Apparently, Smee knits!

The middle school production of Peter Pan is next weekend and daughter Carol, aka Madame Director, requested a last minute prop... knitting needles with some knitting attached. It's been a long time since I've seen Peter Pan, and I really don't remember Smee knitting, but since Carol asked, I complied!

I decided that if I was going to knit, I might as well start a real project. This is one of my favorite patterns, a Seafarer's Scarf from The Seaman's Church Institute. I like this pattern, because the center is a knit 4, purl 4 ribbing, which makes a nice thick layer around the back of the neck... great for keeping winter winds at bay!

Smee was greatly impressed. We'll see if the start of the scarf is still intact when the play is over next weekend!

I did manage to finish tatting round 5 of my doily (Doily 4 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito) this week. It's now 6 3/4 inches. I need to wind my shuttles for the next round. I'll be supervising kids at play practice tomorrow. It will be the perfect time to get some tatting done!

My new scarf

Mom sent some photos of a scarf she was working on, and I decided I needed to make one too. I think I should have used the sock yarn that Mom recommended instead of this worsted weight, but since I have plenty of yarn to play with, I'm not too concerned. It sure will be warm!

Three days of no tatting... time to get back on track!

Round 4

I've finished four rounds of Doily 4 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito. It's now 5 1/2" across. I did pin and steam after round 4 because of all the rippling, but I'd rather have rippling than see the piece cup like the last doily did. I'm very pleased with this one so far, and hopefully I'll have time to work on it this weekend.

15 yds

That's how much size 20 Lizbeth I was able to wind on my new Sunlit shuttle. As you can see, there's plenty left on the shuttle for another Flower Fragment or two.

Here are the three fragments together... size 3, size 10, and size 20. Can you guess which thread size I'll try next? ;-)

7 yds

That's about how much size 10 Lizbeth I was able to wind on my new Sunlit shuttle. Not bad... I can tat a lot with 7 yds!

As you can see, I even have some thread left on the shuttle. There's quite a difference in the size of the finished motif (Flower Fragment from  A Pattern Book of Tatting by Mary Konior). Size 3 thread is on the left, size 10 on the right.

I think I might have to try size 20 next!

Starting over

Well, I chose to quit the pattern that wasn't working for me. I will get back to it some day, just not when I have a deadline!

I chose doily #4 from Tatted Fashion by Teiko Fujito. I haven't tatted this particular doily before, but I have finished a similar one in the book.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

This pattern is working out so much better for me!

My new Sunlit shuttles arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I'm very happy with them! Since I have so much going on right now, I decided to check out how much thread the shuttle would hold.

I happened to have a ball of size 3 Lizbeth on the table next to my chair, so that's where I started. Silly me... I forgot to measure how much thread I used! I think it was about 4 yards. Anyway, this is how much I was able to tat with one shuttle full. The pattern is "Flower Fragment" from A Pattern Book of Tatting by Mary Konior.

Since the thread is so large, and every little thing shows up, I decided to use front side/back side tatting. I'm very proud of the fact that I was able to keep track of what I was doing! ;-)

However, I don't think I'll be using the Sunlit shuttles for size 3 thread. I would spend all my time winding shuttles!

The Starlit shuttles, on the other hand, hold plenty of thread to complete this pattern! There's even a little thread left on the shuttle. 

Now that I've finished with this pattern, I'll have to decide what to do with the rest of the size 3 thread. I really prefer finer threads. Although the thread is nice and smooth, the size felt a bit like tatting with rope!

Restart, snip, or quit?

I'm becoming very frustrated with this doily, "Trefles" from La frivolite fine et precieuse. I have spent so much time snipping and re-tatting this week, that I haven't taken time to blog. Round one is the only one that turned out the way I liked.

At the end of round 2, I noticed that some of the chains overlapped, probably not a big deal... right?

However, after round 3, some of my clovers seem lop-sided, and the chains don't look neat and smooth.  This picture is after a little stretching and steaming. Nope, it's not the look I'm going for. Maybe round 4 will help pull everything into shape.

I think not! Look at the way my rings are stretched. This is my third attempt at this round. I've tried a different stitch count, which seemed way too big, and I've tried using larger picots. None of the changes I've tried look right to me.

Since I have a Christmas deadline, I'm really thinking I should set this piece aside and work on something else. I chose it because my sister-in-law asked for an open pattern so that the beauty of the wood would show through on her newly refinished table.

Has anyone else tatted this doily? Did you make any changes in the pattern? Or, do you have recommendations for a 14" doily? I'm open to suggestions!