no excuse to

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 no excuse to not decorate!!! Check out the diversity of decorative or ornamental picots in tatting! 

This collage is a small glimpse into way more picot types than we would ever use, or use sparingly. Yet it is a pity they get glossed over. Now we have no excuse to skip them, when visual models are laid out in this pdf titled DECORATIVE  PICOTS  IN  TATTING - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D6l4gQWeGu1Se1ZXAhP2vWLQMd4lfzMJ/view

It can act as a quick reference to make our choices.

Backstory - It started with Net Best's upcoming book ' Six T's of Shuttle Tatting' that I am editing. She had listed the names of several picots/elements in her glossary without any pics. It was understandable because the book was meant for beginner/intermediate level tatters. And since it was going to be a physical book, there were limits on the number of pages. 

Now we have decided that only a few copies will be hard copies for private circulation. Sales will be in the form of a digital book. (It was an option she had veered towards before her death.) Phew, that takes away the page pressure. We also decided to shift the elements to a separate chapter to showcase their variety. To that end, I have been tatting up these samplers.

Meanwhile we started the #PicotMeEndrucks game this month in our FB group. [You can read the details with links here - https://lelia-stitchesoflife.blogspot.com/2024/04/picot-me-endrucks-april-2024.html  Carol, thanks so much for the shoutout!]. We felt that perhaps a visual reference would spur more interest and effort, although we already have some spectacular entries. Hence I focused all my energies on tatting all the picots I had on my list in order to share with our members in time. Obviously I haven't had time to tat my own butterfly version yet, LOL. 

In the pdf there are no details about each picot. They are arranged alphabetically despite the fact that there are underlying similarities and several can be grouped together. Well, I need to keep something for the book, right?!

If you know of any picot that can be added, please do let me know. Or any input is welcome.

Meanwhile, I hope you join in if you can and choose your picot to style your butterfly! Send me your version if you are not on FB. 

snapshots

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 Today felt good and I was energized enough to take photos of some of our plants. Some are recent, others have stayed with us for a couple years. Hubby has added so many pots and plants that our balcony is flourishing with flora after a long bleak winter. He has placed the smaller pots on two adjoining larger pots for a tiered effect!

 

Hubby bought 5 Portulaca plants in red to plant in a specially bought flattish pot. There appear to be two varieties; the others haven't bloomed yet. He had asked for the 10 o'clock ones, but I believe they could be a mix of 9 and 10 o'clock.

 

We had one such way back and the dense pink/magenta flowers were a pleasure to see blooming every morning! At times we got 40 flowers in that one little pot! And I made several other pots with their high prolification.  Hoping to see the same with these.

The little flowers in the Mayurpankhi (peacock plume) plant are more visible in this pic than with the naked eye, LOL.

 

Syngonium golden or the green Arrowhead is on the left, and it has been thriving and giving off new leaves throughout winter.

The Snake plant has also endured very nicely, Though not clearly discernible, the two original plants grew in height (and foliage) and are at the back (with the two brownish stems). At least four new plants came up at the base of the original during winters - the shorter ones in front.

 

After a long wait, finally the money plant also has new leaves on its branches.

And the curry leaf plant, after wilting in winter, has sprouted new twigs after I pruned it recently.

 

This is just a tiny snippet of the Jade plant! It has branched out so much that I couldn't capture it in one shot. The jade has turned out to be slow starter but sped, once it became stable! At the start of winter I had pruned and placed several twigs in water in our bathroom which gets very good sunlight. Three of them took root and are still alive. 

Then there's one of the ajwain pot. Don't know why it came out so pale in the pic.

Here's the other pot showing part of the ajwain plant. 

It's time to do a bit of pruning to allow both pots to fill up.

In the morning, these portulaca petals looked much more defined and curved. By the time I decided to take pics after a couple of hours, the petals had curved under exposing more of the center. Hoping to have lots of opportunities to take more pics.

Oh, and Finally hubby caved in and bought vermicompost. I used to swear by this when I was the gardener in our balcony. In the new version, hubby kept buying a spray-on liquid fertiliser. He can see the difference the compost has made and is converted, LOL!

happy ITD 2024

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 A day early, but we love our tatting year round, don't we?! So, keep your tatting tools and materials ready, choose your pattern, friends, and location, and have a blast with chocolate, tea, and chatting!!!

This is such a quick and fun medallion from Rebecca Jones' 'The Complete Book of Tatting', Fig. 123.

Tatted in Lizbeth size 20, with half-closed rings (HCR) instead of chains or bare thread to bridge the distance. A single-shuttle pattern obviously.

TIP: Notice how the top and top right cords appear more pointed than the rest? It shows how you can change the curve by changing how far you close the ring! The middle ring in both is closed more than halfway as seen in the shorter bare thread space. I'm tempted to tat another with a sharper pentagon shape, LOL.

I did use a folded picot gauge for the HCRs , but messed up with some of the rings. Of course the sure shot method would've been to use beads.

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After a hiatus of three months, we begin our new game of the month for this year tomorrow, in the Endrucks FB group! Let me know if  you wish to join even if you aren't on FB. This is our pre-announcement:

A game of decoration where you will get a chance to

• Refresh your skills
• Learn something new
• Apply your new learning
• Do a bit of designing
• And all while beautifying a little model!

It all depends on how far you wish to take it! But let us warn you that this can be quite addictive!

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🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Once again, a very happy International Tatting Day to all 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹