25 snowflake challenge

Yesterday Dorota of Land of Laces announced her intention of designing and posting a new snowflake every Sunday till the end of the year. A minimum of 25 snowflakes.

I shouldn’t, but I did jump right in. And in less than 24 hours I have my own pattern all ready to post!

The challenge doesn’t call for originals, but just like the 40 Blossoms sprigs I challenged myself to, let’s see if I can be as successful with this. It will stretch me for sure, but hopefully I’ll out the better for it.

I will work all snowflakes in white Anchor size 40. Since I don’t want to be spending all my time perfecting each presentation, I will share the basic pattern with the prototype itself. I welcome you to test any you like and share your experience or any errors. And if you send me a pic of your work, I might be tempted to create a proper pdf by including your model.

The challenge is open to all but pics must be posted on a Sunday to facebook and/or Instagram and tagged to @landoflaces. And at the end of 25 snowflakes, send in a ‘group’ photo!

So here’s my first pattern as is.….

Paisley Snowflake

pattern with prototype

UPDATE : click to download this one-page pdf of Paisley Snowflake.

This 2-round snowflake can be worked in one pass by climbing out with a split ring, mock picot, and smaller split ring.

TWoT Note : Depending on how one climbs out and works the initial rings, the direction of the paisleys may change.

In Anchor size 40, it measures 6cms tip to tip.

Techniques used in prototype: rosette, picot join to right, 2 shuttles, ctm, fs/bs tatting, thrown/floating rings, lock join, Josephine Ring.

Abbreviations:

-  = picot ; + = join ; dnrw = do not reverse work ; rw = reverse work ; TR = thrown ring [switch shuttle before and after each thrown ring] ; JR = Josephine ring (with half stitch count)

Round 1 - Rosette :

ring : (4 - 3 – 3 – 4 ) x6. Join each ring to previous and the last ring to first. Tie & cut.

Round 2 – Paisley :

ring1: 6 + 6. dnrw

ring2: 6 +(to next petal) 6. rw

chain: 4, (TJR1: 8), 3, (TR2: 5 – 3 – 2), 3,

(TR3: 2 + 5 – 5 – 2), 3, (TR4: 2 + 7 – 9) rw

          chain: 15, lock join (to TR4). turn work, switch shuttle

          chain: 2 (- 2) x12. rw

REPEAT from ring1 for a total of 6 arms. Tie, cut and hide ends.

I can think of so many little tweaks to improve the design. For instance –

• the Josephine Ring is barely visible due to the overlap. Perhaps if it were a small ring, instead of JR?
• I like the overlapping arms, though.
• There could be a JR at the tip of each arm to make it a bit more pointed. Now the snowflake looks more like a flower, right?
• There could be picots along one side of the thrown rings to mirror the long picoted chains?

What do you think? Requesting brutal criticism!