Tatting Away II

TATBiT’s

Tatted Dandelion Chain Link Bookmark

The buzz, the refrain in the tatting community at present seems to be “Teri is back, Teri is back…” ! And she’s back with her bountiful goodies of free patterns, video tutorials, tatting tales galore !

I choose this beautiful Dandelion Chain Link Bookmark as my first Teri Dusenbury project. It is a free download in pdf format (click on link; this particular pattern is mid-way down the page, done in beautiful pink), with detailed instructions, explanations, diagrams, & written pattern.

Thread used : Anchor Mercer Crochet Cotton, size 20.

Black

Yellow : 0289

Green : 0229

Measurements : 9 inches long ; 2.2 inches wide.

A scanned image of  TATBiT's Dandelion bookmark

My Jottings  

Some terms & their equivalents :

Directional Ring (DR) ~ front side/back side tatting (FS/BS)

Double Knot (DK) ~ double stitch (ds)

Larks Head Knot (LHK) ~ reverse stitch (rs) or 2^nd half of Split Ring method.

Split Quadruple Directional Ring (SQDR) ~ Floating / thrown rings or rings on ring. But here, one works with a Split Ring (therefore reverse stitches) from which 5 directional rings are thrown off.

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Black color used for chain links. For the filler chain segments, I ended the last ring as an SSSR (single shuttle split ring) in order to hide the ends.

I added a small SSSR of 10ds at the very end to again hide tails And also to insert & tie a tassel later (I love tassels).

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Since dandelion flowers are yellow, the ‘petals’ or florets were done in yellow, & stem & leaves in green. Now here was the dilemma ! I had wanted green for the ‘calyx’ as well, but my skill levels were found wanting, even though I tried a few techniques.

Finally, I settled for an all-yellow petal & base.

However, while starting the yellow SQDR, the green thread was encapsulated & hidden within the yellow, so that later, there would be continuity of pattern, when the flower part got over. Thus, 

Shuttle 1 & 2 : yellow CTM. For SQDR center & DR petals.

Shuttle 3 : green. Encapsulated till required later for stem & leaves.

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This was the first time that I have actually done FS/BS tatting where it Really mattered ! And I kept forgetting to start the directional ring correctly, leading to unknotting the 1^st couple of stitches almost every time ;-(

Another realization : It becomes essential to post shuttle in DR or FS/BS rings ! The 2^nd ring in dandelion A has curled slightly since shuttle was not posted to front of work before continuing.

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When joining the DR petals, join to chain link from Back of work, since one is already working on the BS in a DR.

And the join is a downward or Down join, in order to avoid color blips.

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Once the SQDR was closed, I cut off one of the yellow threads, (hiding the tail inside the next few stitches), & continued with only one yellow thread as core & green as the working thread.

SLTs (shoe lace trick) were required when tackling the leaves from the stem because the core thread was yellow.

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The dandelions are tatted in an counter-clockwise direction ! So it needs a bit of getting used to.

I do wonder whether it can be done in a clockwise fashion, using SCMR (Self Closing Mock Ring) for center, with thrown rings for petals. I hope to try this out sometime, although it did not work out with 2 colors.

From my own failed attempts, I realized what an intelligent & clever pattern this was and why the need for an anti-clockwise and directional tatting ! It has increased my learning manifold, opening up the tatting field for me. I challenged myself to do the dandelions in 2 colors & am pretty happy with the result so far. Thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience from start to finish ! And there are so many many more patterns, that one doesn't know which to choose next ...

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Before signing off, here's an amazing  Time Lapse Dandelion flower to seed head film by Neil Bromhall that I'm sure you will enjoy :-) It is a very short 1.41 min film only.

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Motif # 10 for 25 Motif Challenge