gaming bookmark

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 An insertion as a bookmark is my entry for the two 2024 games I am playing.

Main body is from 'Tatting Techniques' by Elgiva Nicholls (p27, 1976) and the charm is from Rebecca Jones (fig123, 1985).

I have too many variegated Lizbeth, mostly with shades of pink/magenta. Difficult to always use for fear of eclipsing the pattern. But I took the leap and it came out okay I think. Lizbeth size 20. 

Learning from my past experience, where my chains are usually tighter/shorter than vintage patterns, I increased the chain stitches beforehand and it worked out well.

Pearl Tatting tail for the bookmark using Anchor perle cotton size 8. I didn't use any picot gauge since my main aim was to enjoy uninhibited tatting on International Tatting Day, 2024.

In order to avoid sewing in ends, I ended with two heavily picoted folded rings, hiding the other colour within each.

Pearl tatting is one of the blocks in Natalie Rogers' PICOT Bingo game which you can join here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/picot-bingo-95729145?  This is my fifth submission so far. Need to speed it up a notch!

The tail was attached to the #123 medallion from Rebecca Jones , shared here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2024/03/happy-itd-2024.html

Turning an insertion into a bookmark is nothing new or unique. Bookmarks, being short, are a good way to enjoy a pattern with a different use. 

The large rings are linked through a common picot. I think the colours are doing fine together.

And the bookmark is also my entry to splocik's Small Decorations game that was first announced here - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2024/01/mae-dekoracje-galeria-grudniowa.html

She shared the March entries here - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2024/04/mae-dekoracje-2024-galeria-marcowa.html

Many thanks to all mentioned here for lovely patterns and fun games!

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!