January Progress

It may not be apparent from the recent posts, but I have spent most of my lace time making bobbin lace. Most of the items I posted this month required very little work before I could post them. It was so easy finding thing to post, it was almost like cheating:)

Bobbin lace:

I started my next pattern and it is slowly coming along. It will be a while before I have something to show though.

Tatting:

I picked up another WIP from a few years ago. This one was not as big of an undertaking as the previous one!

I also picked up tatting with metallic thread again. I completed Motif No. 37 for the 25 motif challenge. Scan coming soon.

Needle Lace:

I started a new piece! For the time being I will put aside the needle lace mat that I kept mentioning last year. For some reason it's just not calling my name. This one is smaller. I think that since I am a beginner, it would be better to stick to smaller projects until I get more confidence.

Teneriffe:

I actually started a new motif! Now I need to make sure that I actually finish it...

Knotted Lace:

Nothing.

Puncetto:

I finished a square that I started last spring. I also started a new square and am well on my way to finishing it.

Crochet:

Nothing.

Beaded flower

The beaded flower looks familiar from this post.

This is actually a duplicate, the original shown in the previous post is already on it's way tucked inside a thank you note.

This pattern is by Jan Stawasz. I often flip through the patterns, but this was the first time I made one of his patterns. I am not sure that the addition of beads works very well in this case. It does not want to lie flat and I would probably have to change the stitch counts to make it do so. Still a cute flower though.

Made with DMC special cordonnette 80 in white and some random seed beads from Michaels.

*note: there is a mistake in the original flower that I made. Luckily I caught the mistake in time to repeat it so it's not too obvious. No mistakes in this one!

Puncetto

I finally finished this square on Dec. 31. I picked it up fairly late in the evening and as I started working on it, I realized that I had forgotten how addicting puncetto is!

I almost didn't post this square because of all the mistakes. The first mistake was made pretty much as soon as I was done with the base row, but at that point I didn't want to throw it out and start all over. I kept making mistakes over the next two rows so I put it down for a long time. As in, I started in May and picked it up again in late Dec.

Part of the reason I let it languish so long was all the mistakes it contained. I just couldn't bring myself to continue working on it any more. The mistakes were actually what made me pick it up again. Since I had not done any puncetto in such a long time, I wasn't sure how much I would even remember. Since the square was already a lost cause, it didn't seem like I had much to lose if my tension was all out of whack.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I remembered! Granted I did look at my book to make sure I was making the stitches correctly (and didn't even try to figure it out on my own beforehand!), but as soon as I saw the diagrams, it all came back to me. Even the tension wasn't that hard. You can see that I am out of practice, but it was by no means as bad as when I first started out.

Made with DMC Cebelia 30 in ecru.

Black Magic

I finally made the ever popular black magic!

A few years ago I became obsessed with book marks. I have no idea why since I don't often use them. Actually, I never use proper bookmarks, a magazine subscription card or a piece of junk mail is my choice of book mark. My excuse is that it this way I won't worry about forgetting a bookmark inside a book when I return it to the library. As for my professional books, I always have several pages bookmarked, so magazine subscription cards are just more practical.

Anyways, as I mentioned, I became obsessed with making tatted bookmarks. I vaguely recall seeing a blog post showing a picture of several very colorful bookmarks. Keep in mind, that at that time I pretty much exclusively worked in ecru thread. Black and white were adventurous colors! It wasn't quite that bad, but I'm not exaggerating by much. All this to say that I think the colors drew me in!

At that time I started several bookmarks, most of which are still WIPs (or more accurately UFOs). I did finish a few of the bookmarks, but my black magic bookmark remained unfinished. Earlier this fall I dug it up again to finish it. I was about half way through it so it really was not too hard to get it done.

Although I have not made many of her patterns, I really like Mary Konior's patterns. They have an interesting construction and are quite unique in appearance. I have always admired black magic and it was fun making it. I did keep losing count of how many picots should be on each chain though. Don't look at my scan too closely! It would probably be easier to keep track of the picots if I worked the pattern for more than 1 chain and 1 ring at a time! I was getting impatient to finish so I cut the bookmark a bit short. In retrospect, I should have added an extra repeat.

There are still a few book marks I need to complete, then I will probably do my own colorful pile of bookmarks:)

Made with DMC special dentelles 80 in black and light blue.

Large Centerpiece

This is the large tatting WIP that I kept referring to towards the end of last year.

I have no idea if this centerpiece has a name - the pattern was at one point available on Georgia Seitz's website, but I have no idea if it still is.

I started this sometime in the spring of 2009 and worked on it on and off through most of the summer and fall. Towards the end of the year I put it down and I don't think picking it much in 2010. Last summer (2011) I finally picked it up again determined to finish it by the end of the year. It wasn't much of a stretch but it would have been easier if I had worked on it continuously. As it was, I would work on it a lot for a weekend then put it down for several weeks. It doesn't matter - it's done now!

Working notes:

1. I really like the center (first two rounds)! Too bad it bowled in my case, but I think it's really pretty.

2. As I mentioned in a previous post, I think there is a mistake in how the pattern is written. I think my compromise worked quite well.

3. The first round of medallions (round 7) looks a bit strange to me. I think the original pattern called for a needle lace filling in each medallion, which would probably look better. The idea of tacking down the whole doily to make the needle lace fillings does not really appeal to me though...

4. The second row of medallions (row 9) was unexpected. It calls for making the medallion first and then adding the chain in the center. I actually made a practice medallion and chain to see how fiddly it would be to work. My initial though was that if it would be too difficult to work, I would substitute the chain in the center with rings. It wasn't too bad except for working in the ends (I tend to prefer to work in the ends into rings rather than chains). Although I never made a prototype with a rings filling, I can imagine how it would look. Using the chains definitely looks different.

5. I often say that metallic thread hides a lot of mistakes, but so does small thread, especially in a piece this size. There are a number of joins at the wrong place or omitted joins. Several medallions in row 9 in particular are only joined by one picot instead of two. Usually by the time I noticed, I did not want to go back and cut out the offending medallions (or more often medallions). I think what matters more is that the medallions have the correct spacing between them. What's one more of less joining picot:)

6. One of the biggest mistakes was made in row 10 (chain). Unfortunately I didn't catch it until I was well into row 11. At one point I skipped the two picots that connect to the ring in the subsequent row. When I found the mistake there were two options I thought of:

1. Continue row 11 as the pattern is written and compensate for the missing picots in row 10 by making a "floating" ring that didn't connect to the chain below.

2. Omit a ring in row 11 but make the chain longer so that the next row would not be impacted.

As you can see from the picture above, I went with option 1. I am not sure why, since in the past when I discovered a very similar mistake, I went with option 2. I think option 2 would have been less glaring, but even option 1 is not all that noticeable now that the whole thing is done.

7. Row 12 threw me for a loop! It looked really straight forward but then I realized that the rings and chains don't have the proper orientation.

I tried three ways of making the lower clover (shown left - right in image below):

1. First clover was not an issue!

2. While making the chain leading down from the first upper clover, I realized that the picot would be in the wrong orientation to be joined to the second lower clover. I stuck an earring where the picot should be to keep the space and continued. The second lower clover was made and joined to that chain.

3. I didn't like the earring method and the picot looked funny, so I decided to try and make the ring while making the chain. When I got to the third lower clover, the ring on the left was already made, so I only had to make two more rings to complete the clover. I didn't like how that broke the symmetry of the clover.

4. In order to make the clover more symmetrical, I made the fourth lower clover in 3 parts. The first ring (left) was made while making the chain coming down from the third upper clover. The center ring was made when I came to the lower clover and the third ring (right) was made while making the chain leading from the fourth lower clover to the fourth upper clover. Although this made the clover symmetrical, it no longer looked like a clover in my eyes.

To be fair, only a tatter would probably notice the subtle difference in how the clovers are made, and even then, only if the person was focusing on the last row. When I pointed out the three versions to my husband he was able to see the difference, but I definitely had to point them out to him. I ended up going with version of option 1, but instead of using an old earring, I used a paper clip. I also didn't flip the first knot after the picot so that the core thread didn't get pulled too tight. It worked OK with some practice, but it was kind of fiddly. I tried to scan the paperclip in action, but it didn't turn out too well...

Although the last row was kind of fiddly to make with the paperclip, it is my favorite row. It would make a beautiful edging:)

Made with DMC Cordonnet 100 it measures just over 14 inches in diameter. The centerpiece required almost a whole ball of thread!

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a very happy new year 2012.