Determining picot sizes…..

[Tammy]

How do you determine what size to make your picots when the pattern refers to them as small, medium or larger? Perhaps you are making a pattern that the designer used size 10 thread and you are doing it in a size 80 thread. The designer says to make a ˝” picot, you know that won’t look right to make that size with finer thread what do you do how do you decide?

What I like to do is compare my picot size to the stitches by doing this my smalls always are the same ratio to my tatting no matter what size my thread is and I don’t have to worry if the pattern is done in a size 10 or 80 the look will flow right. I go by the ‘waist band’ area of the stitch, a construction picot (one not needed for decoration) would be about one and half stitches when picot is open, a small would be equal to three stitches when the picot is open and so on. I wish designers would refer to picot sizes this way.

So how do you do it?

[TeresaW]

Like Tammy, I determine my picot sizes by the stitches. Depending on the thread, it sometimes takes a little time when using a smallish thread to determine the picot guage to use. For example, I did a doily several years ago in size 160. For my picots to be the size I wanted, I wound up using a 26 tapestry needle.

[Lynn]

I never really thought about it before, but what you say makes sense, Tammy. I usually eyeball my picots, so I just make the picots the size that looks right to me. Is this intuitive tatting? Now that I think about it, though, they are always relative to the stitch size, aren't they?

[PattyD]

First, I carefully look at the picture of the piece, if there is one. Small, Medium and Large are so generic that I have to gauge what the pattern means. Then, I have to decide if I agree with the designer.

What I think about are whether the picots are functional joins or decorative. Since I have a strong preference for joins that make the DS seem as if they were simply magnetically attracted (no visible space between the bits being joined, no lumps, no bumps), I check whether the designer has modified the size of the picot according to its purpose in life.

Then there are picots that perform some other function, like the extra long picots that carry multiple beads. These size themselves, (clever, eh?) because the beads are loaded on the doubled thread of the picots and then held in place with a paperclip or what have you. The extra thread is removed, so these picots are exactly the right length.

Other extra long picots, for doubled picots, for example are best made over a gauge. These extra long picots are one case where I abandon my beloved round gauges for a flat piece of card. I make a slit in a stiff card at a disance equal to the required length of the picot. Slip the working thread up through the slit and pull the finished work up to the card. The slit stops the worked bit from pulling through and the picot comes out exactly the size you want it.

Some brilliant Tatter devised a very good method of eyeballing the picot length for more normal picots. Using DS already made (thereby making the picots the right scale automatically) make picots as wide as 1, 2, 3, or however many picots you would like. What I try to do is see a hole the size of however many DS I have decided upon. For joins, I like a 2 DS hole. A 1 ds hole is your basic bump. Decorative picots are generally 3-7 ds. I don't eyeball very well at sizes larger than that.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

Patty

[Maureen L]

Tonight I learned that if your pattern calls for a 10mm picot, you have to measure a 20mm gap in the thread! I was wondering why the Easter Egg I have been tatting didn't really look like the picture - it's #20 in the little Danish Book of Egg patterns.
If I had used my shiny new picot gauge vertically, measuring 10mm height, my picot would have been the right size.
I don't usually use gauges, but this is one pattern which calls for precision in measuring. I will start again and redo this one.
Thank you to Jenni - Liyarra - for the impromptu tutorial online!

[Sherree]

Of course it make sense to have the picot size in relation to the double stitches size. Why didn't I think of that? Thanks for the tip. Going to try that now

[Susan B T]

I use methods like Tammy and Patty... size of thread and the visual pattern....

If I need a decorative picot I measure by various methods, Picot gage, line on my finger or some such.....

I try and make a joining picot just the right size to get the thread though so the rings or ring-chain or chain-chain join look like that are touching and you cannot see the join picot... I do not always accomplish this but that is what I strive for.

The tension one tats with also will make a difference in the picot size.. this my be slight, but in edges in hankies and round items will make a difference. It might be true in a large doily also... check with some one who tats doilies.

Hope this is some assistance.....

[Lynn]

If I need a decorative picot I measure by various methods, Picot gage, line on my finger or some such.....

The tension one tats with also will make a difference in the picot size.. this my be slight, but in edges in hankies and round items will make a difference. It might be true in a large doily also... check with some one who tats doilies.

Hope this is some assistance.....

LOL, Susan, we use the same measuring device - marks on fingers. Mine happens to be a small scar that resulted in nearly losing the tip of my finger when trying to open a very rolly pomegranate many years ago.

I find tension to be a very big determiner in doilies - sometimes as much as, or more so, than the number of stitches. Sadly, many different things affect tension, just like in knitting or crochet. So, the larger the doily, the closer attention I have to pay to it every time I pick it up. Also, it is critical when the doily is constructed of many different smaller motifs joined together, instead of tatting in rounds. When doing a motif doily, I measure each element of the motif against what is already done. This may mean redoing a whole section of a motif, but better that than having a misshapen doily.

[needledreams]

I determine my picots sizes by scale. If the pattern has a detailed photo of the finished work and says the size of the thread, I will check how big or small are the picots on the photo and then reduce or enlarge the picot to use according to the thread's size I'm using. Most of the time this helps when I'm tatting with other sizes. But I also like, as Tammy says, been able to know the picot size comparing it to stitches. I think that Ben Fikkert and Riet use this method.