Slowed Down a Bit...

After my last burst of activity, I have slowed down a bit as I work on the penultimate round of my green doily.  This is another simple round of tiny rings connected with 8-8 chains.

🌿 🌸  🌿

And I finished another pair of socks.  These are "Ribbed Ribbon Socks" by Wendy Johnson, from her book "Socks from the Toe Up".  I really love working with Cascade Heritage sock wool, it's beautifully soft and a joy to knit with.  It's the second time I've used it but the first pair I gave away so I'm looking forward to wearing this one to see how the wool performs with wearing and washing.  The cascade sock wool has a fabulous range of colours so I'm already looking forward to knitting the next pair.  

They don't look like much in this "relaxed" state... and I nearly took them apart when I first started because I wasn't sure I liked them at all but I persevered and in the end, I think they're interesting looking... when worn!  I finished them off with my picot crochet cast-off which does look a bit frilly when unstretched (in above photo) but looks great when worn and is really stretchy and comfortable. I tried many different cast-offs for toe-up socks and this is my favourite at the moment.  I decided afterwards I should have carried on with the pattern a bit higher up the leg but never mind, it'll be for the next pair.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Soldiering On... and Meeting!

One more round completed.  Just two left!  It looks like I might make it to the end of this doily quicker than I expected.  Still, you don't know what can happen before completion of these two final rounds...  I could easily get side-tracked by something else...

And I'm delighted to say that I tatted some of that last row whilst sitting with Michelle of Telamagistrae!  She was in the UK visiting a friend and we found out we were not so far from each other.  We arranged a get-together and had a very enjoyable few hours together, chatting, tatting, sharing tips, eating and drinking!  It was lovely to meet her.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Another One!

Yes, another row completed.  Those rings were quite small so it went pretty quickly.  Again, I did the rings with normal flipped stitches and the chains with unflipped reverse order stitches.

How exciting! Starting yet another round.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Magic Square Magic

Oh yes squares!  I do love squares in tatting.  So when I spotted Robin's New Onion Ring Magic Square, I had to take a break from my green doily to tat it.

Tatted in Lizbeth 20, "Harvest Gold"

You should go and check out the whole thing.  There are different ways of combining the design and two squares.  Robin is really clever in designing these.  I'm impressed.  She even describes the whole process of designing a magic square.  It's really interesting.

You can tat this as a magic square but you can also just tat it as is and attach on the sides.  I love the magic square idea... but sometimes I also just like tatting smaller motifs and attaching and letting it grow as you go instead of deciding in advance how big you'd like it to be.

I like the contrast the onion rings bring to the design.  The outside chain of the onion ring is attached with a Catherine Wheel Join.   I had to refresh my memory on the CWJ as I'd not had to use it for some time.

Thank you Robin.  Another great design.

Best wishes,

Frivole

SCMR Round Done

I made good progress on the last round with self-closing mock rings.  I only needed to refill one shuttle once (and even then I only used half of it) so I think it was a good plan.

Design is by Jan Stawasz
(from his first Book)
Thread is DMC Babylo size 20

Do the SCMRs look ok to you?  Or is it obvious that I "cheated"?

I'm even going to show you up even closer...

I think they look ok.

Yes?

And I'm really getting into the rhythm with unflipped, reverse-order chains.

I can see I'll often be using that method from now on.

So nice not to have to reverse work.

And while I was at it, I also made a new video showing

this round of SCMRs, I'll be uploading it very shortly.

On to the next round!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Next Round

Here is the first of the rounds that make the whole circumference of the doily.  Again, I decided to use unflipped reverse order stitches for the chains but I also thought I'd try something different to not have to refill my shuttles so often:  I'm making the rings as SCMRs which means all the thread for the rings comes from the ball.  I'm not 100% convinced I like this method yet but I've gone so far in this round that I will complete it and then decide what to do for the next.  Ideally I'd like thread for both rings and chains to come from the ball and then you'd hardly need to refill.  It's do-able and I've tried it on a little sample.  You need to "cheat" a bit as after making a SCMR, the ball thread is not in the right place for making a chain next.  I need to experiment further to see if the look is good enough with that method to pass the test.

It seems a little bit more difficult to achieve very even, consistent SCMRs than it is with true rings but I don't think it's affecting the look too much overall.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Big Green Doily - Six Sides Done!

I'm so glad I managed to finish the separate sides (the right word for curvy sides keeps escaping me! - what would you call them?   Do you say "scallops"?).  The six sides had three rounds each which all needed cutting and tying.  No way to move from one round to the next seamlessly in this design I'm afraid - I did try!

Now it's time to make rounds that go all the way around the whole design.  So exciting!

I made a video of me working on this doily.  I decided to make the chains unflipped with reverse order stitches so I thought it might be interesting to make a video of it.  I called it a "tat-chat" video rather than a video about a specific technique... I just tat and talk about what I'm doing.  Still find it hard at times to keep talking clearly and not fumble on my words!  It doesn't quite feel natural and the camera still makes me a bit nervous although it's just me and the camera, no one else is watching or listening!  Silly really, isn't it?

It's only small if you view it on this page

but you can see it larger by clicking on the Youtube icon

after you've pressed "play".

Best wishes,

Frivole