Reticella Circle

I have had this pattern ready to go for a loooong time - soon after I finished the first one!  Looking back to when I made the first one, it's safe to say I've been putting off starting this for years.  While making the first one I kept thinking the center circle would be nice on its own and this is what I decided to make now.

One of the reasons I think I am so hesitant to pick up reticella is that I am not sure I am making it the "correct" way.  I am trying to move past that though.  Now that most lacemakers dabble in many kinds of lace, there is bound to be carry over in how to execute certain things. In my opinion what should be important is that the piece is enjoyable to make and that the final result looks nice.  As long as one (or preferably both!) are true, the details don't matter.

This is not to say that execution should be a free-for-all, just that there are multiple ways of doing the same thing.  It may not be exactly how reticella (in this case specifically) was done in the past, but that's OK too.

When I started this piece I could not even find the copy of the IOLI bulletin this pattern came from, so I had no choice but to do it my way!  It is not obvious from my lack of reticella posts, but although I may not have been making any, I have been looking at how others make it.  The way I made this was probably a compilation of various ways of making reticella.

I think the tension over all is slightly better than the first time around, however there is rather big mistake in this one.  Somehow, I ended up not connecting half of the radial spokes to the the circle at the base of the pyramids!  I had not idea that was happening until I took the completed piece off the pattern.  What a bummer.

The pyramids could also use more help.  The number of stitches is all over the place (and yes, I kept track as I was making them).

The funny thing about needle lace is that it requires tweezers after it's taken off the pattern.  The scan below may not look so bad...

...until you turn it over!

From a distance it looks like a spider sack hatched on my piece of lace:)

Made with DMC Cordonnet 20 and DMC Special Dentelles 80, both in ecru.