Mystery revealed

With square motifs I always want to do 4 so that I can see what the connecting corners look like, so is it any surprise that if I work on a six sided motif that I want to see what their connecting corners look like? The mystery bit that I was working on has evolved into this. Did you guess what it was? I'm not sure if I like it or not. I mean I like how it looks, but it needed some serious blocking to lay flat. I pulled it off the shuttles, cut off about 30 already hidden ends from adding in new thread, sewed in 14 finishing ends and dry pinned it to my blocking board at about 5 last night. Er... make that about 5 AM this morning. Once I got the last bit done I was determined to see how it looked finished and I just kept going until my curiosity was satisfied.
Now that it's done to this point I'm wondering if I should just leave it as is or add a finishing row. I'm not crazy about designs with rings on the outer edge. They may look good but the rings often twist and turn every time the lace is moved so my usual preference is to add a row to nail them in place, although the extra row may actually detract from the overall design on this one.

For the stats, it's worked in size 8 perle cotton and it took less that 2 balls of thread and it's produced a doily about 10 inches across. There are 7-three row motifs in it and a motif can be completed in a single evening. So one week's worth of tatting can produce a respectable size doily with lots of interest. I joined only the larger central ring at the points, but now that it's completed I am wondering if it would look as good, or better if the smaller side rings were joined too, or would that make it pucker. I suppose I'll never know because now that the mystery of how it looks is solved I'm done with this design. I've done the same thing nearly 9 times once as the first trial, once to see if a slight adjustment to the central ring was sufficient to straighten it out and 7 more to see what it looks like. Now it's time to move on to something else.

....unless I add a row...

So now I am at that place I hate to be. In between design ideas. Once I start an idea I can happily march on tatting furiously day after day as I search for the finished design. Often new designs are at work in my head as my hands are working so that I can't wait for this project to be finished so that I can start the next. But sometimes I finish a project and there is a complete blank. Oh there are things I could do, just nothing that really intrigues me, nothing that grabs my attention and says "Create me!"

Maybe I need to doodle with adding a row and see if in the middle inspiration hits. Then again maybe I need to play with some of the images in my drawing file and see about turning them into something interesting. Maybe I should go back to square motifs and see what I can come up with that works well for a shawl. Maybe take a break from bigger stuff and work on earrings and necklaces for a bit. Maybe I should play around with some button designs. Maybe I should work on a tatted bag design. Maybe a pillow would be nice. Maybe a baby outfit. Maybe.........