a collective gift 1

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... of so many snowflake variations and patterns in one place, from a talented group of generous designers!  Perhaps you recall my invitation to design the next round(s) for a Celtic interlaced center - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/05/lets-design-round-3.html... the DAL Celtic Snowflake 'challenge' as several called it. I loved the response and the models that turned up, some almost overnight! And later, when I requested each participant to share their pattern, they readily complied. I compiled them all in a Google Doc, listing them chronologically as they came in. 

The main reason for this inordinate delay in sharing with you is two-fold: 1) I wanted to synchronise the patterns, adding a diagram to each or filling in any 'gaps', and 2) I wrote an article on this project for the IOLI Bulletin and wanted to wait a decent amount of time. The first objective hasn't been achieved, unfortunately, though I did begin diagramming. For this I sincerely apologise to my designers, but hope to work on it in future.

I have decided to share the document as is since it is the season of tatting up snowflakes! Please note that the patterns are not tested and there is diversity in presentation styles. We hope you enjoy the individual flavour and range of effects, tools, and techniques and also the story behind each! All details are in the doc, the link to which I will share at the end of the visual display of models. Between my article and the Google docs, the entire backstory is laid out . hence I will not repeat it here.

Presenting them alphabetically ---

1. Aleksandra Pawlik - Round 3 designed and tatted within a day!

 

2. Anita Barry - Two different versions, both with Round 3 designed!

 

The difference in backgrounds brings out the mandala effect differently.

Clever use of split rings.

3. Anna Bonelli - Rounds 3 & 4 designed. Makes a nice wheel impression.

4. Antonia Lai - Round 3 designed in single shuttle with bare thread spaces!

5. Barbara Slodka - Round 3 designed with Josephine rings and pleasant pastels

6. Daniela Galli - Round 3 designed and tatted in two shades of metallic threads

7. Donna McDade - designed Round 3 for Five versions! All 5 models have been appliqued on a quilted wall hanging (pic in the doc).

8. Jean Inglis - Round 3 designed. Appears like a flower or wreath.

9. Ladyphoenix tatter - designed Rounds 3 & interlaced Round 4 after discarding two other attempts since it caused cupping.

10. Margaret Davies - designed Rounds 3 & 4 and tatted multiple models till she was satisfied! 

11. Lella Loops - designed Round 3 and also styled a Celtic shuttle to work the interlacing in this round! She is a needle tatter.

continued in next post along with links .... 

picoted Josephines

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Oh, my poor head – it is filled up with so much tatting-related stuff that my memory bank is full! No RAM, no way to access my over-full storage capacity, despite frequent rebooting, sigh! Turns out I already used the tufted rings in the Icy Rivulet Snowflakes last year - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2019/11/frozen-or-flowing.html. Barbara Slodka had first shared the video link (can't find the exact thread, but earlier than this - https://m.facebook.com/groups/752452334871921?view=permalink&id=2521882034595600 ; and the recent discussion - https://m.facebook.com/groups/752452334871921?view=permalink&id=3082763385174126&_rdr )

I seem to be going round in circles. Like I mentioned in the previous post (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/07/applying-techniques-rakhi.html), some question either in facebook or privately, set me on the path to compare various picot formations in Josephine Rings (JR) or Josephine Knots (JK) back in Oct-Nov 2019. 
But let’s move logically ….

Picots in Josephine Rings

A study of 4 methods

For each style in this study -  

• 4 JRs with the first half-stitch (hs) in each ring. The 2^nd half-stitch can be used instead.
• Each ring starts and ends with 1 double stitch.
• Picot gauge of 2mm, 5mm, and 10mm. The first ring is a regular JR without picots.
• 15 picots per blue ring. 20 picots per yellow ring.
• Anchor Mercer Crochet Cotton size 20 (blue) size 20 ; Anchor Pearl Cotton (yellow) size 8.
• All tutorial links can be found - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/tatting-resources.html
• See position of picot gauge in relation to 'arch' and 'loop' with close-up pics here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2017/08/gauging-lie-of-land.html  
  
• An earlier comparison between the 3 picots here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-huff-puff-and-tuft.html. The picots are made between the 1st and 2nd half-stitches of a regular ds (as in backside tatting). This can be applied effectively in JRs as well. 
  
• Ninetta’s comparison here - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2017/08/video-posted-tatting-tuft-picot.html

1. Regular or Interlocking Picots

( https://youtu.be/V7XbtXhpN-4 )
Picots made normally (with or without a gauge) after every half-stitch.

       JR: 1ds, (p, 1hs)x14, p, 1ds.

Notice how the picots split apart as they get longer. The long picots are termed Interlocking Picots.

2. Mrs Mee Picots

( http://marthas-tatting-blog.blogspot.com/2011/06/amazing-mrs-mee.html )

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNW4CyGWzQA )
Picots made normally (with or without gauge) after every 2 half-stitches. 

  Make the picot followed by a half-stitch, and repeat the half-stitch (pic below).

      JR: 1ds, (p, 2hs)x14, p, 1ds.

This results in a larger ring, but with more stable but ‘independent’ picots and a larger center space. There is a tendency for the picots to twist decoratively if they are longer than 10mm.

3. Tuft Picots 

This requires a picot gauge through the 'leg' or loop of each half-stitch. The gauge may be placed above core thread (Nadezhda's method) or below the core thread (Ninetta's method). The beauty lies around the periphery where picots seem to be interlaced.

What Actually happens, is that the stitch itself becomes a picot! The gauge 'pushes up' the belt or horizontal bar of each stitch to lie on the outside instead of at the base of a picot as normally happens. 
The above rings have 20 picots of 5mm in size 8 perle cotton. 

Nadezhda Malysheva method - gauge above core thread
( https://youtu.be/HFCimyOpoXI March 2018)

Hold the gauge above core thread as usual. But look closely – the gauge is ‘inserted’ through the open ‘leg’ or loop of the stitch rather than the main arch of hs as in #1 and #2.

      JR: 1ds, (p, 1hs)x14, p, 1ds.

Notice the outer edge of the picots – they appear interlaced or interwoven, creating a neat trim around the periphery. It almost appears as if the stitches are made loosely - which they are, in a sense. But the 10mm picots split apart as in #1.

Ninetta Caruso method - gauge below core thread

( https://youtu.be/1uTtSE8ZUJY  Aug 2017)

Hold the gauge Below the core thread, but inserted through the ‘leg’ or loop of the stitch instead of the arch. 

      JR: 1ds, (p, 1hs)x14, p, 1ds.       

When the ring is closed, both Nadezhda’s and Ninetta’s rings turn out to be The Same! However, since the former does not have a name, and it was Ninetta who created it before, I think it is proper to term them both Tuft Picots. The rings can be called Tufted Rings.

My Observations and Thoughts -

• Of the 4 methods, only Mrs Mee’s picots can be used for joining – they remain stable due to the extra hs between picots; the other 3 are merely decorative. They form a broader JR and a larger number of picots is more visually pleasing.
• I find that using perle cotton creates a better tufted ring as seen in the rakhi I posted earlier.
• As seen, 5mm picots give the best result. As the picots increase in length, they tend to split apart and twist. It makes sense, because the belt/bar of the stitch no longer has any support and slides back!
• It is important to factor in the thread size to get the desired result.
• It will be interesting to see the effect with graduated picots! And beads.

frozen or flowing?

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Snowflake #17 in Land of Laces’ 25 Snowflake Project

This is a very basic design, but highly adaptable and versatile in the effects that can be created. I have tons of ideas (listed at the end) for the icy rivulet flowing between the glaciers or bergs.

I deliberately used colour blip as a design element here by joining a bit differently.

And I also discovered something that I will share in another post with proper pics!

The one in cream+blue, was worked first and some of the kinks were ironed out in the smaller one. I am preparing a 3^rd model using Lizbeth size 20, along with a pictorial on how to join the 2^nd round. It will be included in the pdf.

But pattern first… (be warned – there are going to be more!). You may use your discretion to tat this in one pass, in one colour, etc. Following is what I did …

Find tutorial links here for : add new thread to chain ; dot picot ; dot picot string ; false CTM – parts 1 & 2 ; Catherine Wheel Join (CWJ)

Josephine Ring with picots by Nadezhda Malysheva : https://youtu.be/HFCimyOpoXI  (Thank you Barbara Slodka, for sharing this video link!!!)

Icy Rivulet Snowflake

In Anchor size 20 it measures a tad over 5cms.

2mm picot gauge for JR

Round1: one shuttle only.  --- = long or double picot

Ring1: 5-1—- 6-6—-1-5.

[Ring2: 5+1+6-6—-1-5.]x5, joining last ring to the first. Tie & cut.

Alternate: climb out with split ring.

Round2 (Rivulet) : one shuttle only, in contrasting colour

Join to lower beam/bar of the double picot, from behind.

Dot Picot String: 4 dot picots, closely spaced, lock join, 4 dot picots, lj to lower bar of double picot & upper bar of picot. Repeat 5 more times.

Instead of cutting, I continued the next round using this as core thread and adding cream thread for the stitches.

Round3 : 2 shuttles

[Chain: 6, switch shuttle, Josephine Ring: 1ds, 20hs (with 2mm long picots held on gauge), 1ds., switch shuttle, lock join, 6, CWJ to upper bar of double picot.]x6

NOTE :  The intention is for all arches to lie close to each other, without overlapping. Hence a bit of tweaking may be required. Some of segments are not symmetrical (1 extra stitch or dot picot), but not visible.

Icy Rivulet Star

Can you see the white ‘V’ with a bit of colour in the center, at each joining point? 

This is deliberate but will show better with more contrasting colours.

In Anchor size 40 it measures 3½cms.

2mm picot gauge for JR

Round1: one shuttle only.  --- = long or double picot

Ring1: 5-1—- 6 vsp 1 vsp 6—-1-5.

[Ring2: 5+1+6 vsp 1 vsp 6—-1-5.]x4, joining last ring to the first. Tie & cut.

Alternate: climb out with split ring.

Round2 (Rivulet) : one shuttle only, in contrasting colour

Join to lower beam/bar of the double picot, from behind.

Dot Picot String: 3 dot picots, closely spaced, lock join to 1^st vsp, bare thread, lock join to 2^nd vsp {this bare thread acts as a picot to link next round}, 3 dot picots, lj to lower bar of double picot & upper bar of picot. Repeat 4 more times.

Instead of cutting, I continued the next round using this as core thread and adding cream thread for the stitches.

Round3 : 2 shuttles

[Chain: 6, switch shuttle, Josephine Ring: 1ds, 12hs (with 2mm long picots held on gauge), 1ds., switch shuttle, lock join to mock picot below, 6, CWJ to upper bar of double picot.]x5

Future Ideas :

I want to see how it looks with more rivulets flowing between the ice.

I also want to change the nature of the rivulet by substituting dot picot string with a beaded string, Josephine chain, picoted chain, lock chain, and many more.

I might even try adding a few picots or beads to the outermost round.

Let your imagination lead you on :-)

Question – Do you like the denser Josephine ring better or the one in the star? Or perhaps somewhere in between? I will hold off the 3rd round in my Lizbeth model till I hear back from you.

Congratulations to Georgia Seitz and her team – 

the Online Tatting Class celebrates it’s 20^th birthday today !!!