Saturday 29 August 2020

Endless Hearts Braid with Corner

 


This is a pattern I was working on quite intensely, in early 2013. In response to a request, I even created an SCMR corner for it. 

But then I stalled, because it was so onerous to tat! I needed two paper clips as strivers for every repeat of the pattern – they went on, then off, then on, then off, over and over again. 

When it came to describing how to tat it – well, that was even more hideous! I took pictures for a tutorial, then realised that I still needed to write long and convoluted sentences about joining to the undersides of chains…

So, I just gave up – though I did go on to write up and publish other patterns using the little hearts (see under "My patterns").

But, in July, Muskaan shared about the Intruding Picot. I saw at once that maybe this picot could replace those pesky paper clips. So I dusted off my Endless Hearts samples and scribbles and started experimenting with it again. I eventually stumbled on a join that was new to me – I call it the Encapsulating Picot Join. That solved most of my problems, and I was able to tat the Endless Hearts without strivers or tears, and then to write it up and draw diagrams for it.

And now, after extensive test-tatting and rewrites, here it is at last!

My test tatters made many suggestions, reflecting a great array of tatting styles! I wasn't able to use them all, but I have compiled them in the next blog post, so that you can try them out, if you wish.

9 comments:

  1. Thank you Grace for sharing this pattern. I know many hours have gone into it and I wanted to say I appreciate you and your talent!

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  2. Thank you! Beautiful edging!

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  3. Wonderful Grace, I’m glad you have it published.

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  4. I’m glad you decided to come back to the pattern after all these years. Good idea to make a separate blog post showing the various options that test tatters came up with. It was interesting to see all of the different approaches!

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    1. Yes, I also was really quite surprised how many ways there were to do this pattern! :-)

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  5. I enjoyed testing the pattern and being part of the renewed journey to the finish! It is indeed a beautiful pattern with multiple options. <3

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