Tatting Away XIV : Earrings

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If you say “no”,

then I don’t wanna know ;-P

While my blog lies neglected, my shuttles & threads are at work. 

Also learning & trying new things, including beads. 

It’s tennis season, & a lot of balls are up in the air !

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Free Earring Patterns  

Let’s first get my pattern downloads out of the way (click for direct download).

1. I have included a diagram for the Jewelry Medallion (Earrings) (blue one in lead pic)
2. Trailing Hearts Earrings pattern  (red one in lead pic)

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I joined Georgia Seitz’s Online Tatting Class a couple of weeks back & am having such great fun there, while learning a lot & bouncing off ideas. Sharing my ‘homework’ here, as part of my bead-learning experience, and in keeping with the theme of this post, viz., Earrings.

Click on titles for link to pattern  

(June 2, 2015)

Nellie’s Earring

Adapted by Martha Ess

A re-purposed pattern based on Motif #20 by Nellie Youngburg (Forty Original Designs in Tatting).

This was a fun fun project. It was made so simple by Martha’s excellent diagramming & perfect instructions. Went smoothly, without a single hitch ! And it was easier to work with larger beads, of course.

AMC size 20. Aqua Blue : 4054-0185

Measures 2½” along sides & 2” high

My Workings :

• FS/BS tatting .
• Chains at base of corner clovers/trefoils are joined by a very small picot to keep them steady (recommended by Georgia).
• For the hook, though, instead of keeping the 6 beads in rectangular formation, I joined through the center, getting 2 ‘floating’ triangles, in keeping with the triangular theme of this earring. Just experimenting ;-)

Martha has also turned this pattern into an Angel for Palmetto TatDays 2015 !

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(June 5, 2015)

Verah’s Earrings 2015

Designer : Patricia Vera-Camacho

This pair of earrings caught my interest Immediately because they have rings within rings ! (I seem to be going round in circles/rings lately) . Clever !!! 

Verah proposes a pair of thin shuttles to make the interlaced rings. But, of course, I don’t have a set, I haven’t gotten around to making one from any old plastic/cardboard …. So, Could I possibly make them with Normal shuttles – like the Interlaced Rings tuts I posted here ?!

Did a quick practice ring with scrap threads. It worked !!! 

One does require a 3^rd shuttle on the go, for the 2 side rings only; and the sequence of tatting changes because the infinity trimming is not added later, but simultaneously.

My Workings :

1. “Infinity Trimming” with normal shuttle :

Tat Ring 1. But do not close it.

Wrap Shuttle 3 thread around hand as to start a ring, But bring the shuttle Up through R1 from behind/under, on left side, to make the wrap. You will notice that the main ring gets enclosed within this wrap.

Complete & close the Interlaced ring on left side of R1.

Similarly, start the 2^nd part of infinity trimming, bringing Sh3 up through R1 on right side.

Complete & close the interlaced ring. (chose favorite method to hide ends).

Now close R1 & continue with 2 shuttles.

The same steps will be repeated for Ring 3 on other side.

2.  Rayon Thread 

I had to make life difficult for myself, of course. Verah listed size 60 thread for the Infinity trimming. I used a double strand of rayon thread, which seemed too tiny when the rings were tatted. Hence increased stitch count to 20 per ring, & also added 2 extra rings, making the total 4 !

3.  Diagram & Beads

I had a bit of trouble with the written instructions, but focused on the diagram, especially for the placement of beads.

This is the sequence of beads as loaded on to shuttles (I am still learning, so this may not have been required) :

Shuttle 1 : 1bB, 1B, 2bB, 1B  ;  Shuttle 2 : 1bB     [ bB- bugle bead ; B – green bead ]

4.  LTROR instead of SCMR 

This was merely for my learning practice.  

Miranda (tattingfool) has an excellent pictorial on how to make the LTR (loop tatted ring) , & also a modified method for closing LTR, here. I used the same to make & close the LTROR (loop tatted ring on ring). It works great ! One needs to tug a bit for the final close, but once ‘hooked’ it rolls through smoothly. I’m certainly hooked to this & tried it on Iris’ TIAS doily as well . An added benefit is absence of any colour blip when working with 2 colours.

5. Threads & bead sizes forced me to

• leave out the 2 crystal beads on side of central bead
• add another ds to chain around the center bead

In White size 20 (Anchor Mercer) thread, the earrings measure approx 1¼” x 1½”.  

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I apologize to the designers for making little tweaks --- it was simply my way of learning & applying newer techniques, & experimenting , with no intention of redesigning or changing . I chose the patterns because I liked them in the first place & really had fun  :-) 

My sincere thanks to All the individuals mentioned above, 

for sharing their lovely patterns, their expertise & wisdom.

Motifs # 21-22/II for 25 Motif Challenge

Related Posts : How to Start Interlaced Rings

All about Ninetta's Curled Rings