dare not outlive me

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I have no intention of letting my stash outlive me ;-P Ditto for the wonderful gift of hand-dyed threads. As if the planets (or two designers par excellence - Marilee and Jon) aligned and there was this perfect pattern just waiting to be tatted! 

I converted it into a bookmark with a tassel. Worked size 40 in Marilee Rockeley's HDT (Stardate) and Gopal threads with tassel in silk threads.

Jon Yusoff's pattern is shared here - https://tatsaway.blogspot.com/2026/10/kupu-kupu-butterflies.html

I made two adaptations - 

1. used twisted picots (floating) for antennae, and
2. added a long (20ds) chain at the other end instead of the butterfly, in order to add a tassel.

There are a couple of places where I forgot to add a 4th picot to the top right wing which meant I couldn't join the next butterfly to it. However, once I blocked it (using the simple rolling pin method), they aligned so well that you can hardly notice!

What I would've liked to do, but was a bit lazy, is use the ball thread join (or it's variation here) while joining the yellow 'buds' to the butterflies such that all picots would be of the same length and colour - symmetry and colour coordination. Now I have variegated on the left side and yellow on the right. Overall, it is barely visible.

Now for tassel, I used silk threads choosing every colour in the bookmark body, matching the shades as closely as possible. The tassel doesn't curl as much, yet I should've dampened and let it set straight. Which would mean a delay of several days after already being late.

I wanted a simple cow's hitch. But it was quite a nightmare to get a neat finish keeping each thread together. I finally took off my first attempt after spending more than half an hour trying to align them nicely, pulling on each and every thread 2 or 3 times around :-(

I've used silk threads for a tassel/tail before but in the first I tied it down with metallic gold thread and in the other I braided it. That was a long time back in 2014! 

So, for my 2nd attempt, after wrapping the threads on a card, I tied it at the center with some scrap thread, then cut the bottom. This kept the threads relatively together to be able to make the cow's hitch. Yet not as neat as you can see in the close-up above. Also, since there was a chance they would slip when handled, I put a few drops of glue at the back to hold it all together.

I'm happy with the overall piece and will be using it. Luckily, if it comes to that, I can always snip off the tassel and make a new one with normal threads or one that is more secure ;-D

Curious, since it's been a while, I checked to see Natalie Rogers' PICOT Bingo 2026 (Level 2) card, and imagine my immense surprise that I could cross off one more box!

• Twisted Picot.

Many many thanks to all mentioned - you make tatting extra fun!!!

garden update

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 Its been quite a few months since I last uploaded any plant pics. The last was in April. We've had a few flowering plants since then, but I didn't get around to photographing them. And we actually had to discard a couple due to bugs.

So yesterday I took some time to sit in the balcony, taking in whatever rays the sun could offer and finally took some pics.

Bougainvillea -

We have two plants, one with white inflorescence and the pastel orange one below. The white ones have smaller 'flowers' but dense bunches. The first flush is long gone, but there are new ones quickly growing. However, the angle is such that I couldn't take pics of the 'buds'. Perhaps in a few weeks ....

This plant has 9 bunches at present, though not all have been photgraphed.

Asparagus or Foxtail Fern -

Happy to note that hubby had shifted the position of this pot to receive more sunlight and it has been thriving since, including flowers. 

Pinwheel Flower -

We have the dwarf version - Dwarf Chandni, though it might not be discernible here. This plant has been giving off flowers non-stop!

Jade Plant -

Had to trim this down but the leaves are thick, green and fleshy. 

Money Plant or Golden Pothos -
Another plant that has propagated itself with several stems crawling out from that single pot! The pic captures only a miniscule portion of the plant.

That's all folks!

a new DAL in town

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I logged into Craftree after several weeks and scrolled back for recent posts. Imagine my immense surprise and pleasure to see that Savarosa, inspired by my recent design-along challenge, had created her own and invited tatters to join in! Glad to see it catch on, though there was no response to the Craftree post.

So, after a hiatus of over 2 months, I finally picked up my shuttles and began tatting! Rusty at first, but soon got into the swing of it and designed the 3rd round. Two days, start to finish! Round 3 is my own, original, though I cannot claim that it is 'unique' .... the shape just seems 'familiar', doesn't it. If you have seen it before, let me know so I can add a link here.

But first, the details to Savarosa's 2026-Design-Along-(DAL)-Snowflake can be found here -  https://savarosacraft.com/2026-design-along-dal-snowflake/ . I like the way she has laid out the rules and legalities!

This is a prototype but I think it worked out fine. I had started by not joining the long chains to each other. This would allow flexibility for the chains to overlap if too long. Turns out the lengths were just right therefore the latter chains were all joined to their counterpart. It helps to sketch on grid paper like I did for my own DAL round.

The only change I would make is to add very small picots so that the thrown rings can be anchored to the chains and stay in the center. I added this in the pattern even if it is missing in the prototype model.

I picked up whatever thread was at hand/on the shuttles. Hence the red rosette. I had 4 long leftover lengths of the beige thread which I put to use here. In 3rd round I reached a point where both threads were over at almost the same time. Hence I wound the shuttles, ctm, with new thread and finished the round. But now I have two new lengths of leftover threads, LOL.

Here's my Round 3 pattern for the Flower Flake in PDF - https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Tclhmx_iRZ4mtYpyi8qv4ig9y8z5hGe/view

I kept it simple starting with a repeat of the trefoils in Round 2 and with sufficient free picots in my round in case of any future additions to the design. The equally spaced picots in the long chains helped me keep track of the count, too. 

My sketch also had an inward facing thrown ring on the short connecting chain. Obviously it would not fit in the tatted model, so I didn't even attempt it. What looks good on paper does not always work out in the real thread world.

In Anchor size 20 (equivalent to Lizbeth size 10) the motif measures 9½ cm tip-wise and 4½ cm along the side.

While it may not be unique, I do love the shape of this motif! What is your verdict?

Many thanks to Savarosa for organising this DAL. I am now ready to get back to the book review again with ample tatting in store.