"But, really, why does anyone create? You feel a... a restlessness inside, a need to make something new, something no one has ever seen before. You want to add to the beauty and the richness of the world with a gift, an offering that is uniquely yours. It's an act of selfishness and generosity, all rolled into one."

-- Bruce Coville,
The Last Hunt

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Leafing Out

As promised, here are the first two rounds (out of 10) of the "Rising Star" doily, made in Yarnplayer's "Leafy" HDT:

If you enlarge the picture, you'll see a few cat hairs as well; I'll have to trim those off. How I managed to glue everything down on the card without getting it all full of fur remains a mystery to me.

The first round took a bit longer than I expected. You have to twist the chains; you wouldn't think that would take a lot of extra time, but I had to slow down to check that I was on the right side before I started each ring. There's no more of that, thank heaven, but of course the rest of it will take longer just because it's bigger.

I was able to tat these two rounds continuously by starting with the second ring, ending with the first ring, and converting this to a split ring. Alas, I can't start the next round in the same place, and anyway I'll be changing colors on the shuttle now. [EDIT: Just to clarify, I didn't bother winding a second shuttle just for that one split ring. Instead, I used the floss bobbin that serves as my ball as if it were a shuttle. There won't be any more split rings, so this whole piece is really a one-shuttle pattern.]

This is the first time I've used "Leafy" for anything other than "representational" tatting. What I mean by that is that I've always used it to make pictures, specifically plants, up till now. I really like the way the subtle shading looks in a non-representational piece.

The next round will also include the "Peace" colorway.

5 comments:

  1. You've got a beautiful start there! I love the subtle shading in Leafy.

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  2. Beautiful shades of green. Looking forward to the next bit. Whose pattern is this?
    Fox : )

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  3. Never mind! I just found the book! Oh no Another thing to put on the LIST.
    Fox ; )

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  4. The HDTs look great. By the way, why did you paste this round to the card instead of having the whole doily done? Just wondering.

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  5. Zarina, this isn't glued to a card. I was referring to the card that I just finished making, which you can see a couple of posts back. Sorry I wasn't clear about that. Yes, I will be making the whole doily.

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