design class lesson 4

It's going to be a busy week. I had an unplanned day off today for personal business. I'm visiting some of my favorite tatting friends on Thursday and need Friday for travel, so that leaves 2 days to do over a week's work. Won't happen. But I'll hit the high points and schedule the remainder for the following week.


I worked on our lesson 4 assignment for the design class at the weekend. We were to design the next round of a center motif. The only rule was to join at the 4 picots on the original center motif. This was my first attempt and I wasn't happy at all with it, even after I blocked it. It was going okay until I made the last join and then it didn't lay flat. I got it to lay flat by blocking but I didn't like the pointy clovers making it look like a square when a square was not what I intended. I managed to round it out, but I still didn't like it.


So the next day I examined it more objectively. I decided to turn the clovers into twin rings instead and add a whole lot more stitches. I even made the chains in the center motif with more stitches which helped it lay better. I like this version much better. If I had time to tweak it more, I would add a few more decorative picots in some strategic spots and possibly make a change where the outer rings are right above a picot on the chain. Might join there or just eliminate the picot altogether. Or not. It's still squarish - which I finally accepted was going to happen if I made the same design all around, but there are enough curves to soften it. I doubt if this is anything new. I imagine just about all the variations on a simple center have been done. It's what you do after that or the changes you make within the basic design that may be different. At any rate, I'm good for now.

We got the east side of the basement washed yesterday. My son got sick afterwards - apparently stomach flu since we ate the same thing and I didn't get sick. He's better today but stayed home and took care of himself. It will probably be next weekend before that side is painted. I sometimes miss the days when I decided I wanted to do something to the house and dove in and kept at it until it was done or I was exhausted. There is much to be said for being a SAHM. I loved it. Would love to stay home now even though I have no children to take care of. I have plenty of other things I want to do!