To follow this discussion you will need a shuttle wound with a smooth, even, hard-twisted #10 crochet cotton, and a #8 steel crochet hook. (A 1.50 mm imported hook is the same size as a #8 American hook.)
Or pick a thread you are comfortable with and a hook such that the thread just fills it. See "Threads" in the Encyclopedic Index for a discussion of which threads are easiest to work with.
For a preliminary exercise, make a sixteen-stitch ring with three picots, like the rings you made for the simple edging and the trefoil, but with three changes: Make each double "purl, plain" (that is, work from the wrong side.) Make the first and third picots just large enough to allow a #8 crochet hook to be forced through them. Make the middle picot very large; before it is pushed together, it should span as much thread as the eight stitches already worked.
Between this ring and the next, leave a space of thread which you can easily duplicate. The exact length isn't important, but your spaces should be uniform, and they must be wider than your rings. About twice the width of the rings will be comfortable.
Join the second ring to the last picot of the first ring, as you did when making the simple edging. Also join the middle of the ring to the long middle picot of the first ring. Make the third picot of the ring small, like the first and third picots of the first ring. (This is the "third" picot even though the ring has only one picot, because I am counting the joins which were made in the places where picots were on the first ring.)
Repeat the second ring three more times, for a total of five rings joined together. After each ring is closed, stretch the long picot by pulling on it with the shaft of your crochet hook or the pick of your shuttle. This keeps it from twisting and tangling, and settles the joins of the rings. The rings should be capable of sliding back and forth on the picot thread, just as stitches slide back and forth on the ring thread. Push each ring up against the previous ring.
Work a sixth ring, joining three times: to the last picot of the previous ring, to the long middle picot of the first ring, and to the first picot of the first ring.
You have made an inside-out rosette. This formation is seldom used in this exact form, because the long floats of unworked thread are unsightly, but it often appears where the sections of a complex pattern join together.
If you want your very first medallion to be used, you can appliqué it to something by working buttonhole stitch or another embroidery stitch over the exposed threads. For security, and for a more comfortable padding to the embroidery, lightly-twist the tails around the bare threads, so that the embroidery is worked over a double or triple thread.
A better plan is to staple the inverted rosette to a sheet of notebook paper, write down exactly how it was made and of what thread, and use it for reference when creating designs. If carefully applied, a staple can bridge over a thread to hold it securely without damaging it.
This is a good time to discuss record-keeping, because the notation used to record a design can save double-talk in the discussions to follow.
On to Exercise 4c: Keeping Records
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