Monday, August 1, 2016

Learning Filet Tatting with Mandatory



If you compare my latest tatting of this project (top image) to my first (lower image), you’ll notice that some of the squares are rounded in the latest one. I really want to master this technique, so I challenged myself this time to select the striver position at the corners without referring to Amanda’s chart. As you can see, I made a number of bad choices, but I’m okay with that. I often learn best by trial and error. In examining my errors, Amanda’s excellent instructions finally clicked into place for me. Striver position A is used when no shoelace trick was needed to get the threads into the correct position to proceed. Striver position B is ALWAYS preceded by the shoelace trick which got the threads into the correct position first. Did Amanda tell me this in the tutorial? Yes, she did. But until I took a chance and made the mistakes, it didn’t fully sink in.

Some of you will understand that while I just couldn’t make myself proceed with those horribly large picots in my first effort, I’m content to move forward with this latest effort. The sloppy, large picots would have been just that, sloppy and large. These rounded corners are markers on the learning curve for me as I move forward. I took a chance to test my understanding and learned from it.

The Catherine wheel spider I made up for my grandson (see earlier post) really helped me with the Catherine wheel joins to the tops of the picots. I also switched to Lizbeth size 20 thread and wore a second pair of glasses over my daily ones for some extra magnification as I worked. 

I did struggle some with the modified Catherine wheel joins that created the picots for the next round as I joined to the picots of the previous round. It wasn’t the picot or the join, but the use of the picot gauge. I found it a bit fiddly, but managed pretty well for the first picot, but it kept getting in my way and creating some confusion for me as I tried to form the first half of the double stitch for the successive joins. I finally decided to use my crochet hook and the previous picot as a guide and created the remaining ones in this block without the gauge. They are pretty even (though they don't look it in the picture), so I think it will be okay.

I’m really enjoying learning this technique. Amanda tells me that the next part of the tutorial will contain instructions and samples of some of the different ways you can fill the blocks which I was very excited to hear. If you would like to give this a try, your first step is here

Happy tatting!

7 comments:

God's Kid said...

Learning can be frustrating, but rewarding in the end! It looks like you are doing well!! :)

muskaan said...

We learn best from the mistakes we make - and it stays in our memory too. So well done on that front :-)))
When I recommence my filet tat-along, I will keep all your tips in mind. Thanks
My learning experiment was with the SLT sans striver ... if I remember right, if one is doing a SLT, the striver may not be required.

Jane McLellan said...

Wow, looks like a steep learning curve. Good for you!

Eliz Davis aka Tatknot said...

Thanks, all. Muskaan, I think you'll need the striver in this project whether you use the SLT or not. It makes a tiny picot for you to join into later. That would be lost if you use the SLT without it.

Unknown said...

I am really glad that I noticed your post as I did not know that someone had figured out tatting filet. Would you please send me the link to Amanda's sight by responding to this comment with a follow up comment? It would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Clyde-The Mad Tatter

Eliz Davis aka Tatknot said...

Hi, Clyde. It is good to hear from you. The link to the first post is on all of the pictures, but here it is: http://manda-tory.blogspot.com/2016/06/prepairing-for-filet-tatting-tutorial.html Enjoy!

Eliz Davis aka Tatknot said...

Hi, Clyde. It is good to hear from you. The link to the first post is on all of the pictures, but here it is: http://manda-tory.blogspot.com/2016/06/prepairing-for-filet-tatting-tutorial.html Enjoy!