WIP - Jan Stawasz

I just found this at the bottom of a bag!  I'd forgotten it to be honest, and never finished it.  I love this small doily by Jan Stawasz from his book:  Tatted Treasures.  I made it once in dark green several years ago (click here if you'd like to see the green version).

It's a bit of shame that Jan Stawasz didn't name most of his projects.  This one is just called "Doily XIV".  It makes it more difficult to refer to his designs; it would be more memorable to say it's his "Daisy Doily" or something similar.

Anyway, I'm well on the way to finishing it now.  I hope I don't run out of thread on my shuttles... because I can't remember which thread I used!  It's definitely not my usual Lizbeth 20 as it is finer... but which one is it?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Now Up to Four...

… of the large round motifs of this Jan Stawasz design.  It makes a nice square, doesn't it?  But it's too small yet, I need to keep going a bit more.  There are also very interesting negative shapes emerging which do appeal to me.  Time for four diamonds next.

Working on this piece has made me - ONCE AGAIN! - re-evaluate the methods to deal with ends.  Along with the FS/BS issue, it's another interesting one with tatters having various favourite methods.  For a while, I was really keen on the "magic-loop-method-without-a-magic-loop".  This is where you fold back your thread on the last chain and finger-tat with the loop.  When you get to the end, you pass the other thread through the loop, and pull back until both threads are within the last chain.  Difficult to explain in words (as many tatting methods).  I did make a pictorial of this but I have now removed the link from my Techniques page for the reasons below.  Since the pictorial I had been meaning to make a video of this but then I had a few too many times where I couldn't pull the threads back and I ended up breaking one and then it's too short to fix it and that can be really infuriating.  Because of course, that happens right at the end, when you've done all the tatting!  I've even had a couple of instances of the tatting falling apart after I'd completed everything and that's pretty awful too.  These are the reasons that have prevented me making a video of this method because I find it doesn't work perfectly every time. 

And then there are the magic loops and I think that can be a good method but you must remember to put one in at the very start and then I find it gets in the way a bit as I tat.  It has to be the right size too or it can also be difficult to pull the thread back and I've had a few fights with those!

So then there is the sewing in of ends.  For some reason, I used to dislike doing that with a passion.  I don't really know why.  I love tatting and I just wish there was some magic way to make those ends disappear!  Woosh, they're gone, they're strong, the tatting won't fall apart.  But no.  There are no magic wands for making ends disappear.

On this piece, I have reverted to sewing them in with a needle.  It works fine, the threads are knotted first so they won't come apart and when done well, is practically invisible.  I'm starting to tell myself that if I spend that many hours on tatting some lovely lace, surely I can spend a few extra minutes sewing in the ends.

What about you?  What's your preferred method?  Are you completely happy with it?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Heart? Owl?

I finished a second round motif on this piece designed Jan Stawasz (the 2nd book).  When my daughter saw it, she thought it looked like a heart.  So I scanned it on a pink background.

The proportions aren't right for a heart really, but I know what she means.  A diamond shape next?  Or another round?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Violin Scarf

A little while ago, my mother-in-law asked me to make her a "scarf" for when she plays the violin.  It's not to wrap around her neck but just to put on her shoulder and collar bone where she wrests her instrument as she plays.

She just wanted the piece of fabric made into a rectangle and sewn up the sides...  but could I really just give her back a plain black scarf, unadorned??  Of course not.  This was perfect for some black lace which I think looks really elegant.

Here it is:

I used a few repeats of the lace for a collar pattern in Jan Stawasz's second book, "Tatted Treasures", the one one page 74.  I was looking for something reasonably wide and this fit the bit perfectly.

If I was doing it again, I would probably omit the little flower down the side of the lace but I decided it didn't bother me enough to start over again.  I'm happy with the rest of the lace.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Thinking Ahead

I've not yet completed my current large project (the Butterfly Doily) but I'm getting itchy fingers already and started to think about what new large project I will be tackling next.

I'm not going to go round the next time.  I think I'd like a rectangle.  So it's likely it will be made from many motifs assembled together with a border.

I tatted the one below before which is from Jan Stawasz's first book.  I still like it and it may be the one!    So I'm tatting it again in different colours and threads to try to decide which to use...

I feel that I want a change from the ecru I'm currently using.  But then I quite like larger pieces to be traditional and timeless, so is cream or ecru a better option? (I'm afraid I don't like white!).  Opinions would be welcome.

I managed to make mistakes in both the samples above.  For some reason I couldn't get my head around the stitch count of the outer rings and kept putting one picot too many!  

I also feel I may have to tat this FS/BS due to the opposing rings in this design which would mean you'd have one front-side on and the other back-side facing if tatted with the traditional method.  

As there are no directions in his books, just diagrams, I'm not sure how he made the motifs himself but I didn't want to have to cut and tie between the two rounds so I used a split chain which I now feel really comfortable with since learning Marie Smith's Method.  I used to dread split chains but since learning Marie's method, they are a piece of cake!  Oh, how I love the internet and all the resources therein!  Including all the wonderful tatters who share their knowledge.

Now, of course, I have plenty of time to change my mind before I start this next large project but this one is definitely a possibility.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Another Primrose, More JS, and Butterflies

After tatting Primrose by Rosemarie Peel which I wanted to try because it used a safety pin to hold the picots and I was curious...  I remade the motif using a centre ring first instead and then joining to very small picots.

Here are both motifs, side by side.  What do you think?  My conclusion is that I'm not sure it's worth using the safety pin which I found fiddly to work with.  Maybe, the chains lie a bit more easily next to each other with the pin but that's about it.  The second flower looks nearly the same to me and was much easier to make by tatting a centre ring of single picots separated by one double stitch and then carrying on with the chain-ring-chain-join of the second round.  Simple.

In my hastiness I forgot to carry on and make the tail on the second motif.  It was too late, I had cut the threads.

Then I decided to try another motif from Jan Stawasz's book "Tatted Treasures.  As you may know, squares always appeal to me so it had to be this one.  In the pattern, he joins these to plain ring squares which I don't like as much so I was thinking I might try joining a few of these together.  I think they'd look interesting.  Not so fond of this colour though (another DMC Babylo).

I'm always fascinated by how different a square motif looks whether viewed on its side or on its point - don't you think?

And finally, Umintsuru said in a previous post that she'd like to see the butterflies better.  So here's a close-up that shows the 1st round of butterflies and a bit of the second round.  They are similar but slightly different.  Personally, I think the eye is distracted by the round that follows the butterflies.  If it was me, I'd have made a more full band to enclose the butterflies rather than those long chains which mean that you loose the shape of the butterflies a the top, I think.

Just realised, looking at the photos that I said above I wasn't fond of the colour for the Jan Stawasz motif and my doily looks the same colour!  But the doily is made in Lizbeth Mocha Light and in real life does look different than the DMC Babylo colour which is darker, browner and with a strange pink tinge to it.

I finally updated my patterns page.  I was trying to add to it yesterday and accidentally erased a big chunk of it and it took me AGES to find all the photos again and put back all the links.  The layout is still a bit weird as the images keep jumping about the place and wanting to misbehave for some strange reason I don't understand.  But now all patterns and all links are there.

One last thing to say for today:  I'm all excited, I've finally had a taker for tatting lessons!  A friend is coming over on Tuesday and I will show her how to tat.  I hope it goes well, and she takes to it!

Best wishes,
Frivole

More Jan Stawasz... a doily?

I have a couple of long-term projects on the go (one doily and one hanky) but I couldn't help myself and felt compelled to start on this small doily from Jan's new book "Tatted Treasures".  This is the first two rounds.

Not too happy with the look of those small centre rings... partly because I couldn't make up my mind whether to tat this FS/BS or not so some are and some aren't!  I carried on with traditional in the end. But they're still not lying quite right though...  yes, I'm fussing again.

I'm not even sure of my colour choice but I'll continue on with the next round and see what I think of it then.  I'm tatting this in DMC Babylo (size 20) which is softer than Lizbeth but nice to work with.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Jan Stawasz Flower

First tatted piece for 2013!  Inspired by Diane...  I decide to tat one of Jan Stawasz' flowers from his new book.  This one caught my attention when I first leafed through - I liked the shape of it.  When I tatted some of his designs before, I ignored what he calls "his method" of tatting because it seemed complicated the way he explained it and it confused me trying to read the pattern... until someone at In Tatters said "it's just front-side/back-side tatting"!

So I tatted this flower using his method (ie. FS/BS tatting).  It does look nice.  Though I'm still torn as to whether I always want my tatting to have a front side and a back side.  I quite like having a lace that is "reversible", which looks good whichever side you look at it.  I'm not sure if I want one side to look better than the other.  In the case of a motif which will only be viewed from one side though, it's a great idea.  But for tree ornaments for example, I like to think they look as good from both sides.

Anyway, back into the perennial traditional vs. FS/BS tatting debate!  I conclude that sometimes I like to use traditional, and sometimes I like to use FS/BS tatting, depending on circumstances and usage of the piece.

Ok, a long enough introduction for this little flower.  Hope you like it.  

I think I'll go try another.

Best wishes,

Frivole

More Jan Stawasz

Here is another motif from Jan Stawasz's book "Tatting Theory and Patterns".  Again, lots of decorative picots.  This motif is part of a large table runner which is really beautiful.  I might be tempted to make it... though not sure if I'm quite ready for another large project just yet.  And I still have the Burda Butterfly Doily to finish which I've not worked on for a while.

I think I might have to adjust the stitch count just a bit as mine cupped (see image below).  Also mine doesn't quite have the same curve in the outside chains that Jan's has.  I prefer the look of his.  So I would have to play with this a bit before I started making many for a table runner.

Looks like a tiny crown.

Best wishes,

Stawasz/Konior?

Here is another motif from Jan Stawasz's book.  

I made it with one of Jess's Messy Jess-y's (Tat-ilicious on Etsy),

a bright mix of fresh greens.

Jan likes to use lots of decorative picots.  These are getting lost a bit with this (gently) variegated thread.    But the overall shape is still very appealing.  I found it reminiscent of Mary Konior's masquerade with the same oppositely curving chains on the outside.  Did one inspire the other?  Which one came first?

In fact, it's so similar on the outside round that I used the border of Jan Stawasz's motif to make a border for Masquerade on a small doily I made last year:

Best wishes,

Wonderful Jan Stawasz

I was so excited when a copy of Jan Stawasz's book came up on Ebay.  I have made a few of his designs before thanks to a kind tatting friend who lent me her book.  But I was always hoping I'd be able to get my hands on my own copy one day.  And the day finally arrived!  It's mine - yipee!

Here is the first motif I tatted from the book.  Just a little one so I could try out Jess's Madder Tatter thread (definitely a good name for it!)

I forgot to put a magic thread in for the centre ring so there's an unappealing blip of colour there.  There is a lot of contrast in the colours of this thread and by having a thrown ring off the chain, it makes a bit too much of a line (a break) in the colours.  I also played with the thrown rings (the little flowers) because I felt they weren't sitting quite straight on the chain... I tried "posting" the shuttle as some people advise (passing the shuttle through the loop of a ring before closing it) and I think it did improve the look in this particular motif (see if you can spot which ones are which!). 

Here it is!  Love this book.

So glad to have it in my eager little tatting hands!

Best wishes,

Cup Winner!

Do you remember earlier in the summer when I said that my Mother-in-Law had suggested I enter our Village Fête competition with one of my doilies?

Well, I was away for the Fête so didn't get to see my entry amongst the others but I was delighted upon my return to learn that not only had I won first prize in my category, but was also awarded the Rose Bowl which is for The Best Exhibit in the Overall Domestic Section!  I even get to have my name engraved on the cup.

I'm chuffed.

I may even have to enter again next year....

Well, someone needs to promote the merits of tatting in my neck of the woods!

Best wishes,

TADA! Second Jan Stawasz Doily Completed

Here I was flying away on the last few repeats of the last round of this doily when disaster struck!!  I couldn't believe my eyes - OH NO!  Shock, horror:  there was one too many rings on one scallop of the previous row!  I kept looking at it, hoping to find a solution that wouldn't involve me cutting out the mistake on the row below and struggling to join it back in as an invisible way as possible.  But no, there was no avoiding it, I had to cut and re-do.

The re-join is not perfect (up close anyway) so I'll have to ask advice on the best way to join in these circumstances and how to deal with the ends that result.

But anyway, enough talking, out with the mistake and the last few repeats completed:

Jan Stawasz Doily, tatted in Lizbeth, size 20, écru.

Close-up

Doily on darker background (our wood dining table)

I am delighted with this doily and after two Jan Stawasz projects, remain a fan of his designs.  When I started tatting again just a year or two ago, I didn't think I had it in me to tackle larger projects like this but I have really enjoyed making my two doilies... and I don't think this one will be the last either!

Thanks for all of your comments of support whilst the doily was in progress.  

Best wishes,

Nearly There!

Now completed the 10th round... and started on the 11th and last round.  

But no sneak-peek on that one.  The next picture will be of the completed doily.

This round went much quicker.  But I didn't enjoy those long chains!

They just wouldn't behave themselves.

Best wishes,

9th Round Done!

I'm sorry my tatting is not so varied at the moment...  more of the doily I'm afraid!

Are you bored with it yet? 

This was quite a long round to tat, with 25 separate motifs.

I decided I won't show the whole thing again until I get to the end.

So at least there will be pleasure in the "unveiling" of the finished doily.

I think this 9th round gives it a nice shape and one could decide to stop here,

it's now about the same size as the blue doily.  But I can't wait to get to the

end as I particularly like the shape of the last two rounds.

That's right, just TWO to go!

Yipee!

Best wishes,