The rainbow within

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Colour adds the happy spark

In the midst of all our strife

A silver lining to a cloud dark

There's a rainbow in every life

                                   -  muskaan, April 2016

The Third Day of December Snowflake

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Björn

Of all her exquisitely designed snowflakes, this is perhaps Lene’s Defining Pattern. One glimpse & we can identify the designer!

All along, the central rosette appeared like a rainbow to me. The spectrum requires many colours, and that is the reason I delayed tatting this snowflake, waiting till I was feeling very relaxed. Multiple colours for a multi-layered effect.

Having successfully tatted with 3 strands of embroidery cotton in Day 6 snowflake, I felt confident of being able to tackle this one without messing up.

One should frequently rummage through one’s craft supplies. I had Metallic embroidery thread 

(1 skein each of silver & gold)! What luck & what lousy memory ! 

Using only 2 strands for the centre, it is pretty easy to tat with.

I started with the original stitch count for chains-only round; but after trying out the purple, then a bit of dark blue, it felt like the fluffiness of picots will fall short on both sides of each chain. So, cut off & restarted below

Keeping the overall chain count the same as original, I increased the number of picots 

to make it fuller & fluffier. Each chain started with a very small picot 

to which Lock Joins were made in later rounds..

Each round was started CTM using 3 strands. 

A short length was wound on one shuttle, & the rest remained on the skein. 

Image of each chain round is a montage of 2 pics - 

the left is taken from above; the right from a much lower angle to show layers.

Had to solicit the help of my DH to confirm my choice of a couple of shades. 

He readily helps with such minor tasks.

Finding it difficult to sew in the tails, I cheated. 

After making a tight square knot, I simply snipped off the threads at a short distance. 

The shortened lengths merged perfectly with all the picots. Phew!

Each round was started with a 'phase-shift'. No 2 rounds started at same place.

This helps to disperse any visible line of beginning or ending. 

I use the same policy with crochet, embroidery, etc.

This red is an extra round in order to complete the spectrum. 

Wouldn't this make a great Rakhi bracelet, with braids or twines attached ?!

This is how it looks from behind. Thus far, it is less than 2 inches in diameter !

When I started with silver in center, my idea was to use it again for the final round - 

the silver lining !

But as you can see it did not do justice to the spectrum. Tried a mix of white & silver, 

but finally settled on plain solid white in size 40.

I had deliberately started with the inner ring & chain, so that I could hide tails 

in the last floating ring which is a Single Shuttle Split Ring 

(Miranda's method of finishing with SSSR to hide ends - love it). 

It is the one at 6 o'clock position in above pic.

Factoring in the extra round, I increased the stitchcount of final round by 1 DS 

for each segment between picots on both rings & chains between 2 picots. It worked.

The final snowflake measures a tad over 3.5 inches. 

Techniques used : CTM, LJ, floating rings, SSSR to hide ends, square knots, 

multiple strands of embroidery floss/cotton & metallic thread for tatting. 

I am very satisfied & happy with the outcome. Hope you like it too. 

It is a spectacular design & fun to tat, especially with the shortcuts I took!

This completes 6 snowflakes for the Craftree Snowflake Tat-Along. I've completed the first round of Day Seven, but am busy with a lot of other activity around the home, hence it is going slowly ...

happy tatting always :-)

Related Posts : Rakhi Bracelet patterns

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