Rings and Rings

Right now at the Illinois State Museum, there is a display of Civil War era quilts and other textiles.  In one of the cases are several socks, mittens and doilies that have been knitted and crocheted.  My friend, Jane, brought it to my attention and she had the idea of seeing if they will let us try to reproduce the socks after the show is over. 

We had a discussion about one of the pairs of socks that has a mixture of patterns, one of which looks very much like tatting:

It had been a while since I'd seen them so I went last week to see if I could get some better photos like the one here.  See the little circles?  I knew I'd seen this pattern before and found it in the "Victorian Lace Today" book by Jane Sowerby.  It was from an 1860s shawl pattern from Mlle. de le Branchardiere's book, "The Abergeldie Winter Book."

I know that in all the patterns and books Jane and I have studied, this was the only time I'd seen this type of spider pattern.  The only thing we're going to have to figure out is how to intersperse the rings with the triangles (although I do have an idea about that).

It's a pretty tricky pattern and after 4-5 goes with black lace weight wool yarn, I decided I would try it with size 8 perle cotton.  Besides I have a new house that needs some curtains.  What better way to test it out!

I think this is going to do us very well with the sock pattern and I think it's going to be a very pretty curtain valance, don't you?  Although I think I've got the rhythm of it now, I did have to rip out about 3 times on the 2nd and 3rd rows.  But I still have to pay VERY close attention.  So if you hear someone walking around Springfield muttering, "ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six...ONE, two, three, FOUR, five, six...One, two..." that'll be me.

Perennial Workbasket

I never paid too much attention to Workbasket magazines before I learned to tat.  Oh, I knew about them and knew my Grannie kept them and used them from time to time.  But my notice never went beyond that.

That is until I learned to tat.  All of a sudden, Workbasket became my favorite publication.  There is at least one tatting pattern in every Workbasket, almost from the beginning of publication in the 1940s.  This most recent pattern was published in the October 1967 issue.  I kind of stumbled across this pattern the other day when I needed a new pattern to start.  I think it's the prettiest tatted doily I've ever made.

And it's been spoken for.  I was at lunch with friends the other day tatting away when one of them happened to mention that they would love to have a tatted doily.  Wasn't that good timing?  Me with a doily to finish and her needing a doily?!



Oddity

My friend, Karen, of Karen Poulakos Studios, was showing me the wooden-handled Chinese "crochet hook" yesterday.  I don't know what this Chinese company has against crocheters, but I'm sure you wouldn't be able to carry this crochet hook on an airplane!

Have a look at that hook.  Trust me.  It's just as deadly as it appears!

We were trying to figure out yesterday what you could actually use this implement for.  With fiber, that is.  Rug hooking? An awl for poking holes in linen?  Stabbing.  Oops, I mean, um, canvas work.  Hehe.

 

And tatting again

I just can't stop.  After finishing the last doily, I dove into my Workbasket stash and came across a quintessential tatting doily pattern in the October 1967 issue.  Here's the start of it along with another project I'm working on with the bobbin lace.

It's been quite a journey

I'm FINALLY finished with this doily.  It took me 4 full days just to get around the next to last round.  But it's completely worth it, don't you think?

I don't know where I'll use it but I'm thrilled at how it came out.  I can't wait to start a new project.  The thread I used was Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread in Extra Fine size 30.  It's the first time I've used it and it worked great for tatting.  Not all crochet thread is great for tatting because it's not always plied tightly enough but this worked great.  It's a nice size and feels great.

 

On the big next to last round, it took 4 full bobbins to get all the way around.  The easiest thing to do was to wind the bobbins from a second ball and keep the first ball attached.  That way I only had the one end to work in as I went.  This is definitely the largest tatting project I've ever attempted.  Now I'm going to my Work Basket magazines for another!

5th times the charm...apparently

Tatting is beautiful.  I love tatting.  I love to look at tatting.  Tatting is pretty hard - at least when you're distracted while you're tatting.  At least when you're me and you're distracted while you're tatting.

I took on this beautiful oval tatted doily from The DMC Book of Charted Tatting Designs.  Absolutely nothing wrong with the instructions, clear as a bell.  Nothing wrong with the photo accompanying said instructions.  Ditto.  But with the round I just finished, I've had re-start it 3 times, cut out about 4 repeats, redo rings 3-6 times.  I finally thought I'd finished the round last night when my spidey senses warned me to lay it out and double check before I close up that last ring and finish.  Here's what I saw on the last repeat of this brutal round:

On the last repeat of the round, I discovered that I'd attached the ring to the wrong place.  Fortunately, I had not closed the ring so, once again, I took the stitches out, poked myself with the sharp end of the tatting shuttle twice and fixed it.  Now it looks like this:

Very satisfying.

Until I look at the pattern.  I have to finish this easy round and do one more round like this, simple ring/chain.  Then I have another round of the killer pattern.  The previous round had 20 repeats, the next one has 40 repeats.  I may be here yet awhile.

At the auction

While I'm sitting at a day-long auction at Patricia Doyle's Auctions, I have had to entertain myself through the stuff I don't care about so here's what I've been doing:

This is going to end up being quite a large oval doily since I'm using size 10 crochet cotton.  I've worked my shuttle thread out and they've gotten to the furniture I'm interested in so I've set it aside but I think it's going to be beautiful.

I did find a cool bed this morning at an antique show being hosted by a local historic farm home.  It's a wooden spiral frame, in great shape at a great price.  I haven't gotten it, though, because it measures 51 inches wide so it's between the 3/4 and the full bed shape.  It wouldn't matter but it has side rails so I'll really need to get a mat-tress that will fit or some way to jigger something.  But the seller is in the area so I'll be able to follow up with him.  I wish I'd thought to get a photo of it but I was too busy sweating and hoping not to have to use the PortaPottie!

Here's the piece I wish I had room for:

Not a great photo but it's a magnificent burled walnut bed with 8 accompanying pieces.  So grand!  It will be interesting to see if it even sells.  Everything so far is selling way beyond what I'm willing to do but it's kind of fun to see how things go.  So far the most expensive thing of the day has been a paintin sold for $7,000!