Challenge Snowflake

This is a free instructional pattern for those who want to practice different tatting techniques. You may use this pattern as a teaching resource (but do not sell the pattern) and may do anything you like with the finished tatting. Please let me know if you find any errors in the pattern.

For a printable version of this pattern click HERE. For tatters who would like more detailed instructions and step by step photos, continue reading the blog post below.

To make this snowflake you will need to know the following techniques:

• rings, chains, picots, joins
• lock joins
• thrown rings (AKA floating rings)
• split rings, joining to the second side of a split ring
• self closing mock rings (SCMR)
• Josephine knots, self closing mock Josephine knots
• balanced double stitches
• using a picot gauge

You can go to YouTube and find videos for most of the techniques listed above. If there is a technique that you cannot find, leave a comment below or message me using the contact form on the right sidebar of my blog and I will see if I can locate a good video for you.

The balanced double stitch is a technique pioneered by Ruth Perry (you can visit her website at https://rozellalinden.net/). You can read Ruth's article about the balanced double stitch here: http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2008/ruthplongringchains.pdf

To see a short video of her making the balanced double stitch go here: https://youtu.be/A3c99nb0CIg

Challenge Snowflake by Robin Perfetti

Begin by winding two shuttles using the continuous thread method. When using size 20 thread and a small clover shuttle, I wind 240 full wraps on shuttle #1 and 75 full wraps on shuttle #2. Most of the work will be done with shuttle #1.

Round 1:

Round 1 is a basic six-ringed flower, made with shuttle #1. Each ring is 2 - 2 - 2 - 2, and all picots are very small. All new rings are joined to previous rings. The final ring is a split ring and is joined to the previous ring as well as to the first ring, 2 + 2 / 2 + 2. Making a split ring enables us to climb from Round 1 to Round 2.

Round 2:

Do not reverse work after Round 1. Begin Round 2 by making a split ring of 4 / 4. You can leave a very small gap between the split ring of Round 1 and the split ring of Round 2 to simulate a very small picot:

Do not reverse work after the split ring. Place shuttle #1 in the chain position and place shuttle #2 in your right hand. Make a chain of of 5 balanced double stitches. Balanced double stitches form a sturdy, straight chain:

The next element is a self closing mock Josephine knot. It is made the same way as a self closing mock ring (SCMR), except that the mock ring is made of 12 half stitches instead of full stitches. Here is a photo of the self closing mock Josephine knot before closing:

This is how it looks after closing:

Making a self closing mock Josephine knot (instead of a thrown Josephine knot) will disrupt the core thread. This disruption enables the next chain to change directions and move back down towards Round 1. After the self closing mock Josephine knot, make a chain of 5 balanced double stitches. Then, tat a ring of 4 + 4 (joining to the ring from Round 1):

Continue in this way around the center, until you reach the place where Round 2 began. Finish by making a lock join near the base of the 4 / 4 split ring. It takes some effort but a small crochet hook can be squeezed through the spot between the base of the ring and the first chain to make this lock join. Our threads are now in position to begin working on Round 3:

Don't worry if Round 2 has slight cupping. This is by design and will flatten out after Round 3 is added.

Round 3:

Do not reverse work after Round 2. Keep shuttle #1 in the chain position and shuttle #2 in your right hand. Make a chain of 6 balanced double stitches:

Next, make a thrown ring of 5 - 1 --- 7. If you are using size 20 thread, make the long picot 7 mm tall. If you are using size 40 thread, make a 5 mm tall picot. For size 80 thread, make a 3 mm tall picot. I used a clover picot gauge to size my picot:

After closing the thrown ring, it will look like this:

Next, make a chain of 5 balanced double stitches:

After this, you will need to pinch a section of core thread to make another SCMR. The SCMR has a few Josephine knots thrown off it, as well as a clover. Written instructions for the SCMR are as follows:

SCMR
Chain: 3, do not reverse work (DNRW), switch shuttles (SS)
Josephine Knot: make a ring of 12 half stitches. DNRW, SS
Chain: 3 - 2, DNRW, SS
Ring: 2 + (join to previous chain) 2 - 1 -- 1 - 2, DNRW
Ring: 2 + (join to previous ring) 4 - 1 -- 1 - 4 - 2, DNRW
Ring: 2 + (join to previous ring) 1 -- 1 - 2 - 2, DNRW, SS
Chain: 2 + (join to previous ring) 3, DNRW, SS
Josephine Knot: make a ring of 12 half stitches. DNRW, SS
Chain: 3. Close SCMR

This is what the SCMR looks like before closing:

And here is what it looks like after closing:

Do not reverse work after the SCMR. Make a chain of 5 balanced double stitches. Then, make a thrown ring of 7 --- 1 - 5, using a picot gauge to measure the long picot as before. Finally, make a chain of 6 balanced double stitches, and lock join to the gap near the base of the ring from Round 2:

The next chain is made of 6 balanced double stitches. You can count the previous lock join as the first half of the first balanced double stitch if you want. I find that it helps to even out my tatting. (If you do this, you would tat the second half of a balanced double stitch followed by 5 full balanced double stitches):

Now, make a thrown ring of 5 + 1 + 7, joining to the small picot and large picot of the previous thrown ring:

You can use the point of your tatting shuttle to adjust the long picot as desired:

Begin again at Round 3's chain of 5 balanced double stitches, (followed by the self closing mock ring), and continue working the instructions until you reach the final thrown ring.

Joining the final thrown ring back to the first thrown ring can be tricky. You don't need to make a folded join here. Instead, you can rotate the tatting counterclockwise until it is in a comfortable position to make the join. Here is the tatting in the normal position:

And here is the tatting after it is rotated into a more comfortable joining position:

The first join after it is made:

The closed ring after first and second joins are made:

After this, it is just a matter of making another chain of 6 balanced double stitches. Cut, tie to the place where Round 3 began, and hide ends.

Here is the finished snowflake:

Free Pattern: Onion Ring Bookmark

I made a few small adjustments to the onion ring edging and came up with an onion ring bookmark. I've created a basic printable pattern which you can find on my free patterns page or go to directly by clicking HERE. If you notice any errors in the pattern, please let me know.

I tatted the bookmark in DMC size 40 white, because I had some left over from my onion ring magic square. Then, I made another version in DMC size 80 variegated violet:

The violet version measures 1 inch across and the white version measures 1.4 inches across. The bookmarks can be made to any length you want.

Onion Ring Magic Square with edging

Here is the Onion Ring Magic Square with a finished edge:

The pattern for the edging and the square can be found on my Free Patterns page. If you want to go directly to the magic square pattern click HERE and the edging instructions are available in a blog post click HERE.

The finished square measures 10.6 inches x 10.6 inches when tatted in size 40 thread. I used Lizbeth size 40 in Ocean Teal Medium and DMC Cordonnet Special size 40 in white. One ball of each was plenty to finish the square.

Here are a few more photos:

This edging can easily be turned into a bookmark as well, which I will share in a future blog post.

Finishing up

I've finished the Onion Ring Magic Square and now I just need to add a border:

This is tatted in Lizbeth size 40 thread in Ocean Teal Medium, and DMC size 40 Cordonnet Special in white. It measures 9.5 inches tall and wide. Here is a bird's eye view:

The pattern for this is available on my Free Patterns page, or you can get to the pattern directly by clicking HERE. I started an Instagram account a few weeks ago (@tattingbythebay) and am also posting these photos there. I'm still getting used to Instagram and how it all works, but so far I'm liking the simplicity of the platform and being able to see photos of everyone's tatting very easily.

Revisiting an old project

This blog post is about the Onion Ring Magic Square. You can get to the free pattern by clicking HERE.

It's been a long time since I've worked on this piece of tatting. The last time I blogged about it was just about two years ago. I had originally planned to make the square bigger, but I changed my mind for two reasons. Firstly, I don't want to get overwhelmed by the amount of tatting and have this piece end up in the drawer again. Secondly, I'd like to try adding the border that I designed earlier this year, and I would not be able to do that with the original plans for the square. Here's my progress so far:

I had to undo a few rings and chains so that I could change direction from my original plan. Luckily, the process went smoothly and I didn't have any thread breakage.

I'm so glad I have information stored on my blog. I had forgotten what thread I was using for this project and had to look at my previous blog posts to find out. It's Lizbeth size 40 in Ocean Teal Medium, and DMC Cordonnet Special size 40 in Blanc (white):

I'm hoping to have the square finished within the next week or two and then I will be able to start on the border.

Edging for the Onion Ring Magic Square

I've created an edging for the onion ring square #2 and onion ring magic square #2.

In Lizbeth size 20 thread, the smaller square measures 4 inches across and the larger square measures 7 inches across. The small square has an edging with decorative picots and the large square has a clean edging. Substitute one for the other depending on your preference. The edging can be repeated and attached to larger versions of the magic square as well.

The pattern for the squares can be found by clicking HERE, and the edging is instructed below.

Due to irregular distances between joining picots, I had to get creative with the stitch counts for the chains. Pay close attention to the chains and what parts of the square they are attached to. Here is a photo of the stitch counts for the small square with decorative picots:

Written instructions are below (see photo above for join locations, see the Reading the Patterns page of the Onion Ring Magic Square pattern for abbreviations)

Beginning at the set of 7-7 rings in the lower left of the photo:

*Ring: 7 - 7 (during repeats, join this ring to the previous onion ring)
Ring: 7 - 7, RW
Chain 6 + 4, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain 7 + 2 - 3 - 1 + (CWJ to prev ring) 1 - 3 - 2 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 7 + 5, RW

Corner Flower
Ring: 10 + 5 - 5
Ring: 5 + 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 5
Ring: 5 + 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 5
Ring: 5 + 5 - 10, RW

Chain: 5 + 7, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain 7 + 2 - 3 - 1 + (CWJ to prev ring) 1 - 3 - 2 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 4 + 6, RW
Ring: 7 + 7
Ring: 7 - 7, RW
Chain: 6 + 9, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain 7 + 2 - 3 - 1 + (CWJ to prev ring) 1 - 3 - 2 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 9 + 6, RW*

Repeat instructions between asterisks around the square.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is a photo of stitch counts for the large square with a clean edge (no decorative picots). Right click and open in a new tab for a larger photo:

Written instructions are below.

Beginning at 7-7 rings where numbering starts in the photo:

*Ring: 7 - 7 (during repeats, join this ring to the previous onion ring)
Ring: 7 - 7, RW
Chain: 6 + 4, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain: 7 + 6 + (CWJ to prev ring) 6 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 7 + 5, RW

Ring: 7 + 7
Ring: 7 - 7, RW
Chain: 5 + 7, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain: 7 + 6 + (CWJ to prev ring) 6 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 4 + 6, RW
Ring: 7 + 7
Ring: 7 - 7, RW
Chain: 6 + 9, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain: 7 + 6 + (CWJ to prev ring) 6 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 9 + 6, RW
Ring: 7 + 7
Ring: 7 - 7, RW
Chain: 6 + 4, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain: 7 + 6 + (CWJ to prev ring) 6 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 7 + 5, RW

Corner Flower
Ring: 10 + 5 - 5
Ring: 5 + 10 - 5
Ring: 5 + 10 - 5
Ring: 5 + 5 - 10, RW

Chain: 5 + 7, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain: 7 + 6 + (CWJ to prev ring) 6 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 4 + 6, RW
Ring: 7 + 7
Ring: 7 - 7, RW
Chain: 6 + 9, DNRW, SS

Onion Ring
Ring: 10 - 10, RW
Chain: 7 + 6 + (CWJ to prev ring) 6 - 7 + (LJ to base of ring), RW, SS

Chain: 9 + 6, RW*

Repeat instructions between asterisks around the square.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These instructions were written from my samples and have NOT been test tatted for accuracy. If you notice any errors please contact me so that I can fix them.

Onion Ring Magic Square Pattern

The onion ring magic square pattern is now available. You can access the file by clicking here, or by going to my free patterns page. I have test tatted and proofread this myself, but if you notice any mistakes please let me know!

To keep everything consistent, I ended up tatting these squares in white thread. However, I think this pattern would look more interesting in two colors.

I've made this pattern free as I really want to share the idea of designing magic squares. I love that these patterns can be made all in one round and would be very pleased if more designs cropped up in the future.

I still need to write a few posts to show the design process. If all goes well, I should have a post about deconstructing the magic square next week, and a post about how I designed the square a week after that.

Pattern for Dillmont inspired bookmark

I received a comment on a previous blog post, asking if I had a pattern for this bookmark.

Coincidentally, I've been working on writing a pattern for this, but haven't gotten around to proofreading or testing it yet. However, I do have some diagrams ready.

It's a simple concept, but does rely on the use of split rings to travel from one triangle to the next. The pattern is based on Figure 23 (Triangular motifs) from Therese de Dillmont's DMC Library: Tatting, which was published in 1880. I think it was Kathy Niklewicz who directed me to her and Sue's experiments with this pattern.

I changed the stitch counts to be able to more easily go from one triangle to another. It starts as a simple "braid" which works well in size 20 thread:

Here is the accompanying diagram for the braid. Red indicates rings made with Shuttle 1 while blue indicates rings made with Shuttle 2. Rings with a line down the middle are split rings. All triangles have the same stitch count:

If you turn the corner and go down the other side, you can make it into a bookmark. This works better in smaller threads. The bookmark I made is done in size 80 but it would probably also work in size 40 thread. In size 80 it measures 1.6 inches wide and can be made however long you want:

Here is the accompanying diagram for the bookmark:

Following the same concept as the bookmark, you can zigzag back and forth to make a mat. I wanted to make my mat symmetrical on the left and right side, so I had to follow a more creative path to do so in one pass. Here is a photo of the mat:

And a diagram showing the order of operations for a symmetrical mat (please refer to the bookmark or braid diagrams above for stitch counts).

If you understand the flow of this somewhat complicated diagram, you can extend the mat to any length or width that you want. You can also just zig zag back and forth if you don't mind a mat that is asymmetrical.

Organizing the triangles in a different way will make a hexagon, which can be used as a coaster:

Here is the accompanying diagram for the hexagon. Like the diagram for the mat, it shows the path of completion, but does not have any stitch counts. Please refer to the diagram for the bookmark or braid for stitch counts, as they are the same in all triangles.

If the numbers aren't big enough in any of the diagrams, you can right click on the images and open them in a new tab.

I'm still working on a PDF file with all of these patterns and will post a link here when it is done.

A few more flakes

I've been tatting a few more snowflakes to compare thread and crystal sizes:

The one in the upper left is tatted with size 80 DMC thread and 4mm Swarovski Crystals. The middle snowflake is tatted with size 50 DMC thread and 5mm Swarovski Crystals. The snowflake on the bottom right is tatted with size 20 Lizbeth thread and 6mm Swarovski Crystals. I'm very pleased that the different sized crystals worked so well with all of my thread!

Measurements for each snowflake (from point to point) are as follows:

• Size 80 thread: 3.4 inches
• Size 50 thread: 4 inches
• Size 20 thread: 5.25 inches

For instructions on making these snowflakes, please see my previous post. I've updated that post to include crystal and picot gauge information for sizes 80, 50, and 20 thread. I wouldn't recommend making it in size 20 though...the points tend to flop a bit due to its size. Just look how big it is!

I much prefer the snowflake in smaller threads (size 50 or 80). Here's how the smallest, size 80 snowflake looks:

Also, be sure to check out Frivole's new video where she shows how to add the crystals to the center of a tatted star. I've been using her method to add the crystals to the center of my snowflakes. It's really a very clever technique!

Dainty Snowflake

Well, it's not a very original name (it's been used for lots of crafted snowflakes), but I still wanted to call this one Dainty Snowflake because it's been designed to be tatted with small thread. I've been making these to put into Christmas cards and to give as gifts.

The one on the left has been tatted with size 80 DMC Cordonnet Special, using 4mm Swarovski bicone crystals in the center. It measures 3.4 inches from point to point. The one on the right is tatted with size 50 DMC Cordonnet Special, which is about the same as Lizbeth size 40 thread. It measures 4 inches from point to point.

As a holiday gift to my blog readers, I'm including the hand drawn diagram for this pattern below :) Right click and open the image in a new tab to see the numbers more clearly:

UPDATE: Here are a few more diagram photos that are colorized to show when to reverse work. Reverse works will occur every time the color changes from red to blue, or from blue back to red:

I've been having a lot of fun using Frivole's method to add the Swarovski Crystals to the middle of the flakes. These are placed instead of the central 4-2-4 rings in the above diagram (see below for more details about sizing).

The pictorial for Frivole's technique is part of her Crystal Star pattern, which is available in her Etsy shop. Frivole has also uploaded a YouTube video showing how to add the crystals to the center of her star.

Sizing for the Crystals:

For each snowflake you will need six crystals, and a large picot gauge. I made my picot gauges by measuring and cutting index cards.

In size 80 thread you will need:

• 4mm Swarovski Xilion Bicone crystals
• 60 mm picot gauge

In size 40 to 50 thread you will need:

• 5mm Swarovski Xilion Bicone crystals (these can be purchased on eBay)
• 74 mm picot gauge

In size 20 thread you will need:

• 6mm Swarovski Xilion Bicone crystals
• 90 mm picot gauge. (The 90 mm picot gauge will make the crystals very snug, so if you feel like this might be a problem, increase the gauge by a couple of millimeters.)

Although I've included details for size 20 thread, you probably don't want to use anything larger than size 40 (unless you want a really big snowflake). I think size 50 DMC thread makes a good snowflake:

If you have any questions about the pattern, feel free to let me know. Now I must get back to tatting snowflakes...