Peacock!

I started all over again.  So he's a new chap altogether.  The beak is better this time and I got the body to work(ish), still not completely happy with it though and will have to re-think it for the next version.  I chose a darker turquoise for the body as I thought it was more like a real peacock colour.

But I LOVE the tail!  What a clever combination of motifs to give it that beautiful shape.  I find there is a bit too much contrast in the colours of that variegated and it distracts from the nice shapes in the tail but I thought the blues and greens would be suitable for peacock feathers.  I know which thread I'm going to use for my next try.

Anyway, here he is:

Motif no.20 of 25-motif challenge

I missed quite a few joins in the tail and got his legs wrong too!  But I'm glad I've worked through the whole pattern once and now know where I will make changes for the next time.

I also have to tell you that for the tail, I gave up following the written pattern and just went with the picture on the front cover of the book.  Frankly, in many places it seemed to me that the written pattern didn't say the same as what the picture showed!

Just to show you the pages of notes I took as I worked the pattern...

And they're written on both sides!

He's pretty neat though, isn't he?

Oh, and guess what?  There is a SECOND peacock pattern in the book...

Best wishes,

Peacock?

Remember mentions of the peacock in the same book that the dancing butterflies are from...  Well, the peacock on the front cover is really what drew my attention to it and made me buy the book.  I tried it once unsuccessfully, put it down and did the butterflies instead.  Last night I thought it was time for another try...  It was looking much better but halfway down the body, it's gone wrong again!  I've been examining the pattern and the diagram and the photo....  I've counted and re-counted...  and my conclusion is that there is a mistake in the pattern.  I can't seem to make it work out if I follow the written pattern (that's if my interpretation of the German directions are correct of course!).  So I've been studying it again and will re-write it how I think it should go to make it look the way it looks in the picture and then tackle the tatting again.

Here's a sneak-peek in the meantime...

Best wishes,

Music & Lace

I love our piano.  It's one of my most precious possessions.  I play nearly everyday even if sometimes it's only for a few minutes.  I love the dark shiny wood and the contrasting black and white keys.  I was looking at it the other night thinking I should make it a bit of lace.  I had placed one of my doilies on top with the free edge dangling and I thought it looked really nice.  So I thought I should start a new project.

Time to re-visit Quatrain (see Patterns tab above).  It seemed to me the shape of it would look nice on the edge of our piano.

 Motif no.19

I'm on the 4th motif already BUT, I just realise now

that the lace is going to be in the way of the music books on the stand.

Should I start again with a finer thread?

This of course would take much longer to complete...

Mmmmm...

Needs further consideration.

I also remade a short length of the Butterflies from the previous post in a plain colour:  cream.  I still like it  just as much but now need to find where to use it.  So pretty.

Motif no.20

Best wishes,

Dancing Butterflies

I recently treated myself to a few new books so now have many patterns I want to try.  The first one is this really pretty butterfly border pattern from Occhi Schiffchenspitze Frivolité by Marianne Langwieser and Tatiana Scharowa.  As soon as I saw that in the book, I had to make it!

Motif No.18

Click on picture to see it in larger format

Isn't it lovely?

I struggled a bit to start off as the book is written in German so had to try to figure out what the pattern said!  So a bit of trial and error involved but I got there in the end. This is another pattern that provides good practice for the Catherine Wheel Joint.  I can't really tell from the picture in the book (or from the pattern) if that's the join that was used but it does look nicer on the larger wings of the butterfly.

I would call this a slightly challenging pattern, the most difficult part being the antennae with the Josephine knots and the very long picots.  For the second one, you have to start with a long picot, make the JK knot and then carry on the chain with another larger picot and I found it worked out best using two picot gauges on that antennae.  I also ended up twisting mine three times before connecting them as I felt it gave them a nicer look.

I might have to redo this again in a plain colour.  Is the variegated too distracting do you think?  I tried to find the "gentlest" variegated I had... this is a thread I don't think I've used before:  it's Altin Basak 50 in colour 3053.

Best wishes,