tada ?

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For the 2017 summer break, Georgia had suggested we pick any vintage pattern and rework it using different type(s) of picots. Who knew I’d be doing that with this brand new doily ?!

Doily #10 (“Pikotek”)

(with my picot adaptation)

designed by : Agnieszka Gawron - Frywolaga

For this last round regular picots adorn the major portion. Wondered whether I should use a triple picot or graduated picots for the small outermost curve. But the soft curve seemed to give the doily a more flowery/petal look.

And to keep that in focus, the inner curve uses a single dot picot, as if moving to the next petal.

I’m not too happy with the colour – it doesn’t seem to evoke a spontaneous “tada”. Well, whoever receives it as a gift will just have to live with it ;-P

This round 10 turned to be a bit tight so I eased the snugging of the chains. 

Perhaps an additional stitch or two in the long chains would help.

Final msts – 26½ cms or 10½ inches across in size 40 Anchor
Doesn't this look like a flower?!

Here’s a comparison of size with Renulek’s 2016 Wiosna / Spring doily.

The pattern presentation is excellent. Uncluttered, with a clean schematic showing both the sequence and the stitch count in each round. Written pattern is also provided, although I didn’t need to even glance at it – the visual said it all.

There are no complicated or advanced techniques involved in the original pattern.

As I said earlier, the format of this picot game is totally conducive to armchair designing! All the hard work had been done by Agnieszka but we could have fun customizing the look with picots. Good ego-booster for any beginner designer !

She will be displaying the completed doilies on her blog. I will update with a link later. 

This journey stops –

Rounds 1 & 2 ; Round 3 ; Round 4 ; Round 5 ; Round 6 ; Round 7 ; Round 8 ; Round 9

Many many thanks, Agnieszka Z

I’m so glad for this opportunity to join in. Not only did I get a beautiful doily, I even enjoyed the process of "picot-ing" with double picots, dot picots, and normal picots !!! Maybe I can use more picots in my future patterns? But not in my newest cross pattern. the prototype of which I will share very soon. 

would you like to go picot-ing ?!

Vetoed

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I thought I had it all figured out. 

Nope.

Turns out shuttles have veto power, just as I feared last time.

Round 9 of Agnieszka’s Doily #10 (“Pikotek”)

This round was visualized in cream all along, so that the doily could be finished off with the aqua blue. But after doing a couple of repeats, it didn't look so good. The round seemed to cry out for the aqua blue right here.

But I did veto the application of picots -- scuttled down to just a pair of dot picots per repeat Can't leave everything to shuttles ;-D

Reason - so I can have more picots in the final round.

This was completed many days back & Agnieszka sent me the last round pattern. But I haven’t started - dithering on the colour choice ….

Should I add that dark green for the final round?  

Or should I continue with this aqua green – a broad round reflecting the inner one?

Decisions :-(

I won't be able to complete this before the new year. But if anybody wants to join in, 31st is the last date to inform her. 

And I might have a surprise guest - if my convincing powers can crack her shell ;-D With fingers crossed ...

My journey so far –

Rounds 1 & 2 ; Round 3 ; Round 4 ; Round 5 ; Round 6 ; Round 7 ; Round 8

Who holds veto power in your tatting journeys ?

and on we go

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I just Had to share the completion of this round! It looks so pretty in real – like a large flower. A very good stage to stop, too, if one so desires.

But I changed the background to bring in some more interest.

As usual, I chose to work the few rings backside since it is largely a chains round with lots of picots.

My logic for using 2 colours? – to avoid contamination. I wanted to maintain the lovely arching effect of round 6. And secondly, to avoid too much cream at this stage, what with the cream in the floral motifs.

Now here’s something – the chains are lock/shuttle joined to flowers. But despite a different coloured core thread, I managed to minimize the colour blip in a lock join without resorting to a CWJ, a JSS (join on smooth side) or even a slope & roll join. I wanted the dip that a LJ provides and avoid the slight change in plane of a S&R join.

TIP: how to hide colour blip in a lock join - When working from the front, pull a down loop of shuttle thread through linking picot (instead of up loop), pass shuttle and snug the join. Then make the 2^nd half stitch almost overlapping the join. Continue with pattern.

This hides the blip to a large extent when seen from the front, but is visible at back. For backside tatting, do the opposite (up loop followed by 1^st half stitch).

Oh, and as you know, this is Agnieszka (Frywolaga) Gawron’s Doily #10 or “Pikotek” and we are attempting to a picot adaptation row by row. Dec 31^st is the last day for joining in, but we work at our own pace.

My Previous Rounds using picots :

Rounds 1 & 2 ; Round 3 ; Round 4 ; Round 5 ; Round 6 ; Round 7

happy tatting always J

a floral path

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Round 7 of the ‘Pikotek’ or Doily #10 is now completed and sent to Agnieszka.

In Anchor size 40, it now measures 8½ inches at its widest. 

This gives an idea of how deeply set these 1 inch flowers are since round 6 was 8” across.

These little flowers are a joy to tat!!! I can easily finish 3 in just one evening, 

including sewing in tails.

Yet other activities slowed down this round, but not the pleasure.

And in order to reduce the pink dominance, the centers are made in cream.

I dallied whether to use them alternately with all-pink flowers (as in above pic), 

but the 2-colour ruled. 

Which meant I had to cut out and tat 2 extra but who’s complaining! 

See the pic below for comparison.

TIP : If the entire pattern was available, I would've worked each flower separately, 

and joined to the floating ring while working round 6 (as I had done here).
I did a quick rolling pin block without pulling out/shaping every double picot...will do it at final stage. 

3 more rounds to go, but they are mostly chains, so should tat up quickly.

While I have a couple of ideas on where I'd like the colours to go, 

it's up to the shuttles to behave themselves!

Previous Rounds :

Rounds 1 & 2 ; Round 3 ; Round 4 ; Round 5 ; Round 6

shuttles are like pet cats – they rule!

happy tatting always J

whizzing past

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I wanted to share the next few rounds of Agnieszka’s Doily #10 (zabawa pikotek) together in one post. But Round 7 may take a while because I’m busy with a pictorial and don't want to lose focus. So might as well get this off my list.

I returned to dot picots for 6^th round. A ‘repeat’ of the 2^nd round.

Surprisingly, even with all that switching between shuttles for dot picots the round went smoothly and quickly.

I tried to make the dot picots mock rings (SCMR) instead of thrown rings, to avoid switching shuttles But the latter was easier and came out better for me. Moreover, I kind of got into the rhythm and didn't mind at all. 

In Anchor size 40, it now measures 8” or 20½ cms.

Next round is again flowers. 

Carollyn suggested different colour for the center of the flowers. I've been thinking of interspersing all pinks with a cream center to avoid an overload of pink. Think it will work???

Check out Frywolaga's latest post. The invitation is open till the end of the month. I think it's a cool way to begin designing. With the pattern all laid out, and no trials/tribulations for stitch count, etc. all one needs is to play with the picot and create our own version!

Don’t you love when the day’s tatting & designing is stress-free and relaxing!

Related posts

Rounds 1 & 2 ; Round 3 ; Round 4 ; Round 5

slow colour fast colour

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The power of colour often amazes me!

And I don’t mean the usual aesthetics and visual appeal of our colour choices and placement.

Go a step beyond to the speed and pace of working. eg. certain colours in finer thread merge with my skin tone making it difficult to eyeball picots, etc.

This time I experienced an even greater power! 

Colour affected my involvement and motivation!!!

Continuing with Agnieszka Gawron's Doily #10 - adding picots challenge. Round 5.

For this round I deliberately chose a darker green - thought it would make a statement ;-P

I even had my husband select from an assortment of colours (without telling him my preference) and he also chose this. Yet, as I worked, it had me on edge continuously. And after every couple of elements I would wonder about my choice and stow it away. The shade seemed overbearing in real (and hubby agreed – no, he’s absolutely Not a yes-man!!).

Took me several days of uninspired working to do just the 2 arms of simple rings and chains.

Frustrated, I coloured in some options in Sketch Guru, and tried a combination – green rings/cream chains & vice versa. Ugh it looked bad!

Rejected everything and went to the safe option of similar colour strength.

So much better and even tatting went smoothly, rapidly, and happily thereafter ! The entire round was done in 3 days flat.

This time I chose simple decorative picots. I like how the rings are joined to create those angles!

Round 5 in size 40 measures 7 inches or almost 18 cms tip to tip.

2 shuttles used because of thrown/floating rings.

But you know I'm wondering whether I was wrong again. The pastel green has brought the pink into too much prominence. There's yet another round of these flowers! Sigh, will just live with it for now and see what happens. It does look and feel good in real though.

‘fast’ colours make for happy tatting  J

Related posts

Rounds 1 & 2 ; Round 3 ; Round 4

fun reflection

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It is always relaxing to sit back and tat some one else’s pattern. And these florets are really cute and quick to work up.

Doily #10   Round 4

Agnieszka Gawron (Frywolaga)

fun picot / zabawa "pikotek"

This is a repeat of the very 1st round where I used double picots. I didn’t elaborate earlier, so here’s how I did each –

Working with size 40, I pull out a 20cms long tail from the shuttle for the short chains. I used the tail to finger-tat reverse (unflipped) stitch.

Also, I like the rings a bit plump. Hence joining picots are very very tiny, thus ‘stretching’ the rings.

The double picot is 7mm high when gauge is perpendicular to core thread.

The doily measures 11.5 cms at this stage. In real it looks very pretty and complete.

I’m thinking of adding a 3^rd colour for the next round.

Oh my, Agnieszka is so quick! I barely hit send and the next round is in my inbox!

She has a very systematic and clean presentation in 2 languages. She sends me the English version, obviously. The diagram for each round shows the sequence as well as the stitch count.

I’m beginning to see a few more bloggers participating. It’s great that we can work at our own pace. 

relax and enjoy – the tatting mantra !

Related posts

Rounds 1 & 2 ; Round 3 

binging on picots

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Who would've thought !

What can I say, it happens....

Remember adding picots to the doily challenge?

My plan was to repeat dot picots in the 3rd round of Frywolaga’s Doily#10. After tatting 3 chains, it just did not cut it for me. There was no enhancement - quite the contrary – almost tacky.

Out came the snippers and, hey what the heck, I fell back on our trusted, time-tested regular humble picots!

Why not go the whole hog? And it seems to works, doesn't it ?!

Measures just over 6.5cms in size 40 (without taking picots into account).

The unintentional upswing is how all linked rings (rounds 2 & 3) form continuous garland around.

Just like in my clover wreath pattern – when tessellated, the pair of rings from each motif form a floret! It was unplanned - the florets just emerged.

It amazes me how every little experiment offers learning, discerning, and designing opportunities!

This is turning out to be quite a fun learning experience :-)

binging laced with no calories – happy tatting J

Am I the right person?

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Especially where picots on tatted lace are concerned?

I generally go for minimum decorative picots, preferring clean lines that show the design clearly. Not that I don't admire the lacy, airy effect of picots.

A couple of weeks back Agnieszka (Frywolaga) invited her readers to a fun picot challenge.

She usually makes 2 versions of her beautiful patterns – one with and other without decorative picots. This time she shared a picture of her Doily #10 without free picots and those interested need to put in picots where they wish. She sends out instructions for the next round when the previous is finished.

When I first set eyes on her doily I loved the simple lines and didn’t want to muck or clutter it up with picots (sorry, dear picot-ists, no offence ;-D). But when I received the 1^st round pattern, I had to think slightly out of the box and came up with the following …

Here are my first 2 rounds worked in Anchor size 40 …

I used a double picot in round 1 enhancing the floral effect.

Measures 2.5cms

She shares her suggestion here. 

Dot picots in the 2^nd round.

Measures just over 5cms

I hope to repeat both type of picots in later rounds.

It really is fun! And knowing the complete design, it becomes easier to plan ahead. Just hope I do a good enough job while enjoying the journey. If you wish to join in, the links above provide all the information.

What I did muck up, though, was this simple pattern - the Onion Ring Magic Square #2. I had no problem following the pattern or direction, yet stumbled on simple joins! Thrice rings are attached incorrectly. Noticed only in the picture when the negative space seemed wonky. 

Since I wanted only the one square, most joining picots in outer chains were discarded. (Next time I might even discard the free picots on inner rings ;-P)

Onion rings were tatted with same shuttle. Inner ring from backside, turn work, outer ring from frontside. Outer ring is looped from Behind the inner ring as I had done for the marigolds here.. I found it much quicker to work especially when not using 2 colours. This is the onion ring join used - very effective.

with or without picots, tatting is always lacy fun J