The Sliding Picot Gauge -or- Conquering the Graduated Picot

I'm just home from Palmetto TatDays.  I had such a good time, but I'm really tired now. So more about Palmetto itself later.

Anyway, I tried out a new idea there, and it seemed to go over well, so I'll share it here too.  I love graduated picots, but they can be hard to get them the right size.  Sometimes I can eyeball them and they look OK, and sometimes they don't.  Sometimes I use a stairstep picot gauge, but sometimes, there aren't the right steps for the picots I need.  

So, I made up this little thing I call a "sliding gauge" and the idea is that you can make one yourself to fit your project.  If you know how many picots are in your set, and how tall the biggest one needs to be, you can draw one on heavy paper and cut it out.  You can read how to to do it.  Click on "Free Patterns" up at the top of the page, and then scroll down for the link to the instructions in a pdf file.

I used the gauge to make the little angel up at the beginning of this post.  It was one of the classes I taught at Palmetto.  You can get the pattern in my new book, A Flight of Angels, or you can get this year's Palmetto pattern CD which will probably be on sale to the public beginning sometime this fall.