A Doily Story...trial of patience (long)

I love tatting.

It is probably the...I don't know, 4th most important thing to me...

My husband thinks that I overreact to things. That I have very little patience...To him I respond, When you deal with things...10...20...50...100 times before you blow up...you kinda earn the right of blowing up... You had the patience to deal with those 10+times...the mistakes. I tell him, I have as much patience as a human can posses. He didn't believe me, until this doily. 

He watched me for 2 months try to decipher the pattern...and gain the balls to attempt it. He saw me test tat it. He saw me deal with life, trying to deal with this pattern. 

This was one of the MOST challenging tatting projects I have ever done. Even my table topper that took me two 1/2 YEARS PALES in comparison. This one took me about 4 months. From seeing the pattern. To deciphering it. To test tatting parts to see if the numbers would work. To actually starting it. To tatting it. To getting to the last round and cutting off HALF. To finishing. To cleaning. To pinning. And finally a light press.

What you see is the final process. 

The fact is, this is the most beautiful tatted anything (IMO). the center is 8 individual motifs. 

Then surrounded by 8 more individual motifs.

The next round is just rings...rings and split rings. 

Round 4 is just split rings, followed by a round of rings,split rings and a very short chain...which was almost missed, its so small. 

The last round...round 6. All chains and plenty of room for error. If the long picots are to small, then you get a squeezed look. If too long, you run out of space, thus rippling. With each chain there comes the added drama of tension...Which any tatter will tell you is very hard to control...let alone over the span of days and weeks. This was the row that cemented my patience with my husband.

He saw me test tat scallop after scallop, trying to get the tension right. Trying to get the picots the right size.

Halfway through...8 scallops in...I looked at the pattern again (for the literal millionth time) and gasped. I had been joining at the wrong place. My picot length was too long. I looked and looked, hoping that i was wrong about what i was going to have to do. In the end, I cut. It was very painful (emotionally) to do that. He saw me cut it. then pick out all those STUPID lock joins.

I test tatted some more...just to make sure...I wound up reducing the picot size...also decreasing some of the DS counts...moving around picots. 2 days later, I started again. 

Funny enough I found out that the joins were right. But I needed to cut anyway for the picot length, and double stitch count.

It took me a week and a half to get to the point of where I cut. Here I am...2 weeks and a day, Finished. 

So my story is about patience. About my husband not really believing that I don't blow up after however many mistakes...however many setbacks. But he does now. He understands just how much it takes to push me off my deep end...and I like to think he has a new respect for how patient I am...

But alas. I am very far from perfect. I was a lazy tatter... All those ends...the 2 from each motif (x8 for center, then x2 for 2nd round = 32), plus 2 ends for round 3,4,5 and 6, so 8...for a grand total of 40 ends to hide...they were all dealt with, with a square knot and super glue. I was a dirty tatter...after I was completely done, I saw MULTIPLE dark spots on my WHITE doily... tatting while out in the world with white is NOT recommended!!! I repeat NOT RECOMMENDED!

AND I have no idea who freaking came up with this doily! If anyone knows can you please tell, because they deserve credit!

So after everything. I will not do this one again. I will however mount this one and hang it in my home. And i was thinking of coloring it...What color do you think will compliment it... I was thinking pink....