To Not Choose The Easy Road

This week in my weekly online tatting class we have been working on a cute little hat designed by Gina Butler. It is called simply, the Tatted Red Hat. The challenge of this pattern has been doing mock picots, split chains and split rings. I had never done any of these with a needle, so this presented an even harder challenge for me.

At first glance it would seem easy enough to just do the simple tie and cut on each round. I could finish this pattern quickly. Pat myself on the back and be on my merry little way. But what lesson would I learn taking the easy way? What was I to gain in a quick finish?

We are taught to get things done in the easiest why possible." Don't make work for yourself."" Don't make things harder then they have to be." We even managed to break these words down into one easy to remember word- K.I.S.S., meaning- keep it simple stupid. The faster we get things done, the better. But is it really? Is time truly wasted if from it we gain knowledge and possibly a new skill in the process?

As easy as it would have been to tat the hat they way I knew how, I decided that instead of avoiding extra work I would welcome it and see what I might gain from it.

The first was to learn how to do a split ring. I looked through my notes and samples from the past and realized that I had once done a split ring. So I knew it was possible, I just needed a refresher on how to do it.

The lovely Katy of the RustiKate Youtube videos refreshed my memory on how to make a split ring:

Needle tatted split rings by RustiKate

Now it was time to learn how to do a split chain. For that I went to Shannon of the blog Me and Mine... She has a video showing how to make a split chain with a needle. I'll be honest, it took me watch that section about four times before I finally understood what I was suppose to do.

Re-threading needle to close split chain by Shannon

And finally, I learned how to make a mock picot. Much easier then I thought it would be. Thank you Maria Papia for your demonstration and to TotusMel for her clarity.

Maria Papia showing a mock picot

So, with the new knowledge gained, I went forward with the red hat. . . .