Thread Play

Today was much better for tatting.  No poisonous serpents lurking where I lay my tatting box or anything of that sort.  I've made more progress on the necklace you've seen in previous posts and have designed some more jewelry pieces which you will get to see in posts next week along with the free patterns for them.

Today I am posting a little piece I did last week with a ball of Valdani perle cotton that was at the back of one of my thread cabinets.  The colors really struck my fancy.  It has been so hot, humid and stifiling down here.  The wonderful darker colors made me think of my favorite season- Autumn.  So I got busy with that little ball and created this:

 I haven't come up with a name for it, so it is just "Valdani doily".

The fist round of this piece is tatted as follows:

R5-5 (sm- m- sm-) 5-5 CL RW

CH5-3 (5 even sized -) 3-5 CL RW

R5+5 (sm- m- sm-) 5-5 CL RW

Continue around forming a motif of 10Rs & Chs.  Tie & cut, hide ends.

The next step is to run the tatting needle through one of the joining picots and Ch13 CL + to next joining - over the top arch of the R.  Do this around the motif.

It should resemble this~

The 2nd round goes:

R5+ to last - of prev made Ch 2 + to first - of adjacent Ch 5 CL RW

Ch10-5 CL R7 (sm- m- sm-) 7 CL Ch 5-10 CL RW

Continue around motif, tie, cut & hide ends.

It should resemble this~

The final round is:

R11+ (to - of Ch prev made) 11 CL RW

Ch5 (7 med -s) 5 CL RW

R11+11 CL RW

Ch7 followed by 7 graduated -s (sm, med, med/lg, lg, med/lg, med, sm) 7 CL RW

Continue around motif, finish off & voila.

This piece is currently on my blocking board and looks like~

This piece may be part of a future give away I'm planning for November.  What do you think?

I really like the Valdani perle cotton.  It is not as smooth or fine as DMC & it bears a strong resemblence in texture to Danish flower thread in my opinion.  The colors offered by this company are absolutely breathtaking!  They are all hand dyed in Romania.  I'm including an image of the ball before I started playing- er, I mean tatting.

Hope you have enjoyed today's free pattern post.  Rest assured, you have not seen the last of the necklace project.  It is still in the design & tweaking stage.  Next week should bring the finished piece, though!  As you may have guessed, I am one of those tatters who is always working on multiple projects.  I just can't help it.  The thread beckons and I am compelled to play.

Happy Tatting!

SPECIAL NOTE:  The Thread Give Away deadline is fast approaching!  To participate click on the google "Follow This Site" button to the right below the poll and you'll be automatically entered.  Spetember 7th will be here before you know it!