OK so I had set aside my doily because I thought that I had done an extra element. I kind of let it frustrate me and it started to get to me so when I finally decided to pick it back up I had it in my mind that I was just going to bail back into it and cut the element off and finish it off. I had already made up my mind that this was going to be the last row because it was already pretty large. I just took a deep breath and cut the element off but after I got to looking closer, I had cut the element off and realized that I didn't need to. It ended up that I was just missing an element in the previous row with which to connect to. It took me a bit to remember that I had made the decision not to go back and fix a missing element in row 4 or 5 and now I am paying for it. I am trying to take this as a live and learn moment but it is super frustrating to work and work and spend hours and hours on something and then have the ending be a mess. This doily has quite a few little things I am not happy with and of course as with every project I do I can pick out every little mistake. I am very critical of every little thing I do. I am very much a perfectionist and it tends to get in the way of lots of things in my world, nothing I do is ever good enough. Thankfully so far my will to succeed has outweighed my fear of failure of never being good enough so I keep trying.
I am still not really sure where this doily is going to live because right now I am a bit frustrated how it turned out so I am not sure if I am going to be blocking it immediately so I just went ahead and took a picture of it and I am going to go ahead and call this #17 in the motif challenge. This is
Ranulek Spring 2014 napkin done with #10 Artiste thread and the color is snow pea. I stopped at row 8 because this is already 17 inches across, the pattern actually has 5 more rows. Unfortunately it is going to need blocking because it is not laying very flat. I didn't tat as tight as I normally do and the thread is not very stiff. It feels good to complete a large project but right now I am not so proud because of the last join and all the little mistakes so I will just set it aside and decide what to do with it a bit later.
I think we are always hardest on our own work. I commend you for tackling such a big project. It looks good from here. I struggle with being a perfectionist myself, so I do understand your frustration. Just keep in mind that we all make mistakes. If you learn from them, the mistake had real value. A very experienced lacemaker once told me that small mistakes in any piece will just be proof that it is handmade. I recite that to myself more often than I would like. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt's gorgeous!!!!! :)
ReplyDeleteI too am a perfectionist, but it hinders me when I allow it to take over, so.....I use my lazy streak as an excuse to avoid too much correction!!! :)
It looks beautiful to me !
ReplyDeleteI can no longer afford perfectionism - with weakening eyesight & growing age , it is a luxury I can't afford. I'd much rather learn & do new things than go back and rectify every little mistake. I use my mistakes or wrong colour decisions as stepping stones to the next project.
Keep tatting with a smile :-)))