Friday, June 17, 2011

Beaded Celtic Snowflake

I decided to pull out some of my own patterns for play. This is my Celtic Snowflake I in a size 60 thread with glass beads added. From bead to bead it measures 6 cm.
The hanky edging is progressing slowly as I needed to slip into production mode with some of my tatting projects. I'm still managing to practice with a few techniques as I work. The up join provides a smooth look to a ring, but is extremely awkward for me, especially with tiny picots. If any of you have any tips for the up join, please share. I have lots more work to do with the different joins before I make up my mind about how they will affect my own work.

The most exciting 'technique' I've discovered lately is from the March 9 post of Jon Yusoff entitled "How to estimate the amount of thread required for a project." While I know there are lots of great ideas out there for how to empty your shuttles with tiny projects, I much prefer the idea of loading what I need and only what I need. To test the technique, I started with some of my favorite thread sizes and a few of my favorite designs. With my first project (one of the Flaming Caverns bookmarks), I cut it so close that I had to take the shuttle off to finish the last ring. Since then I've thrown in a few extra centimeters of thread just to play it safe. I've used it nine times now, each a success. It takes a little time to do the math before you start, but I think it well worth the effort. Jon, I thank you.

4 comments:

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

I'm getting more and more tempted to try beads! I haven't tried Jon's method of measuring thread yet, probably because I have a difficult time understanding math. I guess I'd better put it on my to-do list!

Fox said...

Interesting design! I would love to see it in colour with much smaller beads.
Fox : )

God's Kid said...

What a nice snowflake! :)

Unknown said...

It's lovely! You did a beautiful job on it.