Lost in Translation - Julia E. Sanders errata

Okay, I hope this works. I've tracked down all of the pics I could find and put them together in my G+ album, which is public. (Not terribly afraid if people find out I'm a tatter!) So here's the link:

http://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/112005586259507193982/albums/5920852464282013153

Now you can see the many and varied backgrounds, and see the progression without wading back through the posts. I'll be captioning them later. Most of the actual tatting is done at either my table, in the car while my husband drives us around, or in the car waiting to pick up Junior.

It's great to see all the pictures together! Thanks for taking the trouble.

I am frozen in awe of your determination and success! Tat on!

O my goodness just looked at all the pictures in the album, first you are doing amazing work. Second WOW! i am speechless.

Absolutely stunning...the tatting and the the inspiring determination to complete such a huge task. Well done, cheering you on!

I was caught TIPing today (tatting in public) when a couple of fifth grade safety patrol girls started arguing over who got to stand at the cone beside my car. They first thought my tablecloth was a skirt I was wearing, then were in AWE when I showed them the work and talked about what tatting was and that they could learn to do it. Then I did a few stitches. "We can't even tell what you're doing! It was so fast!" I told them that it was very easy, and it was just two stitches.

I think there may be two more tiny tatters in the future.

I'm just now finishing the last insertions over what I'm calling the Ring Petals, and I had a clever idea for the corners over the 4-motif insertion petals: Why go to all the crazy trouble when I could just throw down a 4-leaf clover of 4-4-4-4 rings? The size is the same, and I won't have to change my pattern on the first row of the border. Anyway, I'm halfway through the last insertion and will probably start on the border either tonight or tomorrow.

Oh sure I have to clean my house for company coming over. But there's TATTING to be done!

WOW, that's awesome. Is that from the black thread I sent you? I think I have two more balls if you run out.

It sure is! I've only used about three or four balls of it, I think, and I'm still working on only the first ball of the white #10 I got from the craft store. I figured: I have a ton of this stuff, time to put it to use! Thanks again for it, too! I love these huge projects.

Terrific! They're not to young to learn if the interest is there :) Good Luck!

Well, given that the instructions include almost zero numbers, and I've been counting it with a toothpick and my ageing eyes (I'm 31!) and that there are mistakes in the pattern, I'd say the occasional mistake is to be expected.

It turns out that the sections in between the four-leaf clovers and the top insertion over the ring petals should have been 10 open chains NOT 13. Time to break out the handy dandy sewing scissors and re-do the row and then figure out what comes next. In the original picture it seems to randomly alternate between 12 and 14 open chains, but I don't think those were right, considering the size of the gap. No worries, that's the fun of it: even if I make a mistake I can always try again!

Actually, in the pictures, it looks worse than it is. My crafter's instinct tells me that if I do the next row that it will even out, but my intellectual crafter tells me that it's better to stretch than hope it will shrink. So honestly, I'm at war with it now. I may wait to cut it out to see if my reluctance to do so is laziness or what.

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I am in awe. So many separate pieces to make the whole and you translating as you go.

I looked at my photo of it, and I don't think you miscounted. I wonder if you could block it? Wet it down, stretch out the corners, and maybe it will become the octagon it's supposed to be. Seems worth a try before you cut it all off...

One day I'm going to go back and reread this entire thread from start to finish. And that will probably be the closest I ever come to tatting this. But following Wodentoad's journey, along with the others who have joined in, has been fascinating.

I'm glad you're enjoying it, Lynn!

GraceT, those were my thoughts exactly. Like I said, my instinct is at war with my intellect. In the end, the numbers count for something, eh? I think the first thing I do is going to be to steam-iron it as a stop-gap, and then douse it and block it overnight tonight, and I think this will help draw the circles in a bit. They do seem to get stretched sideways when working on it.

On another note, I worked on it at a family reunion (not the great-grandmother who tatted, the other side) and in spite of not knowing many people there, the cloth was certainly a conversation starter. My favorite was when people told me that they don't have the patience to do something like this. My response was learned from this list: I don't have the patience to sit still wherever I go and do nothing with my hands. I just can't manage it. I get antsy and start acting like a curious and impatient child.

So, today, I guess I'm going to have to take a break from it while I set the border row back in order. I do have some black and white verigated in 30 that's asking to be a bookmark. (I have a love of black and white. If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.)

Sometimes you just have to take a break, sleep on it, and let things cogitate.

I took a little break to work on the world's most foppish handkerchief (a gift for my sister--shhhh!) even though I realized after sewing the first row to the cloth that the thread I was using was polyester. Well, it'll be interesting to iron. It's size 30 (I think) thread, but seems to be a decent replacement for the American standard thread listed in the pattern.

(6 7/8ths rows left to go)

Following my instincts and the wise counsel of other tatters and crafters, I decided to soak the tablecloth in cold water and pin it out on my bed, which was the only large enough surface except my carpet, and my carpet isn't clean right now. Once it's blocked, I may also iron it, and then work on the next row. I've been working on the numbers, because to be honest, I don't want to do the weird off-count that it seems to have in the photo in the book. I'm all for regularity.

And of course, blocking it seems to be the answer! The in-betweens seemed to have evened out, and I think it will work.

And the link to the full album is on google+ HERE.

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Phew, what a relief that blocking has worked! It looks amazing.

Yay! So glad it turned out well - I'm sure it gives you more confidence that your tatting and the pattern work well together.

The background change in the blocking photos made the lacy nature of it more prominent somehow. Perhaps my eye was drawn to the red, which definitely draws your attention. The wonderful wood grain of the table hid some of the intricate detail. Zooming in on the photo just isn't the same as getting your nose right there.

Thanks everyone!

Judy, One of these days I should look into borrowing someone's high MP camera so that you can count the stitches. Your comment reminded me that I have a couple of old tablecloths that could be used as backgrounds, especially when I take it outside. I have a red one, but it's dedicated to my sculpture, so it's covered in clay most of the time. I do however have a hideous pink and a pale blue (they came with the house) as well as some old solid color sheets. I'll be using these for close-ups for the final pattern.

Utterly amazing. Your persistence is really paying off. Consider my mind well and truly blown.

Wow -- the blocking made a huge difference. I'm so glad that you did not have to cut stuff out. This is already stunning.
Happy Tatting!

WOW, how wonderful! I am so glad you didn't have to cut it away...all those stitches, gee. My Mum always says, 'just follow the pattern, it will work out' - an it has (with some blocking :) ) I love seeing this project come together. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Sometimes the pattern is wrong too. As a matter of fact, that's why I'm tatting this to begin with: it's wrong. I'll probably start work on the next row shortly. Working with that Fiddly small thread has played havoc with my wrists when added to the amount of other work I've been doing. I've also got to double and triple check the numbers on the picture to make sure I'm not altering the numbers further down the road.

I'm just glad it turned out right this time.