A Thread Infusion, Continuing the "Big Doily" and Motifs #s 6 and 7!

Well, my Honduran thread is here! :) Hooray!

Funny thing is, 95% of it is size 8, which is a size I've been "off" from lately, but it is so colorful, I'm sure I won't resist long! :)

Of course, if the Honduran thread is here, that means our "stuff" from Honduras must be here too, and putting all that away has taken much of my time over the past two weeks (you can read about it here if you like).

I have, however, managed to make a little headway with "The Big Doily."

And here, dear readers, is a "true confession of the tatting kind"...

I don't like the all-ring kind of tatting:

I don't think this is an issue for all you shuttle tatters, but for needle tatters, it is a pain in the neck, because either you:
a) have a really, really long string that is constantly twisting and knotting
b) have a short strong that you constantly have to reload
c) both, alternately, trying to keep your sanity intact

It looks really nice, but, oh, what a pain! (It is the same, by the way, for two-color tatting...fyi)

Anyway, I bring this up, because the next round in "The Big Doily" was all rings, and it has taken me many, many tedious hours to complete it:

Halfway done!!!

I'm about halfway done with the doily now, and to give you some perspective, on the right is the first round, on the left, the current incarnation.

And for a little more perspective, compare it to a dvd case (also, thanks for the tatting skills, Living History Farms!)

 The next round is more blue motifs, the center of which seemed a little tricky, so I did a couple of practice motifs in giant sized thread to, well, practice (which as you will see, was a good idea):

Incorrectly done #1 (it's supposed to attach to all inside picots)

Incorrectly done #2 (there needs to be space between the two connected picots)

Aha! Motif #6!

So, with that out of the way, I will continue my "Big Doily" progress.

With my thread also arrived the rest of my tatting books, and since they have been unpacked and shelved:

I thought I would find some motifs and get going toward #25!

This is a fun triangular motif from Cathy Bryant's aptly named "Tatting":

Here it is halfway finished

And here is Motif #7!

Ahh, color! Ahh "new" thread! :)