Lost in Translation - Julia E. Sanders errata

Work is progressing a bit. I am just about to finish the second long unattached section of 12 cloverleafs. Of course I just realized the next triangle is at home. My tatting fingers are itching.

Meanwhile I am also working an arraiolos style base for a cross-stitch game sprite. I am forever a multi-crafter. Oh, and I just got a bobbin lace starter kit which means some research and reading, butI am not going to start on that at all until the Tea Cloth is finished.

Well, so you have good motivation to finish the Tea Cloth! I ought to do the same with my Big Doily...

Everyone should have a huge project or twelve to do in their craft. It is something to leave to the world to inspire others.

Recently, I have been using a photo manipulation program to make charts from my photos and Google Docs to write the pattern out. It is less of an undertaking than the tablecloth itself, but it is taking some work!

in reply to wodentoad's post:

Erin, you rock! You absolutely rock! When you display your tea cloth, be sure to let people know how many years of your LIFE are in the thing!

I am adding a little bit of the story as I go into the pattern. I am kinda enjoying the charts though. The neat color coding and perfect circles makes my tatting look better. Still have a way to go, but I have to balance the time I spend on the pattern with the time I actually spend tatting the darn thing, lololol!

And of course, I could never have done this without encouragement from all of you. This is our tea cloth.

Woot!! Woot!!

That is quite an undertaking for sure. You remind me of the shawl I started, but have made little progress on. I think I only have about a 3" wide swath done up so far. And with your pattern being of such poor quality, you are actually more designing it as you go than following a pre-set pattern. At least you have some pictures to guild your decisions.

You're an inspiration to us all, Erin!

in reply to Elfiona's post:

I do have pictures, but some of them, including directions for them, are wrong. There is one for the oblong motifs in the outer triangles that was so wrong in the way it was written, I wanted to track down Sanders' grave and curse her out.

ETA: I found it in Iowa:
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Sanders&GSfn=Julia&GSmn=Elma&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=113367213&df=all&

I have a new goal.

in reply to wodentoad's post:

Wow - I had no idea you could find someone's grave through the internet!

Americans are weirdly obsessed with Genealogy. We often know exactly how many generations we are removed from various parts of our heritage. One of the ways we do that is by doing gravesite searches, and Find-a-grave helps out with that. You can also digitally visit a grave.

I found this one by first searching for Ms. Sanders as an editor, and found out that her middle name was Elma from a library listing online. Then I searched that name in find-a-grave and that was the only one that popped up. Unfortunately, it's a nine hour drive, but there are some bobbin lacemakers in the area. I may need to make some friends.

I've been giving this some thought and realized there is more than one positive thing that you can take away after the teacloth is finished. Frustrating as it has been, and most likely will continue to be for a while longer, it has certainly provided you with a purpose, with many stories, and with a much vaster understanding of both tatting and writing tatting patterns than you ever would have had without it. In addition, the frustrations have provided you with an unparalleled opportunity to venture into designing patterns yourself. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you continue that particular line. Your adventure has also touched all our lives and made us a coherent group dedicated to encouraging you in your endeavor and helping any way we can.

And you tracked down Ms. Sanders' grave site. That had to be an interesting exercise. If you do decide to visit, at nine hours one way, it will hopefully be a pleasant road trip and relaxing get away for you.

Many vintage patterns have problems, but the Sanders ones seem to be more plagued than others. We can at least be grateful that Sanders did what she could to preserve and promote tatting during her time. So, if you do make the trip, remember to thank her for what she has been able to accomplish. Sometimes, if we use them right, our frustrations serve to make us stronger.

And now I'm looking towards the future -- about 150 years into the future. A young tatter has decided to make a special gift for her mother. She has found something called a teacloth, and the black and white pattern intrigues her. It is something that she knows her mother will love and cherish. It is a vintage pattern, translated and rewritten by someone with the unlikely name of Wodentoad. That must be some kind of pen name. The images are quite clear and the visual patterns extremely easy to follow. So the young tatter takes up her shuttles and sails through the tatting and intricate assembly. A year and half after she starts, thanks to clear, easy to follow instructions, she presents the finished teacloth to her mother, who uses it all the time and never ceases to show it off to all her visitors and brag about her talented daughter. In the meantime, the young tatter has discovered a whole wonderful world of Wodentoad patterns. Apparently that teacloth had been just the beginning. Her searches keep turning up all sorts of things this long-gone tatter either interpreted or designed herself. And she begins to think, "Maybe I could design something myself." Inspired, she takes up her shuttles again, and promotes tatting to a world that seems to think of it as an old and "dying" craft.

in reply to Lynn's post:

in reply to Lynn's post:

Love the sentiment, Lynn. That's exactly how I think about things too. Thank you for bringing a smile to my face. :)

@Wodentoad I love your shared stories, and watching the progress you've been making. It's going to be exquisite when you get it done!

It is a beautiful story, @Lynn. I also have plans to do the first pattern in the book, the one that uses coronation cord.

There are some bobbin lace makers in the Davenport area, so I may contact them and possibly try and send a piece of the lace. With two kids and a husband, it is not likely a trip I will make in the next few years at least. But I certainly will try to make it.

My message to Ms. Sanders would be more along the lines of: I did it! And of course, thanks, because this is was my first big project love in tatting.

I am currently transcribing just the pattern, photos, and making charts, but I am thinking of adding in posts from this thread which have been so encouraging through the years of the project.

I am excited to see the end of it, and excited for the next project which hopefully won't take so long.

I agree @Lynn. Great story & Lovely sentiments.

Two new mistakes found. Arrrrgh!

The first was the reverse cloverleaf that forms the inner points of the two border rows (the ones I'm doing in reverse order from how I am going to write them down. The first was that the points are connected not by ch 3-3-3-3-3-3, but instead of ch 3-3-3. Luckily I will only have to cut and repair one of the points, and I've made notes on the pattern for the remaining points.

The second issue is one of joins. in the insert version of the two rows, the cloverleafs are joined to the single rings of either side by the second and second to last picots, as in R 3-3+3-3-3-3, but in the large finished tablecloth photo, the join is at the center picots on either side, as in R 3-3-3+3-3-3. Looking at how it's fitting to the triangles, and how it seemed to lay when I laid it against the finished piece, I'm thinking I'm going to keep going with the first version.

Usually, I rely on the large photo as my guide, as everything is already in place, but whether it is my mid-stitch picots or I am seriously going to regret my decision when I finish this first row. I have a gremlin on my shoulder suggesting that I do a short run of the second row, just to see if it is drawn in any, and if I need to adjust it.

Dearest Julia, you shall not defeat me. I shall persevere!

Here are the pics of the original guess and what I counted from the photo.

Ignore my Wonder Woman jammie pants. It is a Saturday.

Aren't Wonder Woman jammies the height of fashion right now? It's hard for me to tell. My husband runs a comic shop, so I'm always surrounded with the memes, and tights'n'capes on the front of t-shirts are the uniform of the day...

Yay!! I just know that you will triumph over Julia Sanders. Especially with those Wonder Woman jammies.

I have been a WW fan since I was born. My mother, a painter, did a very cool painting using comics.

WW was my first hero. I wasn't interested in the Archie comics, -- Betty and Veronica were stereotypes, but WW... wow.

I was so glad they didn't go with campy humor as they'd threatened with the newest movie on our favorite Amazon warrior. The painting sounds interesting. Did she do it for you?

It was the superhero movie she needed. If only she weren't being tied into the Justice league. There's a long personal story about the painting, but in the end it was for me.

Most of my teeshirts, a pair of jammie pants, and even my wallet have wonder woman on them. I am digging the movie merch.

One quick update (besides noting that this is post #599), The tablecloth was briefly imperiled by a lack of thread. I thought I had one more ball, but no such luck. There are two stores that carry crochet thread in my trusted brand, so I went to the nearest. ONE ball left. I cleared them out, and went to the other store.

I have three balls now, so I'm ready to go.