it wasn’t love at first sight

When Muskaan and I talked about starting the #TALmeEndrucks in Jan 2023 (see previous posts with label TALmeEndrucks), she mentioned Endrucks's continuous method of climbing out, that she had tried in the E28 doily, and I was really curious to learn it, we both love exploring tatting techniques together. But neither of us had time to face the big challenge to rewrite and test the original pattern at the end of December 2022.

When I eventually tatted it, I was very grateful to Muskaan for her incentive, because I discovered the ***magic*** inside the pattern! Actually, during 2023 I tatted it 3 times following the original one-pass pattern with shadow chains (plus one another doily tatted in parts for the TALmeEndrucks game). I fell in love with the original pattern - from a technical point of view - and Muskaan is very right that it is an amazing example of E’s talent as designer.

Frau Eleonore has something to teach us in every round. For example, we usually find doilies where the number of ds increases in subsequent rounds. But she designed a flower in the centre, with double lines of chains. In Round 4 and 5 I think she was very clever to add shorter chains in the sides of the petals, that is: 4ds in Round 4, over the corresponding chain of 6ds in Round 3, and then only 3ds in next Round 5 over the previous chain of 4ds. This trick makes the “V” space between petals narrower, and the chains, one over the other, occupy less space. Once Round 5 is completed, the motif remains flat without the need to be blocked.

Also the finished doily didn't need any blocking, it was perfect just off the shuttle!! The credit goes entirely to the designer!

The pattern is rewritten in modern notation with diagrams - and I should thank Muskaan twice for proofreading it!  Here is the link to the pdf for the original one-pass pattern with shadow chains  - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y2j1TSp1ENorfe_fEeUlysq3TY-s1LoW/view

I haven't changed anything, I followed faithfully the original stitch count and pathway. It is so easy to work the entire doily in one pass using *shadow chains* (this is a term coined by Muskaan), and amazing how Endrucks created that path! In the old book there is only a slight difference between the original model and the original text (a difference that sometimes is present in other patterns too), that is the number of picots in 2 rings (r2 and r3, if you read in my pdf) - one picot less in the text -. In such case I followed the model showed in the old photo.

I copy here for you the text written by Muskaan:

Shadow chains "are “extra” chains, used by Endrucks for continuous tatting, to cross over elements or to climb out to the next row. Instead of using split chains (or split rings) to climb out like we would do today, Endrucks continued with extra chain(s) to reach the desired point to start the next round. As the name suggests, the extra chain is worked very close to a previous element. This causes the model to lose perfect symmetry, yet the shadow chains are not easily visible. […] you can find them if you look carefully for “bold” lines, but they almost disappear in the overall view."

Muskaan traced Endrucks' continuous paths with shadow chains in the #28 doily:
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/07/continuous-paths.html
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/10/bagatelle-to-bagaball.html 

************************

It wasn’t love at first sight between us and Frau Eleonore!

Muskaan started the exploration of E’s patterns in 2015, here: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2015/11/pattern-eleonores-angels.html - but many years passed before I started tatting my first model from the book, long after Muskaan’s first model. And now, after it’s almost four years since we started the Project, after that all the book’s patterns have been reworked, my PIC (Partner In Crime), Muskaan, found the right words to express our feelings:

It’s an open secret that in 2015 I was not impressed by the tatted lace I saw in Frau Endrucks’ book. There did not seem to be any visual elegance and if not for my commitment to Georgia, I would’ve given the book a miss. And what a monumental loss that would’ve been to my own tatting journey and to the eventual Endrucks 1920 Project and a prosperous partnership with Ninetta.

The cover doily was one such design that did not appeal to me. I’m pretty certain Endrucks was inspired by the radioactive symbol. What I find appealing and impressive are the outer arches that form the triangle! And to think that this entire doily is designed to be tatted in one pass, attests to the clever and innovative designing skills of the Frau.

I can’t thank my PIC, Ninetta, and Reiko, enough for taking on this huge task of doing the presentation of the E44 pattern (thanks to the reworking by Reiko Akamatsu) and hosting the tat-along. While I got to play with colours and work the doily in parts, Ninetta worked it in mostly one pass. This is something I am eager to tat myself, in order to admire firsthand the designing prowess of Endrucks. Since many of her patterns require mindfulness due to change of directions, working the motifs in two colours was our way to demonstrate which shuttle was in use, and ensure a wider participation.

This tat-along turned out to be such a satisfying and inspiring experience. The versions that our members tatted brought out so many hidden features of the pattern, highlighting different aspects. It also led to spin-offs such as 3D baskets, a mega doily, flowers, possible arrangements, and even a ship! One is truly spoiled for choice when it comes to this one designer of 44 patterns.

If you want to look again at the coloured version tatted by Muskaan for the TAL, here is the link: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-cover-covered.html 

And here you find Muskaan’s motifs with arrangements and combinations using Motif G from the TAL - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2024/07/e44-motif-arrangements.html

Note: If you like exploring the vast range of patterns, ideas, models, information related to the Project, we compiled all the important links in one document called EPLinks - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w1TZBg-HIzseGEUoJ-rko7tNbtSgZY5A18Oy2Y9Hh0Y/view

Ciao, Ninetta.

#TALmeEndrucks - cover doilies roundup:
https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/06/cover-doilies-roundup-1.html
https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/07/cover-doilies-roundup-2.html
https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/07/cover-doilies-roundup-3.html

game over

Daniela Mendola's design, thread is Lizbeth size 80, colour number 122. For the last round I had almost finished that thread and then I tatted all rings with DMC lavender (I think it is color number 210 or 397, I lost the label).

Thanks for the fun, Daniela!
She shared her pattern row by row in her blog: https://danielamendola.blogspot.com/

Ciao,
Ninetta

swirling butterflies - finished

Doily finished!

Another picture is in my albums in Flickr.

Ciao,
Ninetta

ideas -part II

The height of tds is a 'new' designing challenge for me (and I'm loving this 😍😍😍😍😍), it gives tatting many interesting possibilities. It's not for the crochet-like appearance, because I found out - and maybe you too, who already tried - that I cannot transpose a crochet pattern with this. In fact, the technical construction is completely different: the tatted treble starts and ends at the bottom of the stitch, unlike the treble crochet. From a designing point of view, it is more similar to a sequence of picots, than a sequence of treble crochet.

That sample is tatted with Finca light gold (Hilo Metalizado, 1000mts, Presencia Hilaturas), doubled, that it is like a size 20 cotton thread. It's really difficult to take a good picture of gold thread, also it is difficult to render the 3D in a picture. The first upper photo, the collage, helps a lot, those 3 pics in sequence counterbalance the lack of dimension.

Not exactly a pattern, this is only an idea. It's like the old rosette pattern with only one shuttle. For example, it is like the star n.4 at page 45 of the book "Tatting Patterns and Designs" by Gun Blomqvist. (vsp=very small picot)

Start with a ring: 1ds, 5tds, vsp , 1ds, then close the ring and climb out of it with a "mock tds". With a size 20 it'd cup, otherwise tat 4tds instead of 5. Then tat a ring of 3ds-6ds-3ds, close it and join with a shuttle/lock stitch the nearest vsp of the centre. Continue all around, with rings of 3ds+6ds-3ds, joining the shuttle thread with lock joins to each subsequent vsp of the centre. 

I wanted to tat a flower, but if you turn it inside-out, it looks like a tiny hat.

I've also tried tatting an onion ring, the inner ring all double stitches, the outer all treble. But I didn't like it, the other version with treble inside, neither. Maybe I just need to try again. The nicest version -for me - it's the one with the outer ring with alternating double and treble, that is treble are in place of picots.

dmc size 70

Thank you very much for reading.
Before I leave you to your happy tatting, I finished the "almost magic square doily" (I wrote about it here: the chain does the trick ), so here it is:

Ciao,
Ninetta
UPDATE: Please refer to the page "Treble Tatting Stitch - Summary" - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_95.html for any info about treble tatting stitches, thank you.

enough

It's 20x30cm, at this point it's clear that it could grew uncontrollable. A good reason for leave it as it is. Otherwise, could I tat an edging around it? what do you think?

Just like they say, the journey matters more than the destination. This has been a lovely journey.

Thread is DMC size 80, ecrù and pink (Light Peach n.754), pattern is saved in my notebook (well, it's not saved well enough, but it is there) and they are 2 motifs, the little one is one round, the big one is tatted in 2 rounds.

I can see some improvements, one or two ds less in some points. I cut the thread at each round and each motif, so now I have a lot of wasted thread. Spendthrift, carefree tatter! You'll soon need to go shopping for new thread!

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related post

it's taking shape 

 

Renulek's doilies

Just two in my personal list, but very pretty and beautiful patterns!

In the next pic there's the Wiosna 2016 under the newer Wiosna 2017, that is a little smaller, diameter is 30cm in size 80 thread.

I had a lot of fun playing with rounds and colours! Thank you very much, Renata!

Her patterns are in her blog (renulek.blogspot.com) and also listed in her shop.

I put a picture in my album in Flickr, too.



This time I put aside the phone and took a real camera to take photos. It's not a great camera, almost self-acting, I'd only have to push the button. I set the close up and tried it on flowers. That is the verbena in my balcony, did you know that the name of this flower is the same in Italian? I've just learnt it! I also discovered that in Wikipedia there is a "List of English words of Italian origin", very interesting, and they even wrote that the list is incomplete!

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related posts

are you serious?
join to the smooth side

late tuesday

having fun and messing it up

thumb up, Renulek!

testing a mobile app for blogging

finished

I'm going to put a better picture in Flickr.

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related posts:

half

that means a bunch
on the edg-ing

this way or that its always a fun time 

go on

wide

over

The Wiosna2016 is over. Actually, the "mystery doily" is over the Wiosna2016.  A better picture is in Flickr:



With an oversight. Damn the scissors! Saw it when ironing:

Oh well!
I finished also the edging I was doing for the collar. Now I've all my free time to tat my doodles!

These days my thought and prayers go to people affected by the terrible earthquake struck the last week just 2 hours (by car) north-east of Rome. I beg your pardon for this digression.

Bye
( https://www.justlanded.com/english/Singapore/Singapore-Guide/Language/Language )
Ninetta

Related posts:

the long lasting last

spoils of tour

mother tongue?

where's the yellow gone

still spring

mauve beauty

Beautiful doily, it's a pity hiding it under bowls or vases or whatever...

Tatted with size 80 thread, it's a diameter of 16cm (6.30in).

Sorry for those blurry photos, I put a better picture in Flickr:

Bless
( http://www.iceland24blog.com/2013/08/useful-icelandic-words-and-phrases.html )
Ninetta

Related posts:

blocks challenge

adagio

adagio

(adagio means slowly, cautiously)

The last round has 20 separated motifs, I'm enjoying this round a lot! There was a false start, as I made picots longer than the necessary and the first motif cupped. I cut the first gauge in half (oh, don't worry, it was just a small plastic slice) but was not yet perfect. After smoothing the plastic with a nail file, the third motif was perfect.

Absolutely slow tatting, but I like very much this doily. In case I want to tat it again, I should remember a lesson learnt when I tatted the "Mary Maynard's small doily" (http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2009/marymalltathplacedoily.html), that is - in that doily - the round with hairpin lace rings is tatted before the centre and left open till the last repetition of the centre, this prevented the bigger round to twist and joining picots was easier.

In Burda's doily, the rounds with block tatting are made first, then you join them and previous round with a next round (that is block tatting isn't directly connected to previous round but "trapped" by next one). It would had been far better if I had left the rounds with block tatting opened till the end of next round, in that case I wouldn't have had one block upside down and a chain twisted.

What's all this about? It is that now I understood why they wrote"TWO tatted doilies" as a title over this pattern! (Implicitly saying "do it twice, the second would be better"?). My opinion: not at an "Intermediate" tatting level, even it is "just" block tatting.

jal-ga
( http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-say-goodbye-or-see-you-later-in-korean )
Ninetta

Related posts

blocks' challenge

green carpet (and roses)

Thread is dmc size 80, white and green (col.num. 368). Doily's pattern is from a drawing I have done in 2011, but actually I was not happy with it, I had never tatted the "real doily". Now I think those roses are a beautiful complement. For perfection's lovers, there are many flaws, chains in last row are 10-10 outside and 7-7 inside, but some have been tatted wrongly, and a couple of rings are not the right stitches' count. Those roses also, they are exactly the number of roses that I have tatted, that is I kept those not centred and not perfect. You see what happen here when Mr Meticulous go out for a week!

Roses' pattern is by Jeanne Lugert and can be found here:
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2002/jlrose/jlrose.html

Here it is with another background.

I played with an app in my smartphone, too.

That was the doily half done. There are the central part, tatted around the first rose. Then there's the round showed in previous picture. All around there are 6 triangular motifs that are joined to roses, and everything is surrounded by the last sinuous round.

joigin, bāaibaai
( http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/cantonese.php )
That's a great site for anyone interested in languages: www.omniglot.com

Ninetta

Related posts:

beautiful roses

lilliputian rose

prototypes

From abundant to tight-fitting, there aren't prototypes that go to waste.

The orange doily: I call it finished, official reason is that I run out the thread, actually I think that the centre and the edging are not quite well harmonised, if I tat it again I'd try to repeat the squared motif in corners, or to change single rings in the edging with couples of rings.

The shrug is finished, too. The pattern was given to me by the woman in the market stall where I bought the wool. It's a small size for me, as I like wearing a "XC" (that is how I call my extra comfortable clothes' size).  Next time I urge to knit for me something different than a scarf, I should remember that I'm curvy... I finished the wool, so it will stay as it is. My mum is thinner than me, it'd be perfect for her. I've already given her the squared doily. Have you ever seen a smiling-flying mum?

Truth be told, I don't need another shrug/scarf or doily!! Mmmm, well, except tatted doilies...

Ciao,Ninetta

not without a hitch

The adventure with the large doily finished, I enjoyed tatting it even if I had hitches in the process: bits of thread not twisted, oversights, ...

... and what a bitter pill to swallow that the last two rings of the very last wheel needed some more thread than that on the shuttle!

The adventure started in middle January: http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.it/2015/01/tatting-with-anne.html

Then, when I reached the wheels' round, I found that I had wrongly read the pattern, but I went on, considering that would not a big fault, anyway: http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.it/2015/02/even-larger.html

After a month later I suspended it because I run out the multicoloured thread. I had to wait till October, when Fox rescued me with a new fresh ball (http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.it/2015/10/bond-over-thread.html) and I still have some left over for another little project.

Diameter is 30.5 cm.

It already found a new home, my mum loves it!

Ciao,
Ninetta

glutton

You wouldn't say because of the tiny thread, but it's a glutton! It overate two balls of dmc Special Dentelle size 80, colour number 3033 (it's a light mocha), then, not full, some of same size and brand, colour number 754 (a pink hue) and all remaining bit of a green hue, colour number 3052.

These are some missing picots, missing ds, missing mind...

And here it is the Morimoto's last round, still not full of thread, it wanted more of it for the last 3 repetitions but I made do with what I had. Not enough to complete the round. What a lovely justification to go shopping!

But in the meanwhile, Dr. Downplay had a brilliant idea, in that way nobody will ever know our "terrible" secret!!

The doily is quite big as the mystery doily (that was tatted with thread size 40) and it's lovely, I really like how it turned out! Thank you Tomoko Morimoto (the designer)!

I bought a "virtual" version of her book, anyway Google still didn't persuade me that I own a copy because I can only access it when I'm connected to the web. Two days ago, I hadn't connection for unknown reasons, nor I could read the book :(
There're advantages too: no dust on it, more space in the shelf, zoom on text and images (that's a wonderful thing when you start having sight problems)!

This is a link to find her book in Google Play Books: New Tatting : Modern Lace Motifs and Projects

Ciao,
Ninetta

Mr Meticulous and Dr. Downplay

It seems that I'm going to complete my WIPs from the last started to the first. I've finished the "forget-me-not" doily and I went back to the second started one. The first started, the centerpiece by Anne Orr, is still waiting the thread, but a bird told me that Lizbeth size 80 arrived in Italy and took me 3 balls too, col. 154, 184 and 122! (bird's name is Maria, thank you dear!) Unfortunately, still without the col. 131...

But something worryingly happened with Morimoto's doily.

In the late hours of one night, Mr Meticulous cried with horror and fainted as soon as he looked at the missed picot. Tragically, the doily let him put itself in a box.

Under the cheerful sunlight of the next day, Dr. Downplay couldn't find anything wrong and merrily added some flowers...

Ciao,
Dr. Downplay

contagious

It's better to keep away from crazy tatters - madness could be contagious - but you simply can't, if they're sweet and so kind with you. So it happens with Maria.

She came for a couple of days to my town and gave me a wonderful thread - she said - that she was very confident that I could have liked tatting with.

Mad woman! (I know you're there reading!) It is Maidera Polyneon, 100% polyester, very thin embroidery thread. Tatting with it it's a true madness!! And what if I need to retrotat? Shivers down the back...

It is very strong, I've read that it's also resistant to chlorine bleach. Anyway, it is beautiful coloured and shining and I can't disappoint her, she is always very nice, she never forget to give me even a little gift. Thank you, dear friend!

Pattern is from a publication that I've had for many years, it was the first and only one tatting book that I had got for ages. I already tatted the doily some years ago using dmc size 80 thread, ecru and light blue.

Ciao,
Ninetta

irregular

An irregular doily could be sign of several things.
- the tatter sporadically forgot to control herself, or to regulate thread tension or to read instructions (or all together)
- she suffers from indeciveness when it comes to colours
- she has been overwhelmed by too much techniques in that narrow area
- she worn her fingers out hiding too much ends with the needle (poor thing!)
- definitely you would say that she needed a second chance...

That grammar book in the picture was printed in 1954, I treasure it because of handnotes written by my father. Men in the picture joke with the word "irregular": man1: "what's irregular(wrong)?" man2: "spark plugs burned." (well, that's my best irregular translation!)

How do you finish ends?
I find this link very instructive: http://www.georgiaseitz.com/classes/ends.html

UPDATE: the link to the pattern "Under an African Sky Doily" by Jane McLellan is here: https://janemactats.blogspot.com/2014/03/doily-pattern.html
Ciao,
Ninetta