flaky visits

I had bought those Lizbeth 20 mixes in order to work my own patterns in that thread so as to have a more universal, uniform, comparable, and easily convertible measurement. Unlike the newer Anchor (Madura Coats India) size 20 which is all over the place and way thicker than a Lizbeth 20. With the finished dimensions provided earlier and now, you can easily see the difference in the old (Anchor 20) and the new (Lizbeth 20) snowflake!

So, when I saw the vintage motif pattern trend last week, it spurred me to revisit some patterns. And on my journey I noticed a little omission here and there, but am not well nor motivated enough to rework the pdfs/diagrams. Sometimes it is a boon if your patterns are not popular – the mistakes remain buried ;-P

I loaded 2 shuttles with Lizbeth size 20 thread and got to work. It felt good to tat a done pattern in softer ice-blue shades after all those colourful blossoms. I am sharing only tweaks here, with stitches inked in the respective picture. Links are provided for the detailed patterns.

T 

Vintage Motif Snowflake & Star

Hexagonal Motif snowflake

Instead of a central picot which accommodates all subsequent rings, I linked adjacent rings through very small picots. This also meant that decorative picots can be added in the central negative space.

Measurement: 1½ inches point to point.

Main techniques : 2 shuttles, ctm. Thrown/floating rings (TR) which require switching shuttle (ss) before and after.

R1: 4 vsp 2 p 2 vsp 4. rw

**Ch: 3 p 3 ss TR (2p2p2) ss Ch:3 p 3. rw.

R2: 4 + 2 p 2 vsp 4. rw.**

Repeat ** to ** till there are 6 inner rings. Finish off with chain.

Pentagonal Motif star or snowflake

Measurement: 3 cms wide.

Since I didn’t want to change the count, a central picot becomes essential here. Thus advantage of central picot is that it is easier to adjust the number of rings around. I bent a double loop across 4ds for the central picot. This picot is sufficient to hold the 5 inner rings. (see Stitches as Picot Gauge on page 5 of Measuring the Picot)

T

Neemiss Snowflake   (direct pdf link)

I had shared the design process for this flake and the reason why it had bilateral symmetry instead of a 6-order rotational symmetry. This time I ‘corrected’ it and all clovers have the same count.

Measurement: 3½ inches

[ Round 1 : 1¾” or 4½ cms  ; Round 2 : 2¼” ]

Techniques include :

2 shuttles, ctm ;

floating Josephine rings/knots (JK), hence 2 shuttles required for rounds 1 & 2;

lock join (missing in written pattern);

Victorian sets ;

padded double stitch or pds (2 wraps on each half stitch).

• We can climb out with a split ring in clover and mock picot, thus tatting the entire snowflake in one pass.
• Instead of slope and roll join, I used lock join throughout, and counted it as first half stitch.

Round 1 Clover

[Ring1 : 6 - 3 - 3

Ring2 : 3 + 8 – 8 – 3

Ring 3 : 3 + 3 – 6. rw.

Chain : 6 ss JK6 ss 6 rw.] x 6

Round 2

Chain : [12 vsp 1 lj , ss JK8 lj ss, 1 vsp 12, lj ] x 6

Round 3

Chain: [4N6 lj 2, 2pds – 2pds, 2, lj 4N6 lj]x6 

(4N6 = alternating sets of 4 half stitches 6 times) 

T         

Spiral Snowflake (direct pdf link)

I didn’t change a thing here, except for the thread of course.

 Measurement: 4 cms from point to point.

Techniques : 2 shuttles, ctm ; turn work ; lock join ; floating Josephine knots.

TIP : All chains in 2^nd round can be worked from the front without turning work at all. Use reverse (unflipped) stitch for the 6ds chain. This is just like block tatting, and here instead of lock join pull up a loop of ball/shuttle2 thread, pass core shuttle through it, and tension.

T 

Dotted Snowflake (direct pdf link)

Again, I used small picots to link adjacent rings in central medallion instead of the original central picot. All the rest remains the same as in Version 2 of the pattern.

Thus each inner ring is (7-6-7), although one can add decorative picot, thus working them as (7-3-3-7).

Measurement: just over 2½ inches.

Techniques :

Graduated picots,

Floating dots

Floating Josephine rings

It is interesting how the dot is smaller than the JR, despite having exactly same count. Also notice the outline – dot has an irregular outline as compared to the smooth circle of a JR.

For a pointier outer chain, work the JR as a SCMR instead of a thrown ring. Although I like the gently curved chain.

T

Although not mentioned, all my tatting is directional – frontside/backside.

Winter is the season for tatting  ....

as is spring, summer, monsoon, and fall !!!

T