Proof of concept

 Remember this wonderful doily pattern? 

Thank you Muskaan for inspiring us!!! 

I wanted to create a square version. So far, so good:

To be continued……..

Finding the Hidden Rose

 Last year, Muskaan floated the idea of Hidden RoseSnowflake.

I was very tempted to tat it, but totally intimidated by the suggested path for working this beauty! Not because of the lock chains. I have mastered them and I really like the effect. What stopped me from grabbing the shuttles was the thought of digging out clips to hold the picots for later use. I know how to use picot holders, I have managed patterns that use the technique, but keeping everything sorted never turned out well and those clips were stressful to tat around. Not something I could do in the car or watching tv. But, I really liked the design. So, it went in the to-tat pile for “later” and continued to draw my eye.

Well, 2020 has been a year of finding a different path. I was thinking about what I’ve learned this year while sorting through the to-tat pile to find a snowflake pattern for a friend. I thought to myself, “what if I started at the outside and tatted in?” What do you know, it worked! At least for me. Anyone else want to try?   

Hidden Rose Snowflake ready to block

Here’s the short story:

Tat outside ring of R: 5 – 5 .

Tat the 3 lock chains leaving a mock picot at the start of the first lock chain of 7 DS. I also found it useful to use a lock stitch to create a very small picot between the two longer lock chains to use for joining before the inner ring.

Tat the regular chain towards the inner ring, join to that very small picot, then tat the inner ring of R: 5 – 5 . This inner ring will be joined to during the next repeat.

Complete the rose bud with the other regular chain joining to the first ring. Tat the outer chain with TOR and you’re ready to begin the next bud.

These very sketchy directions are not complete. I will get back to tatting this more completely to determine which element is tatted holding shuttle 1 and which is tatted holding shuttle 2. Or for that matter, are the repeats tatted with the shuttles changing positions? Could color emphasis of parts of the piece be easily accomplished? How to place beads on thread to end up where you want them?

A worthy project, but alas, I cannot make it a higher priority than preparing for the classes next month, preparing music for Christmas, or completing several challenges. I will place it in the to-solve pile.

a rose is a........smile

I have a few roses in my back yard here. Nothing spectacular. Not like the test gardens in Portland. That’s another of my favorite places in the world. Walking around the beds and seeing the blooms always brings a smile to my face.

 Anyway, I have some carpet roses and a climber. I tried to keep it simple. Every spring, we get over-run with aphids. This year, I tried to watch really close. We have fruit trees in our yard, so I’m reluctant to spray too much. I just may have to this year. Looks like I need a third batch of lady bugs. They have helped, but not enough. I also have the Peace rose I’m trying to get established. I think it will survive and grow. I think…….

I think I’ll take my tatting out onto the bench and see if I can cheer on the lady bugs. Go eat ‘em!

progress on the pansy diagram

I'm the type of tatter who needs to make copious notes as I tat a pattern. That is if I wish to repeat any successes and avoid making the same mistake again. So, I tend to copy patterns out of the books and the margins get full fast. Here's the back story on the pansy:

It's published in the Priscilla book on page 18. I first saw it in my Dover book published in the 60's. I love pansies, and so tried to tat it. I soon gave up thinking I just didn't have enough grasp of techniques. Then Yarnplayer posted a beautiful version. She's listed a class in this on Craftsy.com which I would like to take. Then, Sarah shared her rewrite with the Online Class. Thanks to these two wonderful artists, I gained the courage to try again. That and I needed something for my apron.

It turned out well. So, I decided I had to diagram it. Thanks to Gina and Sue, I am familiar enough with Inkscape to get into trouble. But, so far, this is working well.

diagram of 3-D pansy with beads

 Well, OK.....even I wouldn't be able to figure this out a year from now. So, I decided to break it down. I now have diagrams of the individual petals, similar to the photos that Sarah put in her document. I know have what the first round would look like:


First Round of each petal


Now, I need to add the other two rounds. It may take me awhile. I'm back to putting the next idea into thread on the Saint-Saens and I need to take a trip to Oregon to help sell my Mom's house. And of course, working through this pattern has spurred ideas for the rose pattern I love. Sigh....what's the saying about books and time???? I think there's so many patterns and not enough time.