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Monday, December 7, 2015

Lost and Found

I have not been in the mood to tat any more snowflakes, so I decided to make another Frauberger doily. Over a month ago, I had completed Round 1 in size 40 White and Green Coral Sea. In the midst of cleaning, I threw it somewhere, but where?

After a while of looking around I found it among a bunch of tatting scrap (the kind of tatting that is meant for the trash bin)! I have a tendency to either throw things away, or to hide them so well that I lose them for years. All in an effort to make a space look more clean and organized.

While I was looking for the doily, I also remembered that I had been working on a bookmark over the summer. I found it in one of my bags, and it's a little more than halfway done:


The bookmark is made in size 80 Lizbeth, White and Niagara Falls. I'm hoping to finish it in time for Christmas.

As I tat things, I'm beginning to take detailed measurements of the length of thread used. I'm wondering if there is any correlation between size 20, 40, and 80. Would I be able to predict thread usage for size 80 if I know how much is used in size 20?

So far, I have confusing results that don't really have correlations. I need to add my hand scribbled notes to spreadsheets so that I can keep track of the data over time, and see if any patterns emerge.

In addition to tatting, I'm also working on a set of new Inkscape posts about how to place "automatic" pattern repeats. This will be at least two posts long, and will probably be ready next week.

17 comments:

Madtatter80 said...

I love Tina's style (they are timeless) and your color choices are wonderful. Don't through stuff away their are many that make those Victorian journals, that have many types of lace pieces and mess ups covered up with pretty silk flowers and buttons, I am sure your mess ups would be gladly put to use :)

Vera said...

De gyönyörűséges!

God's Kid said...

Those are both stunning!!! :)

Ninetta said...

Have you ever tried Aurora's Tatting Helper? I've also my personal empiric way, that is one cm of ds takes about 10 cm of thread, in any size. Plus about 20 cm to make the loop around the hand for the last ring...

Jane McLellan said...

I'm glad you found them again! I know when I'm filling shuttles that the shuttle must be less full with a finer thread, but I just use a thumb suck. I'll be interested to hear the results of your experiments.

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

Your tatting is beautiful as always. Someday I will perfect my tatting! It will be interesting to see what your results are. I'm also going to try Ninetta's idea. Reading blogs sure brings out a wealth of information for all of us!

Conny said...

Wunderschöne Arbeiten. Das Garn gefällt mir sehr gut!

Margarets designer cards said...

Beautiful pieces of tatting, I was told 25 clicks of the shuttle equals one yard of thread.
Look forward to reading your next post.
Margaret

Robin Perfetti said...

I bookmarked Aurora's Tatting helper about a month ago, but didn't look at it too thoroughly. I think I'm going to run a bunch of "field tests" first (gathering data on how much thread I'm using). Later on, it would be interesting to do the math and see how well the calculations match up with my experiments.

I should probably write down your method, as well as others, so I don't forget when it comes time to compare the math with my notes.

Robin Perfetti said...

I found 25 full wraps around a Clover shuttle equals about a yard. However, as the shuttle fills, the number of wraps for a yard keeps decreasing. I also found that the number of wraps on a large Clover shuttle is significantly less than that of a small Clover.

Jenn said...

Both are beautiful :).

muskaan said...

I Hate measuring thread lengths :-( But I am trying to make that effort as far as possible. Anything beyond that is asking too much of me ;-)

Waiting with bated breath for your Inkscape tuts ! Will upload my snowflake pattern once you've posted -- lazy me ;-P Although I have been tinkering around a wee bit & have learned a couple of new drawing effects.

Robin Perfetti said...

Now that I have a yard stick, it's not too bad. My calculations definitely came in handy when I tatted the Frauberger doily a second time, and didn't have to worry about not loading enough to onto the shuttles. I find it super frustrating when I run out of thread in the middle of a round!

Claire said...

Very nice tatting. This pattern is beautiful in two colors of threads.

Dilaw said...

I've used LadyShuttleMaker's method of measuring thread and had great success. It works for any size thread. You need only measure how much thread 10ds uses and work it out for your pattern from there.
http://ladyshuttlemaker.blogspot.com/2008/10/predict-future-save-your-thread-thread.html

Dilaw said...

This is the spreadsheet I use to make my calculations:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WWy9Hj8nSuVDlKAgPApMA5HlQPyka5upROe1OhN9NEY/edit?usp=sharing

Robin Perfetti said...

Thanks for the link. I'll have to go through and see how my actual thread usage matches up with the calculations.