Japanese twisted clover doily by Sumi Fujishige

Here I am, after a break of almost a year. I will try to fill out all the things I promised to show you - or at least some of them!

So, item 1 - Japanese doily. This is Doily 11 in Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. She has at least one other book with the same title, but this is the one with the biggish doily on the cover. Here's a listing for it.

Doily 11, Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige

This doily is very pretty, and it grows quite fast. That's why I decided to tat it as a gift for my friend's mother. However, it proved tougher to do than I expected.

First problem — it really ruffles a lot!

Rounds 1 & 2

Actually, I had problems in Round 1. The clovers were quite squashed together. Never mind, I said, it will flatten out in Round 2. Well, it didn't …

Round 3 in progress

 Round 3 didn't fix it  either; it seemed even worse …

Rounds 1, 2 & 3 done

Yes, I am really impressed at the ruffling…

So, for the first time, I blocked a doily while it was still in progress.

Being blocked after Round 3

Did that fix it? Not really; the succeeding rounds were still ruffling…

Ruffling after Round 5

Ruffling after completing the doily

 So of course I blocked it after I finished the six rounds of the doily. Then it finally lay flat!

The finished doily after blocking

So then I rolled it into a tube with wrapping paper, and it went into my suitcase, and it travelled all the way from Singapore to Ecuador, then right across South America, and finally, in Buenos Aires, I presented it to my friend's mother, as a thank-you for hosting us. To my relief, it was still flat! She put it into her drawer of treasures, with her pieces of beautiful linen. And I fervently hope it's not ruffling up as it lies there quietly…

If I were to do this doily again, I wonder how I would reduce the ruffling. Was the ruffling so bad because there were too many clovers for the diameter of each round? Should I make the chains in the clover rounds a bit longer, then? I'd be interested in your ideas.

Second problem — the twist in the clovers 

The instructions show how the twist in the necks of the clovers is done — first you tat the chain after the clover, then you pass the shuttle through the window made by the previous chain and, voila, there's the twist. Ms. Fujishige used Size 10 thread and a Clover shuttle. I had some Size 10 thread, but it felt coarse and I hated tatting with it, so I switched to Lizbeth Size 20. But then the shuttle was too fat to pass through the window!

So I said, ok, I will twist the clover inside and through that window, tat the chain, then untwist the clover. But that didn't work very well. I ended up putting too many twists on the neck, and they didn't sit very well, and I couldn't seem to make them look consistent. I realised that I needed Celtic shuttles. I had a regular Celtic shuttle (shaped like a post shuttle, but longer and narrower), but that wasn't narrow enough. Then I tried the super-narrow Celtic shuttles made by Tony and Patty Dowden (e.g., here). These were certainly narrow enough — but I found them a bit annoying to use. Either I had to do a half-hitch of the thread on one tip and then it didn't unwind nicely, or I didn't do the half-hitch and then it would unwind every time I dropped the shuttle. I had never noticed before how often I drop the shuttle!

But, I finally solved the problem by making my own shuttles out of a laundry detergent jug. That will be the subject of my next post…

Way too many things I want to blog about…

Yes, I am back from a month in South America, and there are so many things I want to blog about! I may not ever do justice to all of them, so here are a few glimpses:

1. White doily I made for my friend's mother:

This is item 11 in Tatting Lace by Sumi Fujishige. I call it the "Japanese Twisted Clover Doily" because the twisted clover stems in Rounds 2, 4 and 6 are a major feature. I didn't want to show everyone until I had given it to my friend's mother. She has now received it! :-) We stayed with her while we were in Buenos Aires, 21 October–1 November.

2. Celtic shuttles I invented from a laundry detergent jug:

Necessity is the mother of invention — I found I couldn't do the twisted clovers unless I had celtic shuttles that wouldn't unwind every time I dropped them. Yes, yes — I do want to do a blog post showing you how I made them…

3. SOUTH AMERICA TRIP.
Actually, there should be several blog posts on each of the following.
A. Ecuador - Galapagos Islands:
Actually, I lost my photos because I lost my camera at the next stage of our trip. But I'll show a few pictures from my friend's camera:

Yes, giant tortoises. Definitely a highlight. More on them later…

Sierra Negra volcano crater. More on this later…

B. Peru - Cusco, Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu:

Yes, Machu Picchu. We were there! We made it there and back! :-)

C. Argentina & Brazil - Iguazu Falls:

Many majestic waters. Yes…

D. Argentina - Buenos Aires. Much yummy barbecued meat. A day at a ranch. Evita's tomb. Lovely times with friends…

4. Also, now that I've finally resumed work on the Jan Stawasz Big Doily, I will probably at some point be doing a post about hiding ends — not exactly with joy, but with equanimity…

Okay, that's all for now…

All my patterns are now watermarked

Some of you know that in the past few months there have been several instances of tatting designers having their patterns stolen from them — that is, published elsewhere without permission from them, or acknowledgement of them as the designers. Some of them have blogged about this — Jane Eborall, Corina Mayfeldt, and Marilee Rockley.

Back in March this year, I myself was alerted to a pattern in a magazine with a diagram looking quite remarkably like my diagram for my Cherry Blossom Hearts. But since it is such a very simple pattern, almost generic, I didn't really have much of a case for plagiarism.

I decided then that I would watermark my photos and diagrams (though I am not going to get them patented or registered with a copyright registry). However, because of my mum's illness and death, I didn't do much about it. Also, it took some time to find the right software to do the watermark.

But just a few days ago, it happened again — a designer's patterns, including her diagrams, popped up on a website without her permission, or any indication that they were her designs. That galvanised me into action. Since I have only a few designs, watermarking them was not too impossible a task.

So, it's now done. If you go to my pattern page (tab above), you'll see that all the photos on that page now have watermarks on them, and if you download the linked patterns, they all have watermarks, too.

If you have previously downloaded my patterns, I'd be glad if you could replace them with the latest versions. And if you're sharing the patterns to others, please refer them to my blog, because I might make further revisions to this or that pattern.

Thanks! :-)

My completed Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin; how I chose my colours

On 7 September, I was able to borrow my brother-in-law's camera and take a good picture of my completed, blocked Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin in natural daylight, and do some justice to the colours of the threads. Here it is at last! :-)

Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin, finished and blocked

It's 17 inches (or 43 cm) across after blocking. I feel really proud of it, of course, and I'm just sorry that there isn't any state fair in Singapore where I can enter it and have it displayed. Anyway, I have submitted it in an online competition. :-)

Several people have said that they really like the colours I used. I have listed them in my previous posts; here I will just tell how I came to have this colour scheme. There was a tat-along for this doily on InTatters earlier this year. I was watching as the other members tatted each round of this doily in various lovely colour combinations. I was at that time working on the Victorian Trellis Doily (in cream only), but finally I caved in and decided to join, and went to look at my thread stash and choose colours. So, I didn't buy any new thread — all the colours I used, I already had.

I should mention that, shortly before this, the Tatting Designers Online Class had discussed basic colour theory. Our instructor, Susan K. Fuller, showed us colour wheels at various websites, and we looked at complementary (i.e., contrasting) and analogic (i.e., similar) colour schemes. We talked about warm and cool colours, intense and dull colours. In particular, I remember learning that yellow was a very powerful colour.

I also already knew that it's quite easy to overwhelm the design of a doily by using variegated colours that are too strong — as exemplified in this post by Jon Yusoff. I thought, I'm not very brave, I'll probably go with analogic colour combinations.

So, with all this in my mind, I put my balls of Lizbeth 40 side by side and looked at them. I had a vague idea that I wanted to create an impression of flowers on a background of leaves. Somehow I decided on Butterfly Breeze and Pineapple Parfait for Round 1. I think I picked Pineapple Parfait because I thought of Round 1 as a flower, and a flower ought to have a yellow centre. I had a few other colours shortlisted, but nothing firmly decided for the rest of the doily.

So, after tatting Round 1, I wanted some blue flowers for Round 2. Enter Arctic Waters. Blue flowers with yellow centres — Pineapple Parfait again.

In Round 3, I meant to start introducing Leafy Green. But, as I wrote in this blog post, I changed my mind. I realised that I had to use Pineapple Parfait yet again to make the flowers in Round 3 pop forward.

At that point, I realised that Pineapple Parfait was the powerful yellow foundation for the colour scheme of my doily. I decided to use it only for the rounds that seemed like flowers. At that time, that was only Round 8 — Renulek had not yet come out with the final rounds. But when I saw her Rounds 12 and 13, I knew that they needed to be partially or completely yellow, too. For the rounds that seemed more like leaves and vines, I planned to use green threads, but combine them with variegated threads to suggest little blossoms among the vines.

Round 4 needed to be a more receding colour combination than Round 3. Which green? I decided on Spring Green. It's weak compared to yellow, but it's a little stronger, more forthcoming and more spring-y than Leafy Greens. I had found out in Round 3 that Butterfly Breeze was not as strong as Fruit Fizz — so I now used it in Round 4.  I finally introduced Leafy Greens in Round 5, which I wanted to be still more receding than Round 4.

At about Round 5, I decided that six colourways was enough! I would not introduce more. So, Pineapple Parfait to accentuate flower centres or other important parts of the design. Three colourways for flower petals — Butterfly Breeze, Arctic Waters and Fruit Fizz. Two greens to give some variety to the cooler parts of the pattern — Spring Green and Leafy Greens. Also, I would try not to use the same colours for petals and leaves in successive rounds, but alternate between them.

That was my overall plan, but I didn't decide for sure on the colours for each round until I had finished the previous round and could look at the whole doily as it grew. For the final round, I was very tempted to introduce a seventh colourway — something with yellow and pink/red, for the edges of the big yellow flower petals of Rounds 12 and 13. I had a ball of Tropical Fruit Punch, and I matched it with my Pineapple Parfait. But then I realised that Butterfly Breeze also had yellow and pink. It was also particularly nice to finish Round 13 with the same colours that I had started with in Round 1.

I knew I was breaking the rules for colours in doilies — I had way too many! I would swamp the design! I kept wondering whether my experiment would work out. Would the design of the doily be clear? Or would it be a garish mess?

Now that it's done, I think I can declare the experiment a success! :-D I can see a few reasons for that:

1. Three of my variegates are analogic colour combinations. That is, Pineapple Parfait is a combination of yellows, Arctic Waters a combination of blues, and Leafy Greens a combination of greens.
2. Except for Pineapple Parfait, each colourway marched in only one round, then was switched out. This kept the multicolour variegated colourways (Butterfly Breeze and Fruit Fizz) from swamping the design.
3. Both my multicolour variegates have yellow or orange as one of their colours. This gave them some harmony with Pineapple Parfait when I combined them.
4. I had an overall intention — Spring Flowers — for the scheme of colours and the impression I was going for.

Lessons for future doilies? I think the main one is, use the stronger, 'popping forward' colours for the parts of a doily that you want to emphasise, and the duller, more receding colours for the parts of the doily that are more like background. I'm using this principle in the much more muted colour scheme I'm using for Jan Stawasz's Moje Robótki 8/2007 Big Doily. Also, look at the design of a doily and have an idea why you want to use a colour in this or that place. Also, yellow rules!

And finally… with perseverance, and good company on the journey — Yes, I CAN finish a big doily! :-D

Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin - it's finished!

I finished tatting the Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin tonight! :-D

Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin — 13 rounds complete!

I'm going to block it, then find someone to take a really good picture of it in natural daylight. But I just had to show it to you all!

The pattern can be found here:  http://renulek.blogspot.sg/search/label/serwetka%20WIOSNA2014
Keep scrolling down to get all the posts with the instructions.

Colours for Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin (thread is Lizbeth Size 40):

Round 1: Pineapple Parfait and Butterfly Breeze

Round 2: Pineapple Parfait and Arctic Waters

Round 3: Pineapple Parfait and Fruit Fizz
Round 4: Spring Green and Butterfly Breeze
Round 5: Leafy Greens and Arctic Waters
Round 6: Leafy Greens and Butterfly Breeze
Round 7: Spring Green and Fruit Fizz
Round 8: Pineapple Parfait and Arctic Waters
Round 9: Leafy Greens and Butterfly Breeze
Round 10: Spring Green and Fruit Fizz
Round 11: Spring Green and Arctic Waters
Round 12: Pineapple Parfait
Round 13: Pineapple Parfait and Butterfly Breeze

Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin - on the final round now!

I finished Round 12 of Renulek's Spring 2014 Napkin (see her posts for all the rounds here) on 29 July or so. I've been busy, so I've been slow to put it on my blog. But here it is:

Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin, Round 12 complete

Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin, Round 12 section

In fact, I'm already almost halfway through Round 13. The final round! :-) I'm using Pineapple Parfait and Butterfly Breeze — the same as for Round 1. My idea is that there are really big yellow flowers round the edge of the doily, with a bit of pastel frill to soften them. This is just a quick picture; the doily is pretty rumpled:

Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin, Round 13 in progress

Being keen to finish this doily, I've slowed down on Jan Stawasz's big Moje Robótki doily. I'm still only on the fourth rosette of Round V - not much new to show. 

Also, I've started a third doily all in white Lizbeth Size 20, for a friend's mother. Since it will be a surprise, I don't want to show it here either. All in good time… :-) 

Colours for Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin (thread is Lizbeth Size 40):

Round 1: Pineapple Parfait and Butterfly Breeze

Round 2: Pineapple Parfait and Arctic Waters

Round 3: Pineapple Parfait and Fruit Fizz
Round 4: Spring Green and Butterfly Breeze
Round 5: Leafy Greens and Arctic Waters
Round 6: Leafy Greens and Butterfly Breeze
Round 7: Spring Green and Fruit Fizz
Round 8: Pineapple Parfait and Arctic Waters
Round 9: Leafy Greens and Butterfly Breeze
Round 10: Spring Green and Fruit Fizz
Round 11: Spring Green and Arctic Waters
Round 12: Pineapple Parfait
Round 13: Pineapple Parfait and Butterfly Breeze

Progress on the big Jan Stawasz doily — picots, rosettes and repeats, oh my!

I am a little sorry that Jan Stawasz doesn't seem to have given names to any of his lovely doilies and other works. Maybe it was because there were so many of them! In our tat-along thread in InTatters, I tried suggesting a few nicknames for it (Jupiter? Juno? Big Beauty?). However, none of them took. So this doily — the one published in Moje Robótki 8/2007 — is just going to be referred to as the Jan Stawasz Big Doily.

Anyway, I have been alternating between this doily and the Renulek Spring 2014 Napkin. This JS Big Doily is definitely harder for me than the Renulek doily. Renulek has tended to use one size of ring in any given round. But not Jan Stawasz! The rings are various sizes, with various intervals between the picots. The chains are various lengths, again with various intervals between picots.

And the picots are graduated — there are lots of bunches of three picots, with the centre one being bigger than the ones on either side. Also, since the decorative picots are important, I am trying to make them bigger than my joining picots — not with too much success so far; I tend to make small picots.

So, I have had to stay on my toes in tatting this doily, and I've been undoing mistakes a good deal.

Here's Round III done:

Jan Stawasz Moje Robótki 8/2007 doily, Round III complete

After that, I thought I might get bored on Round IV, or perhaps I would lose count of all the simple rings and chains — that is, I would have the opposite difficulty from Rounds II and III — all the rings and chains are the same, or nearly so! So then I thought I would do the Round V rosettes first, then join them in as I tat Round IV. But I discovered that keeping track of decorative vs. joining picots was much harder on an unconnected rosette than on the simple Round IV. So I abandoned my first Round V rosette halfway and went back to Round IV. 

But then I was curious and I joined in my Round V rosette, to see how it would look. I also had some notion of tatting both Round IV and Round V together, but found it too awkward to have three shuttles and a ball hanging from the work. 

Jan Stawasz Moje Robótki 8/2007 doily, Rounds IV & V begun

 So then I proceeded with Round IV. Thanks to another member of InTatters, I knew I had to be careful to keep count of the joining and non-joining chains, and the joining vs. the decorating picots on the rings. That is, Round IV is not so very simple after all! So, I put strivers on the joining picots to keep track.

The strivers alerted me to a major mistake. I had joined to Round III too soon (at the ring marked by the orange slice), and the strivers were no longer straddling the valleys of Round III in a symmetrical fashion.

Jan Stawasz Moje Robótki 8/2007 doily, mistake in Round IV

 I started undoing the nine rings after my mistake, but then the thread broke, so I just cut them off and rejoined and continued. I still had just enough thread on my shuttle to finish Round IV. Whew!

Jan Stawasz Moje Robótki 8/2007 doily, Round IV complete

You can now see all three colours of Coats Mercer Crochet that I'm using for this doily. The main colour is a pale golden-brown (Colour 627), and the highlight colour is ecru or cream (Colour 609). And, if you look closely, you can see that Round IV is pale brown (Colour 626) — just slightly less yellow than the golden-brown in Rounds I, II and V. My idea is that the pale brown recedes a bit, so I will use it on the rounds which are plain, more like "background".

Another first for me on this doily is that this Coats thread is somewhat older than threads I've tatted with until now. I am learning to be more gentle with it — not to pull too hard, lest it breaks. That said, it's a beautiful firm thread, and it doesn't stick or twist at all when closing rings. And its subtle colours are easy on the eye.