Miranda’s Challenge!

Check out Tatting Fool, for Saturday, July 28!  Miranda has offered a challenging exercise in design – not exactly a doily, but an illustration of one.  The illustration is part of an all-over print on some fabric she happened to run across while shopping at Jo-Ann’s.  She included a couple of pictures of the fabric, and anyone familiar with the construction of tatted lace will recognize it for a tatted doily.

But – it’s more of a sketch of a doily, than an actual doily….and therein lies the challenge!  Can you construct a reasonable facsimile of the doily, with no pattern, no stitch count, no nothing?

I don’t always participate in these challenges – time is one reason, then there is the frustration level when what I think should work, doesn’t.  But – with only three rounds, why not try?

Here is my test piece – rounds 1 and 2 complete, and round 3 in progress.  By the time I get all the way back around to the beginning, I think I’ll have a pretty good idea of the stitch count that works for me (yes, I am making notes as I go).  I’m tatting this one with what is left on several shuttles, so it should be >ahem< quite colorful when it’s done!  I’ll tat it again, from my notes, in two colors and without cutting at the end of each round as I’ve done here.  Since it’s an experimental piece, I didn’t even hide my ends – I tied and clipped!