I would first like to thank everybody for their
immense support and prompt help with testing the block heart pattern. I am very
touched, to say the least. More when I post the pattern – and it will be within
this week !
The Cosmic Eye or Anti-flake
Twenty-Third Day of December Snowflake
Lene Björn
This pattern always reminded me of our schoolbook atoms and
molecules or of orbiting planets. The long chains made perfect elliptical
orbits. And this book I’m currently reading ('Genius' by James Gleick) only reinforced that visualization.
Also, I wanted to see how a flake in black would work out –
yup crazy me. Can’t say whether this is matter, antimatter or the universe. The
beads (are they electrons or planets?)
are very glittery in real – difficult to capture here. Sequins were a first,
too.
I passed shuttle 1, back to front, through the space created
in round 1 chains and then continued with the Josephine chain. A simple
over-under ‘join’.
I’d had a tough time
keeping count of the Josephine chain
stitch count in the
Day 22 flake. This time, my little bird came to my rescue.
Every 10 half stitches, I take out a pin and stick it in the mattress. Yippee –
so easy to keep tally and gaze at my little birdie (
who doesn’t seem too happy with all those pin pricks !)
How I added the
sequin here
My first attempt at sequins, though the principle of tatting
with beads, buttons, etc. is essentially the same or similar.
I wanted the sequin to be flat inside the ring, rather
than outside. So, start ring and when we come to the picot, first pull
the picot loop through the sequin hole, pass the shuttle through this loop (as we
would normally) and snug neatly but not too tightly. This keeps sequin flat and
in place. Continue with the rest of the ring and close.
I would’ve liked to work in 2 colours to better reveal the interweaving chains, but that might’ve become a very busy kind of rendition.
30 beads strung randomly on shuttle #2 in round 2, and brought forward on picots.
Do you see what I see ? Doesn’t it look like a fierce
cheetah – eyes glaring out ?! Or perhaps it is Lord Shiva’s
Cosmic/third Eye ?
The boring details !
TWoT notes
: Round 1 worked counterclockwise ;
Round 2 worked clockwise.
Techniques :
thrown rings and clovers, spiral or Josephine chains, beads & sequins on
picots, over-under join.
Materials and
Measurement :
Anchor size 40 in black ; seed bead soup (including tiny
bugle beads) ; white sequins ; crochet hook to load sequins
Rnd 1 : ~ 2½” ; Rnd 2 : ~ 4”
50 half stitches of Josephine chain in size 40 thread = ⅞”
‘Genius’ by James Gleick is a biography of
Richard
Feynman the exuberant ‘mad genius’ written in an engaging style! It is a very
absorbing read. Even though I superficially ‘understand’ much of his work and
the physics described, it is a commentary on the evolution and establishment of
Physics & of course quantum mechanics. As I read, I am frequently reminded that all that we take for granted
now, or what we thought was done ages ago, is not even a century old, even
Medicine as a a science !!!
My husband had a couple of books by Feynman before our
marriage and he has become one of my favorite scientist-writer – always so full of
spirit, full of ideas, practical solutions, and such a great communicator. Down
the years, we’ve bought many more of his books, but I’ll share more in future.
Now, back to tatting – besides ‘inspiring’ this snowflake, ‘Genius’
has also sparked off another set of tatting-related fun that I hope to share
and would love for you to join in. Not revealing anything for the present ;-P
happy tatting happy reading J
