Bookmarks

One of the things that I tat a lot of are bookmarks. They're fun frivolous quick little bits of tatting that are nice to have on hand for little gifts. I was sure that I had three or four finished off and stored inside little zip lock bags ready for gifting.

What I have is a mess like this.

I do have six finished bookmarks, and by finished I mean the ends are hidden and there are tails and tassels or motifs so that these can just get tucked into little zip lock bags for storage. I know that storing lace in plastic bags isn't ideal, but the bookmarks and tassels store better and don't get tangled with one another when they're in their individual pouches and they aren't there for long term storage.

I don't mind tatting up bookmarks, but fussing with tassels isn't something that can be done easily in dim light and since my tatting light causes a glare off the TV, I often end up with bookmarks that need to be finished off with tassels and tails. Wherever I can I make a little matching motif rather than fussing with tassels. When I need a tassel I keep the leftover threads from the shuttles to make them, so that I match the right colours and use up the thread. That's why there are little skeins of threads stored with these.

Consequently, what I have are a lot of almost finished bookmarks that need ends hidden, motifs tatted, tails done and tassels made. All the finicky parts that I like least. I have 14 bookmarks, 6 finished, 4 needing end hidden, tails and tassels or motifs made, 3 stored with balls of thread looking like they maybe want another row and 1 needs some major fixing.

This last one was created with a foundation row using a subtle variegated yellow thread. When I have a piece of lace finished I finger press it, pulling it more or less into shape. That usually gets rid of puckering and ruffling, showing what the finished piece looks like. I think the yellow thread must have been some vintage stuff, because when I pulled it into shape the split ring broke. Foundation row. Everything else is connected to it. Broke in the middle.

It can be fixed. I think. I un-tatted several split rings to get thread ends long enough to hide. IF I fix it, I'll have to match the variegation of the foundational row of split rings, then I'll have to tat in the first broken ends. As I'm tatting the split ring I'll have to join into the second row of tatting, but there aren't any picots to join into, the picots were on the foundation row and what's left is the joining. That means joining into something that isn't there which is going to make the connection of the repaired part tighter than the original on both sides of the split ring. Then if I succeed in doing that, I'll have to invisibly incorporate the 2 other broken ends along with the 2 new ends from the new split rings.

You know what? I'm just going to scrap it. It's a pretty design and I'm just going to re-tat it. Re-doing 3 rows of lace will be faster and easier that trying to fix this thing and life's too short to waste time when I don't have to. So I guess that means I only have 13 bookmarks done or sort of done. I'm off to hide and bunch of ends and make a bunch of tassels.