True as a Mystery Would Be

Just when I thought all plots have been revealed, a new villain surfaces, this time the snippy kind.

Right then, this is the doily after Round 4.  See how it is laying out so pretty with just a small trace of ruffling in Round 3?

So, I started on Round 5. After two repeats done, I have this feeling that it is not going to turn out right.  As in the earlier rounds, it is the battle of the chains.  I tried this with the count 4-4-4+4-4, but it is curving way too much to my liking.  I wanted to try again with a stitch count of 4-2-4+2-4.  Out comes Mr.Snippy and he goes snip, snip, snip.  He must have blinked because next I noticed, a ring of Round 4 was a victim as well.  Urgggghhhh!

There is no other way around it.  I have to unpick a few repeats of Round 4 to fix it.  You have heard before that a tatting knot is a real fast one and it will not easily come undone.  Well, I can vouch for that.  It took me all of 15 minutes to undo one double stitch.  There was so much pulling and poking that the 6-ply thread split into three.

The shuttle also took its toll from all the stabbing; the point of the pick broke.

Now,  I know that fixing a break in the middle of a completed round is not easy!  I'd rather spend time tatting rather than un-tatting.  Luckily, the mistake was quite close to the end of Round 4.This is how much I ended up cutting of off Round 4.

If you have been following my Mystery and tatting along with me, here is another "tip", sort of, for you to consider.

PattyD's chart shows that, for Round 4, the inner cluster of rings is in the sequence - 5 rings, 5 rings, 6 rings, and repeats.  I followed Vickie Reynolds' written pattern which show that each inner cluster contains six rings. I don't suppose it will make much difference to the final result, but I would be interested to know how PattyD's version turns out.