Mistakes Are Not the End of the World!

It's true.  I was working on the 4th Round of Renulek, and I made a boo boo.  Can you pick it out?

After correction

Mistake above

I didn't hook the petals of my flowers together, making the elements separate from each other.  Boo!

I make mistakes all the time, and what I typically do is un-tat or retro tat, as so many people call it.  But here I had two rings to open, which isn't the easiest task though I can do it just fine, AND I had already retrotatted with this same section of thread once.  

One drawback of the Perle Cotton is that it "wears out" from retro tatting, getting fatigued, much more easily than cordonnet does.  I have just loved working with the Perle Cotton after doing several pieces in size 10 cordonnet, which was just eating my hands up.  

So, what do you do?  Well, one absolutely cool thing about tatting is that it is ALL KNOTS.  This means you can cut sections out without the entire piece falling apart.  But where do you cut?

 Rule One:  Don't cut the chain stitches.  Make your cut in the rings.  The small ring, I don't care where I cut, as it is the second piece in the flower element. I don't need that piece of thread.  I need to save the first part of the thread to weave into the corrected element.

The larger ring traveled along the bottom first and then up to the top where the tiny ring attaches.  So I am cutting at the LAST part of the ring just before it closed so as to save the most thread.
Here's the ring after I pulled out the teeny bits of wasted thread.  What do you do with that curlicue of thread?  Get it wet, stretch it out, and wait for it to dry.  A bit of a wait, but worth it.  Now you are ready to splice some thread together and fix the doily.  Get tatting again!

Renulek Summer Napkin 2014 Tutorial: Round 3

We are now beginning Round 3 of Renulek's 2014 Summer doily.

Reminder:
The - represents a decorative picot, and the ^ represents a very small joining picot.  If you blow up the picture, you will be able to see the difference in picot sizes.  And + will mean joining picot.

Also, if you do NOT do a split ring or two colors, you can use a single shuttle and ball to tat Round 3.

So, let's start with the ring I have sticking up over there on the left.  Starting at one of the decorative single rings on Round 2, create a ring.



R: 3-3-3+3-3-3; reverse work = RW

chain 6 ^ 6 RW
R: 8+8 (join to first ring of triplet) RW
chain 6 ^ 6 RW
R: 8+8 (join to center ring of triplet) RW
chain 6 ^ 6 RW
R: 8+8 (also join to center ring of triplet) RW
chain 6 ^ 6 RW
R: 8+8 (join to final ring of triplet) RW
chain 6 ^ 6 RW

Repeat this series around.

On other rounds, I have recommended split chains and rings to climb out and move to the next round.  Looking ahead, I don't recommend this as a transition from Round 3 to Round 4, so we are going to cut the threads, six inches or so from the work.

Put the core thread on needle (above left, light color). Poke into the tip of the decorative ring and through to the reverse side. Put the chain thread onto the needle (dark pink, below) and carefully find the spot at the top of the adjacent stitch in matching color on original chain stitches.  Poke through to reverse.  Tie half a square knot and snug again.

In the pictures above, notice that my doily is very rippled.  It is doing that in large part because my darker thread, the one I have called cherry blossom, is stiffer than the other two threads I have used, even though they are the same size.  

What can you do when this happens? From experience I know that things will probably be okay, but I like to block at this point to make sure everything is going to work out.  If not, better to know sooner than later.

Blocking may sound difficult, but my technique is simple.


Above left, get your work wet.  I recommend using cold water in case of dye runs or shrinkage.  Should not happen, but you cannot be too careful.  Have a towel ready (right), one that won't transfer color or lint to your work and is okay to mess up if your work should leak.  Lay the work on the towel and fold the towel over and press to absorb excess water.  Open the towel.  Your work will be pressed into the towel a bit.  Lift it off the towel and lay back down.  You will now finger press the work into shape.  You could also use a blunt narrow tipped stick, such as a cuticle stick, to help shape.

On this particular piece, I want my decorative rings in Rows 2 and 3 to be positioned attractively and the outer chains in a nice arrangement.  I was able to achieve this using my fingers only on this piece.

Allow your work to air dry completely, and we are ready for Round 4!

Renulek Summer Napkin 2014 Tutorial: Finish Round 2, Start Round 3

Hi, fellow tatters!  It took me a couple of days to get my next round finished, plus having time to blog is tricky too.  I have 30 minutes right now so let's see how far I get.

Pattern by Renulek, renulek.blogspot.com.

We were here on Round 2, ready to make a decision:

Basically your decision is the same as it was before:  cut and tie, or split chain and then split ring to climb into the next ring.  If you successfully did a split chain and ring before, go again!  If you are brand new, maybe you don't want to do that yet.  No big.

I'm using three colors on this doily (above right):  pink pearl, antique rose (the only two I've used so far) and cherry blossom (adding in round 3).  I dubbed them with these names.  If you want the color numbers, ask me in comments and I'll give them to you.  Cherry blossom is a new thread I'm trying which is a Sensations (by Joann stores) brand.  It turned out to be a bit thicker/more full bodied than DMC.

So I'm making a split chain here.  Remember, I'm a lefty, so mirror images.  In the left picture, I've joined the free thread to be the core of the chains.  Right, I'm making my stitches with the help of a size 13 crochet hook.

Remember, Linda Davies/toptattyhead has a great YouTube of split chains.

 Left, I have made the first half of my split ring, the final element in Round 2, using Shuttle 2.  when I get to the halfway point, I turn my hand in an upright position.  (Yeah, I should have put this on post one.  Sorry.  First tutorial.)  This is called the dead spider position.

Don't forget, you may be doing this with your right hand.  Can you see the tension I'm creating, spreading my fingers outward?  The first and ring fingers are keeping the ring taut, and the middle finger is keeping pressure on the existing stitches.  Now you would create the other stitches in the space between your third and ring fingers.  Start with the 2nd half of the hitch (over), but don't flip the stitch.  Make the usual 1st half (under) and don't flip the stitch.  Perfect half hitch, and keep going until the ring is complete.

 Now take it off your fingers (whew, mine get a little stiff when I do this) and close the ring up as usual, pulling Shuttle 2 (blue one).  Shown at right nearly closed.

Since this ring had decorative picots, we need to leave a false picot (wiggle room) between this ring and the next.  Here's one technique:

 All I did was make half a stitch to save the space, so it wouldn't close up when I made the next ring.  This is not absolutely necessary. You can just leave a bit of space between this ring and the next, and you will be fine.

Next I did something you should not do until you have a bit more experience--a single shuttle split ring with a color feed up the side.  That's why my next ring is all one color, which was my goal.  It's also lopsided and pretty ugly, though hard to tell below.  Trust me though, it was a less-than-perfect execution and the only boo boo in the work so far.  Keeps me humble.

This first ring in the new round is the same as the one below it:  R 3-3-3+3-3-3.  If you split the previous ring, do the same here.

Time for my son's concert, so I'll make another post later about stitch count in Round 3.

Renulek 2014 Summer napkin: step by step Rounds 1 and 2

I've joined a new group on facebook that attracts lots of newbies.  A lot of them want to try Renulek's doily but need a bit more instruction than stitch counts, so I thought I'd do a demo here, step by step.  Keep in mind I'm left handed, so, may need to flip flop my pictures.

IMPORTANT EDIT/NOTE:  YOU MUST USE TWO SHUTTLES for Round 2, so you may as well start Round 1 with both shuttles so you can move from one round to the next with ease.

Round 1:

Start with a ring.  The stitch count is
R 3-3^3-3^3-3

The - represents a decorative picot, and the ^ represents a very small joining picot.  If you blow up the picture, you will be able to see the difference in picot sizes.  Farther down the page, + will mean joining picot.

Reverse work (RW).  Chain 4-4^4-4.  RW and make 2nd ring, etc.

Once you work all the way around, on the 6th ring, you will need to join to ring 1.  Then you may choose to split the 6th chain to climb out of the round.  I will not explain how to do that.  Please refer to Linda Davies' You Tube video listed under toptattyhead.

If you want to split the chain, work to this point (below right):

 And then implement Linda's video.

When you have finished, you will have both threads coming out the top of the final chain, as at left.

You are then ready to move on to round two.  I chose to implement a split ring (below left).

 The stitch count for this ring is 8/8 where the / represents the fact that this is a split ring.  Again, refer to YouTube for excellent videos on technique, or check Jane Eborall's blog.

I did a split ring only for demonstration purposes.  In fact, in Round 2 I am switching to a different lighter pink for the rings and using the dark thread of the variegated for the chains.

Below, I have closed the split ring, made my join, and tatted over tails, making a chain of 5 ds.  Here you will stop and SWITCH SHUTTLES.

 To this point, my light pink thread (shuttle 1) was the working thread.  Here, I will pick up my blue shuttle, the one that has made the chain stitches in dark pink, and we will make our thrown rings with the blue shuttle (shuttle 2).

 I have formed a ring around my fingers (remember, I'm left handed, so flip this picture in your mind).  The stitch count is R4-4^4^4.  On the left below, you can see the unclosed ring I have made with shuttle 2 (blue).  Now close the ring (right).

Now switch shuttles again, using Shuttle 1, the light thread as the working thread.  Chain 5.  Switch shuttles again to Shuttle 2 (blue, dark pink above) to make the 2nd ring with stitch count R 4+4^4^4.  Switch shuttles to Shuttle 1.  Chain 5.  Switch to Shuttle 2 (blue, dark pink thread) R 4+4^4-4.  Switch to Shuttle 1, chain 5.  RW (reverse work).  Regular ring with Shuttle 1 (tortoise shell) R8+8.


Reverse work again.  Now going to make another chain and thrown ring.  Using Shuttle 1, chain 6.  Switch to Shuttle 2 (blue) R3-3-3-3-3-3.

Switch to Shuttle 1 again, R8+8.  And you are at the point in photo below.  Congratulations!  You can finish Round 2 of Renulek's 2014 Summer Napkin (doily).

When your doily likes like the one below, you are ready to make a decision--finish and tie and cut, or do another split chain and split ring to start Round 3.

Lazy blogger, busy tatter (motifs 14 and 15)

Hi to my tatting friends!  I spend my evenings scouring your blogs to see if there's anything new to look at.  So -- maybe I ought to help out and give YOU something to look at too, although I don't think my work is quite up to level of what I see out there in tat-land!

Yay me!  I finished one languishing WIP that has been sitting around for a year.  It's a design by Patricia Rizzo and I have trouble with her patterns, got sick of working on it, etc.  I used the shoe lace trick to swap colors before I knew what it was exactly, and I was not an expert at it.  A year later, finishing the final round, I note that my technique is much improved.

The color is odd on this picture.  Phone camera, whatcha gonna do?  In size 10 Lizbeth, it's ecru and I think purple splendor but not sure.

I finished it for the sake of doing so, but I have no idea what do with it now.

Below is the Tudor rose by Rosemarie Peel.

Rosemarie's version

My version

Three new motifs (11, 12, 13) AND teacup update

OK, first things first:

Not too shabby!  On the left, the original teacup; on the right, a test of a new design to make it larger and add my own touch, and the bottom center is my attempt to enact the prototype in the final colors.  "Real" cup (the white/pink/blue one) was rippling outward instead of curving upward, so I cut off the colored round and will try again.  I still think it will work.  Quite pleased with myself, and I got to go patronize my favorite local shop again, Heindselman's in downtown Provo.  

 Here on the left, we have a shamrock pattern I was trying out, and on the right, my adaptation of it to add a bead to the stem and have the stem end tatted in and not knotted at the end and cut off as I usually see them.  I hoped to make them into earrings, but time got away from me and I didn't get the next generation with decorative beads and picots made before St Patrick's Day.  These are made in size 40 Christmas Green and Christmas Green variegated in Lizbeth thread.

 And finally, below, my own tribute to Renulek's spring napkin/doily, which is intended as a pendant.  This is size 80 Lizbeth.

Update 3/22:  sold the pendant!  Woot!

DAINTY = TEENSY WEENSY

Isn't this cute?  I made this from a vintage pattern I bought on Etsy.  My mom collects teacups, and I thought a cup and saucer set for Mother's Day, tatted by Yours Truly, great gift, right?

It's absolutely darling!  The pattern describes it as "A dainty little cup and saucer to use for favors or as a little something for a shut-in friend."

Notice something I didn't notice?  The repetition of the word "little" is a bit of a clue.  

If you're having a tea party with Barbies, this is the teacup for you.  That's right--those are normal sized shuttles and a soap dish-sized container and your normal tomato pincushion.  

GRAH!  It's cute, but it's not what I had in mind.  At all.  *snort*  I am having a bit of a think and *may* incorporate some Cluny leaves to make it a bit bigger.  I tried them extensively a few weeks ago when Georgia Seitz' online tatting chat/class was working on them, and they are HARD.  But Clunies popped right into my head when I was having my Winnie the Pooh *think* about this cup.  

Mum says, "Is that my Mother's Day present?"  No, Mum, it's the prototype.  Bah.  Sooo irritated.

Still, I'm counting this on my 25 motif challenge and when I rework it, I can count the new one as another motif.

Here's the Ann Orr, finished.  -->

The Anne Orr motif on the left shows the color more accurately.  I am counting this as number 9 and the teacup as number 10 in the challenge.  I have more items to post, but my rant about the cup will have to suffice for today.  :D