instead of tatting

I have been doing something other then tatting for most of my spare time the last few days.  and this is it....

36" of crocheted beading lace,  need 7-8" more

a length of crocheted beading lace for the neckline of the camisole I am making. the thread is size 30 ecru  Daisy brand made by Lily Co., an antique thread from my grandmother.

I am not going to take the time to do the armhole lengths right now.  I want to get the sewing done first then see how much time i  have.  what with working,  several weekends are booked with stuff and the quaquicentenial is at the end of the month.  and sometime in the middle, our 10th grandchild will be born and I will be there to help for a few days.

I have done some work on the hanky edge,  and here it is...

this is just past half way on the one side.  so, this will be a work in progress as it goes.  yes, that is a pop-a-bobbin shuttle i am using.  I like them very much.

I got the rest of the garden in after work today.  yeah! very wet ground, but needed to get in.
6 All Season cabbage
8 White Vienna kohlrabi
2 Black Diamond watermelon
3 Sun Sugar Watermelon
3 Honey Bear squash
3 Carnival squash 5 tomatoes ~ 1 Celebrity, 1 Bush Beefsteak, 1 Early Goliath, 1 Black Krim, 1 Lemon Boy ~ The red tomatoes are for farmguy and canning to use for him during the winter as I am allergic to red tomatoes, but I can eat yellow in moderation.  don't know why, but I get hives in my mouth if I eat fresh red tomatoes.  The yellow don't seem to affect me as badly, so am going to try this and see if I can actually have a BLT.  I haven't had one of those for about 30 years when I gave up trying to eat red tomatoes. 

hanky edging progress

I have made it this far with my edging.

for me this is slow going.  I usually tat much faster then this.  I have had to tell myself to slow down, take care, and get the Josephine knots smooth and completely closed.  I also need to watch my pattern, as the 1st and last rings of each repeat have 1 side that is "backwards" for stitch count.  I have had to "walk" the picot into the proper position a couple of times, when I look back at the previous repeat or 2 and discovered that the picot to join to the hanky is in the wrong position.

While tatting, I have been trying to see if there was a way to "modernize" this pattern, and the only way I can see to do it is to use 2 shuttles.  that defeats my purpose in choosing this single shuttle pattern, so am staying with the way it was written.  I even tried to see if using single shuttle split rings would allow me to not have the "carry thread" showing on the back of the edging.  If  you look at this scan of the back side of the edging, you will note the loose thread going up between the 2nd & 3rd rings of the repeat that allows the floating ring on the top there is also the threads from the bottom of ring 5 through the 2 josephine knots, to the bottom of ring 1 for the next repeat.  to me this looks untidy.  I  tat "frontside/backside but still like my tatting to look the same on both sides.

If anyone has any suggestions about how to change the way this pattern is tatted, please let me know.

oh, if you know this pattern, you will see that I have changed the corner.  it looks more finished to me with the center floating ring instead of only the 2 side floating rings.