One last heart

Here's the latest design. Like I said, I had to tat one side, then tat the second side joining it at the appropriate points, and finish it off by tatting the bottom cloverleaf. (Edited to add: Now that I'm looking at it again, I think this one needs an outline row, or maybe not.)

I'm not thrilled with the results, but there it is. I swapped shuttles to change the curve of the chain and I think I have correctly shaded the rings to show which shuttle they are tatted with, but trying to remember what was done working upside down and backwards, I might have goofed. Not that I think anyone's going to want to tat this one, but I've been wrong before 😄 So here's the pattern anyway.

By they way, I got an odd notice from Google saying they were making a change to the comments:
"Google+ Comments: Support for Google+ comments will be turned down, and all blogs using Google+ comments will be reverted back to using Blogger comments. Unfortunately, comments posted as Google+ comments cannot be migrated to Blogger and will no longer appear on your blog."
To the best of my knowledge I haven't used Google+ Comments so that shouldn't be an issue, but if you have problems leaving comments please let me know using sharon at rsbriggs dot com (See I remembered that if you can't leave a comment you can't tell me!)

I think I pretty much have the hearts worked out of my system, but for convenience I'll do a listing like I did for the snowflakes as it makes it much easier to find the pattern you're looking for.

Hearts within hearts

When you look at a heart, it's generally a triangle shape. I wanted to try a heart with more hearts inside so I went for a generally triangular shape with a dimpled ring at the apex of each point, which gave me a really odd looking outline. It smoothed out a little with the next row, but I really wanted a lacier outline. I got the lacier outline, but the bumps at the top could have been more pronounced. The finished heart is about 3.25 inches across and 3 inches high done in size 20 thread.

For some reason the drawing of this one is really compressed at the top. I might be because the thread of the dimpled rings on the top bends down toward the bottom of the heart making more space than what appears on the line drawing. In any event, I had to cram too many stitches for too many rows in at the top, so I showed the stitch count for the rings of the repeat motif inside the rings. The joins for this ring, chain, ring motif at the top of the heart, are into the base of a ring, or to joins, of the previous row. Try getting that to fit into a drawing and then fit in the stitch count without a lot of aggravation! I did an inset to show the proper stitch count and to show the imaginary picots of where the joins are made, so the drawing should be clear enough. I suppose I could have done the drawing over top of the heart JPG which would have fixed that, but when I realized that would have been a better way to go, I already had it mostly drawn. So there you go.

I design because it's fun. When designing or creating drawings becomes too onerous, it isn't fun anymore, and at that point, I quit. The design and the drawing thereof may not be great, but there they are. As long as I'm enjoying it I don't mind churning out patterns. They may not be the most elegant patterns around, but hey, what did you expect?😉 I keep telling you I have the attention span of a gnat and I'm already on to the next thing.

The dimple that grew

I've already written about what happened when I started with a dimpled ring and tried to make the heart shape grow by adding rows to it. That didn't work! So I thought about it and realized that I needed to have space between the dimpled ring and the next rows. I drew out a possible version and tatted it to see if it works. What do you think?

It's about 3 inches wide and 2.25 inches tall in size 20 thread. And since I'd already sketched it out, here's the pattern. Begin with the dimpled ring and then start the chain around the outside, ending the row with a split ring to climb into the next row. Do the same thing with the next row and finish with the small outward ring on the bottom of the heart. The dimpled ring is only shown as an inset to avoid having the stitch count crammed into little places.

Simpler is better

Sometimes there are designs that are created, just to see if you can. They're often one of a kind designs as in Carol Amich's 3D tatting, like her haunted house. If you haven't seen her 3D tatting, take the time to go wander through the back posts on her blog that's linked above. Some of these designs get shared, but a lot of the time they exist just because the tatter wanted to play around and see if an idea, percolating in a fertile mind, might just be possible. In those instances, it isn't about making a pattern others can follow, it's just about creating.

When a designer is creating specifically so that others can tat, it isn't about, yes you can create it, it's more about can you make something other people will enjoy tatting. Have you ever worked on a design where you had to refer back to the pattern after every ring or chain to see what to tat next? If the design doesn't flow in a logical progression it makes it, not really harder to tat, just not as enjoyable. Consequently, when I design now, I settle as much as possible on a single ring size and a standard repeat of stitches and picots for both the rings and the chains. That makes it easier for the tatter to get into a rhythm, and enjoy the process rather than struggle with each ring and chain. Making it simpler, doesn't necessarily make a better design, but it does make for a better tatting experience.

This heart is simpler than the last design. It's a basic 5 lobe heart with a couple more rows around the perimeter.

I could have added another row on the outside to smooth out the curves but I decided it looked good as is. The finished size is 2.5 by 3 inches in size 20 thread. The pattern follows:

There's just one split chain on the penultimate row and you can tat the pattern without the split chain by finishing the row normally, cutting the thread and beginning the next row. That will make for hiding the ends on both of the last 2 rows instead of just the final row. See? Simpler.

It's a dog's breakfast, but...

You asked for it. I created the pattern for the heart shown yesterday. The final result is a pretty heart with a pair of kissing flowers. But to get there from here certainly isn't elegant. I tatted it with the dimpled ring and the little ring below it done first and set aside. The heart begins with a 5 ring flower that ends with a split ring split out the side and reverses into a short chain with a ring done using each shuttle and the top ring connected to the nearest petal. The bottom ring is joined to one side of the dimpled ring you set aside. The chain curves out from there to join to the tip of the next petal, then switch shuttles to curve the chain in the opposite direction RW to tat the small ring and RW again for the next chain which is joined to the next petal and a short continuation of the chain. This is followed by a long split chain anchored to the side of the small ring. At the end of the long chain is a split ring and another chain going into the tip of the next petal.

If you survived to get to this point the mirror flower begins with a split ring split down the middle and the 5th ring is split out the side and follows the same process with the lower ring joined to the other side of the dimpled ring.

When you've finished both sides of the heart the thread will be back at the top of the heart. Tat the chain and then the small ring joining between the split ring and the chain on the previous row. The last bit of weirdness is at the point of the heart where the chain is lock joined between the dimpled ring and the small ring then lock joined to the tip of the ring and lock joined again on the other side between the dimpled ring and the small ring, forming an onion ring.

After that it's all straight forward chaining around the heart, sort of. See, ugly process. But here it is:

I don't blame anyone for thinking this is a crappy design, I sure do.

I goofed

See this heart? It's about 2 inches wide and about 2.5 long. (In size 20 Lizbeth Christmas Red, which is what's currently on my shuttles, so that's what they've all been.) I thought it had turned out OK except it seemed to curve a bit one one "hump", but it wasn't anything that blocking didn't cure. See it? Yep. Right at the top it's missing picot, 3 stitches. I'm NOT fixing it or re-tatting it. Valentine's day is approaching fast and I have more designs to get out.

It's a serious affliction, I tell you, this need to design. I can't sit still, there is tatting to create. You didn't think I'd leave you hanging, did you?

You know that square plus a half circle idea? See it?

Edited to add: I forgot to mark the split chain on the penultimate row, but I've corrected it now and uploaded the corrected pattern.

Still plugging away

This one's about 2 inches square which seems tiny to me. I can't seem to fix on a starting point for a heart and I started this one with a 5 ring flower so it should satisfy Muskaan's love of finding flowers in her tatting.

What's a tatted heart without a pattern? Unsatisfying, that's what.

I get a chuckle out of it

I've been designing tatting patterns for over 30 years and I guess if these last couple of months are any indication I'm what you might call prolific. Today I had reason to go search for patterns online and I'm absolutely thrilled when I see that other people have taken the time to tat one of my patterns and sometimes see that they've done totally unexpected things with them. Occasionally I'll see a design and think I really like that one and then I find out it's one of mine! I get a chuckle out of seeing other people tat my designs and a bigger chuckle out of seeing something I created that I've forgotten all about.

See when you design a lot and tat fast there's a lot of lace "out there" with your name on it, that you've forgotten you created. That happens especially when I wander through Pinterest or similar sites. It probably seems odd to the average tatter, that a designer might not recognize their own creations, but I have over a thousand drawings, partial drawings and test drawings in my main folder, and that's not  including any of the subfolders, so that's a lot of "stuff" and it's easy to forget things you did years ago. Some of the snowflakes I did last month are already becoming a faint memory, as I'm on to the "next thing".

Speaking of next things, here's one. It's about 2 inches wide and 2.5 inches long. I'm not thrilled with any of these heart designs. They're OK, just not really wonderful. Of course, what do I know? The poll done for the snowflakes indicated that a lot of the designs I didn't care for were designs that others couldn't wait to tat!

Is anyone surprised that it's another heart? Oh yeah, I guess you want the pattern too.

I used a larger format for this drawing, so let me know if the numbers are still blurry. I didn't number the rows, but I think you can figure it out. I'm off to try out another idea.

Left over thread

The only excuse for this mediocre design, is thread left on the shuttles, making a heart about one inch square.

I had more thread so there's another one about 1.5 inches square.

It sort of reminds me of something I saw a while ago and both of these designs are so simplistic there may be other similar designs floating about in Tat land. I'm not trying to step on any toes, so if I've duplicated someone's design I'll apologize now.

Before I forget, Pattern, such as it is.

More to follow.....

Zipping along making snowflakes and... POOF!

Look what happened! It's not a snowflake. How on earth did I end up with this? It's about 2.5 inches long and 2.75 inches wide done in Lizbeth size 20 Christmas Red.

There's a pattern here somewhere.

After the recent comments about the numbering being hard to read, I've adjusted the picture sizing. Let me know if you still have trouble reading it.