More Stawasz

Seeing the second batch of tatters start on their Stawasz Mega Doilies has inspired me to work on mine again. I'm on Round VIII now, which is one of the rounds that has missing stitch counts on the chains. The numbers that monedido from InTatters/Craftree provided are working out well. They are 5-5-9-9 (beginning right after a clover is formed and ending at the single ring "G").

I'm going to try to get this round and the next finished before I set the doily aside again. I have too many ideas floating around in my head to tat these large doilies for long. My mind often wanders through the monotony of these larger rounds :)

Back to Stawasz

Well, I'm finally back to making some progress on the Stawasz Monster Doily, after taking a much longer break than anticipated. In order to keep from going crazy from the monotony, I find that I need to take regular breaks to work on other things that are more interesting. Here is the doily, up to Round 7 now, tatted in DMC Cordonnet Special size 100 white:

I changed the stitch count a bit from the suggested numbers posted by monedido at InTatters. This is one of the rounds where the stitch counts for the chains are missing, and the photograph in the magazine is too zoomed out to be able to count stitches. I must have altered it a bit too much, because I found this round starting to ruffle. No worries though...a bit of water and a trip to the blocking board fixed that right away.

Now the question is whether or not my blocking board will be large enough to contain the doily once it gets to the last few rounds. It will be close. I bought this last year from my local JoAnn Fabrics for about $15 after using my 50% off coupon. I think I got a pretty good deal. It's called the June Tailor Cushioned Quilter's Square 'N Blocker for anyone interested.

Here's another shot of the doily.

It's getting to be too big to photograph on my card stock, so maybe I'll make a trip to Hobby Lobby to pick up some of the poster board sized paper I saw there.

Now it's time to formulate my first post about how to diagram with Inkscape, so I can get it on the blog later this week.

Works in Progress

I've had a very busy week which means I don't have any new tatting to show. I noticed a few bloggers have been posting projects that they call UFOs or Works in Progress, and I thought "I have some of those!" I usually stick to small motifs, so I don't have too many projects that need to be completed, but I do have two larger doilies that I have set aside for 6 months to a year. I do plan to get back to them eventually!

The first is from Jan Stawasz's Tatted Treasures. I believe it is Doily I, but my tatting books are packed away at the moment so I can't double check. Anyhow, it's the doily on the cover of the book. This is how far I was able to get before setting it aside:

Tatted in Lizbeth size 40 white

As you can see, it's getting to be too big to photograph on my card stock. The next round is 25 individual motifs...lots and lots of ends to hide. Here's another picture from above:

The next project is something I was working on designing, from my Mirror, Mirror post. I got distracted by the idea of connecting the motifs together to create a larger doily, but I only got 4 motifs out of 7 done before I moved on to another design idea.

Tatted in Lizbeth size 40 white and green coral sea

I still want to tat the final three motifs and connect them to the bottom, and then add an edging around the doily. Individually, the motifs are appropriately sized for a coaster.

I have a lot of tatting to do before I can get back to these projects. The Stawasz Mega Doily will keep me busy for a long, long time.

Tatting Inspiration

Are you inspired by other tatters? I am, far too many to talk about in a single post. From antique patterns to modern, online publications to professionally bound books, Etsy shops to blogs...there is so much to look at to gain inspiration. Today's post will be about my venture into tiny tatting, and why I chose to use such small thread on the Stawasz Mega Doily.

Elena Koval's doily (left) next to mine (right)

If you are a member at InTatters and have been following the Stawasz Doily tat-along, then you have probably seen Elena Koval's finished piece, completed a few years ago. She goes by the username monedido, and you can find her blog here: Little Jackdaw's Nest.

Last year, I had been spending a lot of time on eBay looking for rare tatting books. Unexpectedly, I came across a listing for one of Elena's finished doilies (for an extremely low price). I had been admiring her work on InTatters and jumped at the opportunity to own one of her pieces. I knew she tatted using size 80 threads and really wanted to see her work in person.

The pattern is called Buttercups from Ben Fikkert's A Tatting Adventure. Isn't it pretty?

As I worked on other projects, I would occasionally take this piece out to admire the intricacy of Elena's tatting. Small threads seemed off limits to me, but the thought of trying them out was never far away.

In truth, I tried out Lizbeth size 80 on a bookmark, only a few months after learning how to tat. It looked ridiculous in the pattern I chose, but more importantly, I had no idea how to hide the ends. I have never been able to succeed in the magic thread trick, and my sewing needles were too big to fit through the tiny thread. So, I abandoned the thought of tiny tatting for over a year.

That is, until September of last year, when I found another tatter at the Waterford Fair. (Click here for her website). As I was looking through her craft booth, I noticed a piece done in very fine thread. I asked how she hid the ends, and she replied "with quilting needles."

Now, I admit, I know next to nothing about sewing...including needle sizes. I didn't even know there were needles small enough to fit through size 100 thread. So, off I went to the local craft store, new information in tow, and looked through the display of all of the sewing needles to find the smallest ones. Instead of using quilting needles, I decided to pick up a pack of "sharps" because they looked smaller. I went home and tatted samples in Lizbeth size 80 and DMC size 100, and low and behold, the sharps worked! I was ready to begin my tiny tatting adventure.

I began with a series of snowflakes tatted in size 80 DMC tatting thread. Once I got comfortable with this, I decided it was time to go for the size 100. Here's where I am now: my Stawasz Mega Doily next to Elena's doily on a folding chair:

The rounds have gotten long enough that I have to use large Clover tatting shuttles to hold the right amount of thread to finish. These shuttles are great, and I've been meaning to post a review of them on my blog. The little bit of tatting in the upper right section of the doily is there because I decided to change the stitch count. More details on that when I finish the round. Until next time...

Slow Progress

I haven't been tatting much lately, so although Round VI is a very easy one, it has taken me a few weeks to complete. Here is my latest progress on the Stawasz Doily Tat-along:

I like to use a folding chair as a foot rest while I tat, which also doubles as a resting place for the doily when I am not working on it. It looks very small on the chair, but my eyes have gotten used to looking at size 100, so anything larger would look really big by comparison:

I still haven't made it through my first ball of thread yet. I wonder how much of the doily I can complete before running out. I have one more full ball of size 100, which I got for free because Handy Hands mistakenly sent me white instead of ecru on a previous order. They have great customer service and let me keep the ball of white thread as well as sending me the correct color. So, if I can finish the project with two balls of thread, that will be a total cost of $3.75, which is kind of funny to think about for such a massive project. I also wonder how long I can keep it on the folding chair before it gets to be too big and starts to spill over...

Stawasz Tat-along: Round V

I finally completed Round V of the Stawasz Mega Doily last night, dampened it with a wet paper towel, and let it dry overnight.

Don't get me wrong, I really do like using size 100 thread. I found, however, that because the thread is so small and highly twisted, it has a tendency to form into a knot while I am trying to close rings. I have to be very careful each time I close a ring, repeatedly straightening the thread to make sure it doesn't knot up on itself. It is a real pain when it does, because even the small picks on my Clover shuttles are too large to undo it. I have to use a size 10 sharp needle (the one I use to sew in ends) and stab at the knot until it comes undone. I have pretty good eyesight but I cannot actually see how the thread is knotted because it is so small.

Anyhow, here is another photo to give a better idea of the size of the doily so far. It is pictured with two antique bone tatting shuttles, the kind that have a simple design etched into them:

According to Heidi Nakayama, these bone shuttles were often mailed out as a gift for obtaining one new subscriber to Needlecraft magazine. This promotion ran from 1916 until 1923. Her book, Tatting Shuttles of American Collectors, is a great read if you like antiques or have a tatting shuttle collection of your own.

Stawasz Tat-along: Round IV

Round IV of the giant Stawasz doily has been completed:

I've been spending most of my time messing around with Round V, which is a much larger round, with 12 individual motifs. When I began the round I had the wrong stitch count written down, so I had to cut off three motifs (roughly six hours of tatting). Better to cut off toward the beginning than further in!

Here is where I'm at now. You can see the motifs I cut off at the bottom, and I've almost gotten back to where I started:

I had a few other mistakes in the motifs that I cut, so I was glad to start fresh. I had been tatting rather quickly in an attempt to keep up with the others tatting this pattern, but in doing so I realized that I needed to slow down. 

My normal tatting speed is on the slower end. I get enjoyment out of making sure each ring and chain is in its proper position, and like to put the tatting down somewhat frequently to flatten it out and see how it's progressing. I used to crochet slowly as well. I could crochet fast if I wanted to, but that defeated the purpose of it being relaxing, and made my arm more prone to injury.

I did learn something from tatting quickly and making a few mistakes. After two years, I've finally gotten the hang of opening closed rings. I think I know the tricks now: 

1) Pulling the thread in the correct direction from the last picot, 

2) Using a pair of tweezers to get a good grip on the thread that is being pulled, and 

3) Using the right brand of thread.

I could never open a closed ring in Lizbeth size 20 or smaller, even when I knew what to do. The Lizbeth thread doesn't glide as easily as DMC. So, I was a little scared when I made a mistake in DMC size 100...I thought I would never be able to fix it. 

To my surprise, opening a closed ring in DMC is easier than undoing stitches in this thread. It is so smooth and glides so easily, that it is no problem at all to undo mistakes. So, if you haven't tried this thread out yet, I highly recommend it!

Tat-along: Stawasz Mega Doily

I'm joining the tat-along of the huge Jan Stawasz doily at InTatters. It's been difficult to keep up with Rachael and Grace, but here I am with three rounds completed:

This is tatted in DMC Cordonnet Special size 100 white. It's my first time using such a small thread, but it's a lot easier than I expected. DMC is very smooth so all of the rings glide closed effortlessly. My size 15 mini crochet hook works really well for joining very small picots.

So far, the doily measures 4 inches across. Here is another photo for an idea of it's size:

I honestly thought it would turn out smaller than this. It's too bad DMC stopped producing size 150. I wonder what that would have looked like...

You can see the completed doily at Karen Cabrera's blog or at Elena Koval's blog. I've linked the relevant blog posts to their names above.

Jan Stawasz didn't name this pattern, so I'm copying Elena's idea of the "Mega Project" and will be calling this the "Mega Doily." I'm rather uncertain if I will be able to finish such a large project, but I will give it my best shot!