A Very Merry Christmas

And for the 25th snowflake, Mirabelle! A pattern by Frivole will do nicely to round out the snowflake-a-day-until-Christmas posting.

I hope you all are having (or have had) a very Merry Christmas!

"Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King."

Celeste, Finally

I bought the Celeste pattern nearly as soon as Frivole put it out. But from then on there's always been a reason to delay tatting it. However I have finally finished it today! I eyeballed these picots so they are a little wonky. But it turns out my mother loves the pattern so I shall tat another one for her and I will probably use a gauge for that one.

Twenty-Three

Snowflake number 23: one of my favorite patterns.

The 22nd

This is a different Ribbon Floss Snowflake from last time, I promise! That makes what, 4 in the last 4 days? Don't worry, I'm sick of them too. Something else is in store for tomorrow.

We Interrupt Your Scheduled Program to Announce....

an arrival from Singapore!

I won Umintsuru's hanky sachet giveaway, and here it is. 

It is lovely and pleasing to the eye. I like the colorway and the way it compliments the handkerchief. And of course it is beautifully and precisely tatted. I was amazed at how even and regular it was. It is sitting on my bookshelf now, adding some beauty to the room. Thank you, Umintsuru!

And Another

Just one more Ribbon Floss Snowflake for the 21st. It will get more exciting soon, I hope. I am in the throes of packing to go see my family. Can't wait!

Rosebud the Second

And for day 20, another Rosebud Snowflake. So pretty. And so fast. Both important right now.

Twofer

Just another Ribbon Floss Snowflake today. Oh, wait -- just another TWO Ribbon Floss Snowflakes today. That's the big excitement around here. Why two? Well, I realized how many people I wanted to give snowflakes to, and tomorrow is my last day of work this year. (Who's excited? Not me. Yes, all right, me.)

Snowflake Eighteen

Frivole designed a beautiful little star this year and I added a sixth arm to make a snowflake. It's definitely a star-ry kind of snowflake. It was such a joy to tat; even with modifications the pattern is consummately elegant. Simple and flowing well.

Seventeenth

Another design by Jan Stawasz. I got distracted partway through this snowflake and remained distracted for two points. Can you see it? Oops. I will have to make this again to do justice to this lovely design.

Snow Crystal II for the XVI

Here is the second version of Frivole's Snow Crystal pattern. I thought I'd have to block it to be satisfied but it is pretty darn cute even without blocking!

Hard to tell from the photo, but this is only about an inch and a quarter across. 

Snowflake Number Fifteen

An adaptation of the "Small SCMR Mat" that I did last year.

Fourteenth

A modified version of Orsi's snowflake which I did previously. I like the way the Josephine knots change the overall shape of the snowflake, making more of a straight line between point to point appear.

Snowflake the Thirteenth

Minaret, by Vida Sunderman. I wanted to split ring out of the first round of this, but in a moment of absent-mindedness I started with a ring instead of with the chain I needed so that I could climb out on the final ring that joined to it. So I thought, it's no fun unpicking all this -- I will just use a split chain at the end and then the split ring. But because all the chains are pointing inward on this round, it took forever to figure out how to align the work so that I could make the split chain in the right direction. Still... it was more fun than unpicking all of the first round!

Twelfth Snowflake of December

Stellar, by Frivole. Love this snowflake -- all the elements work together to form such a compact, clearly-defined shape. But none of the rings or chains are twisted strangely or aligned in any way foreign to usual tatting. Great example of my favorite virtue in any design: working with the natural form of tatting to achieve a particular shape or effect without ceasing to also look like tatting.

Snowflake Eleven

Simple and classic: the Ribbon Floss snowflake from Vida Sunderman's book. One of the ones that convinced me to buy the book.

Ten

Snowflake number ten is Frivole's December Motif from last year. I modified this one because I didn't want to use beads, so I added two tiny rings in their place. I have mixed feelings about the results -- midway through it looked very ugly but in the end it pulled through. Still it might have been best to have just made it as written.

Nine: Frauberger Snowflake

Today's snowflake is from a book published in 1921 by Tina Frauberger and now available online here (pg 54). Unfortunately the book is in German. I tried to decipher which sets of numerals in the text were stitch counts for which parts of the pattern, but I ended up fudging the stitch counts through most of the flake. It turned out pretty much like the picture in the end, which was the important thing. This is very reminiscent of my favorite cross pattern, the Small Cross by Mary Konior. I wonder if Mary Konior was inspired by this design or if she just came up with the same shape independently. At any rate I think it makes a lovely cross as well as a lovely snowflake.

Spoke Snowflake

Oldie but a goodie. Vida Sunderman's Spoke Snowflake:

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: Number Seven and Friends

Today I present Wanda's Crowned Wheel. I love this pattern as a snowflake!

This is only my 7th snowflake for this December, but I still have plenty left over from previous years and last night I was able to make use of some of them. My roommate and I decorated our house for Christmas. Here's a close-up of my favorite decoration: the cedar garland with red ornaments and tatted snowflakes.

Rosebud Snowflake

Well, it's a little bit bigger! The pattern for this calls it the Knobby Bud Medallion and to me it was one of those "this could be a snowflake" patterns. I blocked the chains just a little bit pointy. It's not the most snowflakiest of snowflakes, but I like it quite a bit.

Today in addition to tatting lace snowflakes, I got to observe quite a lot of real ones! I live in an area that cancels everything for two inches of snow, so that's about what we got, and the schools that I work in cancelled everything. So I had a whole day off, but I couldn't spend it all tatting, because I had to clean too. I did get started on tomorrow's snowflake though. It's nice to be ahead a little bit.

Snowflake the Fifth

Just a little doodle for today -- not the kind that is exactly from a pattern, but I did get the idea from Wanda 's blog. Hopefully on the weekend my snowflakes can start to get bigger again!

Number Four

This one turned out a little wonky in my hands but the lines of the design shine through: Snow Crystal I by Frivole. So simple and so beautiful. (Although I think it was far from simple to design: the work that went into making it so clean and effective is really impressive.)

Another Flake

Here's a fuzzy picture of my efforts for today: a Jan Stawasz design. The tatting community lost a great member in him. I love the way this design swirls.

Two Snowflakes

Here are two snowflakes for two days of December. I'll see how long I can keep this up. The first one (on the right) was Le Flocon de Frivole (still one of my very favorites) and the second, smaller, one is by Orsi. Two stellar snowflakes from two stellar designers! Here's to a flurry of their like this month.