The center flake is the one at the bottom of this photo. The second flake is the top right one. The top left one is the beginning of the third. The ring that joins the 3rd flake to the center is a normal ring, the rest of the inside rings are the split rings. This is tatted continuous around the center flake, and the 6th flake in row two joins to the center flake, the 5th flake, and the 1st flake. It's pretty easy to get lost doing this, but it's been since 1997 or 98 when I tatted this pattern up before, and I remembered it pretty easily. I haven't written the instructions til now.