Doily in progress

 

In my stash of thread I selected some colors that made me feel happy - sort of a Marshall Fields 1972 happy!☺ The vivid magenta red and dark green are both vintage Flora threads, the shaded pink to green is my own hand dyed, and the cream is Lizbeth color 612. All size 20, although the Flora 20 is very slightly thicker than Lizbeth they are working well together.

The pattern is my own "Daylily Dance". Many thread ends to hide, but playing with the colors is fun so it seems worth the trouble.

Oops! I made a mistake that needed to be cut out in the second triangular motif. So, I  rewound the shuttle with continuous thread from the ball to continue the tatting. While cutting out the mistake I made sure to cut far enough out to leave at least a short core thread tail along with the ball thread tail to hide under some double stitches in the following chain, staggering the abandonment of each tail to give a gradual thickness reduction. I cut the tails off after finishing that motif.

The motifs need to be joined at the correct picots in order for everything to fit. In the pattern there are diagrams and photos to show where to join.

Almost halfway there! By the way, the "Daylily Dance" pattern is available as an instant download on both Goimagine and Etsy.

The Jubiloso doily in color!

 

Jubiloso

All done! I'm really pleased with the placement of the colors. The complete list of the thread colors I used are on my previous post. The Jubiloso pattern is listed in my Etsy shop. 

I put a short video of the process of tatting this doily on TikTok, and was very surprised it went somewhat "viral" with over 65 thousand views at the time of this writing. Well, there's 21st century technology being put to use for learning about handcrafting and art, I think that's a step in the right direction.

Jubiloso doily progress continuing

 

Round 7

As of this morning I have rounds 10 and 11 remaining to do. I'm pleased with how the color choices look together! So here's the list, in order of appearance:

1. Lizbeth 612
2. Lizbeth 630
3. Lizbeth 615
4. Lizbeth 608
5. Lizbeth 622
6. Lizbeth 612
7. Lizbeth 630 and hand dyed "Tulip Jimmy"
8. Lizbeth 667 and 624
9. Various hand dyed greens, including "Leafy", "Celery", "Forest", and Karey Solomon's "Map of the World"
10. Lizbeth 667
11. Lizbeth 676

Photos of the finished doily will be posted when it's done! The original pattern for Jubiloso is listed in my Etsy shop.

Round 8

Round 9

Doily in progress

 

3rd round in progress

It's been 11 years since my "Jubiloso" doily pattern was listed on Etsy. I had only tatted it in white at the time, and the goal then was to design an easy "cut and tie after each round" doily that had only a few simple Celtic elements that did not require any special shuttle.

The urge to see how it looked in colors came upon me, so I've started tatting it. Here are pictures of what I've got done at the time of this writing.

5th round in progress

6th round in progress

On nice warm days I tatted outside. Today is cold and windy, so tatting will continue inside today. Later I hope to have some skeins prepared for another dye batch which will be "Brilliant Sunset". Not to be used in this doily, because I already have enough of a hand dyed I plan to use which is "Tulip Jimmy". Side note, all my "Jimmy" tulips must have been eaten by critters because none of them came up this year. Not complaining though, because the new tulips planted last fall did come up and bloomed beautifully!

Towering Perennial Tulips 

Jacket Project and Easy Weaver's Knot

 

With the doily finished (knot stitch pattern from Priscilla Tatting Book No. 3), I've decided to sew it onto a white jeans jacket. I'm planning to continue adding more and more colorful tatting onto the jacket until it's a totally fabulous art-to-wear garment. ☺

I pinned the tatting in place, and am in the process of sewing it on with white thread, catching the outer picots of the round motif, then the outer picots of the leaves. I decided to not use any adhesive because I want the tatting to be safely removable in the future, when the jacket eventually wears out.

Since I used a dark green as the ball thread for tatting the chains (the edges of all the leaves), and sometimes a different color thread for the rings (the centers of the leaves), I'll share here the way I tie a weaver’s knot (smallest knot to connect 2 threads).

Loosely tie a slip knot in 1st thread, then put the 2nd thread through the loop.

Pull both sides of the slip knot until 2nd thread “pops”.

Voilà! ♥

Old Tatting, New Tatting

 

New doily in colors on the right, old doily in white on the left, both tatted by me 40+ years apart. Pattern from a library book. I don't have the book, just the 1970s tatting I did from it. Yes, I am old.

All that I could remember about the book was that it was small, hard cover, the title was "Tatting" and it was already time-worn in the 1970s. So, I did an online search something like "mid 20th century small hardcover tatting book" and found this picture on eBay:

It was described as having been common in libraries, so I thought this could be it and purchased it. I've been waiting for it to come but received a message from the seller with an apology and a refund. The seller didn't actually have the book; it was a "drop ship" arrangement that apparently didn't work out. Oh, well.

Moving on to the mysterious origins of the House of White Birches Tatting Book No. 5 that's sat on my shelf for years. Turns out, it's actually a reprint of Priscilla Tatting Book No. 3 (published 1924) which is available as a free download at The Antique Pattern Library. Scroll to about the middle of the page to find it, look for a greenish cover.

I'm doing the Knot Stitch pattern from that book. I interpreted knot stitch as split chain. It's used only in the round medallion. 

The leaf pattern is now one of my favorites! The original directions indicate that the leaves were to be sewn on separately, but I've decided to join them while tatting. It's resulting in overlapping, closely crowded leaves, but I like it!

"Jubiloso" doily

I did it!!!

I stuck to my original goal of designing a fun doily that used only the techniques that can be done with one shuttle and a ball thread. No fancy 2 shuttle work! There is some celtic style overlapping, but that is really not hard.

I've prepared a 4 page pattern with a file size of 2.2MB in pdf format. It contains written instructions in English, and several partial diagrams. I'm offering the pdf pattern for sale in my etsy shop.

The doily looks nice in white, but there is also a lot of possibility for color play!

Another tiny peak at doily in progress, and what Vicki did

This is still the same doily that I have been designing using only one shuttle and ball method throughout. (Some celtic interlacing included). I'm sticking to it!

I thought the design needed some small motifs, which necessitate "tie and cut" and ends worked in. I plan on sewing them in using "Lily's Way".

I think the doily will be finished after a few more rounds, yay!

The butterfly in the next photo was tatted by Vicki, and is her interpretation of the "Bedazzled Butterfly" pattern in my book, "Boutique Tatting". I think Vicki did a terrific job! And thanks go to Celtic Dream Weaver for sending the photo.



Dye batch in progress is "Peace".

April has arrived!

LOL! Mr. Snowman won't last long!

It's wonderful to see things growing again.






I was "stuck" on what to do next with this doily design, sampling, cutting out, and sampling again, but I may get it to work yet.


I'll be dyeing some more thread in the "Pansy" series - "Purple Pansy" and "Blue Pansy" now, which will be different from the "Soft Pansy" I did last week. There can never be too many pansies, LOL!

Just a peek at the new doily idea so far

So, that long strip of unconnected rings and chains is being poked into place under the previous round's chains. So now, hmm, kicking around an idea for the next round. My goal: keep it simple - not boring.

If you unwound a doily, it would reach from here to...

...well, maybe not the moon, but possibly around the house?☺

What I have in the photo is round 7 of a doily that I am designing in celtic style. So the "mess" you see will be arranged to form a circle, looped through the previous round, and all linked up on the following round. At least that's the plan.

And - to challenge myself further, I'm attempting to limit the design to what can be tatted using only 1 shuttle and a ball thread. At this point, no fancy advanced techniques have been used, just the celtic overlapping, which really isn't that hard. I'm not sure I can hold out to the end without throwing some 2 shuttle work in there, but I'm attempting to keep it an "intermediate" level doily.

"Arches" doily

This is my original design, which I came up with many years ago. It's just basic tatting with one shuttle and a ball of thread. Enjoy!

For pdf of this pattern, click here.

Doily measures about 6 inches in diameter when made in size 30 crochet cotton. Ball and shuttle are used throughout.

Center: R 12--12. R 2-2-2-2. RW. Ch 6-6, j to 2nd p of small r. RW. R 2-2-2-2. RW. Ch 6-6, j to 2nd p of small r just made. RW. R 12+12 (to long p of 1st r). Repeat until there are 6 large r in all, each sep by 2 small rings and chains.

Rnd 1: R 4+4 (to p on ch of center). RW Ch 3-3-3-3-3-3. RW. Repeat all around the center.

Rnd 2: R 12+12 (to middle p of ch on previous rnd). [R 2-2-2-2. RW. Ch 6-6, j to 2nd p of small r just made. RW.] Rep [ to ] for a total of 4 small rings and chains, then R 12+12 again. Rep the sequence all around rnd 1.

Rnd 3: This rnd is all chains. J to p of 2nd ch of previous rnd, ch 10, j to p of 3rd ch of previous rnd. Ch 13 p 2 ds bet, then repeat the sequence all around, always skipping the 4th and 1st ch of the previous rnd.

Rnd 4: This rnd is all chains. J to 1st p of large ch of previous rnd, ch 3-3, skip 1 p and j to next p. Repeat for a total of 6 ch, this forms one "arch". Then ch 5, and repeat this sequence all around.

Final rnd: R4+4 (to last p of an arch of previous rnd). R 4+4 (to 1st

p of next arch of previous rnd). RW. Ch 3-3-3. RW. R4+4 (to next p on arch of previous rnd). Continue all around, making ch between all r except those at the beginning and end of each arch.

"Arches" doily © Marilee Rockley 2009

Abbreviations:
R ring
Ch chain
rnd round
- picot
-- large picot
+ join
j join
p picot
RW reverse work
sep separated
bet between
ds double stitch

Submissions for the museum display

These things are not part of the challenge!

These are just some photos of things I have made in past years that I am submitting to a lace exhibit. As you can see, I did tat a lot of white! That would help explain my madness for color...been there, done that, you know.

The heart with the calligraphy (yes, I did the calligraphy!) is from one of Elgiva Nicholls' books.

Tatting appliqued onto net. I sewed it on with invisible nylon thread. I had a lot of patience in those days! (20 or so years ago?) Probably now I would use fabric adhesive.

The collars are from patterns appearing in the Priscilla Tatting Book No. 2 or books of similar vintage.

The weaving here is incorporating tatting that was tatted onto the yarn leaving long tails that were woven in as part of the fabric. The edging was added after the piece was hemmed.

This teal and white is another example of tatting appliqued onto net. My own design. Not quite a collar, not quite a necklace, so I call it a "neckpiece". This was the forerunner to my necklace designing.

This doily is from the pattern "Noel" in the book "Floriade" by Ben Fikkert. It is only the center part of the pattern, and I added the beads.

I'll be taking these to the Lighthouse Lacers meeting on Saturday, Oct. 14 where examples of all sorts of lace will be brought to prepare a presentation for the exhibit committee. It'll be a while before I find out if any of my pieces are accepted for the exhibit, but I'll keep you posted.