is less likely to be a problem with small motifs, but doilies are another matter, especially as the diameter increases. Such was the case on this round. Even though I knew the motifs of round 4 would elongate, I just didn't feel there was enough space between my motifs. I tried several different ring sizes to see how they would work, but none of them gave the same kind of look as those larger rings. I finally opted to join the inner most rings in hopes that it would at least keep those rings from trying to overlap each other. I'm pleased with the way it is working so far. The real test will be how it works with the addition of round 6.

Round 4 of the Test Tat is complete

Hi, everyone. I managed to tat round 4 of the test tat for Jessica of the Sander's Tea Cloth. It is currently 19.5 cm, or 7.75 inches, in diameter in size 40 DMC Cordonnet. I'm a little concerned about whether there is enough room to properly insert the next round of motifs between those of this round, but I'll give it a try.

The final round of the Concentric Rectangles doily is underway, but I made a change to the corners  so I'm going to keep you in suspense until I can post a picture of the whole.

I continue to purposely lag behind on the Renulek doily. My start of round 10 with purple rings and white chains really doesn't appeal to me so I plan to cut it off and begin again.

Thank you to all of you tatting blog writers. While my tatting has been limited to easy projects that can be picked up and put down often, I've been popping in to see what the rest of you are doing. It's inspiring to follow your progress.

Happy tatting!

WIP Wednesday

While I haven't accomplished much tatting in the past week, I managed to be close to finishing a round in each of three of my projects. I made it my goal today to complete those unfinished rounds.

The Renulek tat-along doily is just over 20 cm in diameter at the end of round 8. I'm still behind by a few rounds, but I'm not going to worry about that. (Size 80)

The image on the top right is the tea cloth test tat I'm doing for Jessica. At this point I've completed round 3. The next round is several motifs with two rounds each. It is approximately 12 cm in diameter so far. (Size 40)

The bottom image is the Concentric Rectangles doily. Just two more rounds to go, although Edda says you can keep going to make it as big as you like. It is 15 cm by 22.5 cm thus far. (Size 20)

Test Tatting

While I haven't tatted since the weekend, I do have a little bit of tatting I can share with you. I started test tatting the adaptation of a 1915 tea cloth pattern which has been done by Jessica Spaulding. You may have seen her beautifully colorful tatting of the center of this large piece at her blog. When I was much younger, the idea of doing a large piece of tatting did not interest me at all. I find, however, that the idea now intrigues me. I like the idea of making something a bit spectacular. I'm not yet up to a tatted bedspread (I've seen and touched a gorgeous one!), but this I think I can do. I chose size 40 DMC Cordonnet in white. It looks ecru in this photo, but it really is a nice white. At the completion of the bottom of row 2, the piece measures 4.5 cm.

Life has been full of grandchildren, baseball (5 games this week), and other child-related activities. We even made a trip to the zoo today. Butterbean is cutting 4 new teeth at once which has been trying at times for both of us. I've also got some sewing started. Tatting is low on my priority list for this week. At least one of the doilies I have in progress is always with me just in case, but the practice of new techniques like filet tatting and Ikuta overlapping picots in a ring will definitely have to wait.  I love learning new things, so I can't bear to put either of those off much longer. Hopefully, I shall get to them next week. That's the plan anyway.

Don't be surprised if you don't see another post from me before the weekend, but I'll try to pop in to read your blogs now and then.

Happy tatting!

NOTE: If you want to see a scan of the original pattern showing what the final full-size doily looks like, Jessica has it here. I'm not sure how far I will go or what changes I may make as it gets larger, but I really like the center.

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