Spinning Wheel finished!

Joanne and I tried very hard to record tatting that viewers could see, but we had no success. Either my little point and shoot camera doesn't have the capability, or Joanne and I are oblivious to the features on the camera. My guess is the latter!

After several failed attempts, Joanne suggested I take close-up pictures and explain my steps. So, here goes!

First, I lay the glass mat down and look at the way the stitches are going to lie. Here I'm getting ready to make my chain of 4 + 4. I'll be joining the chain to the center picot of the pink ring on the outer edge of the row of three rings above.

The chain is completed, and now it's time to reverse the work in order to make the next ring.

The fabric is in my way, so I fold it up and to the left, out of my way. I work my ring, joining to the last picot of the last ring...

and the next open picot on the row above.

When the ring is closed, I am ready to unfold the fabric and reverse my work for the next chain.

The next chain is completed, joined to the second ring in the row above.

Again, I fold back the fabric so that I can see where to join.

I repeat the process one more time so that I have six rings in the final pass of the Spinning Wheel, and I need to remember to make a chain of 4 - 4 after the last ring.

I cut the thread, leaving enough to join to the center ring, tie, and hide the ends. Now Ella's Spinning Wheel is ready for a final shot of steam, and I'm ready to start one for Lily!

I apologize for not having a video, but I hope my pictures are helpful to anyone trying this pattern for the first time. If anyone has a different way to finish this little doily, please let me know!

Spinning Wheel ~ the final steps

I've been asked several times about finishing the Spinning Wheel glass mat. So, I've decided to share what I do with pictures.

The thread is size 20 Lizbeth, #684 for the chains, #119 for the rings. The shuttles are Starlits without points that I purchased at the Lafayette Lace Days. When I'm tatting a Spinning Wheel, I steam each spoke as I finish it, otherwise it curls up on me and that drives me crazy!

Here you can see that I'm ready to make the last center ring. There are no special twists or turns. I just make sure that everything lines up so that I can join to the previous ring and the first ring. Since I'm using two colors, I use the shoelace trick at the beginning and end of each spoke. When I'm using one color, I simply switch shuttles.

Here the final center ring is joined, and I am ready to start the last spoke.

I continue tatting the outward pass in the same way I have for every other spoke.

Here you can see that I've used the shoelace trick, and I've tatted the first three rings for the last pass. Next comes the part that I found tricky when I first tatted this little doily. Now that I've made so many of these, the last part comes naturally.

With any luck, I'll have a video to post tomorrow showing how I finish from this point.