I've always been intrigued by the crescent and circular shaped tallies on
page 105 of Bridget Cook's Practical Skills. Have any of you tried these?
<VBG> There's a scene in one of the Winnie the Pooh books, where Winnie, wanting to pinch some honey from a nest placed high in a tree, grabs a balloon to get himself there. The balloon keeps going up and up, poor Winnie can see no way of getting back to earth, so Christopher Robin gets his gun, and tries to shoot the ballon down. The "exercise" ends up in the following exchange (have to quote from memory, as DS took both books with him to CA):
Winnie makes a noise, and Christopher asks: "did I miss?"
To which Winnie replies: "you didn't, exactly, *miss*. But, you missed the *balloon*"
To come back to your question...
Yes, I tried *both* the crescent and the circular tallies described/diagrammed (mind you, *not* pictured as in: photos of finished lace <g>) in the Practical Skills; they seemed to me to be perfect candidates for "ornaments" for the "Christmas Tree" (my first published pattern, IOLI Bulletin, Vol 14, #4, Summer '94). In short, I "missed the balloon" more often than not... <g>
I have seen them (at least the crescent ones) since, done properly (in Lia Baumeister's Schneeberger lace), so I know they *can* be made... But I still don't know *how*; apart from the partial rows and the outer picots to help maintain the shape, they need to be -- I think -- tensioned differently than your "run of the mill" ones (leaf and square). And that's something that refuses to come to my fingers. Nor can I "internalise" it, ie come to that point of understanding which only requires a bit of practice to bring the desired reward...
I do suspect however that, if I ever figure out how to tension (any) tallies in wire, I'll be able to make (wire) tallies in any/every shape; as Lorri'd said, with wire, once the stitch is in, it's *in* (for better or worse <g>)
It's 12 degrees F and the wind has been blowing 20 to 30 knots for 24 hours now so
I'm ready for the new one. The cats are in a cave I built of blankets on
the bed, cuddled up to a hot water bottle. Why don't these things happen
when it's 45 degrees out?
And here I've been complainin', because it's *only* 50 outside (usual 68 inside, as *our* furnace is working OK)... Good to have some perspective on "misery" :) Hope y'all get yours fixed soon...
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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