chicken feet !

The Sixth Day of December Snowflake

Lene Björn

from "24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Björn"

I chickened out. Or was it jinxed ?! Whatever, but I had to keep aside my first working despite a few pick-ups & retrotatting. Firstly, I used a Split Chain to climb out to the 2^nd round, which was fine, except that I climbed out at the wrong picot Both Times especially since directional tatting just complicated the working. Moreover, due to the colour placement I wanted, I had to use SLTs for the floating ring. Ugh – look at that unseemly pointed disfigured chain twisting every which way! Abandoned it with abandonment & started afresh. Round 1 wasn't any great shakes either.

But no trial goes unlearned! My observations from the abandoned piece :

1. the Reverse Join worked great to switch shuttles for chains ;

2. the yellow thread (an old ball) is closer to size 50, hence I used 2 strands of variegated, which was probably a mistake;

3. the solid yellow was too plain to highlight the variegated – needed a pick-me-up colour!

So I chickened out of trying the same colour placement again. With renewed enthusiasm, after a couple of weeks’ break, I changed the colour scheme a bit.

Abbreviation :

RS – reverse stitch (unflipped)

LJ – lock join

SH – shuttle

TW – turn work

RODS – reverse order double stitch

fs/bs tatting – frontside/backside or directional tatting

rnd – round

SS – switch shuttle

DS – double stitch

Threads used : AMC size 50 Yellow – 0302, Black for Rnd 1; Anchor embroidery cotton – 1305 3 strands .

Measurements : Rnd 1 – 1½”  ; Final - 3¼”

Techniques I used : 2 shuttles, direct tatting (RS), LJ, LJ with SH2.

Below, I have described two ways to tat Round 2 :

1. Turn Work to make the middle chain (and can use RODS in case of directional tatting) with picot at turn to attach next floating ring ;  for fs/bs tatting 

2. All frontside tatting using direct tatting ie. reverse stitch chains & LJs with either shuttle.

TIP : Make LJs with whichever shuttle is closer to picot. In Direct tatting, LJ is made with SH2 (Refer I.3.c)

Here is how Round 2 can be tatted : (Refer to WIP pic)

Start with floating ring with SH2

Chain with SH1 & LJ to rnd 1

(TW, RODS chain with SH1) or (SS, RS chain with SH2) & LJ to floating ring

(TW, chain with SH1) or (SS, chain with SH1) & LJ to rnd 1

Here, I count the LJ as 1^st half stitch (as discovered while tatting the Mystery Doily) but it is up to the tatter.

Chain with SH1, picot.

(TW, RODS chain with SH1) or (SS, RS chain with SH2) & LJ with SH2 to rnd 1.

Chain with SH1 , floating ring with SH2, continue repeats as above.

The underlined option is the one I followed, never having to tat from the back side. All tatting was done in clockwise direction from the front.

However, if one is not comfortable with direct tatting (reverse/unflipped stitch), then one can turn work & continue chain (either as RODS in case of fs/bs tatting, or as normal DS).

I am always amazed at how many options one has !

Can you see the mistake I made while joining one of the chains (in 3 o'clock position in above pic)? Noticed only after the pics were taken - too late. It has been joined using the wrong shuttle. 

Overall, I think it turned out pretty okay, considering the initial tribulations.

And I Loved working with the embroidery thread - so smooth ! Although the silken sheen is not apparent in the pics.

I had an idea to snip & fray the picots, but again chickened out. May be some other time when I'm feeling more cocksure :-D

This completes 5 snowflakes for the Craftree Snowflake Tat-along. I'm now tatting Day 3 to get the first 6 done. Still have to catch up with two, but am not in any stress. Enjoying the journey.

happy tatting :-)

Related Posts : Lock Join with shuttle 2

Day 1

Day 2

Days 4 & 5