Progress on Round 8

 I'm enjoying round 8 of Renulek's Spring Doily. I haven't yet reached the point where I mark the doily into quarters to convince myself I'm making progress! I'm wondering about the colours for the next few rounds. Stick with the green? I'm not sure.

A Good Result

A few years ago, I bought some wool to spin, already dyed red, combed and ready to go. I thoroughly enjoyed spinning it on my Ashford Traveller spinningwheel.  Then came the process of knitting swatches, designing a cardigan and knitting it, which I loved too.

 But when it came to wearing it, that was a different story. It just didn't make me feel as elegant as I had visualised. A friend advised me to unravel it and knit something else, but after all that work I just couldn't bring myself to do it. There wasn't anything inherently wrong with the cardigan, it just didn't suit me.  So it sat in my cupboard.

 But last week I gave it to my daughter Penny. It looks great on her, she loves wearing it, hooray! And being made of wool, it's very warm, just right for the upcoming winter in Perth, Australia, where she lives.

Round 7 is Done

After a bit of a break from Renulek's Spring Doily, I have finished Round 7.  I must be careful to say 'Spring' doily now, since Renulek has already begun to release the pattern for the Summer one.  Renulek recently won a competition for one of her magnificent doilies from the Weaving Museum in Stone Mountain. Congratulations! You can read her post about the award here.

Matching Hats? Not Necessarily

 The hats I made for Isabel and Annika are reversible. So they can both wear stripes and match each other. Or they can turn them the other way round and not match at all:

We're going to our local town tomorrow on a shopping trip and then the next day we'll be taking everyone to the airport, in a bigger town some hours drive away, so it'll probably be a few days until I blog again.

Annika's Socks

 Big sister Isabel chose the colour for Annika's socks, but Annika is quite happy with them. They have little blue beads knitted into them

And will keep her toes warm this winter.

Isabel's socks

 One sock, two socks, Isabel's socks are now done and go well with the pink frills on her trousers. The sparkly beads are rather discreet, they don't show up here.

Sparkly Socks

Isabel, my 4-year-old granddaughter, watched me spin a bobbin full of wool to make socks for her and her sister Annika. Isabel chose the colours the yarn must be dyed - pink and white for her, blue and white for Annika. Then she said that she wanted beads added for sparkle. Good idea. I've been meaning to try adding beads to knitting. I added beads to the ball before I cast on and moved them into position when I wanted them. Works fine. I think I'll add beads to my next pair of socks too.

Rumplestiltskin

 I ordered 5 kgs of wool to spin, which I collected last week when we were in Port Elizabeth. Luckily, unlike the girl in the Rumplestiltskin story, I won't have to spin it overnight. It will take me quite a while! My husband was a little disapproving that I didn't buy raw wool. It is good to be able to say you went from fleece to finished garment, but I enjoy spinning much more than I enjoy cleaning wool, and this way I can just get on with spinning. For the record, it is 21 micron wool that has been treated so that it won't felt.

Ongoing

 Of course I was tempted to finish round 6 instead of cleaning my  kitchen floor, but I managed to resist. The rounds are getting bigger now and take longer to do, I couldn't finish it in an evening.

I'm going away for a week or so, so I won't be posting for a while. I'm going to take Renulek's doily with me, but how much I'll get done I don't know.

Round 6 Begun

Link to round 5 and round 6. I see no point in using 2 shuttles for round 5, but I am using two for round 6 because of the ring thrown off the chain.

Tilly

Tilly is now ready for action. I liked the step by step instructions of the book, 'Sewn Toy Tales' by Rosalie Quinlan and Melanie Hurlston. Instructions for attaching arms etc with ladder stitch were great. It's a good idea to sew the pieces and then cut them out, but still a fiddle to turn them and fill them. That's the  nature of toy  making I guess!

Round 4

 I started round 4 using one shuttle and ball, but that just wouldn't do. The third ring of the 'trilogy'  stuck up horribly. I'll show you. The photo is a bit shadowy because I took it in the evening before cutting those repeats off and starting again with two shuttles.

First Step for Tilly

A friend gave me this book at the weekend. It's by Rosalie Quinlan and Melanie Hurlston - I don't think I've seen a book before where the authors' names are not on the cover. It's good timing because I've been planning to make a doll for my granddaughter. I like the step by step instructions in the book. But the first step was a little disingenuous. Trace all the pieces from page 125 it said, failing to mention that the pieces on page 125 are half size. My copier doesn't have an enlarge function. I had to scan the page and print it; roughly cut out the pieces; scan them individually; crop each scan (essential!); enlarge each piece; and then print it. So I now have the pieces for Tilly, but have yet to begin step 2.

Round 3

 I'm working on round 3 of Renulek's Spring Doily. I'm trying not to get carried away with working on this. I'm prone to 'protatination' - that's tatting to avoid getting on with something else!

Linda's Progress

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 Linda is working hard at her tatting and making progress, as you can see from her first and second versions of Jennifer Williams's coater Marion. Now she has moved on to Emma Crew's doily Daisy and Clover . I showed her yesterday how to do outward facing rings using a second shuttle, which she needs to know for the third round. Here's the first two rounds next to the Marion:

Renulek's Spring Doily

 There are so many wonderful renditions of Renulek's Spring Doily on the internet at the moment that I can't resist joining in. I thought I should wait a bit since I have distractions coming up, but it won't matter if I have to put it on hold and come back to it. Here's a link to round 1 and to round 2 .  The bits of the  pattern are sometimes hard to find because they're released separately on Renulek's blog.

Linda is coming this morning for a lesson. Good to be teaching someone on Tatting Day.