I'm off today, busy tatting and catching up with other things, including some blog-surfing. I was checking out the tutorials on Sunshine's blog and found her square yo-yo tutorial. That led me to a square yo-yo template and the image of a quilt or wallhanging made up of square yo-yo's.

Okay...a day later...

Here's the original photo of the August mystery motif. It's from the October, 1925 issue of Needlecraft. I've used this page before. It has several motifs with supposedly matching edgings.

Does this look like a matching edging? LOL! It's the one they matched up with the motif but I thought another one on the same page looked more compatible. These look like a row of happy people dancing. I had a lot of trouble with the edging and you can see how mine is different, a little, from the original. I wonder if the stitch count is off because no matter how much I snugged up the chain around the rings, I could not get it to lay close. There are 5 stitches between picots on the ring and 8 stitches of chain between joins on the ring. I think 6 or 7 would work better but didn't try it yet.

This was my first attempt. It wasn't too bad but without the photo to refer to, I'm not sure how you know when to reverse work or not. The 2 rings on top of each other caused confusion for more than one person.

Here's the sample from Mary Harris of Avon, IN. She did a good job but she did say she had to read through it several times to get it sorted out.

Here is a colorful one by Umi n Tsuru.

This is Jane Eborall's sample. Where does she find time to try something like this between roly poly bags and Christmas trees and sequin motifs??? Jane struggled a bit too. You may have seen the pile of threads on her blog when she mentioned it.

This is the one I tatted today with updated directions, which follow. Feel free to email me with any questions.

All picots are small joining picots until the last round.
All joins are lock joins since most of the work is chain work.

Medallion
1. Center ring 3 (-3) 7 times, clr, mock picot
2. R 8 – 8, clr, rw
3. Ch 11, lj (lock join) to p on prev r, tp (tiny joining picot) ch 11, lj to base of prev r
This appears to be an onion ring. If you prefer to make onion rings with an outer ring instead of a chain, you can do so. The number of stitches and the join should be in the same place. Just make sure you are going continually around the center ring.
4. Ch 2, lj to next p on first r, tp, ch 2, lj to next p on 1st r,
Repeat from step #2 around to last ch 2, lj, tp,ch 2.. Here you have another choice to make. If you know how to make a split chain, attach the thread to the base of the 1st ring and work 2 chain stitches back to the joining picot. You are now in position for the next element.

If you don’t know how to do split chains, you can end ch 2, lj to p, tp ch 2, lj to base of 1st ring and cut & tie. You will attach the thread to the last picot. You could also stop at the picot, ignore the last ch 2, which will leave a small bare space, and begin the next element where you just lock joined in the picot.

5. Ch 8 – 6 lj to tp at top of onion ring, tp, 6 – 8, lj in tp between ch 2 segments between onion rings. Continue around to the last ch 8 and make another choice. You can make another split chain by attaching the thread to the picot where the round started and work 8 stitches back. This will be the point to start the next element.

If you don’t know how to do split chains, ch 8 and lj in picot where round started, cut & tie. You will need to reattach thread to last picot of the last ch (between ch 6 and ch 8).

The picots on this last round are decorative so they can be as big or small as you like.

6. Ch 6 – 6, lj to 1st p of next ch, 7 – 6, jl next tp at top of onion r, 6 -7, lj next p. Repeat around, ending by lj where rnd 6 ch began. Cut & tie and hide ends.

I attempted the edging earlier but had trouble even with the photo. Today I sat down and rewrote the instructions - twice. LOL! I don't know why they had them so complicated because it's really not hard to do once I had the ring going the right way. I did play around with the large ring picots. They have one picot in the center with a join although that's not how they had you make the picot. I skipped it for a few rings and then realized the last chain joined into that picot so I got it in the last ring. I rather like joining into 2 picots at the same time, but do whatever you want. That's the beauty of tatting....YOU get to choose.

Edging –

1. R 5-2-5-6-6, rw
2. Ch 8, lj to 1st p (the 2 small p should be on the opposite side of r) rw
3. R 5-5-5-5 (3 picots total), clr, rw
4. Ch 8, lj to 1st p of r just made, 2-2-2-1, lj to next p of r, 1-2-2-2, lj to 3rd p of r, 8, lj at base of r, 8 , lj to 2nd p of 1st r, rw
5. Make a ring like 1st made
6. Ch 8, lj to 1st p of r just made, ch 9, lj to last p of last large r made, 6 – 6 – 9, lj where 1st ch started, 8, lj to middle p of above r
7. Repeat from beginning of row, joining large rings by 1st and last picots., for length desired. Cut & tie.
8. Attach thread to middle picot of large ring, ch 8 – 8, j to middle p of next large r, ch 8-8, j to middle p of next large r, repeat to end.