More Spring Doily

My Spring Doily, designed by Renulek, is coming along nicely.  I am about half way through round 8.  This round goes much slower than rounds 7 and 6 because of all the rings and chains in the flower motifs.  It's too big to fit on the scanner, so here's about half of it.

Notice how I started round 8 in the middle of a flower motif instead of at the stand-alone ring.  I started this way so that I won't have to make the final join from flower chain to the stand-alone ring and then have to continue tatting the last ring of the flower and the chain that attaches to the rest of the doily after the final join.  When I get to the end of this round, all I'll have to join is rings 4 and 5 of the flower.  The last chain will be at the top of my work and I'll just have to lock join it to the first ring made.  I hate, hate, hate having to make a final join, then fold the piece in half and make another chain or ring.  It can get very fiddly and doesn't look as good as the rest of the work (at least I can tell where the final chain was).  So, if you haven't started rounds 3 or 8 yet, I suggest you start in the middle of a flower motif to end the round at the top of your work, not between rounds.

I really love tatting this with so many others in the world tatting the same thing.  I enjoy seeing everybody's color choices and progress.  And this pattern is so beautiful, I may have to tat another one in Spring colors.

Spring 2014 Doily Continued

Progress is faster now on rounds 6 and 7 since they are so easy.  Here is the doily after completing round 6.

This has been a very enjoyable project so far.  It's doesn't use any difficult techniques and it's easy to memorize the pattern of each round after just a couple of repeats.  It's all simple rings and chains with a few rings thrown off a chain in a few rounds. But the pattern is very straightforward, so join the giant tat-a-long that has spontaneously  broken out all over tatland.  You can find the pattern on Renulek's blog.  Scroll down to her earlier posts to get the beginning of the pattern.

Here is a detailed shot of my doily. This picture shows the real colors pretty well.

And this picture is for scale.  At this stage it measures about 9 inches across.  I put a 6 inch ruler across the top of the doily but it's clear, so you can't see it very well.

Slow progress on Spring Doily

I've been working diligently on Renulek's Spring 2014 doily and thought I'd made good progress until I started reading other blogs.  I have just finished round 5.  Fox is on round 8 and Sally has made three such doilies, and all three are farther a long than mine. Even Renulek, who has to design the row before she tats it, is ahead of me. I know it's not a race, but I must be the slowest tatter on the web.  I'm considering changing my blog name to "The Turtle Tatter."  Anyway, here is my progress so far.

Here is a close up for detail.

And here it is with a shuttle in the picture for scale.

Spring 2014 Renulek Napkin

I fell in love with Renulek's Spring Napkin, which you can find here. (Refer to previous posts on her blog to get the pattern for previous rows).  She hasn't finished designing it yet, so it's almost like a Tat-It-And-See, except even the designer doesn't know exactly how it's going to turn out.  I plan on keeping this doily for myself, so I chose colors that match my decor, which are sage green and rusty red.  Here's how my doily looks so far.

I'm using Lizbeth size 40 in 675 Fern Green Medium, 136 Autumn Spice, and 673 Terra Cotta.  The idea is to highlight the flower motifs in red and the rest of the doily in Fern green, with a little Autumn Spice here and there to "spice" it up.  So far, I'm very happy with the result.

This is the corner I want to put the doily in when it's finished.

As you can see, this little corner of my living room is a bit bare.  I do have pictures and decor in the rest of the living room, but somehow this corner got missed.  You can see the color of the curtains will match the red in the doily, and it didn't come out well in the picture, but the walls are sage green.  I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to put the doily on the table under the lamp or frame it and hang it on the wall.  I guess I'll have to wait and see how big it gets before I decide.