Back and Forth

I started knotting first thing in the morning because I knew I was going to put it aside later in the day to work on the tatting pattern. At this point I was still quite worried that the pattern I had done math to start was not going to work out. I could see it trying to be a pattern, but I was going to have to be patient.

I did have to put this down early as we headed out to the book fair/science fair after schooling. The kids weren't presenting a project, but I figured they could do with some observing before the oldest child did one later this year. After that it was a quick errand and then back home.

I pulled out the Black Star motif and accomplished the first step of getting a pattern ready, writing it out. Every time I do this, I am reminded how much work preparing a pattern to share or sell is. Next up I have to tat it up in pieces so that I can get in progress photos of the piece. I suppose I could learn how to diagram, but that's not likely to happen as I don't even know where to start. After that it's onto doing the layout in one program. Then there's repeatedly checking for errors and finally converting to the final PDF. All this will take me many days and that's not counting getting someone to test tat and check for additional errors. All of this is one big reason why I share and sell so few of them. It's also why I get bit frustrated when people ask for patterns the same day I design them or wonder why I can't just write them up to share on the fly.

Anyway, I did get back to knotting in the evening and the pattern is starting to emerge. Again, it's not exactly what I was hoping for, but it's pretty close and I can work with that. I will be continuing this pattern for some time to really solidify the design. The only real challenge is keeping those large loops the right size so that the circle can grow properly. I'm hoping to do some more knotting this morning so that I can take some measurements and see a little progress from the last ones at least. Then the afternoon belongs to pattern creation.