Lillian Yeung's Waffle Heart

This adorable heart by Lillian Yeung (LillianTatLace on Instagram) is worked in one continuous pass, and is excellent practice to make sure your rings, split rings, self closing mock rings, and (if doing front side/backside tatting) reverse tatted rings are all the same size, as well as avoiding the dreaded "gaposis" of bare thread between the bases of adjacent rings. Don't look to closely at the tension on mine, it was late and I was tired. ;)  

 The next time I make it, I think I'll remove the first and last decorative picots from the rings in the tips of the heart - they got overlapped by my adjacent rings.  And maybe remove a couple stitches from the chain around the top, to accommodate differences in tension.  I don't think there was an advantage in doing reverse tatted rings to keep them all facing the same direction.

She generously shares the pattern for this fun little challenge (and a video tutorial) here.  Her site has a number of other very nice free patterns but it's a little hard to find them, as the tags are not consistent - definitely worth spending some time digging around!

Balloon Dog Doodle

Came up with this cute little doodle for a balloon dog - I think it would make fun cards or paperclip bookmark toppers.  

I've been meaning to share the pattern, but I still haven't learned how to use a nice diagram program.  However, as the perfect is the enemy of the good, I have decided that sketches are good enough for now. :)  

The 3-D version utilizes split rings, but in order for the "tips" of the ring to point in the correct direction for a balloon animal, the split rings are ALSO folded rings - a folded ring is folded in half as it is being closed, making a crescent moon shape, a fun technique I first saw on Jane Eborall's Turtle Doodle.

Please let me know if you have suggestions for improving the instructions/diagrams!  I'm new to this.

Balloon Dog Printable PDF pattern

[Pattern updated 4/2/25 - many thanks to Muskaan for catching typos and making suggestions for clarity!]

Long absence

Whew I've been gone for a long time.  There were more medical complications, and while I'm doing better, I have a lot less energy than I used to.  Not sure how regularly I will post, or if I'll have time to fix all my broken Amazon links for book covers.  We will see.