Somebody Stop Me, Please....

I think I've gone just the smallest bit mad with this whole tatting thing.  Honestly, ya'll, I can't stop.  You want to know how bad it is? (How bad is it??????)

I was going through my pre-1930 craft magazines looking out tatting patterns for a challenge in the latest Piecework Magazine and I came across a 1925 issue of Needlecraft magazine that featured a tatted bedspread using size 8 cotton.  That's thread.  Not teeny tiny but small enough.

The instructions say that "When finished, the spread contains one hundred and twenty squares, each about nine inches."  Did you get that.  120 squares.

I realized how crazy I'd become when I looked up from the pattern with the realization that I had actually been considering making it.

Samples

I found a book at the library called, The Torchon Lace Workbook, by Bridget M Cook, which has a really helpful format with 10 lessons at the beginning and 25 patterns in the second part of the book.  So, here are my first samples.  The first one is something I did from another book and is just a series of stitches.  The second one is practicing the half stitch and a linen stitch and the last one is practicing the half stitch.  The half stitch and whole stitch are ways of making the background of the lace and the linen stitch is one of the stitches used for creating the "picture," such as the diamonds in the middle sample.

Cool, right?  I don't know where this will lead but it's fascinating!