a huff a puff and a tuft !!!

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Comparing Picots.

Did you miss me ? Yes ? I missed me, too !!!

When one’s head is in yo-yo mode, bobbing up and down – sometimes light sometimes heavy – one becomes mindful of being mindless! No ‘shuttle’ can transport you across and all one can do is play some mindless jigsaws on the tablet or read sappy stories.

So yes I missed me, my tatting, and most of all I missed You !!! Shutting out the net only meant I have much more to catch up on now (I read an occasional post, but couldn’t leave a comment). I apologise for these theatrics, and hope you will patiently wait as I plough through your emails and blogs in the coming days.

On a couple of good days I did manage to adapt a pattern into jewellery (first trials only) but that’s a secret for now. And I also figured out, on my own, a way to add beads exactly where I wanted them! Unbelievable.

Meanwhile, what’s a post without pics …

So Ninetta finally shared her Tuft Picots along with an excellent video demo & application ! I had the immense privilege of being the first to try them out – it was a quick tat where I tried to use them in chains and also compare them with interlocking picots (in size 40 tinted red sampler below). Served as a good study then.

But in her post she has also mentioned Mrs Mee’s Picots which I hadn’t tried before. So the new sampler in blue is a comparative study of 3 types of picots …. 

Comparative Study of Picots -

Interlocking Picots, Mrs Mee Picots, Tuft  Picots

Some basic characteristics are outlined below, along with direct link to tutorial :

Although samplers are rings, all these picots can be made on chains.

Size of thread doesn’t seem to matter. I’ve tatted them in size 40 & 20, and Ninetta in size 10.

All rings start with 4ds, p, 1ds followed by 8 picots using a 7mm vertical picot gauge, and end with 1ds, p, 4ds.

fhs – first half stitch ; shs – second half stitch ; ds - double stitch

Interlocking Picots (Ring 1)

·         Are long picots on a spiral or Josephine segment.

·         Here I made them between fhs.

·         Picot gauge is held above core thread.

·         The picots have a tendency to radiate & spread out, seen more clearly here  where the entire ring has picots.  

·         They, however, overlap or interlock with each other. Hence these are merely ornamental and cannot easily be used for joining later – there is a tendency for the cluster to distort if tugged.

Mrs Mee Picots (Rings 2 & 3)

·         Here the stitches are complete ds. Longer picots tend to twist. 

·         Picot gauge is held above core thread.

·         In ring 2, the picot is made while forming the shs ie. tat fhs normally, and form the shs around the gauge.

·         In ring 3, the picot is formed with fhs.

·         Notice the -

a)     change in direction of twist (see below)

b)     the stitch at base of picots. Ring 3 gives a complete stitch effect.

·         There is an even greater tendency to radiate outwards and each picot is separate. Hence joining new elements is easy, without any distortion.

Tuft Picots (Rings 4 to 7)

·         These picots are also made on a spiral or Josephine segment, similar to interlocking picots.

·         But the most important difference, and the unique feature of tuft process is that -

Picot gauge is held below the core thread.

·         Ring 4 uses shs between picots  ;  Ring 5 uses fhs

·         Notice –

a)     the interlocking/overlapping of picots

b)     their tendency to clump together – a neat outer line is visible (especially if picots are shorter).

c)     the illusion of ring being smaller than in previous ones

·         Not good for joining as tugging causes distortion.

These separate pair of rings above with only tufts are 6ds, 12 picots using ¼inch gauge, 6ds. But these 12 picots are a combination of tufts in 4 & 5. viz, …

·         Ring 6 has a combination – first 6 picots use shs, followed by 6 picots with fhs.

·      Ring 7 – order is reversed – 6fhs picots followed by 6shs picots. And I deliberately left some extra space when switching, giving it a crested effect.

Besides the joining/not-joining issue, these picots do consume lots of thread. More importantly, blocking them would probably pose some colourful situations - haven't attempted it yet ;-P 

Amazingly, I found Mrs Mee picots the most difficult to tat because every alternate half stitch has a picot and I had to retro-tat many times due to forgetfulness/errors.

For tuft picot, it is fun to 'lift them up' to the edge of the ring/chain - sometimes they simply want to 'lie low' ;-p

It would be interesting to see how these picots look if used all around a ring !

In general, though,

·         regular picots 'stand straight';

·         interlocking picots tend to radiate but overlap;

·         Mrs Mee picots radiate even more but remain single & perhaps with a twist;

·         while tuft picots tend to converge. 

And Floral or Ruffled Picots give us a picots facing inwards and outwards ! These have 2 same half stitches between each picot,  alternately.

For more on Tuft Picots and their possible application, please read the very talented and innovative Ninetta’s complete post. 

And many many thanks for always coming up with something new & fun,

and sharing with us lesser mortals :-))))

UPDATE (Aug 23, 2017) : check out images for all the different positions of picot gauge ...

UPDATE (July 2020) : See effect of these picots in Josephine Rings - 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/07/picoted-josephines.html
 

do it with a huff, a puff and numerous tufts !!!!

happy tufting :-)

Some more interesting picot effects/techniques :

Ikuta's Overlapping Picots & my free floating Twisted Picots (TwP) 

Ninetta's Vapor Picot ; 
Floral or Ruffled Picots