Spicy Pin Chicks

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It’s that time of the month again – a little earlier than usual.

As declared in my previous posts, I want my choice to be practical around the house & justify my blog url since tatting has taken over the diversity I had set out with.

My project for the pinterest challenge is very simple, but thoroughly yummy, adding a sweet spiciness to my dishes ! And an apt coincidence – we are now 5 Pin Chicks & like the 5 Spice Girls, adding flavour to our blogging lives :-)

Pickled Vegetables

Jane McLellan first tried it late last year, leading me to the original recipe here by Recipe Girl

I have it pinned on my Recipes board here. The recipe was followed down to the letter – well almost....

Make it Your Own

I wanted shallots instead of onion pieces, but didn’t get a hold of them. I reduced the amount of sugar, salt & vinegar just a tad, since it was going to be kept in the fridge anyways. And I added more pieces of ginger than specified in the original – love the flavour & taste. That's the joy of cooking - customized to suit one's tastes.

A Multi-cuisine Accompaniment 

It is a great accompaniment to rice, breads, salads, etc. Not spicy-hot At All, as Indian pickles go. Loved the sweetness it imparted & the delicate crunch of the vegetables. Whether it was our staple north Indian meal of roti & rice, or Mughlai/Tandoori cuisine, or Continental - the pickle was a hit.

Like Karaoke ! 

Rustle up a simple instant salad by adding a few lettuce level & jalapeños !

I really like the Instantaneous vegetable mix for salad ; no washing, peeling, cutting, seasoning, …. simply scoop out of the jars! No wonder it got over so soon.

Encore !

With hardly any pickle pieces left, I added a fresh batch of veggies, including turnips & onions this time, to the pickle solution. This worked great, too !

And then a 3^rd & a 4^th batch were added as the earlier ones dwindled. I did increase some sugar & salt & vinegar after the 2^nd batch. All ready for a 5^th batch soon !

Song of Happiness

The pickle is just Meant for egg salad ! I pick out some red pepper, onion & carrot pieces, dice them finely & mix with diced boiled eggs along with jalapeno peppers & very little seasoning.
Perfect egg salad sandwich !!! Sorry no pics for this, because I usually make this for dinner & the night is not suitable for photographs. You’ll just have to take my word for it, or why not make a batch yourself ?!

For more creative surprises, please don’t forget to check out what these lovely Pin Chicks have been up to : (click on names to reach their blog) the leader chicks - Suzanne & Margaret,  ; & we, the follower chicks - Carollyn & Alma (our newest chick has added a separate page dedicated to this challenge!).

Till next month, then, happy pinning :-) 

  

Pinterest Challenge 2016 #2

Spiral Snowflake Pattern

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Spiral Snowflake / Medallion 

click here for free pattern download

This snowflake is my serious foray into 2D designing. I am more comfortable with freeform & 3D designing and my challenge is to try & create flat pieces with repeating motifs/rounds. Starting small with this 2-round medallion. Can it go further to create a mosaic or a multi-round doily ? Time will tell.

The Design Process 

The pattern came to me one night when I was on the brink of sleep (as often happens!). In the dark, a tablet is a handy device to jot down ideas immediately, without waking/distrubing others. But Kaleidoscope app is a bit limiting, since I cannot jot down notes alongside.

Installed the Sketch Guru app & this is the first sketch I drew on it, along with my thoughts. A no-frills skeleton.

Next step was to determine where each element will be joined, which led to inclusion of picots at those points (#2 in pic below). And a possible option to use folded rings instead of chains.

Sketch & skeleton is fine, but what about the stitchcount ?!     

From position of picots, I guesstimated the stitches for central round. My thumb rule was to use a certain number & its multiples to keep things simple & easy to remember. I think this idea came from all the tatting one has done & from reading Sharon Briggs’ design tutorials. Sharon’s tutorials provide a very practical & visual understanding of design in tatting. 

And it worked the very first time round !!! So much so that in Round 2, on the 3^rd repeat itself, I felt comfortable & confident of it's flatness and embellished it with Josephine Knots.

The only change I made in final version was to reduce 1ds from the chains in Round 1.
Lucked out or more appropriately collective wisdom at work again :-)

Since this had started out as a free pattern for beginner to intermediate level, the pdf contains detailed notes, including links for tutorials, & pattern instructions that will hopefully be of aid. There is also a table for the thread lengths required in each version, size 20 thread. For this post, I am uploading only the diagrammed pattern & the pictorial. And of course some more pictures !

The Pattern 

  

 

Download the complete pattern here

If any help is required, you know where to reach me :-)

The Models

1. Basic Pattern
In the prototype, rings & chains in Rnd 1 were in different colours. (see #4 prototype in above pic)

2. Beaded Version

This is what I originally made.... 

...then added a central bead (below). Now it looks good to be converted into a jewellery piece

3. One Pass Version in single colour

To tat the medallion in one pass, start with a blind chain (or dead end start to chain) in Round 1. 

To climb out from round 1 to 2, make the last ring a split ring. For all the rest, follow pattern instructions.

4. Layered Flower/Medallion Idea
Playing with the models for a layered effect....

I hope to carry this off-center theme in future designs as well – that is my overarching Design Concept for this year, for Susan Fuller’s Tatting Design Class. Whatever I design, I hope to have some off-center element(s). Here it is the outer chain joins & Josephine Knot that gives a spinning, spiraling effect. But it could well be a ring, or …. I have a few ideas sketched/jotted down … can I tat them is the question ;-D

Motif #23 of III for 25 Motif Challenge

happy tatting :-)

Identity Crisis

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IdEnTiTy  CrIsIs

Identity crisis – that’s what this snowflake has ! It wants to be a sun – a “sunflake”. We’ll let you decide – is it a snowflake or a sunflake :-)

Right off, I don’t like to tat patterns that have too much bare thread. I admire their dainty laciness; I admire the person who tats them up & shares their beauty; but I am not one who chooses to do it. So this particular snowflake was an under-protest, under-groaning & mumbling undertaking :-D

The First Day of December Snowflake

Lene Bjorn

24 Snowflakes in Tatting by Lene Björn

I was looking for a “painted tatting” effect, hence the choice of transitional shades. I’d started off with a copper metallic thread center, but the threads in that trial were all slightly different in size & after a few rings, had to abandon it.

I opted for size 20 thread this time, thinking it might make a good coaster.

Abbreviations used in text below :

ds – double stitch

BTS – bare thread space

fs/bs tatting – frontside/backside or directional tatting

RODS – reverse order ds used in fs/bs tatting

fhs – 1^st half stitch

shs – 2^nd half stitch

hs – half stitch

JR – Josephine Ring

Round 1 : Red Heart 00328

Started with 1ds & finished with 2ds. This helps in keeping the picot well inside & safe, especially in rings that need to be cut & tied.

Round 2 : Anchor Mercer 0307 & 0289

Techniques used : 2 shuttles , with twisted thread between rings instead of bare thread, picot joins (both up & down), fs/bs tatting.

Remember my post on “new effects” earlier this year, & “wrapped rings or rings enrapt” in particular ? I used the same concept with bare threads, wrapping/twisting them, thus overcoming the use of 2 colours on a rings-only-with-BTS problem.

Advantages :

• I could use 2 colours. One can, in fact, alternate the colours as one pleases! ( Ninetta has used 2 colours in a very beautiful way here & here )  
• It had the added advantage of acting as a built-in picot gauge if one counted the number of twists (I used 5 twists) !!!
• It also brings in some stability which is an asset for a coaster.

TIP : I inserted the 2^nd colour shuttle into the first & the last half stitches of each ring.

Close ring before adjusting length of BTS of 2^nd colour.

Problems : It is not easy to keep the length, twist, & curves intact since the 2^nd colour is not really anchored. May be with practice & patience…or a little knot of some kind.

This picture, taken in the sun on my raw silk sari, is simply to show that the threads have a lovely sheen, which gets lost in all the photos I take inside.

 Round 3 : Anchor Mercer 0300

Techniques used : Down Join, Josephine Ring, graduated picots, fs/bs tatting

I was so tired by this time, I gave up the idea of adding 2 shades here. Also, a little airiness was necessary.

All I did was add a Josephine Ring of 10 fhs. Always felt that space was too flat between the high peaks. I think the JRs work pretty well, right ?!

TIP : Now here’s a Great tip I recently learned from Georgia Seitz here, about using the down join as 1^st half stitch ! So far, I was using it to keep colour blips on the back side of work. But this worked perfectly when the same colour elements were to be joined ! Conversely, when applying RODS (for fs/bs tatting), make an up join followed by 1^st HS.

When there are 2 colours, as in inner rings of previous round, I used the down join functionally to hide blips as before. 

Technically I have completed 2 snowflakes for this month, except that these were supposed to be for January … still behind by 2 ;-P 

I’m including this in the 25 Motif Challenge because of the little experimentation & my first real (but failed) attempt to make wheels with BTS .

My next post will be a free pattern for a snowflake/medallion (& the next for a butterfly). It was all done, but then I decided to make a few additions … my work is never done ;-P

I have decided to standardize all links in my posts. They will be in bold font & blue colour throughout.

Happy tatting :-)

Motif #22 of III for 25 Motif Challenge

Related Posts : Lene's Day 2 Snowflake