More on Vintage Patterns

I will still tat the square from the previous post again but (as is often the case) I was side-tracked by another vintage pattern from a book I've had a long time called "Tatting Patterns" by Julia Sanders.  Now I don't know what the link is with Julia Sanders (perhaps she's the editor?) because this is, in fact, an unabridged republication of "The Priscilla Tatting Book no. 2" (1915).

Luckily for all of us, this is now available for free on the web.  See this link.  The doily is on page 16.  This is a great book with many interesting patterns and well worth having in your collection I think.

I had seen this doily tatted before over at In Tatters and I thought it looked really pretty and unusual with its liberal use of Victorian sets.  In fact Victorian sets are used altogether a lot in the Priscilla Tatting book.

However, I was struggling to decipher the pattern.  I kept ending up with my chains facing the wrong way.  After a few false starts, I asked Monedido (the In Tatters member who had made this doily before and who tats beautifully) and she kindly gave me some help to get to grips with the nice lattice first round of this doily.  Thank you so much Monedido!

Here it is:

What's interesting is that this round is completely made of chains.  So although there is a lot of tatting, you don't even empty one shuttle as you are working with a shuttle and ball and nearly all the thread comes from the ball.  I like that.

The lattice is very stretchy but will be set into place by the next round which places more Victorian sets around the large rings.

I'm slightly tempted to throw some blue in there... or should I stick to the classic ecru?...

Victorian sets, for those who don't know, are a number of first halves of the double stitch followed by the same number of the second half of the double stitch.  For example, in this case, 4 first halves followed by 4 second halves which gives a "frilly" effect to the chain.

Best wishes,

Frivole