Monday, January 20, 2014

Stealth Doily and Cluny Leaves

Bwahaha, I'm so sneaky. ;)

Here's my "Stealth Doily"...
Motif 2: Celtic Sugar and Spice Doily
 Look familiar? :)

Of course it does! It's (theoretically) the first thing you see every time you visit my blog...

Except, of course, it's not, because this is the new, shuttle tatted version!


I've actually been working on this for a L-O-N-G time, like, since August or something, but I FINALLY finished it over the weekend. (I kept not taking it with me when I traveled, so then I'd get involved in other projects and not work on this one...)

I call it the stealth doily because I purposely didn't put anything about it on the blog because I wanted to wait and unveil it just as I did above, as a visual comparison of needle and shuttle tatting. It's the same pattern, the same thread, just two different methods of tatting.

Discuss. :)

This doily was, in its own way, almost as much of a pain as the tulips...

Firstly, (well, kind of lastly) I ran out of shuttle thread TWO RINGS before I finished it...ugh!
 

So, I improvised a shuttle with some pre-wrapped travel thread:

And, of course, there were a few tension issues again...especially after completing the maroon split rings:

 and then again with the tan final round. Of course, that was nothing a few pins couldn't fix!
 This is a doily written for a needle tatting book...I wonder if any of the tension troubles were because I was shuttle tatting this pattern, or if I just really need to work on my tension control?

 After finishing the stealth doily I decided to try something new, something I've been wanting to try for a while: Cluny Tatting!

And here are my first attempts:
Motif 3: A Small Motif using Cluny Leaves
Clearly this is a skill I need to work on, but I do think I improved as I went around the circle (my first leaf of the motif was the small one with the long purple tail, and then continued around counter-clockwise to the last one right next to it.)

11 comments:

  1. Wow, what a surprise, I really like that bit of blue beads and the color look fun. Great to see the difference and be able to compare the two methods. I love cluny and that is one of the troubles with it, keeping the size consistent. Also you use such small threads normally so kudos to you if you stuck with tiny thread! Great surprise post :)

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    1. The original doily was done in all pastels, but I'm more of a gemstone girl, so I decided to go with the darker palette. My husband thinks the doily is really ugly, but I like it. :) The clunies are done in size 40 thread, but I'm going to try it in 80 over the weekend just to see what I think. :)

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  2. Oh, handsome, handsome Pip!

    Nice progress Kirsten. Really good! The piece looks great and your clunies...those little tallies are so much better formed than my initial. - sob - attempts! Good on you!
    Fox : ))

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    1. Pip is such a good model...but your picture of Mr. G on Jane's TIAS blog is a hoot! :) I have been kind of missing having our guest cat around the house...

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    2. Don’t you dare! Poor Pip would be relegated to “eldest sibling.” Not fun. I know!
      Fox : ))

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  3. Well done on tatting the same mat and showing it both in needle and shuttle, there really is so little between the two.
    Well done trying ClunIes , I still have not tried them after all these years, I suppose one day I must.
    Margaret

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    1. Thanks, Margaret. The clunies were not really as bad as I thought they would be, but I'm going to try them with different thread this weekend to see how it goes. If you're worried about the hand grip part you can always make a loom--there are a ton of ways to do that on the web!

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  4. Complimenti, i tuoi lavori sono bellissimi e pieni di colore!!!

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  5. Very nice doily!!! :)
    Looks like a wonderful start to your clunies!! :)

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