Hairy and Bald

A bunch of us at ETatters have been doing a tat-along -- working on this same pattern. My first one follows the pattern (except I had to add more ds in the chain rounds because I work too tightly -- relax, relax). This is worked in shades of green in size 70 thread. It was a very old ball of "Star" tatting thread I got somewhere or other -- and I had only the one ball. I used my one and only picot gauge (a tiny little dowel that was gifted to me). It was not best suited to this particular piece. I needed an even tinier little dowel. The beast turned out all hairy. I looked at and despaired of ever getting it blocked. I did block it, but certainly not properly. It's got bent picots everywhere.
I started over using the same thread, leaving out all the picots but the essential joining ones. I like this one much better myself. That chain row is still not to my liking, I think I put in too many ds this time. The last round has about eight joins. I ran out of thread and was having to scrounge from the bits I pulled off the shuttles and piled to discard. Sometimes being a pig is a Good Thing...the pile hadn't been removed from the arm of my chair when I found I needed it. If I do this again, it won't be in "Star" size 70!