I did it!

I did it!  My last stitch has been placed on my Irene!
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Since I didn't have to worry about where my stiches had to stop on each row, thanks to stitching the outer border, this border went very well. As I always do when working with a light colored border, I stitched the white first, then added the colored elements.  I did not have to stitch very far before another element could be stitched, so there was minimal counting involved. Also, I did not end off the thread each time I changed a color, but "parked" it off to the side instead to wait for the next time it was needed.

Interestingly enough, my completed rug was not a true circle. From top to bottom, it was 1/2 cm shorter than it was from side to side. I was amazed because it felt as if I had mounted the gauze completely square. I had cut the gauze exactly along one thread on each side and had drawn a square on the back of my frame that I used to make sure it was mounted perfectly.  I did not, however count the number of squares on the gauze from top to bottom or from side to side to make sure I had the same amount of squares in each direction - why would I? That would be too difficult and I did as I always do, measured the gauze vertically and horizontally to make sure it was square.

I have never noticed my gauze being out like this before, but I suspect it is because all of the rugs I have done before have been rectangles.  My guess is that I would have seen it if doing a square rug as well.  I had known for sure once I had completed the outer border, so I had a few days to decide how I would block the rug before I was finished. And here I had thought that I could get away without blocking because I didn't have to try and get perfectly straight edges! How wrong I was!!

Usually, I block my rugs on a macrame board because I can easily push tacks into the board and adjust them as needed. However, a round rug was a different story.

Luckily for me, I had packed a Teresa Layman kit called Water Ballet in my luggage to try my hand at making a French Knot rug.  I needed a small hoop for that kit and had recently purchased one for just that purpose. It fit my rug perfectly!
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After some tweaking, I was able to get the rug as circular as I could and was able to begin steaming and fine tuning. Here it is in the frame.