A Winner

Frivole's Astrila snowflake pattern is certainly a winner. My tatting of it, not so much. This is my third attempt. I was half way round the first time when I realised that I'd missed the join at the base of a chain on each repeat.  I carried on working in the same way. The result is fine, but not quite the same as the original snowflake Frivole was aiming for:

So I thought I'd tat another one, correctly. I was just about finished number two when I realised I'd missed out a ring early on. That was a fatal flaw, no way of sorting it out, I won't show you the result. Here are numbers one and three side by side:

I used size 20 thread and they measure 9 cm across.

More Thread Testing

I saw this crochet thread in a local craft shop last week, so I bought a ball each of black and white to try out for beaded crochet. It's not cotton - it's acrylic with a thread of lurex. It's more loosely spun than the thread I tried out before and works well for a 6 around bracelet, giving the bracelet a good structure.

I don't think it'll be a good thread for tatting, which is a shame because the lurex thread would give a good sparkle to Frivole's Astrila snowflake. (I won the pattern yesterday, how lucky am I?) I might try it, but I think closing rings will make the thread go fuzzy. 

Roses

Jack's roses have been magnificent, but they're beginning to fade now. Luckily muskaan's hidden rose won't fade at all! Here's a link to the pattern.  I used size 40 thread and it measures 6.5 cm across. 

Flowers On A Stem

That's what Google translate tells me this pattern is called. It looks better in person than it does in the picture, with the stem winding between the flowers. The red beads are very light, which means the bracelet doesn't have a good heft, but they're also very even, which gives a good appearance.

A Visitor

It's a good thing I'm not afraid of spiders because there's a large one resting his legs in my mixing bowl. Lucky for him, I won't kill him, I'll just throw him outside. I do suck up the ones that make messy cobwebs with my vacuum cleaner, otherwise my house would soon look like Miss Haversham's, but these flat ones don't spin webs.

On a more conventional note, I've finished the beaded crochet necklace:

Longer and Longer

I've been working on my tatted lace on trips to town. Last week, I opened my tatting bag and realised I'd left my hook at home. Oops. That's why I prefer to use shuttles with hooks attached. I had a pin, so I used that to hook the thread through for joining, possible but not ideal. I got on better today except that the car was rather hot for tatting, as I sat outside a shop, waiting for Jack. A reminder that the pattern is here. 

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: