Tatting as a diary – the temperature runner

 

Sometimes the simplest ideas take the longest to translate into reality.  Recording the daily variations in outdoor temperature has become a thing.  Needing neither another blanket nor another scarf ruled out crochet and knitting; besides, I’d far rather tat.  Coming up with a design that was basic but not boring (for me) took an immense amount of time and wasted thread.  Most similar projects go for a spread of colors in the approximate order of a rainbow.  Bearing in mind that this project begins at the coldest-toed time of year – in the northern hemisphere – and considering my notoriously short attention span, as evidenced by an earlier, almost-forgotten resolve to write a haiku every day, meant coming up with colors in my happy spectrum.

I decided on black for anything lower than 10 degrees or higher than 95 degrees.  I like the color black more than I like temperature extremes.

10-19 degrees – Lizbeth 634 (medium violet pink)

20-29 degrees – Lizbeth 178 (grape pomegranate, which sounds nicer than the flavor would be)

30-39 degrees – Lizbeth 710 (light bright blue, though I’d call it a pale, powder blue)

40-49 degrees (which we’ll allegedly see tomorrow after today’s day of snow) Lizbeth 704 (medium sky blue)

50-59 degrees – Lizbeth 616 (daffodil med – there’s no other daffodil color so take your choice whether that’s medium daffodil or daffodil medicine.)

Other colors currently being auditioned for warmer weather include 683 (Light leaf green)  661 (country turquoise medium).  A few others, including the ball of black thread, were dispersed by bad cat Berry to parts unknown.  These colors could change – much depends on whether  Berry returns the threads she stole.

 

Here's the basic square.  In size 20, it’s 1 ¼ inches square.  In size 80, the size I’m using, it’s a sneeze under 7/8” square.  Size 80 seems to present a few unique challenges.  The thread needs to be dangled before starting each ring.  A fine crochet hook is needed for joins, as few picks or onboard hooks will fit through the picots unless they’re disproportionately huge.

 

 

And here are the first few days.  You’ll notice both pictures are thoughtfully photographed wrong sides showing, so you can see the order of construction.  Of course, this has nothing to do with the lateness of the hour…  I’m using the warmest daily temperature for the large rings, which I wanted to be in an x shape rather than as a plus sign.  You can go for the plus sign if you like, simply by joining the squares differently.

 The pattern:

You’ll need a shuttle wound with thread for the higher temperature and another wound with the thread for the lower temperature.  Work in ends as you tat.  Starting with the thread for the higher temperature,

R: 6-6-3-6-6.

<<RW.  Using the thread for the low temperature to form the chain stitches, CH: 6-6.

Shoelace, so you’re still working with the CH color and R: 6+3-6.

Shoelace again, CH: 6-6      RW**

R: 6+ (to small R) 6+ (to previous large R) 3-6-6>>  The sequence between brackets is done twice, then tat between << and ** once more.

R: 6+ (to small R) 6+ (to previous large R) 3+ (to first large R) 6-6

RW.  CH: 6-6

Shoelace, R: 6+ (to last large R) 3+ (to first large R) 6.

Shoelace, CH: 6-6. 

Cut threads, leaving tails about 6 inches long.  Thread first color through a needle and join to beginning, tie tightly, and sew in the end.  Then sew in the other end.  Pull tight before snipping off tails.

Join squares as you go, ideally one each day...  or at least keep a temperature diary so you can catch up when you have time.  (As I do with the haiku.)

Launching Tatting Times Online

 

Tatting Times online

                It was a good run, I think.  Thirty years.  I began Tatting Times in 1992, when I was an editor at a daily newspaper and tatting was what made me secretly happy and kept me sane.  Many of the first subscribers to Tatting Times were really glad to learn they were not the last living tatters in the universe keeping a dying art on life support. 

                Since that time, several thousand more across the globe who believed they alone stood against the extinction of tatting met through the magic of the internet. 

In 1992, it cost 24 cents to mail each issue.  I was younger, married, mother to a teenage daughter.  Quite a lot happened to all of us in the intervening years.  If you were a subscriber but not a close friend, you won’t have known that for me these included a variety of orthopedic issues followed, not coincidentally, by what I experienced as a devastating divorce.  Surprisingly, a year later I met a lovely man with a sweet temperament and serious health issues; and 20 years later, this past February, he died.   I’ve written none of this in Tatting Times.  It’s back-story, about me, not about tatting…  though through good times and bad, tatting has always (literally) been with me.

Fast forward to now, when many talented tatting designers whose beautiful work is made accessible for free or a small fee on the internet.  Postage for the final issue of Tatting Times was 78 cents per copy to US subscribers.  The cost of mailing overseas copies would make anyone shudder.   I decided to share tatting on this blog instead, along with book/thread/product information, news of events, new techniques and of course, my own new designs.  I begin with the one promised in the final issue of Tatting Times.

 Please note, as with other designs shared online, although they’re not in print, they are still under copyright.  That means you should not, no matter whether you live in the U.S.A. or elsewhere, share anyone’s pattern without attribution AND permission, nor make a few changes and call it your own design.  This finicky legality seems to be understood by most, but alas, not all tatters, as I’ve learned to my dismay.  Want to teach one of these designs to your own small tatting group in your own hometown?  Please ask.  The answer is most likely yes, I’m honored, but I’d still like to be asked first, in the same way one prefers to invite guests to tea rather than have them barge in and help themselves to all the cookies.  Want this taught at a larger gathering?  Ask me, I'm portable!

You can generally reach me at threads@empireaccess.net.  I'm still a writer and editor, so when deadlines loom, it could take a few days for me to respond, but I promise I will.

 

The Wellsboro Star

Beads are your choice, as is the size of thread.  The larger star – the teal green one – was a less successful one because the stitch count had not yet been refined.  It used size 8 beads on size 10 thread.  The smaller star, in tatting cotton with size 15 beads, needed only a little blocking and pressing to lie flat.  Wind two shuttles CTM.  The “ball thread” shuttle will have a little more thread and all 25 beads.

Begin by dropping a loop to begin a mock ring

CH: 8

                With ball thread shuttle, R: 8-8

CH: 5

                With 4 Bs on ball thread shuttle, R: 5 BB 2 BB 5

***CH: 5

                R: 8-8

CH: 8, post working shuttle through loop and close mock ring.

RW.  CH: 10

Drop loop to begin mock R, CH: 8-2

                With ball 3 shuttle and 3 Bs in loop, R: 2+10 BBB 10-2.

Finish mock ring, CH:  2-6, post working shuttle through loop and close mock R

CH: 8

With ball thread shuttle, R: 6+ 4+8

CH: 10

Drop loop to begin mock R: CH: 8+ (to previous small R) 5

With 2 Bs on ball thread shuttle, R: 5 + 2 BB 5

Repeat from *** for five star points.  Note the last R in the very center has no Bs but joins to the small Rs on either side, and the large mock ring in the center joins to the smaller Rs on either side as shown.

Coronavirus Doily - the grand finale!

At last!  It took a while but I hope you'll agree it's worth it! 
I'd like to think this has some correspondence to this time when we're all working on our own stuff - and ourselves - and will come out of it with great appreciation for how beautiful everyone is, the beauty around us and the beauty we've created...  this pattern uses a bunch of esoteric techniques you'll be so much more comfortable with now, so perhaps it was useful as well as pretty.

Wind a shuttle and ball CTM.  In fact, if you’re planning ahead, wind at least two shuttles full and cut from the ball, then wind a third shuttle and leave attached to the ball.  The number of  filled shuttles you’ll need will, of course, depend on your thread size – I used size 50.  And, incidentally, the finished doily in size 50 is  about 12 inches in diameter.  Note: there's an odd symbol here  you'll see twice because blogger wouldn't let me transfer a dingbat into the pattern - it's a place to take note of because it's the spot you'll return to for repeats.

R: 8-8+ (to a bottom R of previous section) 8+ (to CH p of previous round) 8.

&*& R: 7+ (use a fine crochet hook to join to the joining p several rounds back (see photo) meaning you’re crossing over the previous CH round to join in the same space) 7.

R: 8+ (to next free p on CH round 8+ (to bottom R of previous section – this will be the next flower cluster) 8-8.

CH: 5-5

R: 4+ (to last p on previous R) 12+ (to next R of same flower cluster) 8-8.

CH: 5-5

R: 4+ (to last p on previous R) 12 --- (this is a long picot, which will pull up to be about ½ inch high in size 20 thread….  You’ll need to experiment with other size threads, because it will become a double picot and you’ll need to join to it three times more) 1+ (back to the long p) 15.

{{CH: 5-5-5-5

R: 7+ (join to double p) 7.}} twice

CH: 5-5-5-5

R: 16+ (to double p) 12-4.

CH: 5-5

R: 8+ (to R p) 8+ (to 4^th p on flower cluster) 12-4.

CH: 5-5

R: 8+ (to last R p) 8+ to fifth p on flower cluster) 8+ (to next free CH p) 8+

Repeat from &*& around.  You’ll be ending with CH: 5-5, join to base of first R, tie, cut and sew in ends.

Dampen, block, paying attention to the middles of the flower clusters and the middles of the points - they seem to want to twist! and press.

And if you've gotten this far - congratulations and thank you for bearing with me.  I hope I get to see what yours looks like!