Round 9 Done

    This type of round can be a bit irritating. It is pretty common so I do know how to deal with it. When the rings point outward, the thread tries to catch on them. I find that I can lay the doily across my hand, then fold it back across itself so it is out of the way. At least it works for me.

    Round 10 will be easier. The rings connect to the round 9 rings. They are smaller so it should not take as long. My neighbor that I am making this four is really impressed with it. With half the rounds done it is right on 12" across. 

    I have been working round 9 while watching college football. My team (WVU) just won. It's a fine day.

Renulek 2020 Round 8 Done

    I am now back from the Tatting Corner Tat Days. I had a great time and met some new friends. It was a 14 hour drive up, stopping at my brother's house overnight after the first 8 hours, then continuing to Indiana the next morning. I got there on Wednesday so I helped with some setup. I got to meet Carolyn Craig. I have some of her books and was pleased to get to meet the author. I wish I had taken them to get autographs, but then, I am not an autograph collector. She is a very nice lady. Her ability to design, especially in 3d, amazes me. It was also Kaye Judt's birthday that weekend and it was nice to be able to tell her happy birthday. No, I won't tell how old.

Now that I am back, after a 2 hour ride to see someone in Ohio, then 12 more hours home, I am working on this doily again. The 2020 Renulek Spring Napkin. Remember, I'm doing it for a friend. I just finished round 8. This round is so simple it is tricky. You chain with one picot in the middle, then the ring has several picots that I tried so hard to forget until I was almost half way around. I kept having to take out a stitch or two because of forgetting its a ring, I need picots. Submitted for your approval: Round 8. Now, who's line was that?

Round 6 and Something fast.

     I have round 6 done now on the Renulek Spring Napkin for 2020. It went pretty well. I pulled off the same stunt again, though. One shuttle had only about 8" left when I got through with the round. Now to round 7, which, honestly, I am already 1/4 of the way finished with. The photo doesn't show any of round 7.

    I will be taking this and the pattern with me this coming week. Turns out I am going to Tat Days after all. Oh, I went to Palmetto Tat Days. Now I am going to Indiana for Tatting Corner Tat Days. Lisa Adams at the Tatting Corner (a good place for supplies!) asked for some assistance and it ended up with an invitation so I am taking her up on it and will be attending. Fun, fun, fun. See you there if you're going.

    On another note, and just for interest is the photo below. You may know I like to watch "cab view train ride" videos while I tat. I think they are relaxing and I get to see places I will most likely never have the chance to visit. This photo is from a video trip in France. They have high speed trains there.

The small white text says 320. That is the maximum km/h the train is allowed to go. See the actual speed in red? 317km/h. That means this train was moving at 197 miles per hour. That engineer should drive for NASCAR!

    If you would like to see this video, it is the trip from Toulouse to Paris. It is on YouTube.

The Renulek 2020 Scare

     I am making pretty good progress on the doily for my neighbor. I have just completed round 4. That was a simple round, just a chain, a ring, a chain, a ring, on and on around. I ran out of thread about a third of the way around and joined in with a fresh thread from a ball core that had just about a bobbin-full on it and continued. As I got closer to the end of the round I began to wonder if I would run out. It turned out that I had just enough on the shuttle.

    When I got to the last chain,ring,chain sequence the thread pulled off the shuttle. I was determined to use what I had so I removed the bobbin and pinched the thread in the hole for the pin. I knew I had enough for the chains, but could I make the ring? When I go to the ring, I easily made the first half, but then the thread started to run out. I finished the second side using 2 fingers to hold the ring open and for the last 2 stitches I barely had room to pass the shuttle through. It closed. Now I had enough to make the last chain and get done. The photo shows how much was left. The last chain only took an inch. Whew! Now to hide a couple of tails and wind up a CTM for round 5.

A Customer!

     I have a customer! Well, it is not a paying customer. Ok, it's something for a friend. The fellow next door likes my tatting so he asked me if I could make something for his mother. Having just finished the Beatrix doily, I was looking for my next project. Sure. No problem.

    I had also just purchased the patterns for Renulek's Spring Napkins, 2014 through 2020. I did not get the 2018 as I had bought that pattern 2 years ago. Now I have them all, unless she has them before 2014. Just the spring napkin patterns, remember. 

    So anyway, I called him over and let him look through some books and patterns. He saw the pattern for Renulek's Spring Napkin 2020 and insisted that was the one. He did not know that it was the one I had decided to make for myself if no one had asked me to do a doily. Now is that serendipity? I told him to choose a thread. He liked the Julianna doily on my coffee table and said that was the thread size he wanted. Yes I also showed him a King Tut doily. I asked what color. He had no idea so I told him white always goes with everything. 

    I am now on round 3. Here is a picture of round 2 completed. It is already 4" across. Want to believe I am working in size 20? I may make this in King Tut later just for myself.

Beatrix Done. Finally.

     I have no idea what took me so long, but I finally finished Beatrix. After finishing the testing I suppose I just got busy with other things. If you folks are like me, you are trying to find things to keep the cabin fever away. I can tat only for so long and I want to do something else. But I did stick with it and now it is done.

    If you look closely you will find the mistakes. There are 2. One was done accidentally and the second was by intent so as not to have to redo half of a round. It just "fixed" the error. Without the "fix" the counts would not have come out right. I don't think most people will see it because it is a busy pattern and you probably just won't notice it without looking for it. It still looks good.

Save Your Ears

     The next thing I have from Tat Days is an ear-saver. In our goodie bags were small plastic baggies with some #3 Lizbeth, some buttons and some pearl beads. Put them together according to instructions and this is what you come up with. It does keep the pressure from the mask elastics off your ears.

    This pattern was very kindly provided by Vicki Clarke. It is not hard to do at all. If you want the pattern, she put it on her blog under the heading "I Wish I Was At Palmetto Tat Days 2020." Don't know where her blog is? Look here: https://victats.blogspot.com/. 

    Size 3 makes the right size ear saver. I don't think I would do it in King Tut, though I could if I make it a LOT longer. It probably would not be nearly as comfortable, though.