False Start Made Good

There have been many mistakes, mis-starts, and cutting of thread with the 1926 Rose Doily I told you about last time.  I salvaged the motif with too many rounds by crocheting a border around to have a nice mini doily.  A little stretching and blocking might help, but that would be like making an effort :)

Why did I ever wait so long to start blogging again?  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed reading your comments. 

And now to bore you with non-tatting.  My other big hobby is my vegetable garden.  Here it is on April 1.  For the smaller spring crops I use the "square foot gardening" method.

And here is last week.  The lettuce is about to bolt and the spinach already has, but it's been a good crop and pulling it out will make room for the summer veg.  Note the extra netting since deer were jumping the fence.

I picked my first squash this week, and I've got baby tomatoes.  Hooray!  

Back to your regularly scheduled tatting next time.

1926 Rose Doily

Not too long ago, Georgia sent out a request for help finding the source of this doily. She did know it was from a Needlecraft magazine from 1926.  I collect those off and on, so I pulled out my boxes from under the bed and found it in the April issue.  The designer was Mildred Thompson. Georgia also invited me to write out the instructions for modern tatters. How could I resist?

As you may know, vintage patterns are hard to follow.  Not only are they usually written in a different style than we are used to, but test tatting and proof reading were apparently not done.

First off, the instructions say each motif has 20 rounds.  This is wrong. Of course I did not realize this until after I had worked one whole motif.  Studying the photo reveals that the central motif has 18 rounds and the outer ones have 19 rounds.  You could make it with more rounds if you wanted to, but I think it does matter that the center motif have one fewer rounds so they will fit together. At this point I am doubting that I have enough thread on the ball for a whole doily anyway, so I start over. 

Then comes the issue of how to join the motifs together.  The orange thread in the picture above is the way the pattern is written.  Who would want to work that asymmetrical mess?  No wonder the designer writes that the small fill-in motifs are not worked in, but sewn on top.  That's one way of covering up the problem.  I have devised a method for a neater way to join the motifs and work in the fill-in motifs, but will it work?  Will the whole thing lie flat when I am done? Time will tell.  (Lots and lots of time....)

I'm Back

I had promised myself that I would get back to blogging once I got my life back under control. Things were looking good earlier in the year, but then they fell apart again when autistic DS3's group home closed down with only a few days notice.  That seemed like a disaster at first, but was a blessing in disguise.  Late last month he moved to a home for autistic adults that is better in every way than where he was before.  It's not local, but I can get there with Amtrak.  Last weekend, the whole family got together to give him a day out. We went hiking at Eno River Park  and out to lunch. Then to make it something for everyone, we went to a gaming store for the guys, and to Scrap Exchange for the girls. That's sort of a huge secondhand store geared toward crafting.  I bought stuff. Beware the giant bin of buttons :)

For a long time, I didn't do any tatting. Though tatting is an excellent stress reliever for most, above a certain level I just can't do it. Eventually I was ready to begin again, and I wanted something very old fashioned and traditional.  I saw this image on Pinterest and thought it was something vintage, but I tracked it down to "Practical Tatting" by Phyllis Sparks from the early 1990's.

A quick trip to Bookfinders.com and I was in business.  The yoke is made up of bunches of traditional style motifs.  I was making good progress and then got sidetracked to another old fashioned project. More about that next time,  maybe.

Meanwhile, it's time to be thinking about TatDays in Toccoa.  Registration will be opening around June 11.  I haven't chosen all my classes yet. Decisions are hard. The logo above is by Anitra, one of those magazine covers she is so good at designing.