Pointed snowflake with double picots

Here's the pattern for this pointed snowflake with double picots. It's made using one shuttle and the ball thread.

Mock ring in progress

Wind 2 yards onto the shuttle, leaving a continuous thread between shuttle and ball.

Start with a self-closing mock ring (a chain with a large loop left at the beginning):

3 --3 - 3 -- 3 - 3 -- 3 - 3 -- 3 - 3 -- 3 - 3 -- 3 (6 large and 5 small picots). Put shuttle though the loop at the beginning, and close the mock ring.

Lock stitch to form 6th small picot.

Lock stitch to form 6th small picot

* Ch 3 - 3 - 3 - 3.  Do not reverse work.

R 4, very large picot (about an inch or more when open), 2, join into the picot to form double picot, 4, close ring. Do not reverse work.

Ch 3 - 3 - 3 - 3. Lock join to next small picot of mock ring.

Double picot in progress

Continue in same manner from * until you have all 6 points of the snowflake.

Hints:  The mock ring (self-closing mock ring, or SCMR) at the center is made just like tatting a chain, with a large loop left at the beginning. It's also known as an open end chain. When you've tatted all the double stitches that you want for the SCMR, you just put the shuttle through the large loop, and pull to close. 

The double picot is really easy. It's just a large picot that you join into again farther along in the tatting. I like using a "down join" for these, followed by the 2nd half of a double stitch to complete the join, but any way of making a normal picot join (a join that slides!) will work. You can slide the double picot in its join to adjust how the 2 parts look.

1st point completed with lock join

Notice that the ring at the point is not a "floating ring". The difference between a floating ring and the ring at the point of this snowflake design, is that a floating ring would be made with the "ball thread" wound onto a 2nd shuttle in order to preserve a rounded curve for the chain. In this design, I wanted the pointed shape, so I used only the one shuttle.

In size 40 Lizbeth, the finished snowflake measures a bit less than 2 inches (5 cm) across. The finished size will vary depending on the size of thread used, and the working tension of each individual. 

Credit for the pretty shuttle in the photos goes to Lace-Lovin' Librarian Diane - she "blinged" it herself, and I was very lucky to receive it as a gift!