Christmas Delight

This is my third Frivolity Ice Drop in size 20 Lizbeth Christmas Delight. That means I'll be moving on to another color! Care to guess which one is wound on the shuttle?

Today I remembered...

Since I remembered my tatting bag, I was able to complete another Frivolity Ice Drop in size 20 Lizbeth #116, Christmas Delight. I'm going to have to tat a little faster if I'm going to complete all the Christmas presents I want to pass out at school!

I have 13 pattern repeats finished on my Greyson Waves Lace Scarf by Marly Bird. I only have 7 repeats to go!

A question about blocking

One of the Ice Drop Addicts on Facebook asked me if I block my Ice Drops. The answer... it depends on the Ice Drop!

Today I tatted Frivolity in size 20 Lizbeth #116, Christmas Delight. As you can see, it is quite ruffled. This one definitely needs to be blocked!

It doesn't take long... just six little pins, a shot of steam all around, and...

a beautiful Ice Drop is ready for the tree!

Mixing colors

I had some thread left on shuttles (what a surprise!), so I decided to experiment. The center is Christmas Delight, and the outer chains and rings are Victorian Red. I don't think it looks awful, but I'm not sure the two red really go together. Still, I think it's pretty enough to hang on a tree!

Snowflake #6 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

Now that I've completed my six snowflakes both with and without doodads, I can state with confidence that I much prefer the ones with the doodads. Those little metal links add just enough weight to the snowflakes to let them hang nicely. I also think that the findings help the snowflakes hold their shapes better.

So, pattern #6...

size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116

2 shuttles wound CTM

Pewter Flower from Fire Mountain Gems, stock #H20-9117FY

*Ring: 4 - 4 + 4 - 4 (if tatting without doodad, make the join a picot); do not reverse work; switch shuttles

Chain 8; reverse work

Ring: 4 - 4 - 4 - 4

Ring: 4 + 4 - 2 - 2 - 4 - 4 

Ring: 4 + 4 - 4 - 4; reverse work

Chain 8; do not reverse work; switch shuttles

Repeat from * 5 times.

Remember that on the last center ring, the final picot should be a join to the first picot of the first ring.

Snowflake #5 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

This one took me forever to tat the second time. I kept getting distracted by other patterns!

size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116
2 shuttles wound CTM
Pewter flower link from Fire Mountain Gems, stock #H20-9117FY

*Ring: 4 - 4 + 4 - 4 (if not using metal finding, make join a picot); reverse work

Chain 8; switch shuttles

Ring: 4 - 4 - 4 - 4

Ring: 4 + 4 - 2 - 2 - 4 - 4

Ring: 4 + 4 - 4 - 4; switch shuttles

Chain 8; reverse work

Repeat from *.

Remember, on the last center ring, the last picot is a join to the first picot of the first ring.

Enjoy!

Snowflake #4 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

I decided to go back to taking pictures with my laptop as the background. I think the scans do a great job of showing the tatting, but the colors just don't look as vibrant. Maybe I'll learn how to scan beautiful pictures some day... or maybe I'll just tat. :-)

Would you like the pattern for this one?

size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116
two shuttles wound CTM
Pewter Flower from Fire Mountain Gems, stock #H20-9117FY

*Ring: 4 -- 4 + 4 -- 4 (if tatting without the doodad/finding, replace join with a picot); do not reverse work, switch shuttles

Chain 8; reverse work

Ring: 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 (5 picots separated by 2 ds); reverse work

Chain 8; do not reverse work, switch shuttles

Repeat from * 5 times. Remember that on the last center ring, there is no final picot... join to first picot of first ring.

As always, if you find a mistake in the pattern, please let me know so that I can correct it. Enjoy!

Snowflake #3 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

I found some lovely hand-crafted ornament hooks online today at Wirestorm Creations. I think the 1 1/4" size would be perfect with these snowflakes!

Are you ready for another pattern?

size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116
Pewter flower finding from Fire Mountain Gems #H20-9117FY
2 shuttles wound CTM

*Ring: 4 -- 4 + 4 -- 4 (if not using the doodad/finding, picot instead of join); reverse work

Chain 4; switch shuttles

Josephine knot: 10 (I use the second half of the double stitch); switch shuttles

Chain 4; switch shuttles

Ring: 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 (6 picots divided by 2 ds); switch shuttles;

Chain 4; switch shuttles

Josephine knot: 10; switch shuttles

Chain 4; reverse work

Repeat from * five times. On last center ring, instead of third picot, join to first picot of first ring.

Cut, tie, hide ends.

Snowflake #1 without the doodad ~ Pattern included

I was interested to see how my snowflakes would look without the doodads, so here's #1 with and without. I like them both, but I really like the extra weight the doodad adds.

In case you want to give this a try, I'll give you my pattern...

These snowflakes are tatted in size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116. The doodad is from Fire Mountain Gems, H20-9117FY. A pack of 50 is under $5.

Use two shuttles, wind CTM.

**Center Ring: 4 -- 4 + 4 -- 4 (join is to hole in doodad, picot if not using doodad); reverse work

*Chain 4; switch shuttles

Josephine ring: 14 (I use the second half of the double stitch); repeat from * two times

Chain 4; reverse work**

Repeat from ** to ** five times. On the sixth center ring, make sure you join the last picot to the first picot of the first ring.

Cut, tie, and hide ends.

Christmas Delight ~ Doodad Snowflake #6

This is the way I intended the last snowflake to look!

Now that I see them side-by-side, I'm not sure that I really prefer one over the other. What do you think?

Christmas Delight ~ Doodad Snowflake #5

I meant to have concave chains on this one, but I reversed my work when I shouldn't have giving me convex chains. I guess I'll just have to try again!

Christmas Delight ~ Doodad Snowflake #4

I think this one is my favorite so far!

Christmas Delight ~ Doodad Snowflake #3

I could have finished this last night, but I ran out of thread. I didn't want to disrupt the flow of the colors, so I rewound my shuttles and started over. I'm glad I did!

I have three new snowflakes for my Christmas tree, and I'm sure there will be several more. I wonder where this doodad madness will lead me?

Christmas Delight ~ Doodad Snowflake #2

This looks much more like a snowflake to me, and it was great fun to tat! I'm beginning to feel like a designer! ;-)

For those of you with inquiring minds, the doodads are from Fire Mountain Gems. This particular doodad is listed as a 6 petal flower, pewter component, stock #H20-9117FY. The cost is $4.31 for a package of 50, which works out to about 9 cents each. Not bad to my way of thinking!

By the way, I'm not really into pattern writing. Please feel free to enlarge the pictures and trying out the ones I have doodled. On this one, the rings attached to the flower are 4-4-4-4. Each chain is 8 ds. The thrown off rings are 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2... for those of you who don't like to count dashes, that's 8 picots separated by 2 ds.

Whew! That was tough! I wonder if I have enough energy left to doodle another doodad snowflake tonight?

Doodad Snowflake

I'm not quite sure it looks like a snowflake, but it does have six rings... so, it's a snowflake! I used size 20 Lizbeth, Christmas Delight #116. As I was tatting, I kept thinking of different variations. Maybe I have my Christmas ornament of the year chosen!