SOUPy vine

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Our game of the month for July was to tat a bookmark from any of Endrucks' patterns. Her book has a lot of edgings making it easy to choose one and adapt into a bookmark. I've done it with a few of her patterns already. However this time I went with a SOUP* (*Sewing On / Using Pieces) bookmark.

Bookmark directory (soon more models will be added): 

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dtWGgZZEGBBwLDpJgRChAEo91l4uuXq-fxRNzKDc6r8/view 

I was actually rummaging for another project through my Endrucks' models stash which is now so huge that it is stored in several different truffle boxes! My eyes landed on these hearts (these include trials and prototypes) and it felt like a good opportunity to use them. It would keep them 'in line' and also be of use.

Not wanting to make it 'permanent', I tatted something that can be cut off if required.

This is my SOUPy Vine Bookmark from E37 for the game ....

Tatted with only one shuttle using teal shade, it is made solely of rings. A bit free style. 

The two large 'leaves' are lock joined to both heart motifs and joined somewhere along the edge, too, for stability. However since the heart edges did not have picots, I had to pierce a fine crochet hook into the space and make a join while tatting the ring.

In her book, Frau Endrucks advises: 

Should you have forgotten a picot, poke a needle between the respective double knots. The picot created that way is large enough for joining. 

[ from the English translation - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-LzBnvzj7azCWLXJACSvcNHegXfP4fv_/view ]

Wanting to avoid cutting and hiding ends after each pair of rings, I went with a half-closed ring string! 

TIP: Half-closed rings (aka half rings, scallops) act like split rings with thread(s) emerging at a point away from the start. 

Each HCR is 3ds.

The leaf rings range from 20 to 30 ds.

The heart motifs were worked in Anchor size 20 which is like Lizbeth 10. Adding this connecting 'vine' in the same size would make it too bulky for a bookmark. Hence the vine is worked in Anchor size 40.

The tassel is made of short leftover lengths in brighter colours. And another HCR string or vine is inserted to sort of bring it all together.

The entire work took me less than 2 sittings and was a fun task. I now have one more bookmark to use!

In different colours the leaf rings could've been butterflies 🦋 .

PATTERN: Eye Spy Hearts #1 derived from Endrucks' #37 (E37). All hearts derived from Endrucks' book are collected in the Hearts Directory - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MpYw9XMB8Asz8zusj1ZpHvX8A8Ww424-rEVORtxcL1w/view

Related Posts -

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/01/hearty-round-robin.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/01/here-we-go-again.html

who knew!

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Came as a complete surprise several mornings back. Noticed this flower hidden among the now fairly dense foliage of our potted snake plant. I first shared a pic of the 'new' plant here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/09/balcony-diary.html

I took this pic on 30th June and it is still very much in bloom today. 

When I moved some leaves aside there are 2 more flower buds slowly waiting to bloom. They look just like a new leaf, rolled. However the bud is whiter and has more body to it, unlike the unopened leaf which is a hollow cylinder and has more green in it. These 2 buds haven't blossomed yet. Nature sure has a slow pace at times.

six seasons of India

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When asked how many seasons are there, the prompt answer is 4: spring, summer, autumn, winter. But where is the rainy season or monsoons - a major part of the Indian climatic cycle!  

How many seasons do you have in your country?

In India we have 6 seasons. In this peninsular landmass that prides itself on various kinds of landforms, the foliage changes from the coastlines to plains to mountainous terrain. Hence we don't see the vibrant fall colours in the plains. I visualized the tree motif as the majestic Banyan (Indian Banyan, Ficus bengalinensis - the national tree of India) and the equally majestic Chinar (Chinese banyan, Platanus orientalis) for autumn and used the same motif to depict the six seasons for #colourmeEndrucks June game in the Endrucks 1920 Project FB group.

It is very interesting that the names of four seasons are male names. Varsha is a common female name; is it because rains are the source of life and due to the dependency on monsoons for an agricultural lifestyle? And Grishma (for warmth) is a rare female name. Ritu means season and this is also a common girl name.

Following pics show each model and my seasonal impressions through shades and picots. The only changes I made are to the ring which is diagrammed; the rest of the pattern remains unchanged. My notes are scattered throughout in bullets.

Endrucks' pattern #14, reworked and presented by Ninetta Caruso -  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mWiQTu_9oVPYpX_1MsObBRR7n1MJWr80/view

Threads  

• The shades used. All size 40 threads from different brands.
• Ball (browns) and one shuttle (greens) throughout.
• I often used scraps of leftover thread and in some models you will see the messy addition.

Vasant/Spring 

• Tiny picots in sap green to represent new shoots.
• All joining picots are small.

Notice how the front tree has fewer rings - mistake! The one behind is correctly tatted.

Grishma/Summer  The sun's rays slipping in through the foliage!  

• One joining mistake in the chains between 6th and 7th rings. Picots are longer to show growth.
• Number and size of picots to indicate the season, as indicated in the ring diagram in each image. Overall ring count remains same as in pattern. 

Varsha/Monsoon or Rains  Lush dense solid foliage in the monsoons!

• Deliberately allowed the greens to show through the trunks for a more organic feel.
• No symmetry in block tatting, following Endrucks' style, again a deliberate choice for that organic look.  Hardly discernible at a glance.

Sharad/Autumn Many of us who have visited Kashmir have certainly seen the Char Chinar in Srinagar - four trees in the four corners of a small island in Dal lake!! It is such a common place to shoot romantic songs in movies.

• Reduced the size and number of picots here.

Again tatted a second one because the first one had mistakes.

Hemant/Pre-winter in my city is more about haze and air pollution. And a lightening of the greens, many of which start to fall. This is why I chose this shade.

• Used reverse join or sometimes simple transposing of threads to change colours/direction, while keeping the green shuttle active at all times.

Shishir/winter Covered in snow, no picots on the rings! 

• Watch out for the chains between 5th and 6th ring. It had escaped my notice and I kept bungling in the first few motifs. 
• Second point of mistakes initially, was where to join the chains. This is block tatting, but notice how cleverly it has been adapted to create these spreading arms.  

• Started and ended with a knot, leaving short tails. This, too was deliberate since these were meant to be glued on paper in a kind of landscape collage with some painting and beads added. Couldn't get around to that before the end of the month, so now I have a little something else in mind to use these. Most probably turn them into bookmarks for our new game of the month - Mark Me Endrucks!

Future/missed Ideas I had a lot more ideas going in - eg.

• leaves sprouting in a second layer or randomly on the trunk branches;
• onion rings for denser foliage;
• adding beads as a third colour to represent flowers, fruit,...; 
• using different motifs to represent different seasons; and so on. 

Turned out I didn't have the right size beads for size 40 and no time to tinker around. As it is, I kept making silly mistakes while tatting - the reason for 8 motifs (and one discarded at the very outset) instead of six. Thankfully I figured it out and then it was smooth sailing and enjoyable.

Related links -
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/06/impressions.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/06/autumn-fireworks.html