I have finished the Pinwheel Snowflake pattern! At least the first two rows. I’ll get to the third row later.
I’ve added the pattern to My Patterns page to the left. This will be easier to get now.
Thank you to everyone that has shown interest in it.
It’s that time of year again when our shuttles turn to snowflakes and other winter and Christmas things. Unless you’ve started already, which I should have. Every year I tell myself I’ll start early, maybe even in January, and every year I don’t. So I am behind and trying to hurry and get my Christmas tatting done. How do I do that? By designing another snowflake.
I started out with a ‘traditional’ center to make the finished version have six points. In the second round, I tried something a bit different. It took me a while to get from the curve with five rings to the straight chain. Several things I tried didn’t work out too well, but this solution worked pretty well.
The second time I made the snowflake I thought having it in two colors would be nice. When I got to the straight chain I changed it up again, making it a spiral instead. I liked this but thought something could be done with the center. I wasn’t sure it looked finished like this, so I also added another round.
On this try, I made the center slightly different but still just rings and chains. I think I made it a bit too frilly on the rings, though. The added third round gave it a whole other look. I wondered how this would look in two colors. FYI, the thread was still damp from blocking when I took this picture. The picots were dry but the tatting wasn’t.
I like the center of this one with fewer picots on the rings and the different lengths of the picots on the chains. When making the spiral chains on the second round I made too many repeats, making the chains longer. I didn’t realize I’d done this until I was farther along and didn’t want to go back and fix it so I just made all of them the same. Not bad, but I like the shorter chains a bit better.
All of these snowflakes were made with Lizbeth size 20 thread. The first two are in Harvest Orange #694 (I think) with the center in Autumn Spice #136. The blue one is Country Turquoise Lt #660. The red and white are Christmas Red #671 and Snow White #601. The first two measure 3 1/2 inches (9 cm) across and the other two measure 4 3/4 inches (12 cm) across.
Looking at the pictures on the screen I’ve changed my mind, I think the first two snowflakes look finished without the last round. They look okay with the third round as well. What do you think?
“Be willing to accept help. Look at what the pinwheel can do with a little help from the wind.”
Believe it or not, I have finished the pattern for the Victor Snowflake! Amazing, isn’t it? If you are interested, please leave a comment or email me for the pattern.
When test-tatting Victor I decided to use Lizbeth # 694 Bright Orange and # 698 Fudge Med in size 20, because it is fall and I felt like using fall colors. Using two colors helps define the pattern, which is helpful when writing it out.
I’ve been getting out the fall and Halloween decorations in the hopes of putting a bit up in the house. I usually decorate at work not so much the house, but this year is different. Now I have to decide what I’m putting where, and how much. It would look best if I clean up the house a bit first, so this may be limited. I think I’ll leave the spiderwebs until after Halloween, LOL.
One thing I have already hung up is the quilted ball ornament I received from Isdahara way back in 2009. She had a giveaway on her blog, Ambitatterous, and I won! The really fun part about the giveaway was that we actually met up for her to give me the prize.
Not only did she make this lovely quilted ball but she added tatting to make it extra special. The pumpkin on the front and back is ‘Tatted Pumpkin’, pattern by Sherry Matthews ©2004, and the edging is ‘Pumpkin Vine Edging’ pattern by Heidi Sunday. Isdahara doesn’t do much with her blog these days but she is the admin for the Facebook group Summer Snowflakes. Always fun snowflakes to see there if you’d like to check it out.
To enter Isdahara’s giveaway you had to make up a ‘fractured quote‘ about tea and tatting. Tatters came up with some good ones! Below are the two I came up with. Not saying they were good, but they were fun to make!
“Tea and tatting – Mmmmm, two of life’s exquisite pleasures that together bring near-bliss” tattrldy (mis-quoted from Christine Hanrahan)
Hey diddle duddle, the cat and the shuttle
Tatting all over the room
The little dog sipped on honey and tea
And wrapped all the knots on a spoon
tattrldy
I mentioned in my last post that I didn’t complete any tatting while on vacation, which is true, but I almost did. I finished this snowflake the day after we got home.
I still had the Lizbeth #674 Garnet Dk on my shuttles while trying to decide what I wanted to do. I started the center and was very happy with it. I’m not as happy with the outside arms, probably because the dark thread made seeing the stitches hard when I didn’t have the best lighting. Which was often. The reason the arms are a bit wonky is, I suspect, incorrect stitch counts as well as different tensions. This is what happens when you put it down and pick it up at odd intervals while making it.
Overall I’m happy with this snowflake, which I’m calling Victor after where I started it. I’m thinking this might be my family Christmas ornament this year, but I could change my mind at any time.
Victor, Idaho, is a cute little town right on Idaho state highway 33, just five miles from the Wyoming state line. The town has some nice businesses, several of which we visited while there. We did find the street parking kind of odd, none of us had seen it before. All the cars have to back into the parking spots on the street.
We were asking ourselves what was going on when we spotted the sign.
At least they gave directions. The street is marked with a line to give you space so you can pull over in preparation for backing in. Speaking to one of my daughters when we got home I was told that she had seen this before in a business parking lot. I guess you never know what you are going to find when you travel.
“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.” travel ad
Last year while on vacation, I came up with a snowflake. I came across a picture of it this week and thought I would try writing down the pattern. I jotted down the stitch count and made it again. Did you know it’s easier to tat than put into words what you tatted?
I remember thinking about this snowflake and wondering if I should have stopped one round earlier. When I made it last year, I didn’t take any interim pictures, but I took a picture of it at this stage this time.
I guess if you like snowflakes without pointy tips this is okay. It might make a nice center for a doily, too. The good news is that when I write out the pattern a person could stop here if they wanted.
I made several mistakes in this but I’m not worried. This was to get the stitch counts and the techniques, which I changed up in the middle for a couple of things. It still came out pretty well. I did it in three shades of green: Lizbeth #187 Green Ice for the center, # 687 Peppermint Green for the next two rounds, and #638 Christmas Green for the outside, all in size 20. I’m not sure that I care for how the greens look together after I finished it. When I picked them out from my stash – with no natural light – I thought they were okay. When I was tatting with them I had my doubts about them going together, but by that time I just wanted to continue.
The finished snowflake is 5 inches (127 mm) from point to point. I have my notes and scribbles but I haven’t started the diagram yet. I don’t mind putting it down on paper, and sometimes it’s fun, but most of the time I’d rather be tatting.
“Like snowflakes, the human pattern is never cast twice. We are uncommonly and marvelously intricate in thought and action.” Alice Childress
I tatted during December but have been so busy, mostly with family, I haven’t posted much. I did discover Lizbeth Metallic thread and have been trying it out. I’ve seen other tatters have used it and finally decided to try it myself. Handy Hands are raising their prices a bit so I bought thread before the new year started.
This is an old snowflake pattern of mine that I tried it out on. It tats so much better than other metallic threads I’ve tried! This is silver #311 and Turquoise Green #321. I love how it turned out, even if it has seven arms instead of six so not quite a snowflake.
I tried the same Turquoise Green as an angel. This is my pattern which I modified slightly. This came out beautifully!
I bought several balls of the metallic threads in various colors. The silver and turquoise threads are the only ones I’ve tatted with yet, but I look forward to tatting in the others as well.
I have not yet had time to write out the tree patterns that I posted about a couple of weeks ago. Look for them sometime this year, hopefully in the somewhat near future.
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? Henry David Thoreau
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/henry_david_thoreau_153926?src=t_busy
