Beaded Minaret Snowflake

Although it may seem like I have, I really have not dropped off the face of the earth!

The last few weeks have been extremely busy, both at work and in the yard in a race against time to finish raking.  For the first time ever, I don't think I will manage to rake up all the leaves.  I never made it to a small section all the way in the back.  It's not that big a deal, but it will make spring clean up a bit more painful.  Something to look forward to!  That takes care of one thing, but work will continue to be busy through the end of the year.

I have been puttering around with lace and such, I just don't have much to show for it.  Most of my time has actually been spent on a knitting project I started recently.  Since I have an actual deadline for it, it's at the top of my list of things to work on.  I have also been trying to finish a WIP that's been hanging around on my shuttles for ever.  It's at the point where I don't even like the pattern much any more, but I just want it done.

Amongst all that, I managed to complete this little piece over the weekend.  It's "Minaret Snowflake" from Vida Sunderman's book and was made to include in a thank you note.  I've made this snowflake before using Kreinik braid, but this time I decide to make it cotton thread (special dentelles 80 in ecru) and add beads.

Two minor points:

• I am not sure how I managed to do so, but it looks like the center round goto twisted when I was joining it.  Unfortunately I did not discover that until I was well into my second round and I did not want to start again.  I tried to smooth it out in the scan, but one of the center chains has a tendency to twist. 
• The beads in the center don't lie flat (see upper and upper right chains in scan above).  I think that is even more distracting that the twisted chain.
• I tried a new way of adding beads to joining picots.  I typically avoiding adding beads in joining picots because I normally pick the beads up with a crochet hook as I am joining the picot. Although I tend to make large picots, the picots to which I need to add beads are of course short and I spend a lot of time trying to find a smaller bead that is still large enough for my crochet hook to fit through.  This time I added beads to the picots as I was making them, taking care to make the picots slightly larger than I normally would.  I then joined the picots as per the pattern.  The fact that the beads are not symmetrically arranged on the picots bothers me though!  I'm pretty sure that it's only an issue for me, so I am not too concerned about it.  Won't do it again though.

As mentioned above, the stubborn beads and the twisted chain do bother me though and I am not sure I want to give away this snowflake.  Part of me thinks I'm being too harsh and even if I see this again in a  few months I won't even notice.  Suggestions?  I will also run it by my husband.  He tends to give me an objective opinion.

As an aside, I used a random vial of beads that I bought either at Michael's or Jo Anne's a long time ago.  I have two similar vials of beads in two shades of gold that I keep coming back to.  Since I am finally making a dent in both colors, I will have to look into restocking both colors.