Long exposed threads look dainty in fine work, but untidy in #10 cotton, so we will work a pattern that appears to be made entirely of knots.
To simplify the exercise, the inner circle of rings will be made separate except for joining to the central picot. This exercise introduces the art of making joins from the right side.
Start with an inner ring: working on the right side, make four double stitches, leave a picot-space twice the length of the stitches on the thread, make four more double stitches, and draw up the ring. You will have a small ring with a picot as big as itself. Reverse work.
Leave a space of thread equal to one double stitch and, working on the wrong side, make a ring of four doubles, a small picot, eight doubles, a picot about as long as four doubles, eight more doubles, another small picot, and four doubles. Draw up and reverse work.
Leave another space equal to one double, and begin a ring by making four doubles. You are working on the right side now, so join to the central picot by pulling the thread down through the picot and passing the shuttle through the loop. The rest of the join is made exactly like the wrong-side join, save that you complete the stitch with a purl instead of a plain. Three more doubles make up the tally of four; close the ring. Notice that the ring can be slid back and forth on the picot. If it can't, try stretching the picot to straighten out the section inside the knot. Slide the new ring back against the previous one.
The next outer ring will join to the last picot of the previous outer ring in lieu of its first picot.
Make a total of eight rings in each circle. Join the eighth outer ring to the first one. This last join is technically as simple as the joins you have been making, but with thread all over your fingers, it can be difficult to see what you are supposed to do. Remain calm, study the work, persevere, and try not to link the ring through the rest of the medallion. The first time I attempted a join from this angle, I was obliged to take the ring off my fingers and lay it on the table before I could see what I was trying to do.
Tie off.
Someday, when you are a mature tatter, you will wind a shuttle with #60 sewing cotton or Size A sewing silk, and come back to the simple wheel to make a gossamer edging for a very special handkerchief. For the moment, we have exhausted its pedagogical possibilities, save for remarks about two classic edgings:
On to Exercise 4h: Railway Edging
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