More Tatting for Klara

You may recall that in addition to the "Star Attraction" doily, I also decided to tat a cross for my great-aunt Klara. Here it is.

This is Mary Konior's "Large Cross" from Tatting with Visual Patterns. I really like this design. When you tat it in two colors, the chains emphasize the simple cross shape-- especially if you use a solid for the ball thread-- and the rings add decorative interest, while the lack of decorative picots keeps it from being too frilly.

I used Lizbeth colors 672 Burgundy and 168 Latte Foam. I especially like the very subtle color variations on the latter thread. I used size 20 because that was the size in which I had these two colors on hand, and it does make for a nice large, visible cross; it's 5 1/4 inches (13.5 cm) tall. I would have preferred size 40 if I had had it in the right colors, though. After working with so much size 80 on the doily, I really found the 20 difficult to work with; it hurt my fingers, and it was harder to keep my stitches even.

I've decided to mount and frame the two pieces using colors that will allow Klara to choose which one stays inside the room and which will be on the door. They definitely need something on the door to help John remember the right room. Their sofa is mostly cream-colored, with a pink and blue design as in the doily colors. There's not really much other blue in the room, but there are a lot of burgundy accents. Outside the door is a small corner shelf, where Klara has put an artificial flower arrangement in pink and burgundy. So I'm thinking I will mount the doily on a cream fabric with a burgundy mat (or possibly vice-versa). I'm undecided as to what color to mount the cross on. I really like the way it looks on this blue background, but pink would go better with the overall color scheme. Anyway, it will be a few days till I can get to Jo-Ann's to pick out fabrics; I'll just have to see what they have when I get there.

Star Attraction

"Star Attraction" Doily

Designed by Linda Davies

Majestic Threads, colors 819 (pink) and 847 (blue), size 80

Diameter 5 1/2 inches/ 13.7 cm

I really enjoyed tatting this. I have to admit that, like Fox, I got a little tired by the end. This happens with any doily; as the rounds get bigger and more time-consuming, you start longing for a change. That's why I rarely tat edgings. However, the way Linda made one round interact with the next and made the colors play with each other was enough to keep my brain interested. This is definitely a good pattern to tat in two colors-- although Fox's multicolored version looks pretty spectacular.

I scanned it again with a piece of black construction paper behind it to help the light colors show up better on your screen.

The Doily Show!

When I come home from work in the mornings, the one thing I do before I go to bed is go online and watch the previous night's episode of The Daily Show. For those who don't follow it, the regular host Jon Stewart has taken the summer off to work on another project; substitute host John Oliver has been starting each show with a deliberately corny joke about why Stewart isn't there. Well, on last night's episode, the joke was that due to a mix-up, Jon Stewart had inadvertently been hosting "The Doily Show" instead-- and they showed his face with, yes, a large tatted doily in the background. Crocheted doilies are also shown, but the tatting is most prominent! You can watch it here; the bit with the doily is 29-34 seconds into the show (not counting the commercials at the beginning), so you don't have to watch the whole thing if you don't want to. Yeah, that's right, tatting was featured on one of the most popular shows on American television-- probably without the producers even knowing what it was, much less most of the audience, but hey, it was there!

The Wandering Path

Here is the penultimate round of Linda Davies' "Star Attraction" doily. (Note, this time I decided to link to Linda's blog, instead of directly to the pattern. If you scroll down her blog page a bit, you'll find links to lots of her patterns, including this one, in the right sidebar.)

I love the way the pink chains make a sort of meandering path around the doily, breaking up the blocks of blue. It occurs to me that if you used a variegated thread for the rings and a neutral colored solid for the chains, it would resemble a flower garden with a stone path wandering through it; or green chains would look like grass paths. I definitely think someone should tat it like this. Any takers?

I did have to block it after tatting this round. Those inward-pointing scallops all wanted to spread sideways, causing the whole thing to ruffle. Just a few pins and a little water brought them under control nicely. The next round has a ring that joins to the scallop to make it a complete circle (Did I mention how much I love the interplay between rounds on this doily?), so even without blocking the scallops would have been tamed by having that ring to hold them in place. However, the next round will be much easier to tat with this one lying flat.

At this point, it measures about 4 1/2 inches (11.4 cm) in diameter. The finished size will probably be a little over 5 inches. I was hoping for about 6 inches, so close enough.

Color Interplay

I wasn't going to bother showing round 5, because it's the same as round 3, just a row of split rings in alternating sizes. After I started on round 6, I changed my mind, because the color interplay between these two rounds is fascinating to me.

As you can see, the split rings of round 5 complete an oval of rings made in round 6; if the rings and split rings are tatted in the same color, it gives the illusion of being all one round.

I'm very happy with the way this is turning out. So far, it's about 3 3/4 inches (9.5 cm) in diameter, with two rounds left to go. Very small indeed for a doily, and a bit large for a motif, but it doesn't matter since it's going to be framed.

To see this doily in a much bolder color selection, head over to Fox's blog. She's tatted up to this point in a variety of pinks and greens, instead of just the two colors, and it looks great! I really hope she'll finish it despite the setback.

Next Round

I only got one round tatted today, and tomorrow will be busy. Still, I hope to finish the next round by the end of the weekend. Here is up to round 4 of the "Star Attraction" Doily by Linda Davies.

I'll have to remember to pick that cat hair off.

Tatting for Klara

I've decided what to tat for my great-aunt Klara. It needed to be something small and frameable, since they're not going to have a lot of table/shelf space in their new room, and less wall space than they had in their house. After browsing a lot of patterns, I chose Linda Davies' "Star Attraction" doily. The pattern says it's about 9 inches in size 20; I'm using size 80 (I had a hankering to tat something in size 80, so I figured I might as well do it on a project that needs to be small anyway), so it will be interesting to see how small it ends up.

This is the first three rounds out of eight, and so far it is 1 1/2 inches (about 4 cm) across. The threads are Majestic colors 847 (blue) and 819 (pink). When mounted on a cream-colored background, these colors will go nicely with their couch.

I had a bit of indecision at first; I couldn't decide whether to make a doily or a cross. Well, today, after I had already started the doily, I got an e-mail from my dad saying that John could use something on the door to help him remember which room is theirs. You know how it is in these facilities; all the doors look alike. When my grandparents went to assisted living, I tatted them a picture of a hummingbird with a flowering vine for their door. So when I finish the doily, I'm going to go ahead and do a simple cross as well. The cross will go in a frame that they can either hang on the door or else stand up on a small corner shelf right next to it.

I've got jury duty coming up in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to look on the bright side and hope that it will give me plenty of tatting time.