Motif 6 - Butterfly & Coincidence

In the spirit of my current 25 Motif Challenge, I told myself to pull one of those books off the shelf I had always been meaning to use someday, and just pick something to make. By sheer coincidence, I picked up Tatted Butterflies by Adelheid Dangela, and was astounded to find this butterfly, "Elise," with a block tatted wedge that reminds me a great deal of the edging in the previous post. (It's a simple geometric shape, which she could have easily come up with, without ever seeing the edging, I am sure.) I think it's a great pattern; I got to do both block tatting, and practice one of my weak points--tension in long chains. The colorful one is Lizbeth Autumn Spice plus a Manuela orange. The pale green is Opera, can't remember where I got it.

I had forgotten how many great patterns were in this little book, as well as variety of techniques. There are block tatting, onion rings, cluny, josephine rings, twisted picots, as well as simple ring and chain patterns.

This is one in a series of books from Akacia Press in Denmark, available in English translations. The patterns in these books have a brief description and a hand drawn diagram. Since you must deduce from the diagram when to reverse work, switch shuttles, etc, these may be difficult for new beginners, but not so for the more experienced tatter.

Another of these is one of my favorite books, Tatted Animals, by Inga Madsen. That one I have both the English translation, and the original signed by the author! And another is Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen. I don't have that one yet, but I know it is full of great designs because Tatskool worked all the patterns as one of her personal challenges.

By the way... Where is Mary's Travelling Book? I have lost track, since I apparently didn't save the lase email I got.