Friday, May 20, 2016

Tension

In  knitting, a big deal is made of tension - if you don't knit to the same tension as the designer, the garment might not work. Every pattern tells you to test your tension before you begin. In tatting, tension is seldom mentioned. Yet it can affect the appearance of the work and sometimes whether  elements will join smoothly. This motif works fine, but my tighter tension makes it look a little different to the original picture. Or perhaps it's just that I made my picots smaller than the original.

10 comments:

  1. Tension's not so crucial in tatting though - it doesn't have to fit! And it looks perfectly god to me! You can see that the picots in the book are very much longer, so it's useful to know that that element is more of a decorative feature.

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  2. Wow still very beautiful, nice colors and yes I agree :)

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  3. I agree with you! I'm not sure how to adjust tension in tatting, but I do know that some of my tatted pieces look much better than others. Adjusting picot sizes sometimes helps, but I'm not always sure what to do with picots, either!

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  4. I agre with you. I love getting together with other tatter's and seeing their work, especially of the same motif. They really can vary.

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  5. I agree, Jane. I occasionally struggle with uneven tension in the same tatting project, especially if it takes me a long time to complete it. I often tat to relax, but sometimes I should relax before I tat.

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  6. Wonderful motif!!! :)
    I think tension and picots size makes a difference. :)

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  7. Different brands or even different colors of the same brand of thread can make a difference too.,

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  8. Perhaps tatters don't like boring old clones ; perhaps we like our working to have a unique personality and individual character :-)
    Very interesting to see the difference tension (& thread brand or colours) can make - yet both look good in their own way.

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  9. Both are lovely, I think it's the thread that seems to make a difference rather than tension. Even if they are the same make of threads and same size.
    Margaret

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