The Monsterpiece Doily: Round 9, Complete!

I finished tatting round 9 of the Monsterpiece Doily Saturday, but I guess I got sidetracked yesterday and forgot to blog about it. I was understandably a little nervous as I neared the end of the round. I kinda feared it would not work out again. However, I finished it with no problems.

It looks like nothing happened. It's a little wavy but I think that's less of a problem than cupping and I'm sure it'll flatten out more rounds are added. Thread stats: Manuela no. 20 colour #a055.

I have started tatting round 10. This round begins the scallops, so it's not a full round. Just 10 small half circle shapes. They're each pretty quick to tat, but because each is tatted separate from the others, I have to hide ends on each one as I go. I currently have three done. Hopefully I can get the remaining seven finished by next weekend. That's it for now. Till next time.

The Monsterpiece Doily: Repair Update

As expected, I finished the repair of round 8. No issues except for a few more ends that need to be sewn in.

I think it looks awesome! Minus the few extra ends that need to be dealt with. Granted, I thought it looked awesome before I found the mistake. But it doesn't cup anymore, which is great. I decided that I should sew in a few of the ends that need it before getting round 9 back on track. I hope to finish that tonight and then I can get threads reattached to round 9.

That's it for now. With any luck, I'll have round 9 finished, again, by next weekend. I'll be sure to post again then. And, thanks for everyone who has commented over the past several days. Your encouragement and help has been greatly appreciated. Til next time.

The Monsterpiece Doily: And So It Begins

After a few days of calming down and reflecting, the scissors came out. I spent some time Friday morning carefully cutting and undoing some of my tatting. The squeamish should probably look away. It isn't pretty.

It actually looks worse than it is. As you can see, I only cut out what was necessary. I saw absolutely no reason to have cut off all 3-4 affected rows. Once that was done, I began the repairs. Round 6 was easy to do, and was done before I had to go to work in the afternoon.

I don't know if it is obvious in the photo but the now correct section makes an immediate difference in the doily. It may be a bit premature, but I might not need to worry about blocking it after round 9 is done after all. I finished fixing round 7 today after work, though most of it was tatted Friday evening.

No major issues with this round. I think the only problem with this repair work is that I will have several extra threads that will need to be sewn in. I have managed to hide most of them but not all could be hidden with magic threads/tatting over.

Since I'm about halfway done the repair of round 8, I will try to post a quick update tomorrow. I should have it done by then. Then I just have to retat the part of round 9 I cut off. After that, I'll decide if I will take a break before starting round 10. Since blocking may not be needed more, and, despite this setback, I'm still enjoying the tatting right now, I don't feel the need for a break. Till next time.

Houston, We Have a Problem....

I'm kinda pissed off that I have to write a post about this. Well, I don't have to, but I guess I should share that I am human that makes mistakes and not a machine. I really hoped I would be able to write a post today showing off the finished round 9 of the Monsterpiece Doily. Instead, I get to share with you all how I made a major mistake that I just noticed last night. On the plus side, I think I figured out why the doily is cupping a bit.

I was nearing the end of round 9. It was going really good. Because not all chains had picots on them, I thought it would be harder for me to keep track when I had to make a picot and when I didn't. I was a little nervous that when I got to the end something wouldn't work out. Well, something didn't work out.

I'm sure those of you who have tatted this pattern before can tell, the last repeat is too short. I checked the row for errors. Then double checked and triple checked and I couldn't find any problem. I checked the diagram and then checked the row again. Nothing. I decided to check the previous rounds. It didn't make sense to me, but what the heck, right? Guess what I found?

That's right! A mistake! Each motif on round 5 is supposed to be joined to two picots and on one motif I only joined once. Round 6 is missing three chains and rings because of this error. What both fascinates and infuriates me is that despite this error, rounds 7 and 8 still worked!!! If I had ran into problems with round 7, I could have fixed the error earlier. As it happens, each repeat on round 7 needs, you guessed it, 3 rings from round 6. I just want to scream. Still.

That brings me to what I'm going to do now. Well, I think I have that figured out already. Right after I found the error, err, right after I finished swearing, my mind went into overdrive thinking about what I should do next. I think the best solution I could come up with will involve carefully cut a section of the doily though the three affected rounds. I will have to cut off about half of round 9 since new section will screw up all the picots after the inevitable repair. After the cuts, I will have to hide and reattach thread and, one row at a time, retat the missing sections. Hopefully I make some sense here, I'm not in a right state of mind right now.

If anyone has any suggestions and/or concerns about my plans, please leave a comment. I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work. I don't think the repair will cause any problems with the rest of the doily. I don't think it would be necessary to cut of the whole rows. And just to be clear, I have NOT cut anything yet. As tempting as it was to start cutting last night, I really didn't think it would have been a good idea. I still don't think I should cut anything yet. I'm going to wait at least a couple days until I'm in a better mindset. I'm going to distract myself with some knitting for now. Although, I should probably think about powering down and getting ready to recharge for the night. Um, getting ready to go to bed! Till next time.

The Monsterpiece Doily: Round 8, Complete!

I finished round 8 of the Monsterpiece Doily today. I would have finished it yesterday but I got called into work Saturday night, so didn't get a chance to work on it then.

Nothing really to say about this round. I tatted it with no major problems. I almost ran out of thread on the shuttles near the end, and had to finger tat the last couple rings and chains. I really enjoyed tatting these last two round. I'm kinda sad to be done tatting them. Thread stats: Manuela no. 20 colour #a044.

I've written up and began tatting round 9. I might keep tatting just to get the round finished. As those of you familiar with the pattern know, round 10 is where the scallops begin. That might be a better place to stop and take a short break. I have also decided that I will definitely steam/block the doily before moving on to round 10. If I wait much longer, it's going to be bigger than my blocking tiles, and I'll have to get more, delaying the blocking. Till next time.