Tatting Pattern : Jessica Snowflake

Talk about timing ! Now that all the tatting has been done, ornaments put up, wishes sent, ……

But I’d much rather talk about inspiration ! Inspiration not from within, but from all you awesome tatters & designers, and all your fun projects that you keep sharing. I finally dropped my crochet hook yesterday & picked up my shuttles – I just Had to, despite my resolution to tat tree ornaments, etc. only in the next season. And despite the fact that I really am enjoying my crochet afghan.

Anyways, here’s my 1^st snowflake & I’m calling it Jessica Snowflake – you guessed it – after Kersti’s Jessica Bookmark. I wanted to do something quick & something I’d done before – you understand my hurry, right ? Also my post on Encircling got me thinking along the lines of compressing the circle still further to make a 6-sided snowflake from an edging. Here goes …

Oh, and this is also my final motif for the 25 Motif Challenge for 2014 ! Will be joining again, of course :-)

Jessica Snowflake           

Pattern derived from Kersti Anear’s Jessica Bookmark (click for free pattern)

I used 2 shuttles, in order to climb out of the central ring using a mock picot & Split Ring, and hence accomplishing the snowflake in one round.

This is a fairly simple pattern & can be done with shuttle & ball too. If using only single shuttle, the central ring & adjoining split ring can be done as Single Shuttle Split Rings !

Or for absolute beginners, make the central ring separately, tie, cut. Start Round 2.

I used Red Heart Size 20 in white. However, the size 20 seemed more like size 30, & it is stiffer than Anchor Mercer – ideal for snowflakes !

Size : 3’ across.

Abbreviations & symbols used :

R – ring

Ch – chain

–  – picot

––  – long picot

–––  – longest picot

mp – mock picot

SR  – split ring

+  – join

–  – where next repeat is joined to previous one.

Note : Reverse work after each ring & chain, if not following frontside/backside tatting.

Central R : 3––3––3––3––3 mp (long)

** Ch : 3–3

R : 5––5

Ch : 2–2–2–2–2–2

R : 5+5 (join to picot of previous ring)

Ch : 2–2––2–––2––2–2

R : 5+5

Ch : 2–2–2–2–2–2

R : 5+5

Ch : 3–3

R : 5+5 (join to picot of central ring)

Repeat from ** 5 times, joining as one goes, so that one has 6 ‘sides’. Join the last repeat to the 1^st one before finishing off.

Tie & cut ends & hide.

Basic stitch-count has been inked in pic below; red denotes rings & blue denotes chains.

This snowflake can also be used as a hexagonal motif, joined together for larger projects.

My thanks to Kersti,  for sharing the pattern .

I 'designed' another snowflake yesterday, but need to do it in white today. Will share pattern as soon as possible.

Motif #25 for 25 Motif Challenge

Happy Tatting :-)