Lavender Pattern

 I've finished off the other five lavender 'bunches' for the order. It's very much free style tatting and I made all sorts of variations along the way. I started by encapsulating three threads, then hid one thread in the first bud, to make a slimmer stalk. I sometimes encapsulated using sets of 4-4 and sometimes used a spiral stitch. I tried out various methods for the leaf. I'm going to write down here the method I finished up with, so that I don't have to relearn it all when I make more. 

Materials

Two shuttles, shuttle 1 with purple thread and shuttle 2 with green, preferably a more grey green than I used here. A safety pin. 

Abbreviations

JK, josephine knot, made by making 10 second half stitches in a ring. ds double stitch

Set Up

Tie the threads together so that there is a short length of purple thread and about 35cm of green thread, tie a safety pin to the end of the green thread:

Method

Using shuttle 1, make a JK, hiding the purple end inside. 

Using shuttle 2, encapsulate the purple thread and the green end, working 18 second half stitches in spiral stitch. 

Work another JK with shuttle 1. Then another 18 second half with shuttle 2. Then work 3 JKs together :

Work 24 second half encapsulating stitches and then another 3 JKs, trying to position them on the other side of the stalk. Work 24 half stitches and then the leaf. 

For the leaf, use shuttle 2 as the 'ball thread' and the safety pin as the working thread. Work 4 ds and then 7 graduated picots, separated by 3 ds, followed by 2 ds:

Work one unflipped stitch and then position the chain on your left and work back, joining the picots with the same number of ds between"

Work 4 ds at the end and then join to the stem. Then work 2 or 3 cm more in spiral stitch, encapsulating. Cut the shuttle 2 thread and secure it:

Then cut the two centre threads. 

I've mostly put this here for my own benefit, but of course I'm happy if anyone else wants to make it. Shout if there's anything puzzling.