Another small doily

I started this simple doily yesterday. It was a really quick one to make.

The color shows up better on the white page. I do love Peacock Blues!

The pattern is #31 from A New Twist on Tatting by Catherine Austin.

Oval Doily Round 7

I had so many things I should have done today, but instead I spent the whole day working on round 7... only one round to go!

Oval Doily Round 6

Here it is with round 6 completed... only two more rounds to go!

Oval Doily Round 5

I finished round 5. Don't look too closely... you might be able to spot the two chains where my stitch count is different. Hopefully it won't be real obvious once I tat the next round!

Yesterday was a great day! I didn't get much tatting done because of the humidity, but I did receive my beautiful new Lace-Lovin' shuttle by La Cossette in the mail! Thank you very much, secret friend! I wish I could convey how much your kind gesture means to me. I am truly honored by your gift!


I also had a fantastic day at the dentist! Look Mom, no cavities! Even better than that, I learned that my hygienist learned to tat from her grandmother years ago! It's a little difficult to carry on a conversation with dental instruments in the mouth, but we did manage to carry on a wonderful conversation. Susan has some of her grandmother's shuttles as well as some of her handkerchiefs with tatted edgings and other pieces. If I remember correctly, Susan's grandmother was from Lithuania and spoke German. She did not read patterns, so her tatting was all of her own design. Isn't that fantastic? 


I gave Susan my blog information, and I invited her to our next Tollway Tatters meeting on August 15. I sure hope she can come, and I hope she takes up tatting again!

Oval Doily Round 4

Another member of InTatters, Bruce, noticed that I was missing some rings on each end of round 3... oops! That's why I couldn't get it to lie flat! However, my solution of making longer chains worked, and now that I've finished round 4, I think I like my round 3 better! ; )

Oval Doily Round 3

This was a very simple round to tat. I did have to add extra picots to the three chains at each end to make it lie flat. It's not perfect, but I'm sure it will look better with each round. At least that's what I keep telling myself! ; )

Oval Doily revisited

Back in March, I started this Oval Doily from A New Twist on Tatting by Catherine Austin. I lost interest in the pattern for two reasons: the directions are not clearly written, at least for me, and the stitch count caused extreme rippling.

Well, the discussion of this doily has come up again over at InTatters, so I decided to give it another try. Rachael noted that the pattern can also be found in Tatting Doilies & Edgings by Rita Weiss, with a different stitch count. Guess what? My version has an even different stitch count!

Here's what I came up with...

Oops! For those of you who want to know the stitch count for the rings...


Small ring: 3-3-3-3; Large ring: 3-2-2-2-2-3


Wind two shuttles CTM. I started with a small ring; do not reverse work; chain 5; reverse work; large ring; reverse work; chain 5; do not reverse work; small ring. Repeat the pattern until you have 13 small rings and 13 large rings. Ch 5, join to side picot of small ring. Tat 3 large rings to form clover end. Ch 5, join to same side picot as last ch 5. On the second side, large ring; reverse work; ch 5, join to free picot of small ring, ch 5; reverse work; large ring. Continue in this manner to finish the second side.


Have you tried this doily? What's your experience? Inquiring minds want to know!

Oval Doily

There was a question posed at The Tatting Forums regarding the Oval Doily from A New Twist on Tatting. Although I've owned this book for many, many years, I've never been inspired to tat anything from it.

I did find the directions a bit confusing, but I did my best to interpret the pattern. I found that tatting with two colors helped me keep track of what I was doing. This is size 20 Lizbeth, #670 and #685. I'm not sure if I'll continue or not. This is the first of nine rounds, so it's a pretty big undertaking.

Have you tried this pattern? What's your experience with the directions?