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!