off the deep end

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 Well, kind of! I'm certainly mad to have succumbed to temptation when there are already so many huge pies baking in my tiny oven. The heat quotient is out of the world! Yet it has been a decade-old wish to tat the beautiful Mystery Doily. I've actually been compiling resources and versions for a decade whenever I came across something .... And so can you blame me if I joined Jon Yusoff's tat-along on FB intending to tat just 2 or 3 rounds for now.

Pattern Links to the Mystery Doily Project first shared by Georgia Seitz -https://www.theonlinetattingclass.com/doilies-mug-rug-etc

I roped in my tatting buddy, Anita Barry, and she readily agreed. To date, she has Never refused me anything!!! We've been exchanging note, thoughts, angst, and progress these last few days. While I was thinking of size 80, she suggested size 40 since she wanted to use up some of her stash. It was absolutely fine by me, or so I thought!

Yes, angst. My story starts with several discards. Don't remember why I cut off the one in orange. Was it a change of colour decision? I think I decided to use it for the next round and start the first with yellow.

The rings are tiny - only 8 stitches. And while closing that last ring the tread snapped! Better to discard since the thread (Gopal) is not mercerized.

 

Wound new shuttle with Anchor size 40. Now the inner scallop of first repeat looks very different since it is unattached. I got all muddled up thinking I had made a mistake and snipped it off. Turns out it was correct, sigh.

4th start with lighter shade of Anchor yellow. While I was struggling with the chain directions (since I was shuttling between diagram and original doily pic) I thought I'd got it right. Till I uploaded the pic to a larger screen and found an error in one segment. Not a huge mistake, but still the dark brown wasn't helping my limited vision. Even managed to snag the thread at one stage and joined again. 

Overall, though, I wasn't enjoying the tat and decided it was time for course correction and snip off the size 40 altogether. 

Finally settles on Anchor Pearl Cotton size 8 (equivalent to Lizbeth size 20) and this is how far I reached after dinner last night. Tatting went smoothly and quickly, I enjoyed the thread (the shade appears darker here), and I have more of a choice of colours, too. Would've preferred a lighter brown, but turns out I am running out of greens and browns in perle cotton! Looks like some buying in on the cards ;-D

What also helped was that I sketched my own diagram and although I wrote my text version, too, I didn't need to consult it.

My visualization is to change the colour of the rings in each subsequent round, using darker shades or even different colours, to resemble a chrysanthemum or a blossoming flower. Brown remains constant throughout.

Okay, so that's the backstory. If it hadn't been for the FB tat-along and especially with my buddy, I might've discontinued the endeavour for the present. Somehow tatting with others felt like a commitment and something I needed to accomplish for myself, too. 

Now for my notes -

1. Pattern - I referred mainly to Patty Dowden's instructions, starting with an outer ring, and also followed her count.
2. FS/BS tatting here is in 'blocks' like in Mary Konior's Spinning Wheel Glass Mat where a set of motifs/repeats changes en bloc. So the outer scallop has frontside rings while the inner scallop has backside rings.
3. I followed the original doily pic and Patty's Row 2 diagram for the 'S-chain' instead of her diagram for Row 1. Ultimately I drew my own sketch instead of shuttling back and forth.
4. Direct Tatting - In such serpentine patterns (including magic squares), it is very practical to direct tat the chains instead of frequent reverse work. This also keeps the work mostly on the front side. Hence reverse stitch the chains, ensuring that you make adjustments for the sequence of the hitches when tatting backside chains.
5. Joins - For symmetrical/mirror-image chains, including colour and direction, I used a reverse join on the right S chain and a downward picot (picot on core thread) on the left chains.
6. Reposition - And before the picot on core thread (I wanted it to be yellow to mirror a ring picot), I used a TwW (a 2nd half-stitch which it turned to face the other way) and then placed the paperclip on core thread. 
7. Colour - My first instinct was to follow Jon's variegated and solid combo scheme. However, seeing the tiny rings and my own stash, it just felt that a variegate would make the already dense design too busy. Hence I chose solid colours.
8. Thread - Remember to use mercerized cotton for easy closure of the tiny rings.

As I mentioned above, here are some additional links - 

• moondrops has tatted several versions of this doily, sometimes in tandem! She makes it look so effortless. I think it is a good exercise to check her versions for colour placement, etc.
• Frivole gave it a try - https://leblogdefrivole.blogspot.com/2013/09/mystery-doily-whos-copy-cat-now-and-new.html & https://leblogdefrivole.blogspot.com/2013/09/mystery-doily-round-two.html
• Ninetta completed her doily, sharing her journey, and even derived a square motif (quad 24) from it, and then converted it into a magic square, including an inverted version! 

Can't say how far this doily will go at present reckoning, but I am committed to at least two rounds to get a good feel of this beauty! Jon has created a dedicated private group for this TAL, called Georgia's Mystery Doily Tat-Along. Join us if you can!