Christmas in May Continues

I’m making this one all in red and because I’ve been spending a lot of time watching lectures while studying for the CPA exams I’ve made quite a bit of progress on it.  It’s nice when studying involves tatting.  It’s much easier to get started for the day if I start with watching the lectures and tatting and can more quietly slip into the harder stuff (actually working the homework problems) a little later.

The original Priscilla pattern called for doing this with a single shuttle.  Make the center ring, make the rings along one side, and then come back around the other side leaving a bare thread on the back side between the flowers.  Nowdays we have split rings, so that whole thing can be done in one pass.  Here’s my modernized version:

Use two shuttles wound continuously.  

With shuttle 1:

R 2(-2)x8

Shuttle join to the last picot of the ring just made.

*R 2-4-4-2

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

R 2+6-6-2, join is to the last picot of the previous ring.

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

Repeat from * 2 times more.

R 2-4-4-2

With both shuttles:

Split ring of  2+6/2+6 the joins are to the open (lower) picots of the rings around this one.

**Split ring of  6-2/6-2

R 2(-2) x8, this can be done with either shuttle.

With either shuttle:

***Shuttle join to the last picot of the ring just made.

R 2-4-4-2

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

R 2+6-6-2, join is to the last picot of the previous ring.

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

R 2-4-4-2

Shuttle join to the next picot of the ring.

With the other shuttle, Repeat from *** on the other side of the ring.

Split ring of  2+6/2+6 the joins are to the open (lower) picots of the rings around this one.

Repeat from ** until desired length is reached.

Hopefully that’s not too confusing with the 3 different repeats.

One of the big “discoveries” of playing around with the patterns in the Priscilla book was finding these patterns that call for making a series of rings with a single shuttle that are joined BETWEEN the rings to a row of picots (either on another ring or on a chain) below them.  It’s such a neat idea for traveling with a series of rings and I like that you can’t see the bare threads at all.  I admit that I don’t explore pattern books as much as I should, but I don’t recall seeing this sort of thing anywhere else.

I also love edgings that are both symmetrical AND can be done in one pass.  I’m thinking this would make a nice belt.  I haven’t made one of those for a while.

I’ve started another version of this in green and red that uses single shuttle split rings to put the red in the center of each flower, but I don’t have pictures, so I’ll save that to share on another day.  I’m also working on diagramming this one out, but I don’t have it done yet, so that also will have to wait for another day.