lotus tatting

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 Every year I try to tat something for our Independence Day celebrations.... if not a dedicated project, then using the tricolour in whatever I may be working on at the time. This year I felt it was much more vital given the international and more importantly our domestic situation where the parties who are in the opposition at the center keep peddling falsehoods and agenda-driven false narratives in order to show the world that Indian democracy is on shaky ground, the election process is flawed and manipulated, etc. They do not hesitate to bad-mouth the country and its institutions in their hatred towards the democratically elected Prime Minister. They cannot even digest our superiority in our  retaliation (Operation Sindoor) to the terror attack on Indian tourists by nationals from the neighbouring country! 

Lotus is our national flower and this is my prototype. 

Now you may ask where is the third colour?! Good question.

I had started by using this motif as a charm for a bracelet with a white tatted band/braid, sprinkled with some blue. Every colour has its symbolic value which I have explained in previous years.

Now I wonder whether I will have sufficient time.

Another idea is to tat a few more motifs and glue to a greeting card, with tatted blue/white chains representing water. 

Which do you prefer?

I chose ANKARS style stacked rings or ring on ring technique. Though incidental, I like the fact that this technique came from Russia. I've read more Russian literature than American!

LOTUS  MOTIF 

(prototype) Pattern by Muskaan © Aug2025  

Single shuttle. Starting from the left orange ring ....

NOTE - since this is a prototype, there are a few count changes made along the way for the petals. I am happy with the flower count but the green rings can be stacked a bit more. Hence some tweaking of count will be needed. 

Start ring by leaving a small loop and tail over tails. This loop is later used to make a shepherd's crook join at the end. https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search?q=shepherd+crook

ringA: 19 - 4 - 15. dnrw

ringB: {lies above A} 15 +(to A) 5 - 5 - 15. dnrw

ringC: {lies above B} 15 +(to B) 6 - 6 - 15. dnrw

ringD: {lies under C} 15 +(to C) 5 - 5 - 15. dnrw

ringE: {lies under D} 15 +(to D) 4 - 19. dnrw

Attach green thread and cut and hide orange tail. [UPDATE: See updated pattern here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/08/independence-day-tatting.html]

ringF: 10 - 4 - 6. dnrw

ringG: {lies above F} 6 +(to F) 6 - 6 - 6. dnrw

ringH: {lies under G} 6 +(to G) 4 - 10. 

Join to starting loop at base of ringA and cut and hide tail.

TIP: I will join rings F & H or make the segments longer than 6ds in order to make the overlap more visible.

I don't know how original this motif is - it seems pretty basic to me. If you have seen anything similar, do please let me know so that we can acknowledge the designer.

In Anchor pearl cotton size 8 (equivalent to Lizbeth size 20) the motif is 3.5cms wide and 3cms high.

I had trouble with closing the large rings with this thread and am thankful it did not break. It did flip the last half-stitch and I had to rectify it each time despite care and precaution while closing. After the first two rings I remembered Patty Dowden's Working with Large Rings tips and closed the ring in two phases (like in the dimpled yorkie) - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2015/03/experimenting-with-colours.html

Let's see what tomorrow brings - hopefully plenty of time to decide, tat, and complete for 15th August to celebrate #HarGharTiranga!

smiling together

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Ninetta recently surprised me with a thoughtful and gorgeous gift on my birthday. She sent me the pattern for her cute little flowers which she named after my moniker Muskaan which means Smile! What an honour! This sweet Hiding Lady knows how to impress and she shared the Smiling Flowers (rose) pattern here -- https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2024/07/smiling-flowers.html 

This is my adapted application into a rakhi/bracelet choosing to represent our tricolour (tiranga) Indian flag. This month we celebrate our Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan just days apart.

Saffron Marigold impression - Marigolds are considered pure and auspicious flowers and you will find them during any Hindu festival or ceremony.

It largely follows Ninetta's instructions except for the petals on the 2nd row where I used graduated treble tatting with 4 wraps. 

(For graduated tds, refer - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/07/multiples.html)

 

White Lotus impression - Lotus is our national flower and also symbolizes purity and peace. 

Although not very clear in the pics, the 2nd round petals have distinctly graduated tds with a pointed tip. Instead of 5tds, there are 7 tds with 1tds(1,3), 1tds(1,4), 1tds(1,5), 1tds(2,6), and ditto on the other side with 5, 4, 3 wraps.   

(For notations, refer - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/05/double-trouble-motif.html)

Blue Center - Clear blue bicone faceted crystals at the center for the Ashok Chakra in the center of our flag. I didn't have any blue bead larger than this.

Tempted to tat one more round of petals for the marigold but I desisted for two reasons - one, I ran out of thread; two, how can a marigold be larger than a lotus, LOL.

( Find treble tatting tutorial/video links here - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_95.html and on my Tatting Resources page.)

Green Leaves - The third colour of our tricolour is green which symbolizes prosperity, vitality.

Ninetta used the tds rings as calyx for her flowers. I used it to make leaves with more tds and some graduation.

Tatted continuously with a single shuttle, the leaf clusters are connected with a ring braid with pulled loop joins (leave bare thread at the back of the ring and make a lock join to the picot). This will act like a frame to secure the flowers.

Assembled together and attached to a doubled string of beads (12 on one side, 14 on the other for that 'gap'). All sewn in.

The beads are actually silver - like silver lining clouds against a blue sky.

So this is my Rakhi/Bracelet 2024 from Ninetta's beautiful pattern! Over the years, I have often used the tricolour to celebrate August 15th (including Har Ghar Tiranga with the 75 year old coin), and have also shared some of my tatted rakhis. 

And making short work, I am submitting this for Natalie Rogers' PICOT Bingo game, crossing off three boxes --- Treble Tatting Stitch , Add Beads , and Tat a Bracelet! 

Oh, and I used Anchor Pearl Cotton, size 8, throughout. 

I find the treble tatting stitch quite addictive! I honestly didn't want to stop tatting. If it weren't for the thread and time running out, I would've continued!

In my haste, though I forgot to add a clasp to the beaded ends!

Small 3D flowers always remind me of Carollyn Brown who had made it her personal goal to tat one floral sprig every month for a year! She always managed to amaze me. You can find her blog here - https://tennbrown.blogspot.com/2020/11/

And adding to the all-encompassing nature of this post, this rakhi/bracelet in flag colours is my August submission to splocik's Small Decorations game. Please do head over to the July gallery to check out the talented and diverse submissions compiled there - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2024/08/male-dekoracje-2024-galeria-lipcowa.html

Thank you my dear partner in crime, Ninetta, for the honour and friendship you bestowed on me. It is precious! Keep smiling, always :-))) 

mirroring

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 Only 8 more days to go and my heart is beating fast ....

My messy heart after 6 days 💗

This is how I intend to place the leaves. In the background is the sketch for reference. The center is an outline of the coin. And there's one extra leaf but who knows it might come in handy once I start gluing.

Some of the initial leaves are shorter 'coz I added 2 extra leaflets along the way.

I have a shuttle filled with scrap lengths. Once glued, the empty spaces will be filled with the required number of leaflets.

This is the Laurel Leaf pattern (on page 7 of this pdf - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5MqI5ByadI4cjRaV3h3Qjgyajg/view?resourcekey=0-OQ9HULLWS0raSHIL0dR4Tg) In case it does not open, send the automated request.

TWoT Notes: Notice how the 4 leaves on left side face left while the 5 on the right side are bent towards the right? I followed the exercise set out in the pdf. Instead of starting the first ring frontside, simply start it backside (RODS or reverse order of double stitch ie., 2nd half st, then 1st half st.) and continue with the pattern working fs/bs tatting throughout. The leaf will curve in opposite direction.

No need to work out the mirror-image in the pattern!!!

Tonight I will try out the white pattern before working it for real. I've diagrammed it, but need to confirm stitch count, size, etc. 

day 4 and more

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 This is my progress on Day 4 or rather the 4th night! ... 

Days 1 to 3 - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/08/flagging-off-new-project.html

GREEN - This is the colour of prosperity and what better than leaves to convey that symbolism!

I chose my Laurel Leaf pattern 

(pdf .. pattern on page 7 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5MqI5ByadI4cjRaV3h3Qjgyajg/view?resourcekey=0-OQ9HULLWS0raSHIL0dR4Tg - in case it does not open, send the automated request).

The only tweaks made - shorten the bare thread space between rings for a compact effect; and increase the length with 2 additional rings at the  base.

When I finish the leaves, I will show how I intend to arrange them.

Speaking of leaves, here are the leaves from my balcony garden (in no particular order) - we now have 10 pots with no room for any more if we wish to sit and bask in the winter sun, LOL.

Our green chilli plant is finally flowering and there are tons of buds waiting to peep out.

Our new guava plant bought 1 week back. It is a Bonsai from Kolkata and had 2 fruit but the smaller one fell of yesterday. 

An asparagus fern in a smaller ceramic pot.

Have to look up what this ornamental plant is called. And does it bear tiny red flowers? This is the 2nd small ceramic pot. The rest of the 8 pots are 12 inch diameter.

Doesn't this plant need less sunlight to maintain the mottled effect? Again need to research it.

Our Ficus is flourishing, too, and we pruned it a few days back.

These are the fresh new leaves of the Curry leaf plant.

Ajwain (oregano) 

This is the first time our Tulsi (Holy Basil) plant has prospered so much and we had bought this almost a year  back. I used to prune, but then the new leaves would become smaller and smaller. 

The reason is a tip we saw in a gardening show on TV - Nip off the inflorescence as soon as it appears or as soon as you can. Hubby has been diligently doing it and the plant is such a pleasure to watch.

Of course, I do use the leaves in my tea.

Last but not least a portion of our lemon tree. The 2nd oldest lemon ripened and fell off, too, yum! These 2 are the next in line, though it might be well nigh 4-5 months before they ripen.

So this is a stroll through our potted plants in our balcony. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoy it every morning.

flagging off a new project

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 This is our 75th year of Independence and celebrations have been going on through the year, but the festivities have intensified during the countdown to 15th August. 

Early this year, we found a 1947 coin in hubby's old coin collection! My idea was a no-brainer - it had to be used as the center (Ashok Chakra) of our flag, which would be tatted of course. Yet, I couldn't find the time to start the project, which I'd wanted to do as a tat-along. Finally started 3 days back.

Saffron. I chose picot flowers to symbolise marigolds which are ubiquitous with any auspicious occasion or ceremony. There are between 8 to 10 picots in each flower. 

I tied a large bead at one end of a thread and strung each flower through it for safe-keeping as well as to ensure that they all face the same side.

This is my progress after 3 days. I only get time to tat at night. I think these might be sufficient for now - 3 Pony bobbin loads of Anchor Pearl Cotton size 8. 

In the background is the sky blue fabric (Aida) I will use. Due to paucity of time plans were changed from lace-only flag to sewing to finally gluing on fabric. Keeping the coin in focus, this flag needs to measure 13.5cms x 9cms.

Like the marigold-saffron symbolism, my motifs for white and green will also be symbolic, but more about that later. Green motif is already decided and I will start tonight. White needs to be tested before finalising. And then comes the tatting around the coin. Wish me speed :-)

If you wish to join me in tatting a flag - Indian or your own - hop on! If there is interest, I will share the patterns, too. Watch this space ....