Josephine knots

I write about posting regularly, then I go offline for two weeks. I was holed up in a traning room without internet access; excellent training, but not good for craft blogging. I check my blog and I find all these lovely comments from these wonderful people. Now I'm really encouraged to keep going.

I did manage to get some tatting done during breaks. The pink motif is a medallion from this lovely Japanese tatting book, done with DMC cebelia, size 30.



This is my first attempt at Josephine knots. There are 10 in the motif, so it was good practice. The one on the right is the first, on the left is the last. Keeping the tension loose was quite a challenge.



I want to get comfortable tatting with beads, so I made these with the chunky silk I had from making thimble rings.

I'm also trying to teach myself InkScape, so I diagrammed them for practice. Here's the blue one.



Here's the purple one.


I followed Jane Eborall's excellent tutorial for beads in split rings. It worked, but I think when the split rings come one after the other, perhaps it would make more sense to have them on a third thread, then use alligator joins between the split rings. If I get around to trying it, I'll post a picture.

Next, perhaps I'll take a stab at cluny leaves. I forsee some tangled, mangled threads. Five threads, all at once? I think I'll wait until the kids are asleep before I try it.