roundup 2 - stars and snowflakes for tatme dec2022

In December 2022 we had our first “Tat Me” game in the Fb Endrucks group. It consisted of tatting from a given set of patterns, snowflakes and stars derived from Endrucks patterns E3 and E12. Whosoever tatted the most number of models won the right to have them shown in the cover-pic of our group, from 24th to 31st December.

We received over 100 models!! That's awesome!!

Many thanks to Krystyna Mura who shared her 3 pdfs for stars and snowflakes derived from pattern E12, and to Muskaan, who designed the heart pattern derived from E3, which I incorporated to obtain a  snowflake.

Many many thanks to Paola Emilia Rotuletti who won the competition, tatting 28 models! Actually she told us that she tatted more than these, but we didn’t need more proof as she won by a wide margin!
Just one week after we started the game, Paola had already tatted 12 models! If you can make it out in the next pic, the dark green version of the Filigree star has pointed onion rings, that’s just a simple example of how our collection of different models can grow! She used these stars and snowflakes to dress up her Christmas 2022 Tree, and also as gift tags.

This is the list of the top five members, who tatted the most number of models:

• Paola Emilia Rotuletti - 28 (and we don’t know how many more!)
• Paola Bevilacqua - 21 (just because she was on something else for Christmas!)
• Anna Tedesco - 15 (well, that is the official count!)
• Lou Bunker - 12 (I think she’s trustworthy)
• Ruth Palsson - 9 (all given away, so maybe she needed more?)

I invite you to read the previous post ( https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/08/roundup-1-stars-and-snowflakes-for.html )
and to visit the Facebook album where all models are compiled (there are more than 100 pictures) - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.850439426182885&type=3    

In a successive third post I’ll show you my tatting and some stepwise pics I took for the game.

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 Continuing from previous post.

16. Krystyna Mura - She said: “It was a great pleasure to share the patterns with the group 💗💝💗 I'm overjoyed to see so many beautiful stars and snowflakes tatted during this game!” - Many thanks! During December 2022 she added three models to her collection!

17. Laura Grisogani - She shared with us only her first attempt, where she admits to have made many errors, well hidden, imho... She told us that she has little time to devote to tatting, but if she could, she would always participate!

18. Lou Bunker - She tatted 12 snowflakes, with beads and using also metallic thread, a very nice and varied set, and a good count to enter in the top-five for the game!

19. Margaret Davies - She is the tatter who shared her Endrucks’ Angel (and Bell) pattern for our #tagmeEndrucks game held in November 2022 (the pattern is listed in the Angels & Tree Ornaments directory - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MVEEhKE79euDmOY65Es95rYihb5P9UcqmAJWG5qw4Ws/view ) - She often posts in our group! She said it was snowing outside and was bitterly cold for several days there where she lives. Great time to stay at home and tat! About her snowflakes, she ironically said: “all my points have a mind of their own,  no matter what I do they love to point in any direction but straight. Perhaps it’s my silly arthritis hand.” Let it snow, Margaret, in any direction!

20. Mela Cabo - She used metallic thread for tatting her snowflake and wished Merry Christmas to the group with a sweet picture.

21. Muskaan - Actually Muskaan and I started tatting stars and snowflakes in November, hence our participation to the competition would have not been fair… Anyway, the both of us together couldn’t reach the half of the number of models reached by the winner, LOL! Muskaan showed us her before and after pics, challenging herself with bead placement, in three posts in her blog:
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/12/before-and-after-1.html
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/12/before-and-after-2.html
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/12/before-and-after-3.html

22. Paola Bevilacqua - Midway through the month, she shared a short video with her sparkling twinkles, tatted with metallic thread. “Only” a second place for her, with 21 models! But her shuttles never rest, she tatted all the time till Christmas for more gifts and decorations!

23. Paola Emilia Rotuletti - She won the competition with 28 models! Her collection picture is at the start of this post.

24. Reiko Akamatsu - In her Filigree Star she didn’t tat the little rings in the tips. She posted her pic writing: “May peace come”. Unfortunately we still need this wish.

25. Roberta Porati - She added sparkle (to the already sparkling Sanbest metallic thread) using a lot of beads. Also, she added her own touch in one of them, adding an inner round to the Celtic pattern. She tried her hand at split chain for the first time in her tatting life! Well done!

26. Ruth Palsson - She tatted 9 snowflakes, using Lizbeth 20 (cotton and metallic) and DMC Diamant, and gave them away as Christmas gifts. She is in the top-five too! She wrote that tatting the Filigree was a learning process: she had never done split chains. She said: “Googled it and decided it was too difficult with the time I had available before I left the country to travel for X’mas! Had a good look at the pattern and realized it needed SCMR to do those thrown rings. Googled that too.” Thanks to a tutorial found online by Frivole, she could make it! Wonderful!

She also had a great help from Muskaan on how to avoid gapsosis in thrown rings. Muskaan’s blog is an amazing resource, and here is the link we are talking of:
- https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2017/05/squirreling-away-gapsosis.html
And also Muskaan left in the comment more tips:

“With time I no longer need to fold the thrown ring(s). Simply position the TR flat, leave the tiniest bit of bare thread (enough to cover the height of the ds, and make the 1st half-stitch as close and 'under' the TR. You might need to wriggle the thread/stitch into position. Then hold it in your pinch and Then tat the next half-stitch. Remove from pinch only after 1 complete ds is made.
Several ways to make TRs (the pdf has detailed steps) - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/08/thrown-floating-and-8-rings.html
Some tatters make an unflipped half-stitch at the base of TR before continuing with the chain. I don't like it, nor need it. But whatever works for you is fine.
Hope these tips help?”

Absolutely she helps!

27. Sharada Rajan - She posted only 5 stars and snowflakes, but she said there were a few more. I'm delighted to know that our game “produced” more stars and snowflakes than we can see, LOL!

28. Silvana Buonvino - She enjoyed tatting all her stars and snowflakes. For the Filigree star, she tatted the inner motif first, in pink and light blue (typically colours for newborns), and she thinks that having a four-leaf clover inside, makes for an auspicious gift for a newborn baby.

29. Stella Marina - She posted her first Filigree star very fast, just two days after we started the game. But then pre-Christmas chores have taken over, and she couldn't add more stars to her collection.

30. Vani Kattoju - She’s a creative tatter and at the time of the game she had just joined the group. She used cone thread and Lizbeth metallic gold. She is one of the two ladies who tatted all the letters for a new “Endrucks” banner, during the recent game “Name Me” in June 2024.

31. Winnie Ho - she is a very good tatter, and she’s the same lady who came out with the idea of the carrot and snap pea earrings (listed in the Jewellery directory - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ns-C3xQq4CA1tjZwGxFIyKWelLJbqwXJ/view ) - She posted only one snowflake on 22nd Dec, just in time for the game, and shared with us a very funny anecdote, she told us that she accidentally dropped the snowflake in her bowl of cereals when it was almost finished! So she had to wash and dry it before she could continue!

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And ... if you’re still there, I tatted some snowflakes and stars too, before and during the game, that perhaps you want to look at… So, here is me in the last position, not for the competition but for the fun:
32. Ninetta Caruso - next post!

Ciao, Ninetta

Part 1 - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/08/roundup-1-stars-and-snowflakes-for.html 

Part 2 - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/08/stars-and-snowflakes-for-tatme-dec2022.html 

Part 3 - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/08/it-was-my-turn-stars-and-snowflakes-for.html 

cover doilies roundup 3

Continuing from previous post, roundup for the Jan 2023 Tat-Along in the Fb Endrucks group.

The journey wasn’t easy: some tatters ran and helped others, some tatters went at a slower pace but eventually made it. Very few tatters decided to stop at a certain part or (perhaps) didn’t share their finished doily. In any case we would like to sincerely thank all participants for the time, enthusiasm and great motivation they put in our TAL, we are especially proud of some tatters that showed us a terrific improvement. We all have had our ups and downs but also learning how to overcome has been a great satisfaction! And thanks very much for the beautiful moments of lightness that we spend together!

In this post there are pics of the last work-in-progress sent in, by tatters listed alphabetically. In the two previous posts you find the finished dolilies.

Links to the pattern reworked by Reiko Akamatsu and to Parts 1 to 6 of the Tat-Along game are in the following post: https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/06/cover-doilies-roundup-1.html

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24. Afra Pozzato – She stopped at Part 4, but I think that it was a very critique moment for any participant, because she wasn’t the only one that got stuck at the same stage. Her last pic is from 8th March 2023

25. Daniela Bogacka – Her last pic is from 1st April 2023 and she was still optimistic to finish it, but we are still waiting for her completed doily pic.

26. Hanneke Holt - Her last pic is from 19th Jan 2023, the doily looks fantastic and almost done, but we cannot say if she finished it or not, she hasn’t shared any other pic.

27. Jiamrat Supapol - Her last post is from 12th Jan 2023 and it seemed she was really running to finish it, but we had no news after then.

28. Julie Myers - She surprised us tatting a squared version. She said “I am hoping it will look like 4 baskets of flowers“. Her last post is from 21stJan 2023, where she shared her designing setbacks: “Well, set 4 is done. As I was laying it out last night I realized I had done the last tentacle in the wrong spot. I decided at 11:30 at night was not the time to be fixing it, so I cut the chain and backed things out to where I could do the repair in the morning. Hiding the ends was a trick, and tying in new threads took a few minutes because one end was very short. Now to plan out how to do the gap sections.”
Fingers crossed, her doily is still a WIP and not a UFO!

29. Maureen Lawrence – Her last pic was posted under the “Welcome Post” of 2nd May 2023. She wrote:  “Slowly getting there! This is the attempt I didn’t throw away. I am enjoying it, and learning how to handle the joins on the second side of the floating chains. But I simply haven’t had time to tat, there are so many requests for knitting that I can pick it up only in the odd minute here and there. Four grandchildren who live in very cold parts of the country need to be warm so that’s what I do. There has been a new baby who arrived in our family as well, and he needed a shawl. I will complete this, but not this week.” Then, many wishes to all her little family members, of course the doily can wait!

30. Pam Hemenway – On 7th Jan 2023 she had a speedy start and needle tatted Part 1, then no more pics from her.

31. Romana Stelmach – Her last pic is from 8th Jan 2023 (only as a comment in her previous post), and she shared her tip with us: “First time I'm taking part in this challenge, first attempt was with too thin thread, I think. Second attempt with Lizbeth 20 and  it's looking much better. I changed the tension in last row,  usually I tat very tight, but for this pattern that was a reason for the centre not being flat in first attempt. So I recommend to tat 3rd row a bit looser then usual and its nice and flat”

32. Ruth Palsson - She joined the TAL at its very start but this is what she said: “Here is my round one. The left hand one, with beads, is a SCMR. For that one, I messed up the mock picot! I flipped the first stitch.  I put my phone on it to flatten it and smashed one of the beads! It’s called improvising blocking! […] The right hand one is a normal ring and  I made the mock picot properly. I didn’t tighten the final chain properly. They will both look better for a proper block!! Lizbeth #20 shade 161
I am not doing the rest of the doily because I do not like it. I do love this little motif! “

 

33. Sharada Rajan - Her last pic is from 10th Jan 2023, and later in the month she wrote that she was waiting for some yarns, in fact she said: ”Was not happy with the way this particular color turned out. Will complete it soon”. So I suppose that she finished it but I have no pic to show you!

34. Suzanne Fortier - Just right after our first post on 3rd Jan 2023 she shared her pic in a comment, only PART1, but we had no updates after that date.

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I love the cover doily, for many reasons - especially after I tatted it following the original pattern, as Muskaan would have loved to do for the TAL. All in all, even if we expert tatters had difficulties with it, absolutely I learned a lot, as usually we learn a lot when we have to overcome difficulties. Tatting it in parts and comparing all participants’ tips and tatting experiences, mistakes and achievements, it was a great lesson for all of us.

From Muskaan and me, our heartfelt thanks to Reiko Akamatsu and to all participants for keeping our group so active!

And many thanks to my PIC, Muskaan for her constant and expert support and encouragement  🥰

Ciao, Ninetta.

Related Posts -

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/06/cover-doilies-roundup-1.html 

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/07/cover-doilies-roundup-2.html