Into The Garbage - And Out Again

At two in the morning last night I could not sleep because I kept seeing the contents under my kitchen sink, in the garbage, to which  the tatting had been condemned.

Before this development, the blue-green thread version that was so pretty turned out to be IMPOSSIBLE to tat with.

It was sticky, floppy, fuzzy and breakable - every bad thing that thread can be, all wrapped up in such beautiful, saturated colour.  I could not go on, even though I had prepared to do all four squares, having even completed all four centres.

I had seen Frivole’s absolutley gorgeous 4-repeat square, and was inspired to try it in the blue/green, and then in frustration switched to Lizbeth.

Ultimitely, I got so vexed with the pattern and made so many mistakes that I thought, “The hell with it,” and was ready to call it quits.  No longer was it fun.  Into the trash it went.

Perhaps, you all know me well by now.  I could not be beaten down by a mere tatting pattern…could I?  So, up out of bed and mucking about in the garbage, I decided I would finish it any way I could, mistakes and all.


The challenge this time was simply completion. That’s right.  No perfect picots, well formed chains.  Just a finished motif times four.

That was not easy to do.  I make such a point of trying to tat as well as I can that blitzing along just to get it done goes against the grain - badly.  But there was something to be learned and so I persevered and finished.


Although the thing is a mess, I am glad I finished it, stuck with a design I got to hate, worked through my dyslexic difficulties in the joins and get to look at something that is complete. Ah, what we learn about ourselves when in Tat-land... 


I learned something new with this next piece as well.This is from the pattern for the bookmark that Ladytats sent me and I seem to recall her writing something somewhere a while ago about not making knots in the mock picots, because you don’t have to.  I believe it was Ladytats…

At any rate, it all made sense to me as I began this piece and I did not do a ds, but simply left a length of thread as the mock picot after a split ring and voîla!  It works beautifully!  A new trick under my belt!

AND, my new scissors arrived.  What a joy.  For anyone curious, Gingher are terrific still, and also relatively  inexpensive Though they are now made in Italy and have lost some of their previous prestige, I think they are as good as they ever were.  My opinion is based on these:   : )