The "Big Doily" Gets Bigger plus a Bracelet

Greetings!

The past two weeks have been polar opposites for me in terms of tatting:

Two weeks ago I was very productive, as you will see below, and this past week I have been very unproductive, due in part to this:

Ouchie! My finger met the slicer side of my cheese grater and made tatting quite difficult for a few days!

However, I have managed to make a bit of headway on "The Big Doily"

 It amazes me how much nicer the circles look with the centers filled in!

You perhaps notice the big spaces between the first large blue round and the (for now) most outer white ring...the pattern suggests inserting Sorrento Bars, the concept of which is totally escaping me.

I've done Google searches on the topic, and the best help I've found is this from Project Gutenberg's eBook of "The Art of Modern Lace Making" by The Butterick Publishing Co:

 I'm still not quite sure how this is actually going to work...do any of you have any experience with Sorrento Bars or suggestions on how to use them in this pattern?

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Sometimes before bed my mind wanders and I start thinking about what I would tat if I could find the pattern. If I fix on something I try to write it down before I forget about it...

I really, really love the doily that is the heading of this blog. It is the "Celtic Sugar and Spice Doily" from Tina Neudorf's Needle Tatting From the Heart. Two of my favorite parts are the center motif with the overlapping motifs and the overlapping chains about halfway through.

I was thinking about this doily and decided to try to come up with a bracelet based on those two elements...and here is what I came up with:

The insides:

The outside:

The bracelet:

 The original drawing:

And then of course I got a brainwave...and remembered these long-neglected beads in just the right colors for this bracelet!

So I decided to add some...I wanted to put in the overlapping chains, but they didn't look the way I wanted them too...tension issues again :(

 So I cut them out and went to my old standby and personal favorite: Josephine!

And here is the finished product:

And wasn't Pip nice, he helped!

 

 

Maybe someday I'll come up with the pattern, but for now I want to tweak it a bit more...it's the type-A perfectionist in me, I think.  :)

A Thread Infusion, Continuing the "Big Doily" and Motifs #s 6 and 7!

Well, my Honduran thread is here! :) Hooray!

Funny thing is, 95% of it is size 8, which is a size I've been "off" from lately, but it is so colorful, I'm sure I won't resist long! :)

Of course, if the Honduran thread is here, that means our "stuff" from Honduras must be here too, and putting all that away has taken much of my time over the past two weeks (you can read about it here if you like).

I have, however, managed to make a little headway with "The Big Doily."

And here, dear readers, is a "true confession of the tatting kind"...

I don't like the all-ring kind of tatting:

I don't think this is an issue for all you shuttle tatters, but for needle tatters, it is a pain in the neck, because either you:
a) have a really, really long string that is constantly twisting and knotting
b) have a short strong that you constantly have to reload
c) both, alternately, trying to keep your sanity intact

It looks really nice, but, oh, what a pain! (It is the same, by the way, for two-color tatting...fyi)

Anyway, I bring this up, because the next round in "The Big Doily" was all rings, and it has taken me many, many tedious hours to complete it:

Halfway done!!!

I'm about halfway done with the doily now, and to give you some perspective, on the right is the first round, on the left, the current incarnation.

And for a little more perspective, compare it to a dvd case (also, thanks for the tatting skills, Living History Farms!)

 The next round is more blue motifs, the center of which seemed a little tricky, so I did a couple of practice motifs in giant sized thread to, well, practice (which as you will see, was a good idea):

Incorrectly done #1 (it's supposed to attach to all inside picots)

Incorrectly done #2 (there needs to be space between the two connected picots)

Aha! Motif #6!

So, with that out of the way, I will continue my "Big Doily" progress.

With my thread also arrived the rest of my tatting books, and since they have been unpacked and shelved:

I thought I would find some motifs and get going toward #25!

This is a fun triangular motif from Cathy Bryant's aptly named "Tatting":

Here it is halfway finished

And here is Motif #7!

Ahh, color! Ahh "new" thread! :)

Happy International Tatting Day!

Greetings from waaay across the pond...and

 Happy International Tatting Day!

It has actually been April 1 for almost 20 hours over here, and I didn't even know it was our holiday until I saw it on Jane Eborall's Facebook page...

Anyway, now I know and I am celebrating with "American", British and Russian chocolate!

I finished the latest round on The Big Doily and have started the next round in the do-over doily...

AND, our final shipment (the stuff from Honduras and Iowa) arrived today!! All my Honduran thread is in one of those two boxes that look like they are spontaneously combusting behind Chris' head... :)

It's a good day!

Hope you are enjoying your chocolate and tatting today! :)