A table cloth and a doily

Some time ago on my Guilds FB-page a tatter showed a picture of a table cloth she's working on. She's on round 15 and all in all there are 19 rounds. The diameter will be 80 cm in size 20 and when it is done she will have done 78.604 ds. Must be such a heirloom when it is finished.

The pattern is from a Guild magazine from 2011 and of course I had to look that one up to see the finished table cloth. What an impressive piece of tatting and so much time needed to do the entire piece. I am definitely not patient enough to do such a huge table cloth.

Of course I had to try a bit of the pattern. Mine is done in Lizbeth size 40 and measures 20 cm in diameter. I am too lazy to figure out how many ds I have done, lol. Comes right from the shuttle so it has not been blocked or anything.



In the magazine it says it is reconstructed from a very old table cloth.

Stawasz doily and Lizbeth threads
A few days ago I finished another doily from my new Stawasz book (page 58-59). Or rather I did a part of the doily because I did not particularly fanzy the entire doily.
So I stopped where I thought it would be appropriate but did add a couple of rounds made of chains only, because I thought the doily was a bit unfinished with a round of rings and chains turning opposite.
Thread is Lizbeth size 20 and the diameter is almost 18 cm. Sorry I can not remember what number the variegated is right now.
There has been comments about the Lizbeth threads online lately. It seems there are some tatters having trouble with the thread, it twists and have knots in inconvinient places which I am very sad to hear.
I have to say that so far it has not really failed me. Yes sometimes it does twist but so do the DMC, Aida and the Flora etc. sometimes and in those cases I put the shuttle through the ring before I close the ring. There are no tatting threads really available locally so I have to buy at meetings or online and so many threads are not available anymore. DMC, Aida, Flora and Lizbeth are the ones working best for me so I buy some when I can. So I hope Lizbeth wont disappoint me like it has happened to others.
It is no secret that I have a favourite bookmark I have done numerous times.

I needed to enlarge my stock of those so I made one in each of the new variegated Lizbeth colours that I got from Roseground and from the Guilds annual meeting. These are all size 20.
It is nice to see how the colours work when they have been tatted and now I also have something to look at when choosing a colour for projects planned for the near future.

Another doily part
For some days I thought I could not access this blog, but it was just me being silly really - and when I clicked in the right place it all looked like it used too. LOL
I have continued working with some of my new Lizbeths and looking through the Stawasz book. A few days ago I was able to finish this doily - or rather a part of a doily from that book.
Part of the doily was a bit tricky but mostly it worked fine and it went quite quickly - in contrast to the ones I have started since this was finished, roflol.
Thread is Lizbeth size 20.
Diameter is 20 cm.

A Variation
My new threads and the second Stawasz book  arrived a couple of weeks ago from Roseground. I really love the new variegated colours and even though I have read a lot of people are having problems with the Lizbeth it seems that I am a lucky tatter because they hardly ever cause me those problems.
I have also studied the Stawasz book quite a bit and unfortunately it looks like there still are errors in their books because the pattern I picked (doily XVII) were missing the number of ds on some chains. I think I have managed on my own figuring something out though.
Most of the book is very large doilies which I will never be able to do, but here and there I see possibilities for choosing smaller parts of them.

I did a variation of the doily because I do not like tatting all those split rings that are in the original pattern. But I thought I would try and duplicate part of the pattern where the split rings were supposed to be. And I have to say it worked very well, no problems at all in this size.
Thread is Scottish Thistle and solid white, both Lizbeths, and it measures 15X15 cm. I really love the variegated purple and green thread.

Spring Napkin Doily Done
Yes my doily is finally finished. Took a bit longer than expected because I have spent the better part of a week in bed with some sort of cold, flu or whatever. I know it is not the entire doily but the part of it that I wanted to do. It is not the first time I have only done part of a doily (and not the last time either I am sure, lol), all due to me thinking the big ones are too fiddly for my hands.
This measures 23 cm in diameter in Flora size 20. And it really have been a joy tatting this. On the last round I just added picots to make a proper finish in stead of the original round. I have not blocked it yet so it is coming fresh from the shuttle.
Mine is not so colourful like some I have seen online, but I guess I could say this is very true to the doilies I often do. But interesting in deed to see all the different versions.

Also managed to do a few Easter objects for a workmate that was retiring Friday, but it all went so fast in the end that I did not get the chance to take pictures of the 2 eggs and the chicken.
I am awaiting a parcel from Roseground with some more Lizbeth threads and the second Stawasz book. It is always so exciting to await some new stuff chosen from pictures online.

I too have joined
tatting the Spring Napkin doily by Renulek. It must be a huge tat-along since there are lots of pictures of wip both at Intatters and on Facebook. So I have decided to do mine too, even though from the start I know I will only do some of it because the big doilies are so fiddly to do. And I can see a good place where I can stop, lol.

The thread is Flora size 20 where I use a variegated combined with a white - like I do with most of the doilies I have done in recent years. It just feels good for me to do them this way because I would get a bit bored doing larger doilies in just one colour.
So far no problems, the design is just rings and chains which is the kind I like and do the best.

A minor disaster
I have been working on this doily almost all week. I was on the last round when I discovered a mistake on a previous round which meant that the last round would not work, so I cut that off at once. Now I am not even sure I want to finish this one because it has been such a pain doing it and then I can also see that it probably wont lie flat without ironing.



While I consider if I will finish this or not I have decided to join the Renulek doily at Intatters. I do not think I will do all the doily but stop at a appropriate place where it will work and it wont be too big for my liking, lol. I also have some Easter ornaments to finish within the next 2 weeks.

Late Easter but starting early

I have always loved tatting stuff for special occasions like Christmas and Easter. This year Easter is a little late but I have started early with the seasonal tatting. It is a runner so you can actually do it as big as you want, mine measures 12.5X20 cm.

It was published in my latest Guild magazine and it is an easy one to do and quite quickly too. The designer is Kirsten Wind Hansen. The thread is Flora size 20, one of my favourite threads ever to tat with, unfortunately it is not available anymore.
Now I am off to figure out what to do next.

From a runner to a Square

In my guild magazine from last summer is a runner designed by Anna Maria Hansen in green and yellow.
I intended to try that design  but the yellow center is so fiddly to do that I decided to just do the square in the picture.
It comes directly from the shuttles and I used my new Manuela threads, size 20. It is too soon for me to judge the thread really, but it took some getting adjusted to working with it.
I am not overly happy with this square, my next project is looking more promising.

Once upon a time .....

 

Every good fairytale starts this way, but this is not a fairytale but have turned into a UFO - and perhaps almost into a nightmare. I was looking through my blog and stumbled over this doily which I had completely forgotten.

This was a challenge given to me in 2009, yes almost 5 years ago.......

It looks like I have done almost a round since I last posted a picture of it here, so I have not been totally idle or lazy during my blogging break, but it's been more than a year since I last worked on it.

I have no idea when it will get done because I still think it is cumbersome working with stuff larger that 20 cm i diameter. But I hope it wille be finished one day because I do prefer to finish what I have started.

Design by Jan Stawasz and thread is Flora size 20.

Manuela, Aida and me.

I am back from the Danish-German tatting weekend and what a time we had. When time permits I will write a longer post about it, but right now this is what I will share from the trip.

A year ago - or maybe more - my friend Anna phoned me from a shop in Flensborg asking me if I wanted some balls of Manuela thread which she had found there. And I said yes please do buy me some because I have never tried that thread but heard a lot of good things about it. So she very kindly did that but unfortunately we did not manage to meet untill this weekend and I think that since then she had bought the rest of the stock (140 balls) so we could buy it at this meeting. Not sure how many were left over, lol.
Above are the colours that I bought and I am definitely looking forward to working with this thread, I only tried it a bit during the weekend but it felt like a dream to work with. Pity it is so hard to get for tatting. But for the workshops I used my Aida thread so I would not waste any of my new threads during the 4 workshops we had.

One of the workshops we had included making a celtic motif and that was really a challenge for me. But afterwards we were told that we were supposed to design some sort of outer round or whatever we wanted to develop the center motif. That was another huge challenge to overcome. :-)
To the right is what I was able to do. My celtic center is not right, I made mistakes early on and challenged myself even further, but I learned from it so I guess it is the important thing. The outer round is what I designed and it was not really a struggle to do that because it is just ordinary rings, chains and clovers, the stuff I do best.
Inga asked us to send our patterns to her and she would collect them in a small leaflet which all the participants will get a copy of. I can not wait to see it because there were some awesome designs.

Knots and Contacts

I am away for a weekend of great friendships and tatting. The suitcase is ready and I am catching the train in a couple of hours ready for some "Knots and Contacts".
"Knuder og kontakter" is a Danish-German weekend of tatting taking place near Flensburg in Northern Germany, a first time ever.
There will be 4 workshops but apart from Inga Madsen I am not sure who will teach there. But I am sure it will be great anyhow.
Will also be lovely to see some of my great friends and have some laughs. And maybe make some new friends.
Have a lovely weekend - I know that I will, lol.

Purchases and displays

Last time I said I would show what I bought at the tatday in November and a couple of the things for display there. Looks like I forgot that but better late than never so here we go.

The round doily  is a familiar pattern which can be found in one of the Coats and Clarks books but I also think it can be found in more than one tatting book. I think it was done by Birgitte. Lovely work.
The pink square was one of Lene's designs and the long runner to the right is also one of hers - she still had to do one side though.
I was lucky enough to be able to buy patterns for both which you can see below. Lene was also kind enough to sign my issue of the Christmas
pattern book she did almost 20 years ago and which is one of my treasured books.
To the left are also the patterns for the 2 designs that Lene was teaching for the day, a snowflake and a cane.
I also bought 2 balls of white Aida size 20 because they were availble, LOL.
Adelheid Dangela have published 2 books with tatting patterns for patchwork and I had the first one so I thought I had better get the second one too.
Ages ago - long before I learned to tat - I had bought a grey plastic shuttle with a black bobbin but I have never managed to get it working. Because it was possible to buy one of the newer Aerlit's I thought I would try that one out. It is still a mystery to me though how that shuttle works so I have better stay with my usual Clovers. I wonder if I am the only one not being able to use those bobbin shuttles or are there other tatters out there having the same experience?
In a short while I am attending another tatting event and will be able to get those 8 balls of Manuela thread that my friend Anna have bought for me a year ago, lol. I am looking forward to the event and to try that specific tread because I have heard tatters saying it is a great thread for tatting.
That is all I am going to say about it today, but I will write about the event and the thread as soon as possible.