My first, and with practice hopefully not my last.

[DreamInSymmetry]

Well I love it! I'd wear this in black as a pendant, maybe with beads. Very nice for a freehand piece. I'm not brave enough yet. Good show, Deacon!

[Ireneho]

More men should be tatting! Go Men!! :P

[Lynn]

I'm glad I asked about pinstriping! Okay, so, pinstriping is a precise and symmetrical way to decorate a car. Right? I can see the resemblance to tatting. This may be a good place to mention that, before I got hooked on tatting, I was fascinated with labyrinths and mazes. Not so much walking them, as designing them. Or rather, the idea of designing them. I never did make any labyrinth designs, but I did copy several!

Oh, no, now I have an idea! The Chartres labyrinth as a tatted doily...

I'd love to see your tatted interpretation of this fine labyrinth. One suggestion - Catherine wheel joins. LOTS of them.

[GraceT]

I'd love to see your tatted interpretation of this fine labyrinth. One suggestion - Catherine wheel joins. LOTS of them.

Then I'd better go and practise the Catherine Wheel join! I've done split chains, but not yet the Catherine Wheel join.

I've been wondering if I could do it as a super-long chain of split rings, curving this way and that, with a chain going back the other way to make it clearer (like the legs in Jane Eborall's animals). Or the half-ring tape that I have seen on Tat-Man's site (e.g., here: http://www.tat-man.net/tatterville/t...tbookmark.html) would probably do a better job — but first I'd have to learn how to do that!

[Jess!]

I love to sit down and freehand tat. That's all I did when I was learning, and still like to play around some days. My freehands never look that good though!

[Susan B T]

Everyone starts somewhere... and you are off to a nice start.

[Judy]

Oh, no, now I have an idea! The Chartres labyrinth as a tatted doily...

There's a meditation center here that installed one in their quiet garden... They had RULES for walking it..... I'll be waiting for your plan.

[GraceT]

There's a meditation center here that installed one in their quiet garden... They had RULES for walking it..... I'll be waiting for your plan.

Wow... okay, i will think of a plan for the Chartres Labyrinth doily. Mind you, I am still halfway through my very first doily, so someone else might have to actually execute my plan...

[Judy]

Er... not so much... we can help, but, its Your plan.. and we have confidence in you...

[GraceT]

Well, turns out I can execute my own plan after all.

The reason is that, instead of using advanced techniques like half-ring tape or block tatting to represent the labyrinth path, I decided that it would be best to use simple rings and contrasting chains. I figure that, working outwards from the centre, it would be best to have the chains (labyrinth outline) lie outside of the rings (labyrinth path). So, when the path makes a U-turn, I'm thinking of doing an SSSR to move the chain to the outside once more. And that's my labyrinth tatting strategy! Feel free to use it, too.

I have started tatting (freehanding!) a spiral (the simplest labyrinth). After that, I will attempt a three-circle classical labyrinth (centre-outwards). After that, I'll try a simple labyrinth requiring both centre-outwards and circumference-inwards tatting. Maybe I would then be ready to tackle the Chartres labyrinth itself! Or one of you might get there first.

This is fun! I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow.