The battle of the curtain ties

Just before we start can I share something very exciting?

MY POTATOES HAVE MADE LEAVES!!

Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

Ok, now I have that out of my system, back to the business of the day: curtain ties! If you remember, last time I had made two different types of curtain tie and was going to test them out to see what they looked like in real life use. We had the long, complicated pretty version I had dreamed up, and the short, simple practical one that was my husband's idea.  I finished off both with prettifying touches:  the shorter one got a red and pink rolled rose with a padded edge:

And the longer one got two daisies and a ladybird. I made a ladybird for a crocheted necklace a little while ago and now I'm a bit addicted - everything seems to look better with a ladybird.

Ladybird! Eeeeee!

So are you ready for the big reveal? Here we go!

First we have the short and sweet rose and loop curtain tie:

Now, this one went up first and I thought 'you know what, that's a good length, the rose contrasts nicely with the green and yellow of the curtains and it's not too fussy, easy to swipe round the curtain with one hand while you have the baby in the other. Damn it, my husband was right' (on second thoughts direct translation of thoughts onto page seems like a risky business)

Then I put the other tie in place aaannnndddd:

Not too shabby eh? I have to be honest, I know it's not so practical and streamlined and better in every way generally like the other one, but I think I prefer this one. Being honest, I've never really ever been a practical, streamlined kind of girl. And this one has a ladybird on it! Aren't the curtains lovely? My favourite (and only, mwhahaha!) sister made them for my baby girl a couple of months ago (pre-birth), but due to having a seriously epic amount of work to do on the house/nursery and the baby coming a very inconvenient 3 weeks early they have only just gone up. Which is a shame because they are glorious.

Anyhoo, what do you think of the ties? I'd love any opinions/advice/curtain tie experience you may have!

I did become quite enamoured with the rolled rose. I used the pattern from Crochet Bouquet by Suzann Thompson.  It is the most dog eared, used crochet book anyone has ever had. I bought it about a hundred years ago when I was just learning to crochet, when I had the bright idea that I would work through each flower and thereby learn how to do all of the crochet skills in the world. In general it was actually not such a bad plan as I did learn a lot quickly, but it was perhaps slightly optimistic - some of the intermediate level flowers became evil nemesis flowers of doom as I just couldn't work out what I was meant to be doing. The rolled rose was one of these, and I hadn't tried to make it for years as I just remembered it as being all a bit difficult, but I'm so glad I remade it! It's not that difficult really, it just helps when you've made a few things from a pattern. It starts life as a rainbow shape, then you go around the outside edge with padding, stretch out the padded edge, roll the whole thing up then sew it together into the leaves at the bottom. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

I quite like the teardrop shape, I think it works quite well for the purpose of being a curtain tie :)

Don't get me wrong I do quite like this one. I say it's practical and streamlined but it's all relative isn't it? I mean, a starkly minimalist house is not going to have curtains, let alone a curtain tie with a rose on it.  Let's keep this in perspective people.

Note to self: this does not look like the Tate Modern.

I think the main issue with the long one is the combination of many, many leaves peppered along the length of the tie and the need to tie it for it to actually perform as a curtain tie. I made it long enough so that it could  be tied into a bow, but it looked a bit fussy...

But when I did a simple half hitch it was all a bit long and swingy:

See? It looks a bit straggly. But then I had a genius idea: how about combining the better design of the short one with the daisies/nicer wool/ladybirds of the second?!?!  GENIUS!! So I did a bit of squidgelling about to see what it could look like and I came up with this....

I think we could have a winner! Pretty and functional and quicker to make and IT HAS A LADYBIRD!!

I'm now getting stuck into making the hybrid curtain tie. The Romeo and Juliet curtain tie if you will. This whole venture is turning out to be quite a bit of fun! I think husband might be regretting asking me now though (he was going to do a simple loop out of parachute cord!)

Enjoy the fine weather everyone! I'll be back soon to show you the final results and also show you the questionable grilled lemon drizzle cake I made earlier this morning. No, it's not meant to be grilled.

Byeee!