I saw Umi n Tsuru's post today about Martha's new book, Playing with Picots, and realized I had been remiss in not posting about it myself! I was fortunate enough to be a test tatter for Martha but the surprise and delight came when I saw the book and the patterns I did NOT test tat!
So I set out to tat the first bookmark that caught my eye, loading up shuttles with Marilee's HDT, Purple Glory, which was gifted to me by the very generous Sue Anna. (If you have not visited any of these links, you should - what a treat!)

I try not to beat myself up too much for mistakes but sometimes it really is called for. I misread Martha's directions and made 3 LP at the bottom of each ring instead of 3 ds, 1 LP. I realized my mistake on about the 3rd ring. It's not like I didn't know something was wrong. I kept looking at the diagram and wondering why she only showed ONE LP coming out of the bottom of each ring when I had THREE. What makes our brains stubborn like that? And I know better than to use a special thread for the first tat of anything. So what to do? Keep going and see if I could salvage it? Keep using 3 LP or switch back to see how it actually looked? I decided to switch back. While I do like the multiple LP's, I would need to add additional stitches to the top half of the ring to balance it out and then I would probably need to change the stitch count of the side chains. I really love the original design, delicate and airy - reminiscent of Asian trees whose names I don't know.

So maybe I'll find a way to turn this into a hair ornament or bag it up with other "modifications" destined for someone's crazy quilting someday.

I'm so tempted to add beads to this but I do not use beads in my bookmarks unless it is in the tail part that hangs out of the book. I'll have to use the thread in something were I can use beads...maybe some earrings????

And I WILL use it to make this beautiful bookmark the right way.