Am I the right person?

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Especially where picots on tatted lace are concerned?

I generally go for minimum decorative picots, preferring clean lines that show the design clearly. Not that I don't admire the lacy, airy effect of picots.

A couple of weeks back Agnieszka (Frywolaga) invited her readers to a fun picot challenge.

She usually makes 2 versions of her beautiful patterns – one with and other without decorative picots. This time she shared a picture of her Doily #10 without free picots and those interested need to put in picots where they wish. She sends out instructions for the next round when the previous is finished.

When I first set eyes on her doily I loved the simple lines and didn’t want to muck or clutter it up with picots (sorry, dear picot-ists, no offence ;-D). But when I received the 1^st round pattern, I had to think slightly out of the box and came up with the following …

Here are my first 2 rounds worked in Anchor size 40 …

I used a double picot in round 1 enhancing the floral effect.

Measures 2.5cms

She shares her suggestion here. 

Dot picots in the 2^nd round.

Measures just over 5cms

I hope to repeat both type of picots in later rounds.

It really is fun! And knowing the complete design, it becomes easier to plan ahead. Just hope I do a good enough job while enjoying the journey. If you wish to join in, the links above provide all the information.

What I did muck up, though, was this simple pattern - the Onion Ring Magic Square #2. I had no problem following the pattern or direction, yet stumbled on simple joins! Thrice rings are attached incorrectly. Noticed only in the picture when the negative space seemed wonky. 

Since I wanted only the one square, most joining picots in outer chains were discarded. (Next time I might even discard the free picots on inner rings ;-P)

Onion rings were tatted with same shuttle. Inner ring from backside, turn work, outer ring from frontside. Outer ring is looped from Behind the inner ring as I had done for the marigolds here.. I found it much quicker to work especially when not using 2 colours. This is the onion ring join used - very effective.

with or without picots, tatting is always lacy fun J

CentriPetal

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Conflicting forces abound – centripetal, centrifugal – turning my brain mushy with overload at times and my hands work faster at others.

Randomly sharing some of the medallions I’ve been tatting over the last few days … Can you see them in the center of a larger design? 

My latest pattern – The Pinwheel !

There are few patterns with a central picot on chain and they usually have ‘spokes’ like the one here. I wanted something with curved chains and sketched this. But with the very 2nd chain I realized why they had to be spokes, unless one enlarges the picot vastly or one layers the chains as I resorted to here.

The little picots were meant for joining adjacent chains which was not logistically possible, but I kept them. I kinda like the sense of swirling, spinning motion in this piece.

Incidentally, I worked it with single shuttle attached to ball thread! The outer chains are Direct tatting ie reverse stitch (unflipped). All picots are very small. Lock join to the ring picot. Stitch count is notated on the image.

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It is always so tough to estimate the length of a central picot (which is why we resort to other means). Moreover, according to Elgiva Nicholls a central picot should not be visible. 

I wanted to check out my Central Picot measurement tip/formula, hence chose a pattern from Lyn Morton’s ‘Tatting Patterns’ - Simplicity.

Central picot is all but invisible as it should be, but the earlier formula has been changed. If someone volunteers, we can give the new formula a quick test run. Please let me know – I realise it is busy-tatting season, yet…. 

This is round 1 of Simplicity .... and

my Layered Extension of Simplicity (round 1)

Using the same stitch count and central picot length as in original, 2 more rings were added, layering them consistently. This is how it looks. I have sketched an outer round for it. 

Or with a bead in center and more seed beads around, it could become a pendant, brooch or earrings!

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ANKARS was another technique I wanted to revisit and chose this pattern by Verbena Creazioni.

This is the basic pattern for a pendant with beads. I think it works well even without beads.

But perhaps next time I will add beads. I’d like to add more rounds to this one and see where it goes. It is a modern variation of enclosed space medallion .

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Finally, a central ring pattern from some Coats and Clark book

Worked in Anchor size 50, it is only the first 2 rounds. Worked in different colours, it shows the central ring clearly and I like how chains dip due to the small rings, creating a floral outline.

Here is the complete 3-round pattern - 3 motifs were linked to make a broad bracelet or bookmark. This was tatted and photographed 4 years back - when I rediscovered tatting. It has taken over my life since then ;-P

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So, any volunteers, then, to try out the central picot measurement? 

Please leave a comment or email me

whatever the forces, center in on your tatting J

layering effects

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I’ve been revisiting a few techniques – both using layered or stacked rings - to refresh my memory.

Ninetta’s modern adaptation using a floating layered ring was my first stop. I converted it into a flower pattern. DH thought it looked like a lotus! Lotus motif is a fairly common sight in temple architecture, decorative ceilings in buildings/rooms, Jaipur-style paintings, etc. That settled the name ....

Lotus Medallion

(prototype)

In Anchor size 20, the finished flower measures 6cms across.

The inner medallion uses the same stitchcount and process as Dillmont’s original motif. Except that I made 6 rings instead of 4 – which meant I had to add 2 more picots to the floating ring. All details here. This center can be made with a single shuttle and a long tail pulled out to work the floating ring and 2ds of split ring.
This is a modern variation of the rosette or enclosed space medallion.

I hadn’t planned anything specific. But this looked so forlorn that I had to do something to cheer it up ;-P

I continued with the layering theme, this time with chains. When did I last use 4 shuttles? Time to set them up :-D Tried out my idea with some scraps and ran out of the red at this stage. 

Starting again, I used light and dark shades of the same colour - this contributes to the 3D effect. 

Yes, those are dot picots in a diamond arrangement! Can't stay away from experimenting ;-P Here's how I worked it ... Dot Picot tutorial links here

Work a string of 3 dot picots with shuttle 2, and 1 dot picot with shuttle 1.

Note : When making this dot picot with shuttle 1, leave a very tiny bit of thread on both sides.

In order to make the make the single picot clearly visible, 

I used the Floating Beads with tatted rings method, tying an overhand knot around the base of the dot picot. 

The faux bead now rests at a slight distance from the chain.

Now start the chain close to the faux beads. 

When the chain is tensioned, the 4 dot picots form a kind of diamond shape. 

If one is using beads instead of dot picots, this round can be worked with 2 shuttles attached to respective balls. Pre-string 18 seed beads in each ball, and 6 seed beads in each shuttle.

Chains on either side of the faux beads have 10 stitches each. But this can be changed to suit one's taste.  

Chains are lock joined to the picots on inner medallion. But remember to overlap the new chain Before making a lock join with the previous one. Also keep the overlap direction consistent throughout. An under/over overlap as in the model helps when making the final chains and joins.

If using single colour throughout, one can climb out of the inner round with a split ring.

So what's your verdict ? And suggestions ? Colour choices? 

Once I have your opinion I will work another model and present the final pattern. 

happy tatting always J