No bull(ion)ying over tatting

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Being Knotty !

Last night, after 2-3 days sans tatting, my fingers itched. And I went back to my comfort zone of free-form 3D. It is an original practice piece to study a few techniques which were being discussed in the Design Class last morning. 

While trying out the bullion knot, the bunched-up knots reminded me of Hibiscus pistils, which led to this 3D flower. Yet another path to pattern designing !

I wanted to take full pleasure in tatting, hence did not jot down exact stitch-count. What I share below is as close an approximation as I remember.

It does, however, follow my design objective of off-center, in the petals.

This is a good shuttle-emptier doodle.

Tatted Hibiscus Doodad 

PATTERN 

Materials 

2 Shuttles, scrap threads (size 20).

3 strands of Anchor variegated embroidery cotton (1315 - peachy) ; Anchor size 20 Art 4054 (0293 lemony yellow , 0256 Mehandi Green) .

Measurement  4 cms long

Resources & techniques used

2-shuttle tatting (floating/thrown rings), Bullion Knot & Dots, Roll tatting,  

Josephine Knot, Josephine Chain, join last ring to 1^st ring, graduated decorative picots, encapsulated Josephine Chain, Frayed ends, Ninetta’s Curled Rings 

Join the peach & yellow threads. It is not essential to hide ends. With Peach, make 3 rings-only petals of different sizes & joined irregularly.

Flower :

R1 : 3ds, vsp, 5 graduated picots sep by 1ds, vsp, 5ds.

R2 : 5ds, join to R1, 2ds, 7 graduated picots sep by 1ds, 2ds, vsp, 7ds.

R3 : 7ds, join to R2, 2ds, 8 graduated picots sep by 1ds, 2ds, join to R1, 3ds.

Before closing last ring, make sure both shuttles are on the top side of the petals, in order to make the pistil.

Pistil :

JCh to desired length. At random points, make Bullion knots of 10 wraps with SH2 (yellow). Do not close the knot completely. After 5 or 6 knots, & desired length reached, tie both threads together, leave a short length & cut. Then fray the tails.

Join green thread (wound CTM) to base of flower.

Calyx :

Ring : [1ds, p]x10, curl through any middle picot. 
(( Ninetta used a curled ring calyx in her lovely strawberry bookmark. That's what I tried  ))

Stem :

Continue with Josephine Chain, encapsulating any tail threads from the beginning of the flower & pistil, randomly placing leaves along the length.

Leaves :

Leaf 1 & 2 are ‘Dots’ & floating (made with 2^nd shuttle) :

R : 4ds, close.

Leaf 3 & 4 are Josephine Knots/Rings

JR : 8 half stitch, close.

Continue with stem for a bit. Tie ends & cut & hide.

My Thoughts on Bullion Knots, Dots & Josephine Rings/Knots 

Please refer to this article.

Bullion knots are basically small rings of Roll tatting, in formation. 

In hand embroidery, what French Knot is to Bullion Stitch ; in tatting, Bullion Knot is to Roll Tatted ring (which is usually larger). A tatted bullion knot looks very similar to an embroidered bullion stitch,  where instead of a needle, the thread is wrapped around the core/shuttle thread.

To compare within tatting, Bullion Knot is similar to Half-closed ring or Scallop to look at, but with wrapped thread rather than stitches.

Segment H in I Love Tatting doodle was a long line of bullion knots which twisted on itself.

I used the latter in my NeoVintage Heart.

TIP : Following a tip shared by Patty Dowden in Craftree, I no longer add a DS at the start or end of a roll tatted element. I believe a DS is not a definitive part of roll tatting ; it is merely a means to ease the closing of a ring or perhaps to add a picot. I have used DS-free roll tatting chains in my Tiny Heart Poppy petals.

Dots are regular rings with complete stitches, but small in size. The DS is limited to 4 or 5, & when closed, the rings appear as ‘dots’.

When the dots are made of only half stitches, not complete DS, then it becomes a Josephine knot/ring.

Dots of 4DS turned out to be smaller than a JR of 8hs !

Bullion knots can be closed tightly or one can leave some bare thread space (as in scallops). This will alter the visual effect. If closed completely, these are the smallest in size.

happy tatting :-) 

Related Posts/Patterns : bullion knot string in doodle

half-closed rings/scallops in a line element

roll tatted chain

dotted snowflakes 

dotted snowflake pattern pdf