3 little bears but where is Goldilocks

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It all started because I really wanted to tat Ninetta’s latest heart earrings. But I started out with her 3 little treble stitch motifs, the first of which I had done in July 2018. That's Mama Bear!

Papa Bear looked like a dahlia (yes, you can laugh at the incongruity!) and I worked it accordingly – flower surrounded by a bit of foliage. My intention was to tat only 3 rings in the green part to resemble leaves. While tatting, I kept admiring how well Nin had tatted those tiny rings. Little did I realize they were 12ds each and I made them only 6ds! But it worked out fine and I really like the overall effect!!!

The flower part ruffled a bit but flattened after a rolling pin block.

In Anchor size 40 (yellow 00302 & green 00269) it works out to just under 6cms.

Baby Bear was surprisingly quick to work. This has SCMRs with tds segments and thrown rings. As usual, I made an unflipped half stitch after closing the mock ring. She shared some process pics here.

In Anchor perle size 8 (01215), it measures around 3cmsx3¼cms.

Have you noticed the missing J & K in Ninetta’s diagram? She tells me that standard Italian alphabet does not have j, k, w, & y J

When it came time to measure and select beads for the earrings, I found Goldilocks had already gone to bed! Before she woke up, Sharon shared a challenging heart pattern, which I started instead - always sleepy when it comes to beads ;-P No problems, Goldilocks will soon have her earrings!

more flower flakes

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Still chugging away at small projects … 2 more of Sharon’s flakes visualized as flower flakes, taking my count to 10. Sharon has numbered all 26 flakes with respective patterns here.

This time I've used strands of Anchor embroidery threads.

Baby Flake as night jasmine flower flake !

Nycanthus, commonly called parijat or harsingar in India. A beautiful flower with white petals and orange stem! Among my favourite with fond memories - watering and picking up the flowers strewn under the tree at my granny's place.

3 strands (Ξ Lizbeth size 40). 5½cms as flake ; >4½cms as motif. 

12-25 2018 Snowflake as Chrysanthemum flower flake !

SLTs helped bring out a flower amid foliage. I worked the coloured rounds continuously.

For some reason lots of un-tatting was involved here, including a thread-break, but I persevered. Wish I’d chosen a lighter/darker shade of green.

2 strands (Ξ size 40). 6½cms as flake ; 6cms as motif

Please note that the inside rings in 2^nd round are linked together. There is a bit of crowding in the diagram and I missed it.

Thought: Split chains are excellent to climb out to next round. At times, though, it is good to have separate rounds, especially in case of retro-tatting. The thread broke so close to start of outer round that I would’ve snipped and started it afresh. Now I had to retro-tat.

Against a black background.

I’ve chosen colour schemes for some more of Sharon’s flakes but am waiting excitedly for more threads to arrive soon to tackle them. Meanwhile I’m working on a 2016 UFO! 

flower flakes

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along with hearts and angels!

You know how I enjoy extracting motifs and smaller designs from a larger pattern and highlighting them through colour. Don’t get me wrong – I love all-white snowflakes (such as this one), but the need to play around gets the better of me ;-P Perhaps I use colours as a Freudian cover-up to hide my tatting flaws ?! Also, the stiffness of some of the white threads is off-putting.

Sharon Briggs has been on a snowflake-designing spree for the past several weeks. And I jumped in with a few flowery expressions – flower flakes! These were made a few weeks back during my convalescence, with scarcely any notes. I don’t even remember my tatting order. A couple of them cupped a bit, but in the end they blocked out fine. Some of these could look good tessellated, hence I have included dimensions for both point-to-point and the length as a tiled motif.

TIP : All her snowflakes can be worked continuously. Due to use of colours, I worked some of the rounds separately, while in some one thread continued for some rounds. Working in one pass is optional – for those not comfortable with split rings and split chains, cut and tie after a round and start next round afresh.

Techniques I used : 2-shuttle, one-pass, ctm, rosette/rose medallion, daisy medallion, lock join, thrown/floating rings, dimpled rings, split ring &/or split chain to climb out/climb in, 3 threads (double shuttle).

TõT

Flower Flakes – stylised

1. Poinsettia

Nov 21, 2018 flake

Anchor size 40 : 6½ cms as flake ; 5½ cms as motif

She called it "unimaginative". Hardly ! I could see a poinsettia there, though my model seems to be squatter than her's. I wouldn’t mind adding one more round to bring in a more petal-y poinsettia look.

2. Blue Bonnet (top view)

Little Flake

Anchor size 40 : >4 cms as flake ; <4 cms as motif

I came across blue bonnets in a story I was reading and loved them.... which is how I had visualized this in shades of blue. I wanted to make the outer round in a darker shade, except I'd have to use embroidery threads & didn't want to hamper my tatting flow.

3. Cattleya Orchid

December 3, 2018 snowflake

Anchor white & Lizbeth purple splendour size 40 - 4½ cms as flake ; 4 cms as motif

I like how this turned out !!!

4. Madonna Lily

November27, 2018 snowflake

Anchor size 40 : 7 cms as flake ; >6 cms as motif

I simply love the ‘filigree’ and colours would probably take away from that look. Hence, a white lily ; the central ring could’ve been yellow, though. 
I'm hoping to give this another go in colours though - it's such a pretty pattern!

I’m pretty certain I mixed up 2 whites while making it – one was a tad finer, vintage.

TõT

Hearts and Angels

Sharon also has quite a few flakes with dimpled heart motifs.

I test-tatted this Daisy Ring Heart pattern.

Anchor size 40 : 7½  cms as flake ; <7 cms as motif

Despite using very small picots in the penultimate round, 

the outermost round required 7 ds chain segments throughout – just as Sharon had predicted.

But do you see the angels between the hearts?! 
Or perhaps bats if you want to mix in Halloween ;-P

Y

Ever since her first heart snowflake, I wanted to make only the heart in red. I’ll get to that, but for this December 22, 2018 pattern I used pink hearts against a cream thread.

Anchor size 40 : 8  cms as flake ; 7 cms as motif

I started with one shuttle and ball, ctm for the central ring.

Then I included a pink shuttle for the hearts. Since I couldn’t work the connecting chains with direct tatting (unflipped or reverse stitch), they were tatted with double shuttles – the 2 shuttles stuck together temporarily.

The 2 outer rounds were worked with single shuttle and ball again.

Y

The above pic was taken before I worked the pink hearts flake.

I now have 8 of her 2018 flakes tatted (2 more flower flakes here). 

There are still a few more of her flakes I’d like to tat in the coming days. 

Except she’s belting them out faster than I can tat ;-P What a bonanza for tatters !!!

TõT

Related Posts

sunflake

flower flakes (the flower within)

heart flakes (the heart within)

Thank you, Sharon, for a fun-filled winter, and the promise of more to come!

Sharon's flakes

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Just too tempting to forego! Sharon shared 2 new snowflake patterns recently and I got to work immediately. Now, they look pristine in white, and snowflakes should be white. But you know me – I want to spice up the challenge and took to colours to see how they’d look. Also, to bring out the flower within.

This is the first snowflake (pattern here) originally worked continuously with one shuttle and ball, climbing out with a split chain. 

My coloured  rendition is done with 3 strands of Anchor embroidery thread 

which is equivalent to a Lizbeth 20. And no split chains.

Black shuttle for central ring & orange 0333 'ball' for rosette chains : <1¼" or <3cms

Mustard 0306, ctm : <2¼" or 5½ cms

Green 0204, ctm : 3" or 7½ cms

T{|{T

This is the 2^nd snowflake she posted here.

I used Anchor 40 this time, but worked continuously. 

Measurements after each round : 1”  ;  1½”  ; 2½" or 6 cms. 

Started with maroon, ctm for the central ring and 1^st round, then switched the core thread to cream. I kept the maroon shuttle, but snipped off the ball. 

In order to get the desired colour placement and eliminate colour blips, I used 

the Slope & Roll join instead of lock join in the 2 outer rounds; 

SLT to make the split chain in maroon, 

and the Reverse Join to switch positions after the split chain.

I remembered how to do the split chain, but unfortunately the colour is hard on the eyes and somehow that segment twisted while linking. The camera shows it all, sigh !

Future Ideas:  
This snowflake could work beautifully as repeatable motifs linked for a larger lace. 
But as I worked the outer round, it struck me how beautiful it would look as a continuous doily – the ‘formula’ for the last round can be repeated (with additional side rings) ad infinitum without having to change the stitchcount at all! 
Perhaps one of the middle or last round can have the central floral motif all around ?!

T{|{T

Wish I'd taken pics after each round for both snowflakes, 

because each round is beautiful and elegant!!!

In fact the rosette reminded me of a poppy despite the orange shade.  

T{|{T

And playing around, notice how cozily the 2 designs can fit together ....

 

T{|{T

I absolutely love Sharon's diagrams – simple and clear. 

And you can find the legend to those cute symbols here. 

Many many thanks, Sharon!

the poinsettia !

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a snowflake poinsettia.  ‘twas the season after all!

Realised I hadn’t used beads in any of her snowflakes. Beads are such an easy way to add another colour, and perfect for my visualization & easy execution of this pattern.

Twentieth Day of December Snowflake

Lene Björn

from 24 Snowflakes in Tatting
for 2016 Snowflake Challenge on Craftree 

Remember my ‘the flower within’ (and here) conceptualisation where I tried to highlight the flower within a snowflake pattern ? Well, here the entire snowflake becomes a flower !

I strung 18 beads on shuttle #1 .... 

and wound shuttle #2, CTM for Round 1. This helped me climb out with a split chain.

Then I joined in the green thread on shuttle #3 and used encapsulation for chains, carrying the hidden green thread along till required for 'leaves'.

One can tat this round with only 2 shuttles, by using SLTs. I prefer avoiding SLT .

Encapsulation offers so much freedom if one can handle thread entanglement ;-) 

Also, instead of sticking to designated/conventional thread, one can chose to do elements & joins with whichever shuttle is closer, keeping colour format in mind. 

Thus, I used the red chain shuttle for the SCMR instead of the red core one. This also ensured that the chain arch remained a bit smoother, without a break at the SCMR point. And I used the red core for lock join.

A further bit of experimentation : making the first ring a SCMR with thrown ring. 

But experienced designer knows best ! It is prettier & easier to follow Lene’s diagram path, which I used for the remaining leaf sets.

I think it's a bit cramped at the central leaf joins, thus distorting the shape of individual rings. Or perhaps it's my own sloppy tatting and the 3-shuttle entanglement.

There was a tiny bit of ruffle in this flake and I could’ve tatted it better, but I am satisfied with the overall floral image.

Techniques & measurements : split chain (SCh), mock ring (SCMR) with thrown ring, encapsulation, beads on ring picot, simultaneous joins.

In Anchor size 40, (hued red - 4054-1206 & green 4054-00229) 

Rnd 1 - 1½” ;  Rnd 2 - <3½”  ; the 'flower' only is 2"

Future Idea : How about adding more chain-only rounds to increase the petal layers? Think chrysanthemum, dahlia, rose, etc.


That's it for now. Off to tat another snowflake ☺

happy tatting always :-) 
Z

in silent mode

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The Eleventh Day of December Snowflake

Lene Björn

from 24 Snowflakes in Tatting 

 for 2016 Snowflake Challenge on Craftree

Playing with colours and floral effect

Round 1 – Anchor Mercer size 40 black. ¾”

Used scrap black threads. Single shuttle & ball.  Ring 1 – normal, then added ball thread and next 4 rings are SCMR, last ring either SSSR to hide ends or normal ring.

TIP : Gapsosis helps

Round 2 – Anchor embroidery cotton, 3 strands. 3¼” 

SH1 : magenta/plum 069

SH2 : variegated  1305

TIP : Fold trefoil when starting chain, to keep the chain flush.

Other techniques : All normal picots. Directional tatting. Picot Joins (up & down)


Related Posts : Gapsosis can be good
Day 1 , Day 2 , Day 3 , Days 4 & 5 , Day 6

Freshly Tatted

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The Second Day of December Snowflake

Lene Bjorn

I joined a Year Long Snowflake Tat-Along on Craftree. We are using Lene Bjorn’s book , 24 Snowflakes in Tatting, to tat two each month. Remember how last year I had made a similar resolution, but didn’t stick to it. Well, this year I’m hoping that the tatting together will provide me the required motivation or guilt !

After a hiatus from tatting, having picked up hook & knitting needles, I decided to start with Day 2 first. I was not up to the challenge of tackling all that bare thread; wanted something simple & quick.

My objectives to join along are :

1. to study colour combinations & placement in these small motifs.
2. to practice split chains & make them part of my repertoire.
3. to tat patterns from the books I own rather than merely collect them.

Trying to keep it simple here, & carrying on with The Flower Within series.

Anchor size 40 thread in white & variegated red/black (4054-1206)

The snowflake measures just under 3” & round 1 was just under 1.5”

I made a couple of early mistakes in round 2, but continued nevertheless. I used single shuttle & ball for 2^nd round – back to basics :-) A fully loaded bobbin was required.

This snowflake ruffled a bit , as seen in pic. Simply wet it nicely, rolled the rolling pin over it to remove extra water, patted it with a towel & it was ready for a photo shoot !

At the end of the year, I may convert some of these into bookmark charms, or join a few to make bookmarks.

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Birthday Motif 2016 *

Wally Sosa  

* click for pattern source

This is my 5 Point Charm for a future bookmark 

This is the SuperBowl Sunday ‘protest’ tatting that Georgia & her group has going for the last 17 years !!! All previous patterns are listed here (scroll down through 2^nd column). Again, I am using this simple motif to play with colours.  

This is how I started, but abandoned. 

Tatted in Anchor size 40

Variegated red/white : 4504-1203 ; Variegated red/black : 4504-1206 ; Black
Measurements : Rnd 1 : ~ 1" ; Rnd 2 : < 1" ; final : 2.75"

I have been doing fs/bs tatting now for quite a while & usually do rings as normal DS & chains in RODS (reverse order ds). However, in order to keep the direction of large ring same as in the original pattern picture, I had to do the rings in RODS, & chains, & floating ring in normal DS. This enabled me to work in clockwise direction.

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What did the Leaning Tower of Pisa say to Big Ben? 
" If you have the Time I have the Inclination !!!"

(Okay, I switched the two, but it still works, doesn't it ;-P)

I have done a little cleaning up of the Resources Page (see tab above). Took hours & still needs more work - some formatting is just too stubborn to clear :-(  Check it out when you have the Time. Feel free to suggest any good resources that have helped you & I have an Inclination to use & add them :-)

And if anyone has the Inclination & Time,  Georgia Seitz taught the following in her Online Tatting Class on Monday  & the lesson logs are uploaded (& I attempted to teach one session) :
Padded Double Stitch , &
Snowflake Sparkle pattern alongside the Twisted Picot (floating) Tutorial.  Incidentally,  Karen Cabrera has uploaded a video for these freestanding twisted picots - Lesson #153. Very clear demo ( thanks & hugs Karen ). Keep your pinch on the thread at all times while twisting,  and it will give nicely coiled & stiff picot.

happy tatting :-)

Related Posts : Lene's Day 1 Sunflake 

Flakes n Flowers

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Snowflakes - “The Flower Within”

Snowflakes are beautiful. Tatting patterns of snowflakes are beautiful & enticing. Hidden within these cool snowflakes can be a spring flower to warm the heart ! This is my attempt to keep spring alive during the cold winter months.

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(click on asterisk for link to pattern/site)

Maranta’s Star 4*

Anchor #40 . White & Aqua Blue 4054-0185

Rnd 1 :1¼”    ;    Rnd 2 : > 2½”    ;     3½” tip to tip

I try to avoid using SLTs. But that creates a problem if one wants to customize the placement of colours. After 1^st round (the picots are not even enough, hence the swirl), I planned on using 3 shuttles with some encapsulation to hide the unwanted colour. Doable. But the mood left me – perhaps another time. I ended up continuing a 2^nd round with only the aqua blue chains, adding a tiny picot at tip for joining. T&C.

Then I did the remaining white part as a 3^rd round ! Again, instead of Split Chains & Split Rings to climb out/connect, to tat in one pass, I ended up doing it in segments ! Cutting & hiding ends after each segment. This was the phase when I was writing up my pds post here & was tatting only for pleasure – experimentation had to take a backseat..... 

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Robin’s Winter Frost Snowflake*

(Pattern can be bought at her etsy shop)

AMC #50 White & #40 Variegated Maroon (4054-1206)

Rnd 1 : ¼”  ;  Rnd 2 :  1”  ;  With twisted picot : 4”  ;  Without twisted picot : 3¼”

Remember my test tat here, with the twisted picots ? I just Had to make a 2-colour version.

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Nancy Tracy’s Tatted Ice snowflake*

Anchor #40 White & Lavender (4054-098)

Rnd 1 :1”   ;   Rnd 2 : ~2”    ;    ~3½” tip to tip

A breeze to tat up ! And the picots give such a lacy flurry look.
Update : Realised months later that I inadvertently tatted 7 points/sides !!! Yet it all stayed flat & pretty :-)

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Robin’s Design Tut Snowflake*

Anchor #40 White & Lavender (4054-098)
Rnd 1 : 1¾”  ;   3¼” tip to tip

Tatted & posted last year, here, but have not been happy with the pic. Love the pattern !

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Coats Unknown

Anchor#20 Blue (0131) & White

An old motif. Made quite a few just coz I liked the pattern ages back. Haven’t used them anywhere yet. Want to make another in #40 thread this time. I can see the difference in my tatting of 15 years back & now …Anybody know the source ? Please let me know so that I can give due credit.

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I enjoyed tatting all these snowflakes – relaxing, with a touch of colour for added excitement. I’ve been tatting many more snowflakes – hope I don’t forget to post.

Thanks to All designers for sharing their wonderful creativity 

happy tatting :-)

Motif #14/III  for 25 Motif Challenge

Related Post update : Day 2 Snowflake as part of the flower within series.