multiples of 7

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 and a voracious scissor!

My journey leading to this destination - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search?q=swirling+butterflies  

Ta-daa! My variation of Ninetta Caruso's beautiful and multi-technique Swirling Butterflies doily, with due apologies. But let's continue from the last post where I had worked split round 10 to make all motifs similar, preferring to work the butterflies separately.

I've used numerous little tricks to keep my working smooth but those are mostly personal preferences, not compulsory.

ROUND 10 (part 2) - Cedronella, and 'Hugging' Butterflies variation.

Each of these 3 butterfly motifs has no tails to hide, since threads end at the head and tails are snipped into antennae. In each case, a short length was left at the start to finger-tat the final few stitches in the split ring head.

The profile butterflies are identical mirror images, one worked frontside, the other backside (optional).

To attach the side butterflies to green chains, I used the luggage tag loop at start and Dora Young Join, thus showing a complete stitch at both ends of the body.

TIP : For maximum overlap of wings, keep the joining picot in previous ring as small as possible.

Remember the lasagna I showed last time? Well, what does this look like, with the motifs turned under? I couldn't resist the sensation of autumnal forest floor.

ROUND 11 (a variation) with butterfly (Cedronella) and leaflet motifs

 See original final round here. 

Oh, the heartache of having used that dark green! None of the lighter colours worked for the final round. Following are the 3 trials I did ....

Hubby gave me a lecture that the final round should be a dark shade, DUH (the all yellow was his choice)! But in 20/20 (or was 2020 at work?) hindsight, the flower motifs should have included cream, leaving me with the dark green or brown for round 11.

I was so disgusted by the end of this that, with the gracious permission from Ninetta, I worked on a different final round which was required in order to link the adjacent flowers. I visualized inserting cream leaf and flower motifs (from the earlier cream rounds) on the outer margins. 

But when Ninetta sent me her idea of placing the florets on the inner side, I loved it. And the free butterfly I had fit perfectly! So I made 7 of these between the 14 large flowers. I attached the wings directly to the green chains in a bid to decrease the darkness.

And then inspiration struck. What if I make an EPJ (Grace Tan's encapsulated picot join here). Even though there is no layering. The one on right neat, but the one on left shows the picot - my insertion was incorrect, but I didn't re-do.

Always options!

On the outside, I went with my original idea of leaflets linking adjacent flowers. This is similar to the ones on round 4, with an extrapair of rings. One shuttle. Attach thread with a luggage tag loop, tatting over tail. The 1st ring is joined to the next green chain. On the way back from the tip, 5th and 7th rings are joined to adjacent motif. I deliberately layered it slightly to hide some green.

Again 7 such motifs. And love the gentle swirl they create.

Going for minimal instead of inserting 14 motifs inside and outside.

It was fiddly to insert these motifs, though. And my scissors had a field day! There are still 2 butterflies I'd like to change, but it's a wrap. Hence if a tatter wishes to make this variation, it is advisable to do it simultaneously rather than at the end. 

After soaking to block, I remembered a snipped chain! Oh well, Mr Downplay decided to let it be! Can you spot the snip?

But in a moment of weakness, Mr Meticulous took over and I fixed it ;-P

The final doily just touches 14 inches across the widest part, worked in Anchor cotton size 40.

This is the colour palette. The black labels indicate the threads are about 15-20 years old - vintage. 

It was already late night and I 'threw' the doily on my dining table in order to keep it flat. And suddenly the swirls and butterflies came to life! Quickly took a couple of pics. Hubby is happy, too, and approves the choices ;-P

My sincerest thanks to Ninetta for choosing me to tat this wonderful doily. It kept me happily engaged (except for the last stages where it kept my scissors engorged ;-P) as a tatter and learner. Hope some of the learning rubs off in my future designs. 

Her pattern presentation (in Italian at present) is Stupendous! What an eye for detail - both in the text and and the schem

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2018/08/spiral-rings-with-treble-tatting.htmlatics. She also included detailed pictorials of elements and techniques used here (many of which are already shared in her blog). I just wish my colour placement had been a bit better. Oh well ...

Complete list of posts so far (chronologically) (copy and paste) : 

Ninetta - 

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2018/08/fun-swirly-effect-in-treble-tatting.html

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2018/09/swirling-butterflies-need-flower.html

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2018/09/swirling-butterflies-its-about-time.html

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2018/11/break.html

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2019/04/cedronella.html

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2019/04/swirling-butterflies-finished.html

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2020/08/swirling-earrings.html

https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2020/10/seventh-blog-anniversary.html

My posts (including the tat-along) -

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/09/change-of-perspective.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/09/twist-n-twirl-spiral-n-swirl.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/09/4-plus-1-is-5.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/09/7-plus-6-is-13.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/09/3-and-1-and-2.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/09/3rd-times-charm.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/10/14-times-3-minus-14-times-3.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/10/multiples-of-7.html

for want of a needle

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 a load was bought!

See that little fella on bottom right? Yup, that's the reason this basket is overflowing. But who's complaining?!

My size 24 & 26 tapestry needles were down to 1 or 2. I use these for hiding ends in finer threads and also for beading.

As long as I was ordering the needle set, might as well add a few more items to my basket. This is called efficiency ;-P

All from my trusted online store - Pony Craft, and trusted brands Anchor & Pony. (no affiliation, simply an endorsement from a very satisfied customer for decades). 

Even though some items were 'sold out' or not listed, I enquired and they filled my order splendidly!

The jumble includes pearl crochet cotton size 8, mercerised size 40 & size 20, and knitting cotton size 10. So far I had knitting cotton only in cream which I used for tutorials. The contrast colourways I used were not of same thickness. Now I have 3 balls in contrasting colours, so watch out ;-P

This is the same wicker basket for which I want to tat a square mat. Remember Ruth Perry's bookmark that I wanted to expand into a square? Can't say when I'll get back to that project. I decided to discard that colour and have chosen a different palette for it. 

Doing the happy dance, but also secretly wondering Where I'll store all these (there's a lot of eye-rolling from you-know-who ;-P). And unfortunately they didn't have tapestry needles. These are coloured eye Chenille needles, but I think they will work fine. Will keep an eye out for the tapestry set, LOL.

bonding with butterflies

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Together, we tamed the butterfly - Bandini and I !!!

The story goes back to July when I posted the Lock Join Plus series... 

We spotted a potential butterfly in the 4 individual motifs and Bandini Maisheri on FB took up the challenge to create a proper tatting model/pattern. She and her mother both tat and sell their wonderful work under the name Harsha Creation. Do check out the range of their tatted lace appliqued on purses, tableware, hankies, etc. - some are spectacular, some are elegant.

These are the 4 models she tatted, tweaking and improving with each as is clearly visible.

Each of the models has 4 white filler rings in the wings tatted separately and then the body and wings were worked around. The lovely antennae are tatted and joined later. 

This makes the pattern easier to tat, using up scraps (in multiple colours, if desired) for the individual rings, but more tails to hide.

I can't thank her enough for all the work she did in breathing life into the butterfly! If it wasn't for her initiative and perseverance, this project would've remained in the ever-growing to-do-someday pile. 

We finally agreed on her 3^rd version and she sent me the count for testing. I've taken a break from the doily to test this (it's been waiting for over a week!) and it was quite an enjoyable experience tweaking and improving the models further. Hubby weighed in with his ‘expert’ comments, too! We are all now pretty happy with this. 

I started with the 2-colour version, working with 2 shuttles following the exact counts Bandini sent. It can be a good practice pattern for the various Lock Join Plus techniques. 

All 4 methods (LJ, Reposition, SLT, Reverse Join) were used judiciously to get the colours in place, yet work it all continuously.

collar, necklace, or doily anybody?!

Next came the pink model with certain tweaks and finally the purple one to everybody's satisfaction. That does not mean there aren't more tweak/decorative variants running through my head ;-D But everything will have to wait.

Named it Butterfly Bandhan aka Butterfly Bonding. 'bandhan'  means bonding in Hindi and it not only reflects the bonds that got this butterfly flitting, but also sounds similar to my co-designer's name. And if you are interested, we call butterfly 'titli' with soft sounds (a soft 't' sound does not exist in English).

Pattern for the purple one will be shared as soon as I complete the presentation. Will you be interested in tatting it? Please leave a 'Yes' otherwise I can spend that time on other projects ;-P

Love to hear your thoughts, which model(s) you prefer, etc. .....