Edda's Heart One Last Time - and UP and DOWN Joins

As I'd said in the previous post, I needed to adjust - just a tiny bit! - the top part of Edda's heart for it to work with the way I tat. Adding just one stitch in those top chains did the trick for me. Otherwise it wasn't lying flat.

Tatted FS/BS, using up joins

I said in the previous post that I like the simplicity of this heart and I find it perfect in its shape... the funny thing is though that I seem to make a mistake (or more than one) every time I make it! The stitch count is 4 nearly everywhere but two of the top rings on each side have an extra stitch and I really often forget to make those!

Here's the previous version where I forgot to add that one extra stitch on the rings on the right top curve and everything is all bunched up! I finished it anyway but it's for the bin!

Tatted FS/BS, using down joins.

This heart still remains one of my favourites, particularly if you want a quick project for a card, it's a fast make.

I tatted both these hearts FS\BS but for the dark one I used down joins (pulling the thread down through the picot) whereas in the paler version, I used up joins (pulling the thread up through the picot). If you have a moment to examine the two hearts, can you tell me if you think it makes enough of a difference to warrant the extra effort (granted it's not a very big extra effort!). I do find up joins are easier and quicker to make so tend to always (nearly always) use them. What do you think? Do you change your joins depending on which side of your tatting you are working on?

Also I still hope I have the correct definition for the joins... 

Up Join: you go down through the picot with your hook and pull the thread UP through it

Down Join: you go up through the picot from behind and pull the thread DOWN through it

I think it's confusing because it depends if you're thinking about your hook going through the picot or the thread!

Anyway, that's how I've used the definition and how I've described it in this video so I hope you agree but if not, please tell me!

Best wishes,

Frivole

Hearts Re-visited - Happy Valentine's Day

Only just in time, I meant to post about hearts before Valentine's Day but we're here already!

I had not made my own heart pattern - The Heart Within - for a long time. I'm not completely happy with it to be honest and I'd like to see how I could change it... or create a new heart pattern I'd like even better. For this one, I decided to remove the little flower in the centre and just make a 1SSCMR to get a point so that the heart shape in the middle would be even more obvious. Maybe I like that better? I don't like the way the last two split rings on each side of the bottom ring don't quite face the right way with the others. Maybe I need to make the bottom chains of the inside heart a bit longer to push the tip down further? It's probably hard to understand what I'm describing but maybe you'll know what I mean.

The Heart Within

The second heart I tatted is one of my favourites: it's by Edda Guastalla.

I have made it a couple of times in the past and really like its shape.

Simple and perfect. Perfectly simple.

For me though, it does not lie flat at the top of the heart when I tat it as per the pattern. I seem to remember I had changed the stitch count a tiny bit to make it work better for me.. I think I just need to add an extra stitch on the chains of the curve at the top. I'll have to make it again and see if that works.

Have you been tatting hearts for Valentine's Day? Do you have a favourite pattern?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Frida Kahlo Blanket Completed!

I'm a bit late posting this as I finished the blanket 2-3 weeks ago. Can't believe I finally completed it after leaving it untouched for so long. After re-doing the wrongly crocheted 5-sided instead of 6-sided motif, I joined everything together, hid all the remaining ends and crocheted the border.

And below are a few close-ups of the different flowers in the blanket:

All the photos above show the crocheted border as per the pattern but I felt it was a little narrow for my taste and decided to add a little bit. So below is photo of the border after the few extra rows.

One down, one more to go! But I need to give my right elbow a little rest after all that crocheting! The blanket now lives in our living room and is perfect for those still cold February evenings.

Best wishes,

Frivole

New Year - 2026 here we are! And Frida Kahlo Blanket

Hello everyone, I hope your holidays were thoroughly enjoyable and I wish you all a fantastic 2026! 

I'm starting off the year not with tatting, but with crochet. On my search in our loft for something else, I found this blanket which I had started back in 2016 and which had been languishing since then after an initial burst of work on it, nearly 10 years ago! This is a blanket designed by Janie Crow and inspired by Frida Kahlo and her art. It's a bit mad with all its colours and bright flowers!

I laid it out on our carpet and this is where I'd left it: most of the completed medallions were already sewn together, the half-medallions for the edge were all made but not sewn on, there were two part-medallions started and 9 medallions still left to make (as well as the edging once it's all put together). Some of the flowers are a bit crumpled from having been stuck in a bag for so many years!

I started with completing the medallions with the big pink flowers in the centre:

Then I sewed all the half-medallions on the two long edges and finally started work on the five last medallions, one for the centre and two for each end of the blanket:

I was all excited to start working on the border when I realised.... that I'd done one of the medallions wrong (see bottom of photo below)! I managed to make it with five points instead of six! So had to take it apart and now need to make a new one and sew it in before I can carry on with the border.

All the flowers will look much better once I've finished and washed and blocked it (many flowers have their petals curled in at the moment). 

Anyway, I hope to come back soon to show you the finished blanket. I don't know if I don't think it's a bit too mad but I'd gone so far with it, I felt it deserved to be completed.

How have you started your year? What projects are you working on at the moment?

Best wishes,

Frivole

Oh, and amazingly, I'm embarrassed to say that I found a second part-completed blanket in my loft too! I hope I'm not the only one who has WIPs hiding in corners of her home...

Second blanket appearing in another blogpost soon.