a winter butterfly

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 Trying to catch the last golden rays of the wintery sun! 

Ninetta Caruso has shared a lovely new butterfly pattern with us! She was updating the E13 edging  pattern which Silvia Passaquieti, one of our original volunteers, had reworked back in Nov 2020. This update is part of the ongoing exercise to systematise all presentations in the Endrucks 1920 Project.

And that's when Ninetta noticed that ....

... a motif from the E13 edging looked like a butterfly's wing in profile! 

I was privy to all the trials, thoughts, doubts, and discussions - the various stages leading to this final pattern. Let's hope she shares her design process, too.

 

E13 Disclosed Butterfly by Ninetta Caruso pattern PDF link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yxSqjL2ZpKPnwcqhG9YkbhBG_wjfLQmT/view

TWoT Notes: Habitually, I worked it directionally, starting the first wing (on the left in above pic) with the first ring frontside. For the right wing, I started the first ring backside to get a mirror image.

The pattern itself is a scroll - alternating rings and chains - throughout.  In fact each wing is worked with a ball and shuttle. Yet, it is not a pattern one can easily commit to memory. The rings and chains are cleverly arranged and attached and require mindful tatting.

 

An upended view with the butterfly playing dead ;-P 

Each wing is worked separately. Then the split ring braid attaches to both simultaneously. I chose to do the body in a different colour and twisted the head ring from vertical to horizontal .

I really liked Ninetta's version of the antennae where she lightly twisted the picots [actually she cheated by twisting them afterwards, LOL] so unlike all my earlier tightly twisted picots, these are less tight.

Now there is cupping in the wings which I kind of like, except that mine face downwards as if the butterfly is just getting ready to lift off; contrary to Ninetta's model where the wings are uplifting!

I really must make my chains less taut or add one or two extra half-stitches to avoid cupping. I seem to have this problem in several patterns.

The proof of how much I liked the pattern is that I just had to squeeze in time and energy to tat it! It took two sittings only, but took several days to finally take pics and blog. Incidentally, this is my first E13 pattern/derivative. Can't thank my dear PIC, Nin, enough, for this pattern and all she does for the Project!

E15 from Eleonore Endrucks' 'Die Schiffchen-Spitzen', 1920, reworked by Silvia Passaquieti Nov2020  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qZ0BsgjQ81es0J7G1FI3mng3xwjjeHOT/view

For more butterfly patterns and inspiration check out our Butterflies from Endrucks Directory - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dtWGgZZEGBBwLDpJgRChAEo91l4uuXq-fxRNzKDc6r8/view 

Please do not forget touse the tag #Endrucks1920Project in your social media post, and please state the name of the designer and the pattern, too. 

sneak peek variation

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 This is my submission for our #TALme2Endrucks Aug2023 game of the month. It is a variation on Ninetta Caruso's Garland pattern derived from Endrucks' pattern #20. The pattern was shared in 3 parts during the 3 weeks, and a 4th part on some surprise variations will be shared in a couple of days. Here's a peek into part of what might be expected, ;-D

Most participants have already finished and shared their beautiful versions. So sharing my variation will not cause any confusion now.

It was meant to have 8 repeats and 5 rounds. I have 7 repeats and a 6th round of rosette motifs.

 

This interesting pattern is worked from the outermost round. It has onion rings with thrown rings.

Onion Ring with Thrown Ring. A few members seemed to find it difficult to understand. Hence I quickly prepared this pictorial using 2 colours to show which shuttle was in action. It is the same process as for the Happy Hands patterns from #1 (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/03/balancing-act.html). But each tutorial I referred to, was missing in one feature or other that was need for this particular pattern. Hence it was simpler to follow the steps of this pattern without the need for detailed written explanation.  

The 2nd round is worked on the inner edge of the previous round, made of block tatting 'flowers'. In my first repeats I am sure there are mistakes in the block (the very first one was snipped) - it needed mindful tatting.

I may not have gotten the shape of the flowers very nice, but the construction is very clever, as is to be expected of Ninetta.

The inner space is filled by working 3 rounds, this time in the 'proper' order - ie., from the inside out ;-D

The center rosette is worked and cut off. The thread for Round 4 is attached and worked around. 

The left one has 8 repeats, as per the pattern. This time I had counted and followed correctly, LOL.

Round 5 continues from the previous one without cutting and it is the round that connects to the outer rounds. It was only at the 'final' join that I realized there had been a miscount!!! Nothing to it but to bring out the scissors and snip snip snip.

Tatted Rounds 3,4, and 5 again, this time with 7 repeats, and joined successfully. However I did not wish to change the count which is why you see the slight curve in the linking chains. However I kind of like the organic feel of this imperfection.

TIP: To get a neat point in parallel chains or with chains that turn back, as in the middle round, I always count the lock join as one half of the double stitch. It leaves a much smaller footprint.

I had the pleasure of test-tatting and proof-reading this clever pattern back in June. Well I messed up with the repeats, but it gave us a variation that lay flat. So not much was lost.

For some reason the tinted green felt too overbearing. Hence I wanted to tone it down a bit. So after a long tatting break, I picked my shuttles for 2 nights in August for some 'mindless' tatting .....

This is what I came up with - repeated the inner flower motif around the edge. I measured the distance between the rings and the picots on the chains. It was a good fit!

Design TIP: I had initially tatted a 6-ring rosette. Surprisingly it did not look nice! So the 2nd one was made with 7 rings and these reflected the pattern well. So the first one was snipped off. 

 

I intended to fill in the space between the motifs with purple and white flowers connected with a plain green trellis. However, my tatting buddy Anita Barry, completely forbade it! She called it finished at this stage. To assuage my designing curiosity I might still try out one repeat, but not in the near future since I'm back in the no-tatting zone.

The model is worked in Anchor Pearl Cotton size 8 [green 0128; purple 00087; yellow 00291; white; tinted purple 5393. It measures around 12.5cms without and about 16cms with motifs.

I had a great time tatting it and apologize for the inadvertent error in counting. Must go back to a Maths refresher class! However yet again a mistake led to a slight variation - I should call it 'Mistake Designing', LOL.

Many many thanks to Ninetta for her beautiful pattern and all the work that went into it and into organising the game.