Simpler is Better

I tried out a beaded crochet pattern that looked good on paper, but was too complicated, so the piece I worked looked muddled. I didn't think it was worth working more than a couple of repeats as a sample. As Mary Corbet says in this post, trying something out and finding it doesn't work is by no means a waste of time. I did write myself a note on the pattern, because if I tried it out again, that would indeed be a waste of time!

I'm working on a simpler pattern, which, to me, works much better:

Cupcakes Revisited

When I was shopping yesterday, I found some paper cases for cupcakes in the supermarket. Aha, I can have another go at the Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes that I baked last month and do it properly this time. Muskaan tells me that there are a lot of differences between cupcakes and muffins, so just leaving the paper case off did not turn my cupcakes into muffins! Still, I think they look better encased.

Blanket and Beads

The term 'blanket' might be a bit misleading for the lovey elephant I showed on yesterday's post, though that's what the pattern says.  I hope that showing it here with my hand in the picture will give a better idea of its size. It's just a little thing for a baby to cuddle.

I gathered my wits, as well as some beads, and had a go at muskaan's version of a tatted rope with beads. Scroll down a bit on this post for the method. It's very clever, and not too difficult to grasp. Obviously it would take some work to get good at the method, but this is a first attempt.

Lovey Blanket

I came across 'lovey blankets' on Pinterest. It's a variation of amigarumi, an animal head with a small blanket attached, meant for a baby to cuddle. I've seen rabbits and sheep and various other animals, but since I live in Africa, I've chosen an elephant as more iconic! The pattern is here. I gave him a hat rather than a flower because he's to go to a little boy. The yarn is  cotton, easily washable. It's a fun make. 

Ninetta's Stacked Rings

With shuttles and beads handy after yesterday's pearl tatting experiments, it was a good time to try out Ninetta's stacked rings with beads. It would take a bit of practice to get it looking good, but I think I have it. Watching Ninettta's video definitely helped.

  God's Kid Sue suggested using the technique to make something similar to the crochet beaded ropes I've been making. It might be possible to do it using a technique with chains perhaps, but I think having that many beads on a shuttle would be impractical. Or am I just being feeble?

Pinned

Some time ago, I pinned this page  from Georgia Seitz with a beaded chain in pearl tatting. Ever since then I've been receiving notifications that other people have also pinned it. I get way more such notifications for this pin that any other in my collection. Though I have to say I haven't seen anyone use it. I've been meaning for some time to try it out.

First I had to remind myself how to do pearl tatting, I had a look at Jane Eborall's page . Oh yes, I remember now. I just used thread left on shuttles and beads that were handy:

The middle one uses the stitch count in the pattern. The one on the left has fewer stitches. I quite liked the look of that, so I worked it again with smaller beads. It's simple enough and there are a lot of possibilities for changing the stitch count, number and size of beads, and so on. It could be a lanyard or even a bracelet. The reverse of the third one looks quite interesting too:

Rastafarian Colours

I used the colours that were in the pattern. I must say that most of the patterns I've found online are accurate. But I always do a small sample to begin with, to make sure. In this case it was just as well because the threading scheme bore no relation to the graph! I wrote myself a note, so that I don't have to go through the whole process again:

I decided I would rewrite the threading scheme.

I managed to get the join pretty well invisible this time, hooray. It helps that it's a clear pattern and a dark thread.