bigger flower

 Over the years it has often happened that in response to a technique question or a blog post generous tatters have sent me scans of relevant portions of tatting books. While I saved them, I don't always remember who shared them. One such is the following - 

This is the Big Flower pattern from Anne Dyer's 'To Boldly Go Where No Shuttle Has Gone Before', 1995. I have scans of some of the technique pages from a while back and stumbled across them recently while organizing my digital storage.

I invited Anita Barry to work through the pages. This was back in April when I wasn't feeling too well. She agreed immediately - she owns a copy of the book! We started with page 13 - Lines for Chains or Rings and had a lot of fun with the chains, effects, and tossing ideas. I'll share those some other time. Already the book was worth it's name! 

Above is my first attempt at the Big Flower pattern using Anchor size 40. But I was dissatisfied with those unseemly 'thorny' points and discarded it.

Started afresh with Anchor Pearl cotton size 8, using one shuttle and ball - after all it is a chains-only pattern. Much better and smoother, right?!

I had to write the pattern to suit my preference - the short notation format. The frequent turns due to inward/downward picots was quite confusing to keep track of.

Later, Anita found an alternate way to write the pattern!

We also noticed several omissions in the original which were included in our notes. 

Anne's diagram (only half drawn) would have 9 or 10 repeats. At 7 repeats mine seems only halfway there. The reason is the shorter picots I used.

This is a very springy/elastic piece, reminiscent of a 'samvadini' or hand harmonium being played. 

This reminded me of a collar I had once crocheted using a single strand of white silk thread on a printed silk top/blouse. It was a chains-only scalloped rounds and was large enough to cover my shoulders, yet so delicate and lacy.

Of course, the crochet collar was worked in a circle, rojnd after round. 

This tatted motif is cleverly worked outward-inward for the desired width, ending in a broad circle. A clever construction where the width can be increased easily.

Like I said it is such an elastic pattern that I finished off at the 12th repeat and it still lays flat! I have been waiting to fill in the center before posting, but didn't get around to it.

Those are mogras (Arabian Jasmines) from my potted plant. It has given us so many fragrant flowers these past several months! 

Anita completed her flower, too, and also tatted a center. I'll share her pics after seeking permission.

I continued with page 14. While many of the effects are already known to us by one name or the other, there is one stitch that was absolutely new to me and I loved how it came out! Hopefully I'll remember to use it in future.

With other projects jostling for attention, we haven't continued further. But it was a good decision to work together with exchange of ideas, tips, trials, and the fun element obviously! Working together also ensured we read the instructions correctly with inherent motivation.

So I did manage 4 posts in as many days! And there's still so much to share. 

Many thanks to my unnamed benefactor for sharing the scans!