Smalls

Well, predictably after finishing that massive doily, I've had a hard time settling down to anything specific. 

My brains are turning towards the Fairs this summer, but also wandering around all the patterns I've been seeing while focusing almost solely on pineapples, so it's been rather odd here. 

Anyway, I've settled on a couple of tester patterns, neither of which are terribly pretty, but have been good practice for new or challenging skills. 

This is a very poor execution of Mark Myers (aka Tat-Man's) Pattern Edging #1, which includes a zig-zag chain in the middle.

I was playing around with the outside rounds, trying to figure out the appropriate combinations of rings, chains, joins and clover-leaves...it's not pretty, but it's something. 

I actually had another zig-zag chain all made, but it got a little weird...when I started making the outside rounds, the chain started slipping and spread out to unusable proportions...lest I go crazy (I have no patience today)I decided to move on to something else...

I have so many handkerchiefs I've got to start edging them. Georgia Seitz sent me a couple Ila Frost edgings that use block tatting, another challenging skill I want to work on. 

This motif was actually made by continuing "Block and Clover Edge" around for an extra clover and two extra blocks--again it's not perfect, but it did give me some insight into block tatting. 

Both of these skills need a lot more work, and neither of these smells are perfect, but not everything has to be exactly right as long as you learn something from the process.

Right? :)