It'll never work

 
I started round 6 of Renulek's Napkin Marta in size 80 Majestic #849. I love the color! However, the pattern is just not working for me in this round. I think I needed larger picots in round 5.

Even after some time with the steam iron, there was no way this was going to work. So, I snipped off the little bit I have done. I'm going to leave it as is for now. Since round 6 is the final round, I think I can easily play with stitch count to make the design work, but right now my brain is weary. I have made a note to be careful with picot sizes next time!

Wonderful weekend

Thursday morning I received an email from my uncle Jim. He and his brother Ed were heading to Chicago for the weekend and wanted to know if we would be around. Of course the answer was yes! Jim is a year older than me, and Ed is a year younger. They're my mom's youngest brothers. I hadn't seen either of them since my parent's 50th anniversary 15 years ago.

There were preparations to be made on Friday, and the "boys" arrived early Saturday afternoon. We had a wonderful visit and talked like you wouldn't believe! Sunday morning we headed up to my sister's and continued our visit. There really was no time of tatting!

Today was a different story. I worked on laundry and spent the time between changing loads working on round 5 of Renulek's Napkin Marta. It now measures about 5 1/2" across with only one round to go!

Round 5

Napkin Marta by Renulek

I got a good start on round 5 today, but I didn't have enough free time to finish it. We have relatives coming from out of town tomorrow, so I'm guessing I won't get much tatting done!

This round is in size 80 Majestic # 825. I really like this color!

Round 4

I finished round 4 of Renulek's Napkin Marta without any problems. I used size 80 Majestic #833, a very pretty shade of green.

Today was green bean day... canning and dehydrating. I know I will enjoy these veggies come winter, but did we have to have a bumper crop my first year of trying all these preserving techniques? ;-)

Much better!

I'm so glad I snipped off round 3 and tatted it again! I made the picots on the rings slightly larger, and it now it's nice and flat. One of my Facebook friends asked me to put a Clover tatting shuttle next to my tatting to give it a frame of reference. So, here you see the first three rounds of Renulek's Napkin Marta next to a small Clover shuttle. I love the delicate look of the size 80 thread!

Some new shuttles arrived in the mail today! These are my latest acquisitions from Shuttle by Design. Rita is going to be at Palmetto Tat Days, so I'll get to meet her! The excitement is building. I can't believe that I'm going to get to meet tatters whose work I have admired for years. I wish all of you could be there!

July tatting

Last night I remembered that I didn't post a picture of my July tatting, so I'm doing it tonight. I accomplished a lot in July!

I finished my Pink Cocoa Spinning Wheel tonight. I really like the way it turned out, and I'm enjoying tatting with size 80.

I also completed round 3 of Renulek's Napkin Marta; however, I think I will retat this round. I stretched and pressed this because of severe cupping. Now it looks all distorted. So now the big question is, do I just use larger picots between rings, or do I change the stitch count? What do you think?

Round 2

Today I worked on round 2 of Renulek's Napkin Marta. This round is size 80 Majestic #830. It now measures a whopping 2 3/4"!

My beautiful shuttle is from Shuttle By Design. Thank you, Rita Richmond!