Snowflake Drudgery

Every year, I try to make a few snowflakes to give as gifts or to put into Christmas cards. This year, I thought it would be neat if I used one of my own designs. I chose my Design Tutorial Snowflake, because I think it is the most visually appealing and it's easy to make:

There's still two more centers that need a second round, and I will see if I have the stamina to create any more after that.

The problem is that I find tatting from a pattern to be monotonous, especially if it is something that I have made before. I'm not even sure if it would make a difference to mix the patterns up...unless it was a new pattern where I could learn a new technique.

Over the past couple of years, I've noticed that my attention span for tatting from patterns is limited. However, give me a design to figure out, and I can get lost for hours upon hours trying to piece together the puzzle. There's just something about creating from scratch and not knowing exactly how it will turn out that really holds my interest. It's like I'm on a mission, and I will not rest until I have it figured out.

I drew this a couple of weeks ago and have been itching to turn it into a pattern:

Most likely, it will have to wait until next year, as I still have to put the tree up, do Christmas shopping, and finish tatting snowflakes for gifts. Not to mention getting back to posting Inkscape tips.

A few weeks ago, Phyllis sent me some really great instructions for creating a split ring on Inkscape. It can be used for other things too, like representing a split chain. I'm hoping to work on formatting it into a post this weekend, as I think it will be really useful to other tatters. Now, if only I can get all this stuff done simultaneously...