I started and finished tatting the 3rd round of my DAL 2026 Challenge yesterday morning. Gave it a simple damp, rolling pin block in the evening and took pics at night. Today I started to prepare a presentation for the pattern (as a PDF file) and finished diagramming and also notating and uploading the pics in this post. But writing the blog post could only be accomplished now at night. Happy to present my swirling type of motif...
In Anchor and Red Rose size 20, the final motif is a bit more than 8cms across, tip to tip.
While I worked it in 3 separate rounds, it can be worked continuously with split rings and a split chain.
For a long time I couldn't get my head into designing mode for the DAL 2026 challenge. Ruth Perry had suggested adding the inner motif and then filing up the space between them. I decided to give it a go.
Mind you, there is two models where these rosettes have been used very effectively! So the fault lies in me.
I tend to sketch with a light hand which is why this is the best I could achieve in a photograph. 
I laid the base motif on the grid, aligned it such that the center point was on a point on the paper, etc. Then I made points with the pencil through the picots - notice dark dots? Then I roughly drew the rosette and scroll. Thus this sketch was to scale and it was easy to draw the 3rd round and guestimate the size of the rings, etc.
Well, the chains arr way more curved than in the diagram but I kind of like it this way, too. I also experimented with the 2nd repeat, joining the large ring to the previous chain, but didn't like it.
The small rings were supposed to be in line with the large rings. This would happen if there were stabilising picot(s) - joining to the large ring and to the chain.
Again. I took the lazy way out and opted to see what would happen.
I like the slight angle! I think it adds to the sense of movement that the chains created. Which is why I didn't even try to block them straight. Au contraire ;-P
I hope to be able to share the Google doc with all participants and their models soon. Waiting for patterns to come in and do some of my own cleaning up. By the way, I am now officially 16th on the list of participants ;-P
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A confession.
Are you wondering about the pair of motifs below? Hmm. I had made a mistake!
The one on the left is the original motif which I put in the challenge post - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/08/time-to-play-again.html
However, it was only when I sat down to design the 3rd round and referred to the post and diagram did I realise that one count was incorrect! The rings in round 2 were 8+8, not 6+6!
But nobody complained about cupping, etc. So, instead of confusing issues at this late date, I tatted another following the diagram just like everybody else.
As you can see, this one on the right is a more defined square. And it seems to have worked structurally too.
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For previous design-alongs -
