Second Trial

I started making the first square motif in sewing thread but gave up. The first motif was done in size 10 and changing the thread size so drastically takes a while to adjust. My favorite Aero shuttles were already tied up on another project and I was too lazy to go get another set, so I was working with a pair that had worn out bobbins and using them was driving me nuts so the motif in the smaller size has to wait until I got some proper tools for working.

Just so that I could see what the corners would look like hubby, who can do this sort of thing on the computer faster than I, put 4 of them together so that I could see what they look like. Not bad. They will definitely join at the points and maybe at the middle picot on each chain.

However, one small ring in the middle of the outer chains might pull it all together better like the graphically enhanced version shown below in the lower left. That would mean putting the rings on alternate chains, which would look odd for an individual motif, but when they are all joined together it will look good. Right now there is a big bare space that might be OK in size 80 but not in size 10 where it's a 3 inch motif joined only at the corners, like the upper right.

Then I needed to try out another variation of the first motif while the idea was still fresh in my mind. Here's the second trial. again not what I was looking for, but it has possibilities. It's square, although it doesn't look as square as the first trial and the mistake I made on the lower right corner certainly doesn't help!

I accidentally omitted picot, chain 3 and didn't notice it until I was at the next corner. and I wasn't about to retro-tat 6 rings and 2 chains in order to fix it. I had enough of that on the large doily, where on several occasions I ran out of thread and needed to retro-tat several rings and chains in order to have a neat place for adding in new thread.
This one has a nice balance of open and solid spaces and I think four of them will join together well without any adjustment and I can't tell from the picture, but I think the corner where they meet will look interesting, and the sides should make an interesting join as well. Some motifs when they are joined together, just look like a bunch of joined pieces. Some motifs blend in together and make an interesting overall pattern. I think this is one of the latter designs. It's still not what I had in mind, but getting closer. I think I may tat 4 of each of these and then do a matching border to finish them up. They'd look OK just joined but a border will give them a more finished look. By the way, for those interested in stats, both motifs were done in South Maid size 10 and unblocked the first is 3 inches across and the second is 3.25 inches across. Both motifs are 3 rounds of tatting.

One of the other things that occurred to me was that if I make a very large motif, like 12 inches across, that I would only need to do about ten of them in order to make a long narrow shawl. Fewer motifs mean fewer ends to hide. The 15 inch doily that just kept growing was done continuous from beginning to end so the only ends to hide were the final 2. The other ends were all from adding in new thread, and they were hidden as I added the thread using the method shown in my tutorial.

I can imagine tatting 10 doily size motifs in order to make a shawl, or 12 to make a 3 foot by 4 foot table cover. Somehow making the individual pieces bigger makes it easier to make. Small motifs work up quickly, but then you have to make so many of them and you have so many ends to deal with. Can you imagine making a tatted shawl 2 feet by 5 feet long and only having to hide 20 ends? I like that idea.