Mary Konior's "Patchwork" as a magic square

In my last post, I talked about wanting to create a magic square out of four ringed flowers, similar to those used by Mary Konior. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered, "Why not transform one of Mary's patterns into a magic square?" That idea seemed like more fun, and so I went along with it. I'm a big fan of Mary's patterns and I think this one turned out nicely.

This pattern is called "Patchwork" and appears in Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns. The original pattern is a small repeatable square that can be connected to other squares to make a large mat. I transformed it into a magic square by adding trefoils to the corners of the small squares.

For those who would like to try this pattern adaptation, here are my notes. As you tat this, keep in mind that the central flowers have a slightly different stitch count so they can attach to the trefoils. I've also changed a lot of the original stitch counts to suit my tatting style:

Right clicking and opening the photo in a new tab should make the stitch counts large enough to read. Numbers in the diagram show one repeat. The flower in the lower left corner (where numbering begins) is a good place to start tatting this pattern.

If you are really ambitious, you could make the square much larger. I digitally altered the photo to give an idea of what a larger magic square would look like:

I'd recommend starting in the corner and working your way around like this:

This larger square is all done in one pass, but it is quite a maze and careful attention is needed to keep your place!

Magic Square, with triangles?

I stumbled upon this idea quite accidentally, as I was making some adjustments to one of my triangle bookmarks. I wondered, "What would happen if I combined some of the elements of the bookmark with one of my repeatable squares?" After sketching it on my iPad, I realized that I had created a variation of the magic square. Here it is, tatted in Lizbeth size 20, Country Grape Medium:

It is all tatted in one pass, but I had to add new thread as my shuttles weren't large enough to hold what was needed.

For those who are unfamiliar with the magic square, it is a tatting pattern made up of simple rings and chains. What makes it "magic" is the fact that it is cleverly designed so that one could, in theory, make a square of any size, all in one pass. I've never tatted the original, but I have seen a number of photos (Google "tatting magic square") and there have been some forum and blog discussions about the pattern. By the way, does anyone know the origin of this pattern?

What I find fascinating is that the magic square can be made with many different elements. It might be possible to use any ring formation that can be joined at a 90 degree angle. I wonder if four ringed flowers (similar to what Mary Konior used in her tatting) would work? I think that will be my next experiment.

Small Cross (made from a repeatable square)

Here is a small cross, made using the repeatable square design from my last post. On the left (in burgundy) is the square, and on the right (in blue) is the cross:

If you missed my last post, you can click here to see what the squares look like when they are put together.

More repeatable squares

I started losing steam toward the end of this, but managed to finish it yesterday. It has sixteen repeatable squares, and I'd like to try to add an edging to it later:

I still have another set of repeatable squares that I'd like to work on, but I think I will make a few smaller projects in between. Tatting the same thing over and over again gets tiring!

Four Square

Well, this isn't exactly what I intended for the design, but I have a good idea of how to proceed:

It started out as a small repeatable square:

Which was connected into four squares:

I wanted to put an edging around the repeatable squares but was having trouble coming up with something that would fit. My goal is to make the edging repeatable, so that it will work with any amount of squares. Unfortunately, my first attempt (pictured at the top of this post) will only work with a sequence of four squares.

After that attempt, I looked through a few of Jan Stawasz's patterns and realized that I could make the edging from a mirror image of what was happening in the square pattern. I've got it all figured out on my iPad, but nothing to show just yet. Actually, while I was piecing things together, I stumbled upon another repeatable square, which I've been distracted by:

All of these designs are a continuation of the triangle theme that I've been posting about. I didn't realize how many paths this would take me down...this will easily keep me busy for the rest of the year!