TIAS Day 6, FINALLY Finished the Spiderweb, and Motifs 28 and 29...

Today was one of those awesome days where I tatted pretty much all day (with a small break to make a Chicago-style pizza...yum!!!). My husband discovered "Breaking Bad" (yes, I know, the series ended last week and he's just now found it...thank goodness for Netflix!) So he has been binge-watching his show today, and I've been tatting in the other room!

However, despite the amount of time I spent tatting, my actual finished product ratio was rather low...friends should not let friends tat distracted. :)

I'll actually start with the last thing I tatted...Sherry's TIAS Day 6!

 As I mentioned in my post on the TIAS community blog, I actually left off the last ring because the written pattern and diagram looked different to me...so we'll see on Day 7. :)

Well, as I said in the title of this post, I finally finished the Spiderweb Doily! :)

 It's larger than I thought it would be--just over 12" in diameter. I have it spread out on the dining room table, and my husband actually came over, examined it, and said, "You should frame that" and pronounced it his "favorite thing [I] have ever tatted." High praise indeed. :)

The last row took a bit longer to finish than I thought, mostly because I kept forgetting that the last row included rings with a picot instead of just rings that connected to the row before...I made the mistake below at least 6 times as I went around the last row:

So annoying!

That was last night. Today's distracted tatting came while I was playing with a couple of the motifs in Lindsay Rogers' book "Mastering Tatting." I received my copy of this book about a week ago, and I can already tell it's going to be a favorite. (Funnily enough, Fiona the MadTatter was also tackling this book today...she was a bit more adventurous than I was, though!)

As you can see, I had more than a little trouble with the motifs I attempted today:

Oops! Missed joins, too many picots, and forgotten repetitions abound...le sigh. So much wasted thread!

Does this happen to anyone else out there?!

However, I did (FINALLY!) manage to finish two of the patterns to my satisfaction:

Motif 28: Stained Glass Window Variation (Size 10 Lizbeth #136 Autumn Spice)

Motif 29: Heart Motif (Size 30 Cebélia, White and and antique blue shade)

 It's amazing how different it feels to work with the different sized threads:

Size 10 - Size 80 - Size 30

 I find (much to my surprise) I am actually leaning more toward the smaller sizes of thread when working with the shuttles...I actually probably like the size 80 the best of all...weird.

 And, finally, because he's so cute, here's a picture of Pip enjoying the lazy Saturday, with visions of Iowa dancing in his head. :)