#21 in 25 Motif Challenge

Here's the original photo from the DMC Library - Tatting of Plate V, Figure 28. This is my 21st motif.

Here's the tatted version with DMC Special cordonnet in size 20. It's done in two parts, the center 4 rings and then the chain surrounding the rings with Josphine rings thrown off the chains.

This is the center four rings which are exactly the same - well...try to make the picot length the same! There are 4 long picots and 3 shorter or regular size picots. No measurements were given for picot length so I guesstimated. I didn't use a picot gauge but if you have trouble eyeballing the length, it would be good to use one. I still get off just a hair when I use one so I try to estimate carefully. I was less careful in this early sample and more careful in the blue bookmark below.

These are the numbers according to the directions. If you are making one, it's precise. If you are joining, then you need to adapt. I found that you can leave a space for a picot in a Josephine ring and it will still look like a Josephine ring. But it took awhile for me to figure that out.

I started out making 2-2 rings at the corners to join into. When I got the second square joined, I didn't like the way the JR's flopped in the center, so that's when I tried making JR's with a picot (third square). It worked - and I do like the 1st half of the stitch best for JR's. They just line up more neatly for me but the white sample was done with the 2nd half stitch instead.

I went back to the first two squares and sewed the middle JR's together with a piece of thread, going through several stitches before and after so that it blended nicely. If you look closely at the enlarged version, you can tell that I changed from 2-2 rings (still 8 legs of thread) to the 8 st JR.

If I were to make the bookmark again, I would reduce the number of ds between the center chains so that the middle would be narrower. It seems to poof out a bit as is. I suspect this pattern has been the basis of many an adaptation for snowflakes over the decades. It's really easy. Maybe you could do a split ring at the last join of the inner rings and start the chain there, which would eliminate one set of ends to hide. Oh, this thread is Cebelia size 30.

You might notice a common element between this motif and the last one. Know what it is yet?????

??????

It's the long picot that it joined into by another thread which creates a triangular space. I wonder if that was a new design element back then. You don't really see it much these days either so all you designers....put that in your sketchbooks!