Grrr. Apparently no effort of woman nor beast can nail down an exact reference to an item in the V&A database because linking is dynamic and is recalculated for each new session. Therefore if you really want to dig through and find the items I mentioned yesterday, you’ll have to search on their accession numbers yourself. Open any V&A search page, and enter these numbers:

CT55633 – to see the crocheted purse
CT59053 – to see the knitted purses
CT57667 – to see the sampler

Apologies for all wild goose chases that ensued.

Filet of Dragon

Progress on Dragon is both positive and retrograde:

?The good news is that thanks to advice so graciously shared by Vaire and Kathryn, attaching the side strips as I work them looks much better and more even than I hoped. I’m not using the exact method I posited in my last post. Instead, I’m doing a scrumbly combo of techniques. If the joining mesh is empty, I’m doing Vaire’s method of horizontal DC as bride. If the joining mesh is solid, I’m doing a combo of a technique Kathryn sent plus more advice from Vaire. I’m working that join mesh up to the point of the join (first leg, plus first "inside" dc), then on the second "inside" dc, I’m doing a slip stitch to mate it to the mesh leg of the existing work. After that I’m chaining up three, doing another slip stitch to mate the little chain to the old work, then working one "inside" dc plus another as the next mesh leg. The little chain up serves as the first dc of the "inside" pair. And there’s more good news in that the double-height empty blocks I am leaving for the curtain rods fit well and work great.

But all news is not good. See that little strip sticking up in today’s photo?? It’s gone. I’ve ripped it completely back and started again. It turns out that the original pattern I had selected for the horizontal strips is too wide (again the gauge problem). I am going to use an entirely different strip pattern, plus finish the entire thing around with two rows of solid DC to ensure a stable edge.

So there you have it. Dramatic progress, and dramatic failure. All in one day.