daisy picot star and tatting notes
From now on we tell the world it's not easy. This delightful
article was recently shared on Craftree.
It Is true – we generally spend longer than we care on our
projects. I usually do share my mistakes and all, but don’t like to make it a
sob-story.
This time, though, I stand by the title (no kidding, no
fibbing, no embellishing) – this star did not come easy and I spent way too
much time.
Daisy Picot Star
Jon Yusoff
I was inspired by Jane's star project to
pick this up, and the fear that I'd forgotten how to make a daisy picot.
And like her, I joined leaves which should've remained floating ! Too far into
it to un-tat. Cut off and started afresh.
I’ve done the daisy picot before. It’s pretty easy once we
know how to hold and how to wrap stitches. But rarely used, hence easy to
forget. This time I referred to Jon’s own pictorial – excellent directions !
A stroke of luck from Utah made me realise that I the daisy picot stitches are wrapped in what we termed Twist Work in Reverse Stitch (TwW rs) !!!
A stroke of luck from Utah made me realise that I the daisy picot stitches are wrapped in what we termed Twist Work in Reverse Stitch (TwW rs) !!!
Clearly I like to make my tatting life difficult! I've
gotten addicted to directional (fs/bs) tatting. This star tested me to the
limits. Not only did I have to refresh my daisy picot skill, but now I needed
to tat them backside as well!
AND join to adjoining trefoil daisy picot backside !
Managed somehow, with lots of retro-tatting. But what's a project without some
challenge, right?! And I was adamant. Fortunately I was working with size 20
threads.
My Notes :
- In
the discarded attempt, I started with the inner daisy picot trefoils
frontside. The work progressed in counterclockwise direction, and joining
to adjacent daisy picot was easy.
- In
2nd attempt, with inner trefoils being worked backside, and
work progressing in clockwise direction, joining became difficult – it
seemed like I was using “picot join to the right” methods. But it could just be some messing around with up and down picots.
- To
eliminate the space between chains at base of daisy picot, I had to pull
real tight, not always successfully. Should’ve had an anchoring vsp !
- I
slipped the yellow thread through the last half stitch of ring before
closing in the hopes of keeping the 2 threads as close as possible. I
think size of base ring (& thread size?) also has a role to play.
- For
the leaves, I did not use SLT. Easy to make the ‘8’ leaves without any SLT
if the side chains face in opposite directions.
- The
arms need careful attention for some unfathomable reason. Perhaps some
design-induced mind games coz I faced similar problems with Marilee’s
snowflake!
Back to the aforementioned article – delightful read and I
agree as a crafter. But she misses one point – not every crafter can fib and
market oneself. That in itself is a skill that needs to be acquired :-D
Many thanks to Jon for sharing her pattern and tutorial
easy or difficult, it’s happy tatting time always !
easy or difficult, it’s happy tatting time always !
This motif is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWell, as the owner of a blog with "that" name, I should say that "facilissimo" for me is a sort of encouragement, to arouse curiosity and willpower to try this out. Someone is attracted by difficult crafts, someone else needs encouragement. We are all different.
Wisely said, Ninetta :-) I usually don’t go for ‘facilissimo’ unless the pattern really appeals to me aesthetically ;-P And then there are times when we want to simply let our hands take over the repetitive movements!
DeleteIt is a pretty motif, but I've never thought it looked easy. I guess I should give it a try! :-)
ReplyDeleteDiane, what flummoxed me is that the daisy picot was easily refreshed, yet the rest of it created hurdles ! Go figure :-D
DeleteOh wow, as though it wasn't tricky enough already! Well done, you mastered the challenge. It's true that even a tatter probably wouldn't realise how much time and concentration it required, let alone a non-tatter who asks you to just whip one up for her.
ReplyDeleteHow true, Jane ! And I haven’t even mentioned the number of times I untatted a ring here, a ring there, or a chain – and the time it cost of course ;-P Thanks for the inspiration, though :-)
DeleteAnd remember the Mac-tatted braid and the Twist Work in reverse stitch pictorial accompanying it? Huh, turns out a daisy picot stitches are wrapped in exactly the same way - TwW rs !!!
When I give away my tatting, it is only to people who realize their worth in terms of my labour of love.
Yes, I thought of those braids when I was working this, and was too lazy to do it properly!
DeleteThat looks fabulous!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sue :-)))
DeleteGreat post! Ah, yes, I too have had SUCH difficulty learning this technique utilizing fs/bs tatting. I should give it another try...😉
ReplyDeleteAh Fox, what can I say - we love to "muddy the waters" as you once prophetically said ;-P Looking forward to your latest.
Delete