Thursday, October 28, 2010

Off the shuttle: tatted mat



Here's a project that is really, really old. I started this mat in my early days of tatting using size 10 crochet thread, which I no longer tat with. Once you move on to the finer threads, size 10 feels like tatting with rope. The mat is in 2 colors of variegated thread (probably Aunt Lydia's brand). The dimensions are 11 inches by 21 inches. I'd finished all but one corner years ago, but apparently dealing with all the loose ends was too daunting and I never got around to finishing it. When I decided to take it up once more, I also decided to heck with neatly sewing in all the loose ends. I used Fray Check to secure the knots. Yeah, I know, that's not the perfectionist's way to deal with it, but the alternative would have been to never have finished the project. Now I can finally enjoy using the mat and no one need scrutinize the knots too closely. I've hand washed it and everything is still securely knotted.