I have seen many examples of people tatting around ornaments and I wanted to give it a try myself. So this is my first attempt and I plan on getting started sooner next Christmas and having many more fun tatted ornament designs.

Also, this is a different tatted snowflake than my other one. I am not sure how well the other snowflake would work on an ornament.

For this project you need:
Thread
Tatting Needle
Cross Stitch Needle
Glass Ornament
Tape

Step 1: Starting the Snowflake

To start your snowflake you are going to make the middle section.

1. R 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 cl. k
2. Working right next to the previous ring, R 3 connect to last picot of last ring 3 - 3 - 3
3. Repeat 2 until you have 5 rings.
4. R 3 connect to last picot of last ring 3 - 3
Option 1 It is difficult, but if you can, after you tat those last 3 double stitches, connect to the first picot of the first ring. It will look funny like in Picture 5, but it is possible. Then tat 3 more and finish the ring.
Option 2 after finishing the last 3 stitches, pull off your stitches while not allowing the ring to close (Picture 6 and 7), connect to the first picot of the first ring and tat 3 more stitches and finish the ring.

At this point the last ring will still be spaced away from the first ring and you want it to be all nice and tight so take your needle and thread it through the bottom of the first ring (Picture 8) and then knot it to make the center nice and tight.

Done.

Step 2: Tatting Outer Section of Snowflake

1. R 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 cl. k. rw. (reverse your work so you are looking at the ring from the back)
2. Chain 4 Reverse Picot 4 connect to picot of inner part of snowflake 4 Reverse Picot 4 k. rw.
3. Repeat 1 and 2 until you have connected to the last available picot of the inner part of the snowflake.
4. When you reach the end of your last chain, thread your needle through the bottom of the first ring. (Pictures 11 and 12). Close and Knot.

Hide your ends and cut off excess.

Your snowflake is done. Now you can just make snowflakes for fun or you can continue on to learn how to get your snowflake on your ornament.

You will need 2 snowflakes to decorate an ornament.

Step 3: Rings

Make 2 big rings.

R 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 -2 - 2 -2 - 2 -2 - 2 -2 - 2 -2 - 2 -2 - 2 -2 - 2 - 2 - 1 cl. k.

You should have 20 picots with 2 stitches between them and 1 stitch on each end.

To make sure the rings are the right size, put them around the top of the ornament (Picture 4) when you go to close the ring and knot it. Do this for both and take them off.

Step 4: Assembling

Take your ornament, 2 snowflakes, 2 rings, and extra thread. Also, it helps to set your ornament on a roll of thread while you are working.

To get started, I took my thread and cut off about 70 inches. How much you need will vary.

Take the end and double knot a loop around the top of your ornament (Picture 3).

Take off the loop and thread the end of your string through the tatted ring (Picture 4) and cut off the excess.

Put the thread loop back on the ornament and put the tatted ring on top (Pictures 5 and 6). Be careful so the end of the thread doesn't come out of the tatted ring. It can help to wait to cut off the excess until it is on the ornament because you can pull it tight if it comes loose.

Picture 7 - tape the second ring on the exact bottom of the ornament so that there are 4 picots available on exact opposite sides of the ring.

Step 5: Continuing

You should now have a ring on each end of the ornament and the string in place to get started.

Take your thread and put your cross stitch needle on it. Thread it up through one of the picots on the top ring. (During this step, make sure you keep the thread fairly tight or it won't sit on the ornament right when you are done.)

Thread through one of the points of the snowflake going down through one picot on one side of the snowflake point and then going up through the picot on the other side of that point (picot 1 and 3 on the ring). Do this to two snowflake points that are next to each other (Picture 2). Pull the snowflake so it is near the start of the thread (Picture 3).

Turn your ornament over and thread through a picot on the bottom. Pull the thread tight. Now thread through the bottom point of the snowflake (Picture 5) and go back down and thread through a picot leaving two empty picots between this one and the last one you used.

Go back towards the top of your snowflake, going through the next two snowflake points as you did with the first two. Now do the top as you did the bottom by going through a picot with two empty ones between this one and the one you started on (Picture 6).

I went back through the picot I started with and then, leaving 6 empty picots, go through the seventh from where you started (Picture 8 and 9).

Attach another snowflake the same you did the first. Make sure the picots are spaced correctly/the same on the bottom. There should be 6 stitches between each snowflake.

Now tape the bottom again of the picots you just used so that you can take part of the first tape off and have all 6 stitches on one side available (Picture 10). (take the tape off as it gets in the way)

Now I just went up and down with my thread skipping 1 picot on each side of the snowflake. When I finished one side, I just threaded my thread through the ring on the bottom so I could start again on the other side of the ornament (Picture 13). This is difficult and if you want just go back up and thread the thread under the ring on the top and go to the other side. I did it along the bottom to try to keep all of the strings evenly spaced, but it was more difficult.

Continue going up and down until you have finished with the picots. Then I just hid the end of my string by threading it into the top ring. If you want, thread it under the top ring and then tie it around the top and hide the excess inside the ornament. The top will mostly cover this.

Step 6: Done

Put your top back on the ornament. This should cover any excess string you have up at the top that might have been showing.

The strings tend to move a bit, but as long as it is tight enough, you should be alright. You can move them around if you want to make sure they are spaced evenly or just bunch them all together. It's your choice.

I think it comes out looking nice after all the effort. You need to be patient. I wasn't patient a few of the times I tried this and ended up having to cut all of the string off and start all over again. It can get frustrating, but don't let it be, it's supposed to be fun remember.

Hope you enjoyed :)