Thursday 19 September 2013

Mystery Doily - Who's the Copy Cat Now? And New Video

It's been great to have a lot of interest and comments on the previous post and the square motif, thank you.  I shall be making more versions of it eventually but in the mean time... as often happens... I've been side-tracked!

Jon has been working on the mystery doily for a little while and it's looking great.  Then Fox started on it... then I saw a thread on In Tatters about it....  so I thought I needed to give it a try!

Clicking on image will take you to pattern.

The cream version is the one I started on first.  Then I found, like Jon, that there was too much tension and in my case, there was no way I could get the 8 repeats called for in the first round.  Six was all I could manage.  So then I read the thread over at In Tatters and Rachael gave a different stitch count for the chains and also for the cluster of rings on the inside.  I started again with the green thread and now it works beautifully!

Now I can't guarantee I'll get to the end of this but the beauty of this pattern is that it's just a slightly different arrangement of the joins between the rows that creates variety in the doily; the rounds all have the same stitch count for the rings and for the chains.  This makes it an incredibly easy pattern to remember and to take around with you (you know I always carry tatting with me wherever I go) without needed to carry a pattern along as well.

The tiny rings and really short chains make for a lot of reversing work and slows down progress quite a bit I was finding... that was until I saw Karen's comment at In Tatters:  do not reverse work for the chains, just tat them unflipped!  What a great suggestion.  This has improved speed of progress greatly.

But what about the colour?  Now I've started again with the green, I wonder whether I shouldn't have used the cream instead.  Or should I use more than one colour?  Ah, decisions... decisions...

Oh, and I was nearly forgetting:  I've uploaded a new video on Jane's blipless join.  Apologies again the sound is still low (not figured out how to fix that yet... short of shouting which I can't bear to do!) but I hope you can hear well enough if you turn your computer volume to the max!

Best wishes,
Frivole

15 comments:

  1. Colour-wise it works as well as your last video... but it still seems a bit bulky. I think I might opt for the regular join.

    But this is easy enough... like a Catherine Wheel join, isn’t it? Except through the middle of the loops.

    Thanks for a clear video. Excellent and the sound quality is aces!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I have to agree with you Fox. I don't find either of the blipless join to be perfect. They are a little bulky. So it's a choice: "blippy and smooth" or "blipless and bumpy"!

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  2. Both of those starts look wonderful!! :)

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  3. Thank you, beautiful video. I have another tip to join colored yarn. Napkins are great :-)

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  4. What beats me, frivole , is how fast you can tat, photograph it and put it on this blog! What is your secret?

    And, euh why is this a Mystery doily?
    an admirer

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    Replies
    1. Hi Tally,

      I'm just obsessed with tatting! Any spare minute is taken up with it!

      It is called "Mystery Doily" because when Georgia (Seitz) first found it, it was a mystery to her how it was done!

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  5. Wow really nice and you do go fast! Pink goes with green if you need to change color. Or any flowery color I guess. I know what you mean about the count making the doily go faster, that is so true.

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    1. Agree with you Madtatter, love pink and green or purple and green! But I tried another colour on the second round and it breaks the flow of the doily I think and it will make it look like bands instead of the lovely winding effect it has in one colour.

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  6. Hi Frivole, I would be willing to do an exchange with you!! :)
    Just e-mail me ( Hiskid66 @ msn . com -no spaces)
    and we can decide what it will be. :)

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  7. Thanks for the videos Frivole.I have tried both ways and still not happy with either on end result.Your mystery doily is looking great !

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    1. Hi Patti,

      I'm afraid I can only agree with you! I made the videos because I was asked for them but in either case, I find the join not smooth enough. In effect, both joins add a an extra thread at the back to cover the colour blip. This results in a slightly "bulky" join and I don't think there's any way to avoid that. For my part, I'm going to keep using regular joins even when doing coloured work (you can easily choose to have the blip on the back or on the front).

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  8. Thanks for doing the video, I will catch up and watch ASAP,
    Your mystery doily is looking good so far, I think the green one is better but the cream looks just as nice, I look forward to seeing his it works out.
    Margaret

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  9. The mystery looks great...I hope one of you gets it figured out and posts the pattern...it looks like a fun challenge! :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Kristen, the pattern is available already if you'd like to join in the fun!
      If you click on the link in blue in the first paragraph, one will take you to In Tatters and a thread that discusses this doily with links to the pattern.

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  10. Ik ben van België waar kan ik de boeken of de patronen van Anna orr kopen. Kan er iemand me een email sturen want ik vind die drie geweldig mooi. Mijn mail adres is joseevanroey@telenet.be

    ReplyDelete

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