Bumper Valentine Blogpost!

First of all, I completed my son's scarf.  Four balls of Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran.  I'm pleased with how it turned out and according to my daughters, it's "manly" enough.

This Tweed wool has lovely flecks of colour all over

making it more interesting to look at.

It's a very dark maroon red. 

And now I've washed it and rinsed with

fabric softener, it's lovely, soft, warm, and cosy.

Hopefully, he'll like it too!

Once that was done, I turned my attention back to hearts, today being the day it is.  I wanted to try hearts I'd not made before.  Here is Susan's One Shuttle Heart.  Interesting?  It uses half-closed rings instead of chains so that the whole heart can be completed with one shuttle only.  A bit more unusual for a heart shape but it's nice to have one-shuttle options.

Then I found this pretty one which I like a lot.  It's simple and just the right heart shape for my taste.   It's Edda Guastalla's Heart.  I have made one of her edgings before.

Just in case you wanted to see which edging I was talking about!

I tatted the heart once and it looked all wrong until I noticed I'd missed a little "1" on two of the rings and decided I also needed to make my picots just a tad longer (I tend to make my joining picots quite small).  The second version was much better.  I adjusted the tip and made the chains 4 and 3 each side of the SCMR instead of 4 and 4 so that it sits more straight than on the accompanying pattern photo.

I still found the rings in the top curves to be quite tight so I changed the stitch count just a bit to give more space to the rings and I'm happy now.  

This brings me to another subject.  I've now got into the habit of completing my rings with one more 2nd half of a double stitch.  I was only doing it occasionally before (particularly on very small rings) but I now find that I tend to do it all the time.  Have you noticed how the last stitch of a ring has a tendency to roll backwards slightly?  This means that from the front, the ring looks one stitch short.  Adding one extra half means that it's this half that gets hidden away by the slight backwards twisting and the stitch count looks right.

Better explained in photos:

The first photo is tatted the "standard" way.

Here are rings and chains with all 4-stitch segments.

If you look at the last segment of the rings (bottom right of rings),

you can only count 3 stitches

although 4 were made.

Here are the same rings and chains

but with adding an extra 2nd half of a double stitch

before closing the rings.

There you can clearly count 4 stitches

even on the last segment of the rings.

Some people advocate "posting" the shuttle before closing the ring to remedy this problem but I don't like the shape that this gives the ring.  It seems less "tear-drop" shaped to me when you post the shuttle.  The extra half-stitch doesn't affect the shape in that way.

I have also found that this has a second advantage:  when you have to un-tat, the rings appear to be easier to open.  I'm not sure yet whether this is my imagination or actually the case, but that's how it feels to me.

And lastly (have you had enough yet?), I made one more heart* in dark red to decorate the lid of a small box. This is a little paper box that is really easy and quick to make (origami).  Here is one link to how to make them if you're interested.  Make one box for the lid and then make another, just a bit smaller for the bottom of the box.  I recently received one such pretty box containing gifts from a friend.  

I'm sure you'll have guessed what's to go in the box?  I melted some of my husband's favourite chocolate and poured it into little heart moulds and then put the hearts in the box.  

*(Actually, I can't believe it but it's the 5th time I've tatted this heart today and I made a mistake again!!  But I'm running out of time and it's going on the box anyway… no… I can't do it… I'm going to have to tat it one more time!  6th time lucky, keep your fingers crossed for me.  I ended up writing it up and numbering the rings - funny how sometimes the simplest things are the ones that trip you up.  You think it's easy so you don't pay attention enough).

Phew!  I bet you needed to stop for a tea break

before you got through this post!  

Best wishes,

Frivole