Tatted Mat

I just finished this little tatted mat. The pattern is from La Frivolite fine et precieuse, but I omitted the last two rounds.

Here, I have placed my version above part of the photo of the pattern so that you can see how very different you can make the result just by altering the length of the picots. The original had long picots - but I wanted a more open effect so kept them small - and you would hardly know it was the same design.

The book, which is French, but available from on-line suppliers in the US, has some pretty motifs and doilies. The one downside is that some of the patterns have been printed without the stitch numbers. A good editor should have caught this, but apparently didn't. For the experienced tatter, however, the photos are clear enough to work out the stitch counts.