Friday, April 29, 2011

My New Very Best Friend Basik

 #6 Motif Challenge

Oh, la-la!  Pretty Altin B!  This is yet another of the patterns in the Myra Piper book - they are such fun to tat; just demanding enough to be challenging, yet not so difficult as to frustrate.

I am not sure what happened here.  I was careful with the picots, trying to make them larger than joining picots so that you could see them in the cloverleaf joins as in  Wendy's work,   but the chains seem longer in the pattern picture than in my tatting and the short chains pulled everything tighter than the book photo.  

Although this is pretty and the tatting is an example of improved Fox Fingers, I am puzzled as to why the finished piece is so cramped. Both threads were A.B.#50.  ?????

This is another sample that came in the mail from Margaret.  I have one more sample  colour-way to tat, but have not picked a pattern yet.

I'm off to recuperate from the Royal Wedding watch...

11 comments:

  1. Maybe it's the beads which tighten it up - they look quite large, you might try smaller seed beads next time.
    Wasn't the wedding glorious? - I was so interested in reading about the lace in this morning's paper - all hand made, and the workers at the Royal School of Needlework had to wash their hands every 30 minutes, and change to new needles frequently. It was magnificent!

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  2. Maureen - Of course! I didn't think of that. Makes perfect sense. Thanks. Do you use beads often?

    Yes, it was a glorious and, memorable event.
    Fox : )

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  3. That is such pretty thread, and your work looks perfect but A.B. is not what I really like working with as a rule.
    Ah yes the Royal Wedding was wonderful especially Kate's lace

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  4. I believe I still have a little bit of that color Altin Basak left... I love the color combination! Myra's designs are fun to tat. Right now, I'm stuck on stars. Who knows, maybe I'll learn some new techniques and catch up to you!

    The wedding was fabulous! The timing was perfect for me. I got up at my usual time, got ready for school, and I was able to watch from the Queen's arrival through the air force fly-over. I do believe in fairy tales!

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  5. This motif is very lovely!

    As is see it, if you like the look of the beads you used, then adjust the stitch count in the chains.

    Or use bugle beads. (But then you would need to adjust the stitch counts in the chains to accomodate the wider circumference.)

    Any way you wish to go about it (or not), opening up that cramped space is an intriguing experiment. Have fun!

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  6. Lovely motif, I love this colour and I am glad you found a lovely pattern. I thought the beads were ok to me.
    I am so pleased you like your thread, I have done several things you the thread you sent me, which I shall post during next week.
    The wedding was lovely and I am so glad you enjoyed it.
    Have a lovely weekend.
    Margaret

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  7. It looks fine to me. The beads ensure that spacing was the same all around. A slightly larger bead might have moved that round out further and maybe then it would not seem as "close". I've also found that different colors within the same brand can be slightly different in size, regardless of the designated size of the thread. I'm told it has to do with the dying process. Some colors fatten up the thread more than others. You can usually tell when you are tatting though. And I think it is usually a solid, like black or navy blue. I don't think it is the thread here though.

    The beads fit quite snugly and I don't know if you added them as you tatted or strung them first but I suspect giving more slack in the thread/picot or using a bigger bead would add more space between the two segments.

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  8. No se si es debido al traductor pero yo no entiendo que es lo que no les gusta. El motivo me parece muy bien elaborado. Las cuentas de tamaño ideal, los colores preciosos. En realidad ya eres toda una maestra en tat.

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  9. Maria, Try this: I wanted more space between the cloverleafs, so I tatted large joining threads. But the cloverleafs are very close to each other and I could not block them apart to make more room! The cloverleaf round of tatting is very tight. Make sense?

    Gina, Dye for sure makes a huge difference - especially in wool - the black wool was always so much harsher to the hand than other colours and some colours of the same label were much, much thinner than others. All this certainly does affect a pattern. Never thought of this when thinking about THREAD! But, of course, it makes perfect sense. Thanks.

    ♥Fox : )

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