I recently joined some tatting groups on Facebook, and have been endlessly inspired since doing so. One person posted that they’d created some bracelets out of bookmark patterns, and I thought this was an excellent idea. I’ve been trying to tat a couple of difficult patterns this week, and wanted a break from the frustrations of not producing quite what I was aiming for.

So, I picked up my navy blue DMC Cotton Pearl thread size 8 and rummaged about online until I found a free pattern I could interpret relatively easily, to practice on. I came across this “ancient” (for the web), blog (in HTML format no less – no comments!) pattern: Floral Bookmark Tatting Pattern and got to tatting.

I quickly realised something was amiss on the pattern. It seems a line is missing: in between the Small Ring and the Large Ring, one must insert another chain of 4 p 3 p 3 p 4, rw.

And, when you’re closing the end of the bookmark, and turning back around? There’s some instructions missing there, too. I learned the hard way – lost an hour to unpicking the large ring (of course), not once – but twice. So, here’s how you avoid that: on the 4th (and final) large ring, in place of making the third picot, join the to the first large ring’s third picot. Then, on the following small ring, instead of making the last picot, join to the first large ring’s last available picot.

Just wanted to note this here, since the page doesn’t have a comments (or even feedback) section (I can’t even find who originally posted the page!), in case anyone ever comes across it and wonders why their first half-flower isn’t quite flat – and is more round than it should be!

And now that I compare this image of my tatting to the original pattern’s, I’ve realised I forgot to join the adjacent picots on either side of the chains of 8 stitches that join each flower, which at least partially explains why this won’t work so well as a bracelet – when I placed it around my wrist, I realised the tension is too focused down the centre of the tatting, and so the sides fold up slightly. I am not certain if ironing, starching or blocking will help with this – does one starch tatted jewellery that will wrap around one’s skin? I wouldn’t think so. Additionally, I wonder whether the tension added by joining the adjacent picots on either side of the bridging chains of 8 will add provide the structure to prevent the curling that happens now. I shall have to try again, I suppose. I was hoping to bead my second attempt. I’m not sure if it will be worth it, if it will simply be another experiment. I’m sure beading it will also change the structure and tension, so it’s probably worth it either way. I’ll have to ponder this some.