Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Four ounce

I've been looking at knitted lace patterns and it is amazing that it can take as little as 4oz of lace weight thread to make a shawl.  I will enjoy making somehing so delicate and beautiful.  Using a size 10 thread I started to work on a lace scarf  as a practise piece.  But the needles were to large and the pattern did not hold up well.  So I need to get some smaller needles and start again.

In the meantime I have been practising my tatting and have the second round of the doily almost finished.    The meds I'm taking are causing some poblems and I didn't tighten a thread and had a real mess that had to be undone.  I've even been practising with a tatting shuttle and have been doing quite well but still prefer the needle method.  I made a simple set of rings in size 20 thread and it was quite pretty.  The trick is to put it down when it gets frustrating.  Hopefully I will soon be more productive and making lace edginings.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Tatting

Saturday I went to a class on tatting.  It was very helpful, I had been reading the pattern incorrectly.  That is the trouble with teaching oneself especially from material written over 100 years ago.  So I made a pretty tatted circle and started a small doily so I could get the idea of doing rounds.  Just need to practise making the stitches more even now.

While I was at the class a knitter came in and needed help.  I didn't help her and was feeling very quilty because I was trying to learn to tat.  But it was the first class in 6 months in 100 mile area so I didn't want to miss out.  I actually felt hurt because when she came in no one said Lois knits and can help after class.  Just because I don't knit often doesn't mean I can't.  So now I feel that I have something to prove!  After class I showed her how to fix her mistake and she was happily knitting again.  So it all worked out.  Lace shawl project next!