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Hello all 😀

I'd like to take a few moments to apologise for not responding to my emails. I intend to, but the day slides by quickly. I keep thinking my health will improve enough to get back to my usual routine, but recuperation is slow and the cold days are short 😔

Hope to be back in full force sooner than later, so hang in there dear friends, correspondents, and readers and enjoy the festive season.  Can't wait to catch up with blogging and commenting and interacting with you.

With all my love
Happy tatting and keep smiling ❄🌹💗🌹❄

flaky visits

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I had bought those Lizbeth 20 mixes in order to work my own patterns in that thread so as to have a more universal, uniform, comparable, and easily convertible measurement. Unlike the newer Anchor (Madura Coats India) size 20 which is all over the place and way thicker than a Lizbeth 20. With the finished dimensions provided earlier and now, you can easily see the difference in the old (Anchor 20) and the new (Lizbeth 20) snowflake!

So, when I saw the vintage motif pattern trend last week, it spurred me to revisit some patterns. And on my journey I noticed a little omission here and there, but am not well nor motivated enough to rework the pdfs/diagrams. Sometimes it is a boon if your patterns are not popular – the mistakes remain buried ;-P

I loaded 2 shuttles with Lizbeth size 20 thread and got to work. It felt good to tat a done pattern in softer ice-blue shades after all those colourful blossoms. I am sharing only tweaks here, with stitches inked in the respective picture. Links are provided for the detailed patterns.

T 

Vintage Motif Snowflake & Star

Hexagonal Motif snowflake

Instead of a central picot which accommodates all subsequent rings, I linked adjacent rings through very small picots. This also meant that decorative picots can be added in the central negative space.

Measurement: 1½ inches point to point.

Main techniques : 2 shuttles, ctm. Thrown/floating rings (TR) which require switching shuttle (ss) before and after.

R1: 4 vsp 2 p 2 vsp 4. rw

**Ch: 3 p 3 ss TR (2p2p2) ss Ch:3 p 3. rw.

R2: 4 + 2 p 2 vsp 4. rw.**

Repeat ** to ** till there are 6 inner rings. Finish off with chain.

Pentagonal Motif star or snowflake

Measurement: 3 cms wide.

Since I didn’t want to change the count, a central picot becomes essential here. Thus advantage of central picot is that it is easier to adjust the number of rings around. I bent a double loop across 4ds for the central picot. This picot is sufficient to hold the 5 inner rings. (see Stitches as Picot Gauge on page 5 of Measuring the Picot)

T

Neemiss Snowflake   (direct pdf link)

I had shared the design process for this flake and the reason why it had bilateral symmetry instead of a 6-order rotational symmetry. This time I ‘corrected’ it and all clovers have the same count.

Measurement: 3½ inches

[ Round 1 : 1¾” or 4½ cms  ; Round 2 : 2¼” ]

Techniques include :

2 shuttles, ctm ;

floating Josephine rings/knots (JK), hence 2 shuttles required for rounds 1 & 2;

lock join (missing in written pattern);

Victorian sets ;

padded double stitch or pds (2 wraps on each half stitch).

• We can climb out with a split ring in clover and mock picot, thus tatting the entire snowflake in one pass.
• Instead of slope and roll join, I used lock join throughout, and counted it as first half stitch.

Round 1 Clover

[Ring1 : 6 - 3 - 3

Ring2 : 3 + 8 – 8 – 3

Ring 3 : 3 + 3 – 6. rw.

Chain : 6 ss JK6 ss 6 rw.] x 6

Round 2

Chain : [12 vsp 1 lj , ss JK8 lj ss, 1 vsp 12, lj ] x 6

Round 3

Chain: [4N6 lj 2, 2pds – 2pds, 2, lj 4N6 lj]x6 

(4N6 = alternating sets of 4 half stitches 6 times) 

T         

Spiral Snowflake (direct pdf link)

I didn’t change a thing here, except for the thread of course.

 Measurement: 4 cms from point to point.

Techniques : 2 shuttles, ctm ; turn work ; lock join ; floating Josephine knots.

TIP : All chains in 2^nd round can be worked from the front without turning work at all. Use reverse (unflipped) stitch for the 6ds chain. This is just like block tatting, and here instead of lock join pull up a loop of ball/shuttle2 thread, pass core shuttle through it, and tension.

T 

Dotted Snowflake (direct pdf link)

Again, I used small picots to link adjacent rings in central medallion instead of the original central picot. All the rest remains the same as in Version 2 of the pattern.

Thus each inner ring is (7-6-7), although one can add decorative picot, thus working them as (7-3-3-7).

Measurement: just over 2½ inches.

Techniques :

Graduated picots,

Floating dots

Floating Josephine rings

It is interesting how the dot is smaller than the JR, despite having exactly same count. Also notice the outline – dot has an irregular outline as compared to the smooth circle of a JR.

For a pointier outer chain, work the JR as a SCMR instead of a thrown ring. Although I like the gently curved chain.

T

Although not mentioned, all my tatting is directional – frontside/backside.

Winter is the season for tatting  ....

as is spring, summer, monsoon, and fall !!!

T

4 colour broad Cluny tatting

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Final installment of colour Cluny tatting pictorials.

This collage shows the progression of Colour/striped Cluny Tatting pictorials I shared this year. While stepwise directions are given for regular tallies (and a broad one below), the same concept can be applied to Hanging Cluny Leaves, as seen in the collage center.

Four-Colour Broad Cluny Leaf

(5 threads and 4 colour stripes)

Using 4 colours for Cluny tatting meant the coloured stripes would show better in a broad tally. Hence I resorted to a 4-Warp loom and also changed the leaf shape a bit.

Notes and Links :

• how to weave a 4-Warp loom – click to download pdf for stepwise directions.

• My one small step really comes in handy here since multiple loops need to be closed in the end. It is done Twice in a 4-Warp loom because there are 2 top loops to close at the end.
• Continuing with the braid from the 3 colour tally, I made a split ring, encapsulating the pink and yellow threads on either side. Then I brought in the 5^th thread – blue and mustard was again used for the loom.
• I recommend hitching the loom before actual weaving commences. These year-old pics do not show that step.
• how to add new thread and hide the tail in the Cluny leaf.
• how to hide loom colour blip on top.
• Only major steps are shown below. eg. only one pass of a weave/wrap is shown. But remember to bring the thread back to the side where it starts.

Brief  Pictorial 

1. This is a 4-Warp loom. In order to close tally on the loom itself later, 

One Small Step is done twice – under the AB bar, and again under EF bar.

2. Bring 2 colours/threads to the right side, making a pass (under-over-under).

Before this step, I now find  hitching the loom helps center the tally and hide any colour blips. (not shown here, since these pics were taken a year back).

3. All 4 needles/threads are in place, 2 on either side.

4. Start weaving with green keeping yellow below: over-under-over-under to the left. 

Return to the right : under-over-under-over (not shown) to complete 1 weave or wrap.

5. Pick up pink from the left, entrapping blue within and move to right : over-under-over-under. Return to left : under-over-under-over (not shown) to complete 1 weave/wrap.

6. Pick up yellow, entrapping green, and make 1 weave/wrap as in step#4.

7. Pick up blue, entrapping pink, and make 1 weave/wrap as in step#5.

Remember to keep tensioning and packing down the weaves.

Note: In this manner, each needle/thread returns to it’s starting side, 

making a single weave colour strip.

8. Repeat from #4 to #7 to desired shape and size.

Note: colour placement and width of each colour strip depends on pattern and desired effect. 

(In the flame here I used 3 colours with broader stripes at the base)

9. The broad 4-coloured striped tally is complete.

10. Closing the tally and avoiding colour blip : 

bring pink & blue needles from under the AB loop and close loop by pulling downward at BC.

11. Pass green & yellow needles through the EF loop from above, ….

12. … pull off the EF loop from loom and close by pulling downwards at FG.

Then pull the remaining single loom thread upwards at I to finally close the tally (not shown).

13. One broad 4-colour striped tally made. 

The pic shows the tally first from the front, then from the back.

All Cluny Tatting posts with lots of tips and possibilities

This collage shows the application of coloured/striped tallies in various projects.

basic colour variation practice braid & Jennifer Williams’ motif ;

2-tone Cluny bracelet pattern ;

Coloured Cluny Butterflies pattern;

3-colour pendant and diya flame prototypes.

I have a couple of practice patterns on the draft board for 3- and 4-colour Cluny leaves but may not be able to get to them till the new year. But stay tuned, one never knows when inspiration to weave may loom large on the horizon!

There are definitely some non-Cluny patterns in the next few posts!