It’s Tatting Tea Tuesday again and I even have a cup of tea today!
I have actually gotten a few more paperclip bookmarks done. The purple one is from last week, and the green is using the same modified pattern from Debbie Arnold. It’s made from DMC Cebelia size 20, green #955. The two butterflies are my own pattern; the pink is DMC Perle cotton size 8, pink variegated #116 and the blue is Manuela size 20, light blue #008.
I was trying to write down the pattern for the butterflies and find I’m having trouble with it. When I’m tatting my own patterns, while I’m doing them for the first time, I decide I want this element to go that way, and another element to go this way – I don’t really pay attention to which shuttle I’m using, I just know which one it needs to be to go in the direction I want the pattern to go. The same way for reversing the work and keeping track of up/down (I’m very much a upside/downside tatter!), I know when to reverse and which side is up, but keeping track for writing down later..! This inattention makes writing down the patterns a bit of a challenge. I think I’m my own worst enemy!
You know, if I would make everything in two colors to start with, at least I’d know which shuttle I was using. Some things might end up looking a little strange, but I could keep those as my samples.
Or I could write down the patterns as I go along. Or not! Talk about tedious and losing the flow!
Or maybe I should figure out how to diagram tatting. So many others do that, and there are a lot of programs that can be used. I like following diagrammed patterns and I’d really like to learn how. Another something I should do that takes time, but I think would be well worth it.
I'm liking these Tatting Tea Tuesdays – what a great way to sort of force yourself to have some "me" time. I hope I will be able to design something at some point – but I see where the designing vs. recording the steps could spar a bit! Nice bookmarks 🙂
Ooh, your paperclip ponies remind me of hobby horses! I must try tatting one. It would be lovely on a home-made card.
And the wee butterflies are so full of grace and charm! Lovely lil' bugs.
As for patterning, I wait until I get really frustrated with designing and then sit down with the lace and write down the pattern. Odd as it sounds, it helps me to visualize the flow of the tatting, which leads to sparks of new ideas to fix the problems. Don't know if it will help you, but it's worth a shot, eh?
Thanks for joining in Tatting Tea Tuesday!
Stopping bye to say thank you for entering my giveaway. Good luck to you in the drawing.