Papillon

Here is my new pattern.  It's a butterfly I worked on while I was away.  It is available for purchase here.  Many thanks to Suzanne and Leah who test-tatted it for me.

I wanted a fuller wing for my butterfly (hence the rings within the rings) and also wanted a more realistic body so it sticks out a bit at the bottom (like a real butterfly's does).  Another criteria of course was that it should be tatted in one go and lastly, no ends to hide!

Motif 24 of the 25-motif challenge

This is tatted in Jess!'s lovely Messy Jess!-y thread

(hard to write with those exclamation marks, apostrophe and dash!)

Did I get it right?

size 40

This is an earlier version using a rolled, partly-closed ring for the body.

But I just liked the photo on the gorgeous red flower.

A small sample of all the butterflies

I tatted whilst tweaking and testing this pattern.

Maybe I should put them in a frame,

like a real butterfly collection!

I tried it with all sorts of threads,

including with very fine sewing thread,

which makes a tiny butterfly

perfect to use on stationery.

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,