Identity Crisis

IdEnTiTy  CrIsIs

Identity crisis – that’s what this snowflake has ! It wants to be a sun – a “sunflake”. We’ll let you decide – is it a snowflake or a sunflake :-)

Right off, I don’t like to tat patterns that have too much bare thread. I admire their dainty laciness; I admire the person who tats them up & shares their beauty; but I am not one who chooses to do it. So this particular snowflake was an under-protest, under-groaning & mumbling undertaking :-D

The First Day of December Snowflake

Lene Bjorn

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Björn

I was looking for a “painted tatting” effect, hence the choice of transitional shades. I’d started off with a copper metallic thread center, but the threads in that trial were all slightly different in size & after a few rings, had to abandon it.

I opted for size 20 thread this time, thinking it might make a good coaster.

Abbreviations used in text below :

ds – double stitch

BTS – bare thread space

fs/bs tatting – frontside/backside or directional tatting

RODS – reverse order ds used in fs/bs tatting

fhs – 1^st half stitch

shs – 2^nd half stitch

hs – half stitch

JR – Josephine Ring

Round 1 : Red Heart 00328

Started with 1ds & finished with 2ds. This helps in keeping the picot well inside & safe, especially in rings that need to be cut & tied.

Round 2 : Anchor Mercer 0307 & 0289

Techniques used : 2 shuttles , with twisted thread between rings instead of bare thread, picot joins (both up & down), fs/bs tatting.

Remember my post on “new effects” earlier this year, & “wrapped rings or rings enrapt” in particular ? I used the same concept with bare threads, wrapping/twisting them, thus overcoming the use of 2 colours on a rings-only-with-BTS problem.

Advantages :

• I could use 2 colours. One can, in fact, alternate the colours as one pleases! ( Ninetta has used 2 colours in a very beautiful way here & here )  
• It had the added advantage of acting as a built-in picot gauge if one counted the number of twists (I used 5 twists) !!!
• It also brings in some stability which is an asset for a coaster.

TIP : I inserted the 2^nd colour shuttle into the first & the last half stitches of each ring.

Close ring before adjusting length of BTS of 2^nd colour.

Problems : It is not easy to keep the length, twist, & curves intact since the 2^nd colour is not really anchored. May be with practice & patience…or a little knot of some kind.

This picture, taken in the sun on my raw silk sari, is simply to show that the threads have a lovely sheen, which gets lost in all the photos I take inside.

 Round 3 : Anchor Mercer 0300

Techniques used : Down Join, Josephine Ring, graduated picots, fs/bs tatting

I was so tired by this time, I gave up the idea of adding 2 shades here. Also, a little airiness was necessary.

All I did was add a Josephine Ring of 10 fhs. Always felt that space was too flat between the high peaks. I think the JRs work pretty well, right ?!

TIP : Now here’s a Great tip I recently learned from Georgia Seitz here, about using the down join as 1^st half stitch ! So far, I was using it to keep colour blips on the back side of work. But this worked perfectly when the same colour elements were to be joined ! Conversely, when applying RODS (for fs/bs tatting), make an up join followed by 1^st HS.

When there are 2 colours, as in inner rings of previous round, I used the down join functionally to hide blips as before. 

Technically I have completed 2 snowflakes for this month, except that these were supposed to be for January … still behind by 2 ;-P 

I’m including this in the 25 Motif Challenge because of the little experimentation & my first real (but failed) attempt to make wheels with BTS .

My next post will be a free pattern for a snowflake/medallion (& the next for a butterfly). It was all done, but then I decided to make a few additions … my work is never done ;-P

I have decided to standardize all links in my posts. They will be in bold font & blue colour throughout.

Happy tatting :-)

Motif #22 of III for 25 Motif Challenge

Related Posts : Lene's Day 2 Snowflake