I love to tat, I have lost count of the number of snowflakes, cross’ butterflies, angels and bookmarks I have made over the years. When my father was going to turn 80 I wanted to give him something special. I decided to tat a table cloth. A round table cloth should be about 60 inches in diameter. I didn’t have a patter for a table cloth but I had made a few doilies over the years. I figured all I had to do was just keep adding another row until it was big enough. But, how could I keep track of how big it was getting? Well, I took a white sheet and asked my husband to take a yard stick and drill holes in it every few inches. He put the first hole right at the end. Then we got a very large piece of cardboard, it was big enough to accommodate the needed 60 inch circle. I placed the sheet over the cardboard and put the yard stick right in the center with a T-pin, this way I could move the yard stick around in a circle. Next I took a pencil and drew circles out from the center, every few inches so I could see how big the table cloth was getting and how much farther I needed to go. This worked great. Every four or five rows I would place the table cloth on the sheet to see how I was doing, I also used a damp cloth and iron to block it as I went. As the rows got bigger and bigger I needed something to help encourage me to get each row done. So I put safety pins every 10 patterns. This way I only had to do 10 patterns to get to the next pin, this trick made the work seem to go faster what with short term goals so to say! Well, it helped to keep me going when the outside rounds were so very long. My father loved it but would not use it on his table. He as afraid it might get dirty so he draped it over the back of his sofa. I told him I really didn’t care where he put it as long as it was where he could see it every day and remember that the person who made it for him loved him very much. I do have a picture around here somewhere, a real picture nothing on my computer. I will have to try to find it and scan so I can put it here. thanks for reading my blog.