Monday, December 28, 2009

Tatting Again!

Sunday I pretty much slept and tatted. I'm not sure why I slept so much but I took TWO naps! I actually started this tatting the night before, but it was the edging below which I'll get to next. I was tatting from a 1994 issue of Old Time Crochet and the article was by Rebecca Hollenbaugh. Her patterns show up in a lot of places but I've never seen her on any of the cyber lists or met her at any tat day. She's sort of a mystery to me.

She posted these patterns as coming from a December 1917 Needlecraft. They are motifs and edgings and I kind of wonder if I didn't use one in my "mystery motifs" posts last year? I got confused because the first photographs showed motifs with centers and I started tatting #1 without reading the heading. (yeah, I'm kinda bad about that) Turned out it was an edging, not the motif. So I tatted the edging until I ran out of thread on the shuttles and then started the motif. By this time I could tell it was not the one in the photograph. So I turned the page. Ah - there it was! Only those motifs had needle woven centers!

So here is the matching edging to the square motif with an empty center. LOL! The pattern is ONLY for the empty center. What she explained, if I had read more closely to begin with, is that she added the needle lace centers on her own and the first two motifs I saw had tatted centers which she had also added on her own. She did NOT give directions for either of the tatted centers or how to do the needle lace.

I had to figure that out on my own. Now I've done a little needle lace but I still had to refresh my memory and I wasn't sure how to begin...where to hide my beginning thread. I ended up stitching through the bars of a completed ring and ending at a picot where I would be attaching the base threads to weave through. That worked out well for beginning and then for ending, I just used the needle to weave the thread through the now woven center. Unfortunately, my first weaving ended up smaller than the other three and since it was the beginning, I couldn't figure out how to do it over without messing everything else up. I do like the way it ended though, in spite of that one smaller wrapped segment.

I don't know what thread it is but it's finer than 20. I found a couple of shuttles wound with white thread that I'd started something with and made a mistake and abandoned. I cut it off and started this instead. I really do like it and will try some others eventually. At the moment, I have a few UFO's to finish and a few more exercises in T.A.T. to finish up before I can send it off in a few weeks.

8 comments:

  1. I've seen that edging before in old pattern books but made into the little square motif it is delightful. I love the needle tatted centre too.

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  2. It's lovely! I like the needle woven center, and the edging is pretty, too. Curious to see what you put them on.

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  3. Hi Gina! I'm loving the needlelace woven center you did on the motif! Sleep and tat...what a day! LOL!

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  4. What a pleasingly indulgent day for you! I have seen this edging elsewhere (again, as you have said, credited to turn of the century publications) but the needle woven center really makes it outstanding! Well done, well done!

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  5. I love the way this edging looks as a motif, especially with the needle lace in the middle. No tatting today... off window shopping with Mom!

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  6. That sounds like SUCH a nice way to spend a day! The edging and motif are lovely. Your needle lace center is so pretty! Did you learn needle lace on your own or through the lace guild?
    :) Ann

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  7. Hi Gina! I can help you out a little with the 'mystery' of Rebecca Hollenbaugh. She lives in Western PA near Pittsburgh (two hours from my area, near the Maryland border). When I finally write my tatting history, Rebecca will be at the very top of my 'most influential people' list. I actually met her twice, in the 1990s (still looking for the exact dates in my journals). She even gave me some picot gauges!

    She apparently is no longer tatting, due to health reasons. I don't know how or when she became the tatting editor of Old Time Crochet magazine; but we're indebted to her and to the magazine for keeping tatting visible, at least to crocheters, for many years. I didn't discover the magazine til the '90s, and was disappointed when they stopped publishing. Rebecca stepped down as tatting editor prior to the last issues and didn't seem to get involved with the new technology of the internet. What surprises me is that the other crochet magazines don't include tatting. Of course, the internet fills the void for us!

    You did a great job 'making up' the needle lace 'filler'. (I've never understood how needle lace was done.) And I'm always amazed how 'antique' edgings can be formed to look unique and different. I've used a variation of this edging on many items.

    I'm still trying to catch up on all your recent posts!

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  8. Sounds like a nice relaxing day. Lovely motif with the needle lace center. It looks similar to a cluny weave. Interesting.

    Your blog background is so pretty. I'll have to go check out some blog backgrounds. I don't know how to change it though. I'll have to look into that. Happy New Year!

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