Spring, Summer and now Autumn is coming

and I have not fnished my Renulek's Spring 2015 Doily. Here is a report of my progress so far.

After having issues with the small flowers, as in the last post, I snipped off that round and started over and the result is much better. Rounds 6 and 7 went smoothly.

And just when I thought Round 8 was going to be a breeze .....

Opened up the group of rings and chains and re-tatted - took me two days, in between doing other things. Now, this is what I learned from this episode.
If your first thought was to snip the mistake off, do it immediately. Don't even think about opening the stitches because if you do, you will have to do them all. Once you start un-doing even one ring, you'll keep telling yourself "I'll do one more", and by the time you decided that cutting off is the better option, there will be only a couple more left to do. By then you'll be thinking, might as well do them all! Have you had that feeling before?

Anyway, here is it is after Round 9, which was without any mistakes, Yippeee!

This doily will definitely need blocking when done. Notice how the rings in Round 8 have a slant in them.

Now, I tried something slightly different for Round 10, which you can see here,

I decided to alternate the curve of the chains between the rings. Not sure of the end result but I think it will turn out okay.

and next, the happy-dance news.

Remember this post about my yard sale find? When I was at the yard sale, the homeowner mentioned that she came across a few shuttles while sorting out her late mother's things but can't find them. She promised to call me when she comes across them again. I was not placing mcuh hope that she'd remember.

True to her words, she called me last week to tell me that the shuttles are found and would I like to come and pick them up? Would I? Would I? That needs no answer. 

I picked up them up the next day and was grinning ear-to-ear when I saw the shuttles. Wouldn't you too, when you see these?

Now I have three of them.  The first was my mother-in-law's that surfaced during packing when she had to move house. Growing up, I learned tatting using this type of shuttles but that was more than 40 yearas ago and have lost them somewhere.

The Spring Is Sprung

"Spring is sprung, the grass is riz.
I wonder where de boidie is.
De boid is on the wing, but dats absoid.
How can the boid be on the wing, the wing is on de boid."

- Anonymous

Except that it is already summer by the time I finished my Spring Doily. Here it is in different angles.

The doily, finished at 18 inches (46cm), is the largest item that I have tatted. I used Olympus thread throughout.  I usually end up giving my tatting away but this one is a keeper (for the moment, at least).

Penultimate round of Spring

Yes, two more rounds to go to finish Renulek's Spring Doily.

Round 12 has a long chain joined to the previous round.  Since I am using two colours for round 12, red rings and green chains, using the regular method for making a lock join will have a bit of red showing, like this,

Normally, I would not have minded that little blip if I am working with multi-coloured thread as is bound to happen.  But, in this case, that red stood out in between the green and the tan variegated. To remove that blip, I followed an instruction that I had read in a new tatting book that I have gotten.

Instead of pulling the shuttle thread through to make the join, I pull the green ball thread and pass the shuttle through the green loop.

Then, I slowly pull the chain thread to close the loop but keeping the green thread wrapped over the red shuttle thread.

I even out the double stitches before the join and continue with the next set of double stitches after the join.  Because the shuttle thread is not locked, you can still continue to adjust the spread of the double stitches even after you have made the join.

This is the beginning of my Round 12.

This is the tatting book recently bought, New Tatting by Tomoko Morimoto

In my opinion, it is a good book for beginners because she covers a lot of tatting basics in it.  There are designs in there that can be appealing to all levels of tatters.  In fact, I have one that I plan to tat after I have finished this Spring Doily.

Round 9 of Spring

I feel I had to add the additional words in the title as I am still on the Spring Doily, while Renulek has come out with a summer doily. I have no plans to the summer version, but I admire the tenacity of some tatters who are already embarking on it after finishing Spring - some are even working the two Spring and Summer together, finishing one and starting on the other.

Anyway, this is my Round 9 -

This is a close up so you can see the thread colours better.

I brought back the red in Round 9 but I added a new thread for the chains.  I am using Olympus Gold label code M16 for the chains, which is a variegation of tan to white.  Unfortunately, it does not show up very well even in the close-up photo.

My next post on this will be after I have completed the next two rounds.

Spring Doily Round 8

The red really stands out in the middle.  I may bring this shade back in at least one of the coming rounds.

I am using Olympus Gold for all the rounds. Once Round 8 is complete, this doily would be about 34cm wide.

As everyone have indicated, Round 8 is taking a long time.  It may well be long into summer before I'll get this Spring Doily done.

Now .. Round 7

I have only been working on the Spring Doily since the last time I updated this blog.  Even then, it wasn't more than an hour a day, so naturally it has been slow progress.  Here is my status at Round 7 of the Spring Doily by Renulek. (please excuse the fuzzy photo)

Thread information: Olympus Gold Label
Round 1: 733 & 541; Round 2: 733 & 228; Round 3: 192 & 232;
Rounds 4 & 5: M38; Round 6: 228 & 733; Round 7: 733

If you notice, I am tatting Round 7 slightly different from Renulek's pattern; I have chosen not to tat the floating rings in this round.  I will add that in when I do Round 8 since I plan to make the floating rings in a different colour than the brown that I am using in Round 7.

I have to say, my colour choices pales in comparison with the bright colours of some the other doilies that I have seen.

The way I see it, after the sunflower, the red roses and the pink hydrangea, I decided on a brown pathway around it.  I think I'll add in daffodils after this.  Ha ha ha ... me and my imagination.

So Close

I am five rings short of the end of Round 3 of Renulek's Spring Doily and I ran out of thread.  That's a tatter's life! Anyway, here is a photo of the almost-done Round 3.

I am undecided on these two colours for the next round. The top is a solid light pink while the bottom is a paler variegated pink.

Whichever colour I'll end up choosing, I may decide to use it for both rounds 4 and 5.

On another note, I bought this note-card at a craft bazaar quite a while ago.  I think the design lends itself to tatting.  This is my last card. I wish I had bought more of it.

Raison D'être

Seriously?

Who needs a reason for this!

I will be using Olympus thread throughout - that is the only kind that I have in several colours.

Yellow is code 541, Tan is 733 and Green is 228

p.s. no, I don't know French, so comments in English please, ha ha ha .....