It's strange but great to be on the receiving end of a Tat It And See as I found out the last time Sherry did one. I'm taking part again this time too.
I set out with great fervour to do day 1. It wasn't until others started to upload their day 1's here that I realised that something may be wrong with mine. DOH. I went back and re-read the instructions and I realised I'd followed them properly. BUT - and here's the problem - I hadn't used the picot gauge the way round that it needed to be!!! There are two ways of using a gauge and as I rarely use one it didn't occur to me that I might have got it wrong!!! Well I did. I wasn't the only one, thankfully!!!
I always hold mine so that I make the picot over the gauge which is held parallel to the core thread (top picture) but apparently there's another way of holding it so that the gauge is at right angles to the core thread (bottom picture). Of course if you're a dozy old moo like me you get it wrong you finish up with a picot twice the size it's meant to be!!! So I had to un tat the whole thing and start again. I had wound my thread CTM so it wasn't an option to cut and start over.