Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Seventh Day of December, Stuck on the Eighth

Well, due to a crazy amount of snowfall yesterday (the cold, slippery kind, not the nice tatted kind) the boxes are still sitting in our house, just tempting me to open them up and grab more tatting stuff...but I am holding strong!!

I finished The Seventh Day of December pattern from Lene Bjørn's "24 Snowflakes in Tatting" yesterday:
It was a tough pattern with all the onion rings, but very satisfying to tat. 

Shuttle or Needle? These rings are one of the many elements of these patterns that make me wonder how well a needle tatter could execute these patterns. I needle tatted for years and never attempted an onion ring. I'm notsayin it can't be done, but I am saying some of these patterns would be quite frustrating, especially for a beginner needle tatter. 

Speaking of frustrating...has anyone out there ever successfully made The Eighth Day of December?? This is the motif with all the beautiful blocks, and frankly the pattern that first drew me to this book, but for the life of me I can't figure out how tat it!

I have started this twice, once with two shuttles and then a second time with one (the pattern calls for one shuttle, but I prefer Jane Eborall's method of block tatting with two shuttles). After my first failure I figured the pattern had to be done with just the one shuttle, but this korning I made it to exactly the same place I had to stop yesterday:
It's hard to explain without showing the pattern, but according to the diagram, right how I am supposed to make a cloverleaf, then tat 4 more rows of blocked chains underneath the last 7 ds tatted above?! How do you tat chains underneath a chain? The picots will be going the wrong way, for starters, and it just doesn't make sense. 
Yesterday's mess is on the left--see the problem with the chains under the chains? Eventually that second block is supposed to attach to the first block's corner, opposite of the false picot from the ring. 

So, dear tatting friends, help me out. Take a peek at your copy of the pattern and let me know, how do I do this?! :)

In the meantime, I'm skipping it and going on to The Ninth Day of December. :) I have too much stress right now, I refuse to let tatting be part of it. :)
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12 comments:

  1. Madtatter80December 17, 2014 at 3:57 AM

    I love this one, but avoid it, cause not thrilled with block tatting even though I know Jane's method I have some sort of mental block ha ha ha! love the pictures and yours looks great!

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    1. Mrs. FinkMarch 18, 2015 at 9:06 PM

      Somewhere I saw a suggestion to flip the image to match the pattern (if that makes sense), so I'm going to try that...someday :)

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  2. Grace TylerDecember 17, 2014 at 6:01 AM

    I don't have the book, so I'm no help. Make another onion ring and be happy!

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  3. muskaanDecember 17, 2014 at 9:57 AM

    Umi n Tsuru , for one, has made this .... may be you could ask her . Here is the post -http://umintsuru.blogspot.in/2010/08/happy-birthday-singapore-lb-snowflakes.html
    Sue from HisKid was also making many snowflakes from the book recently, although I am not sure of this particular one.

    From what I can see (and compare), you have the technique right & need to continue with the block tatting. ... except that the trefoil are probably lying in the wrong direction? Was there Reverse Work or DNRW in the pattern where the "mistake " may lie ? Just my guess - haven't made them myself.

    The onion ring snowflake is Lovely !

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    1. Mrs. FinkMarch 18, 2015 at 9:08 PM

      Thanks! for the suggestions! I saw another blog somewhere that suggested to copy and reverse the image so it matches the diagram, so I will try that when I get the chance... :) It's nice to know others have had the same issue as me :)

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  4. Margarets designer cardsDecember 17, 2014 at 11:08 AM

    I have done this one and I think I posted it last christmas when I did a snowflake a day, it was a hard pattern and I am not thinking of doing it again, I know I had several starts on it.
    Your onion ring snowflake is lovely I like onion rings and love doing them
    Keep up the good work
    Margaret

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    1. Mrs. FinkMarch 18, 2015 at 9:09 PM

      It is hard! Thanks for the comiseration, it's nice to know others have had issues with it, too!! :)

      Delete
  5. GraceTDecember 17, 2014 at 4:33 PM

    I've got a copy of the book, but it is on the other side of the world right now! It does look tricky. All the best! :-)

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    1. Mrs. FinkMarch 18, 2015 at 9:10 PM

      I resemble your remark...most of my tatting books are currently on a slow boat from Russia (via China)...sigh :)

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  6. God's KidDecember 19, 2014 at 9:56 AM

    Gorgeous snowflakes in this post and the last!!!!! :)
    I tried the block pattern once a very, very long time ago and had some problems, but am not sure what they were now, and I don't think I had been tatting long enough to have finished it correctly anyway.

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    1. Mrs. FinkMarch 18, 2015 at 9:11 PM

      Thank you! Block tatting is tough, but I really like how it looks, so I'm planning to revisit and defeat this pattern!!!

      Delete

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