Shamrocks to Make

I came up with these shamrock patterns last weekend but didn't have a chance to post them until now. Since I don't have the insertions finished, this is a good time to show them, giving anyone who wishes a few days to make them.

They're very simple.

I call this one Bloomin' Shamrocks and you can get the pdf HERE. I got my inspiration for this one from a heart necklace by Terry McGuffin. The printout had a date from years ago and I think the site no longer exists but there was a shape inside the main piece that got me thinking - if I turned it this way and added a dip in the pointy part so it's now rounded and then put more than one together....and it just panned out.

I call this one Lucky Seven Shamrock only because I ended up with 7 of them. You can find the pdf for this one HERE. It's actually 6 shamrocks and 1 four leaf clover.

The ideas came about when Georgia emailed the members of the online class (I'm a member) about shamrock patterns. I emailed back and said you could take any heart pattern, connect 3 of them at the bottom tip of the heart, and have a new shamrock pattern. My recent topsy turvy with Vicki Clarke's Dagger Heart was behind that thought.

Well, typical Georgia-fashion, she emailed back and asked if I would whip up a few and send her pics. I was working on the insertions and trying to get back to my bobbinlace practice so I didn't want to spend much time on it. I looked for a few EASY heart patterns and of course, couldn't find them (stumbled across that binder later in the week) so I winged it.

My first thought was of the "heart balloons" that I've shown before and are actually someone else's idea - though I don't have that original at my fingertips either. Anyway, that heart is a dimpled ring made with a picot and this one uses the first half/second half ds set to make the dip in the ring. This is so simple, I knew it had to be done before but I don't know the stitch count or if it was a dimpled ring or what, so I'm not claiming originality in the idea, just in the way I came up with a stitch count and connected them. I tried a google search and saw some very similar, including a shamrock bookmark by Sharon Briggs that was in her quarterly newsletter several years ago. You could only get it by subscription and that wasn't a year I subscribed so I didn't know about it. It's very pretty though - a vining shamrock with enough substance to make a good bookmark. The other shamrocks I saw in google images were along the same idea but just a little different.

The instructions tell you what size thread I used and even how many times to wind the thread around the shuttle for one shamrock so you can conserve your thread!

On a final note, as you're tatting lucky shamrocks, send a little luck to our Japanese friends who are suffering dreadfully right now. There are many ways to help but sending "good luck" is a form of prayer that surely helps as much as physical aid.