I don't know enough about it to fix it other than by leaving out that ring. Unfortunately, the woman I know who might be able to tell me is in her eighties so I'm not going to be seeing her for awhile to come.

Lace was definitely expensive for a reason. I'll get faster as I get back into the hang of tatting and as I get the pattern memorized, but I doubt it will be less than half an hour to do each repeat. Each repeat is ~1.5" so it's never going to be fast.