muskaan's T*I*P*S: The advent of Spring

Spring heralds activity in all living forms. Sharing some happy life here ... Two patterns are from Georgia’s Nellie Hall Project (2014) where volunteers have rewritten/converted Nellie’s motifs into modern format and one is Jane Eborall’s latest flower motif where she went crazy trying to name it.

This was intended as a composite post of 3 patterns, but length dictates that I save at least one for the next post. After all, we are only just opening our doors to lovely spring !

Abbreviations used :

CTM – continuous thread method

DS – double stitch

LCh – lock chain

RODS or fs/bs – reverse order double stitch or frontside/backside tatting

RS – reverse stitch (unflipped)

SCh – split chain

SCMR – self closing mock ring

SH - shuttle

SLT – shoe lace trick / overhand knot

SR – split ring

Nellie's Blue Bird*

Original : Nellie Hall Youngburg (1916)

Modern : Wally Sosa, Jane Eborall (2001)

Motif #28 from “Forty Original Designs in Tatting” by Nellie Hall Youngburg rewritten & model tatted by Wally Sosa and diagrammed by Jane Eborall

Materials : Anchor Mercer size 40 – 4054-0131 (blue) ; 1 black seed bead ; a few beads to finish ;

Measurements : 2¾” long & 2½” tall

Techniques I used : 2 shuttles, CTM, floating rings, SCMR, SCh, Twisted picot (floating)

Detailed pattern instructions and diagrams are provided to suit tatter preference .

I decided to use a single colour & tat it in one pass.

Since this was in one pass, I started with Ring K & went in anti-clockwise direction to complete the 1^st wing by joining J to base of K & proceeding with ring aa to tat the tail portion, working my way to the head, with a black seed bead for the eye. The last part of head is a SCh to bridge the distance, then continued with the 2^nd wing.

Some of the rings in this pattern can be tatted as SCMRs, including the rings at the tips of tail & wings.

My Notes

Ring aa is exactly as stated in the text (5-5-5) with only 2 picots. Ring jj is linked to the aa picot closest to it; then chain kk; Ring ll is again linked to that same aa picot; thus 1 picot is “shared” by 3 rings (this is sometimes shown as a triangle in some diagrams). Continue working Ring ll & join to the only free picot of Ring aa. Thus both picots of aa have been linked – one shared by jj & ll, & one by ll only.
RW after Ch ii.
rr – R 5+5+5+5-5 clr
Remember to switch shuttles when working the floating rings & switch back when continuing with the chain.
A few picots are drawn extra in some diagrams; follow the written text in such cases.

As it neared completion, I decided to continue with the 2^nd wing (as in original motif). It was only then that I noticed the 2^nd large central rings in original pattern diagram. These could’ve been worked as SCMRs, too.

To continue with 2^nd wing in one pass, chain vv was tatted as a SCh from the 4^th picot point. Continued with ring ‘x’ as an SCMR to which the large central ring A was tatted after leaving a mock picot space. I decreased the chain stitches by 2DS on both ends between rings.

Instead of sewing in the ends, I continued with a LCh for a bit, but being the same colour, I have hidden it with beads to make a hanging ornament.

I like this pattern & plan on tatting Jane’s Robin to give this bird company :-)

For twig

The bird needed a dash of Spring colour to woo his mate & taking a cue from Wally’s cute flower, I went freeform.

Materials : Silk/rayon threads (2 strands each) in red, chrome yellow, & variegated green.

Techniques : 4 shuttles, Pearl tatting, Josephine rings, half-closed rings, long picots, floating/thrown dots, bullion knot.

2 shuttles were loaded with green thread CTM. I made one stitch, then joined in the red & yellow threads through their loops (doubled up threads), thus freeing myself from the prospect of hiding tails at this end completely!

Stem is pearl tatted with single stitches on either side;
leaves are floating dots (R of 4 DS) ;
red & yellow flowers are a mix of Josephine rings, dots, bullion knot, and one dot with long picots that were cut later to represent a flower in bloom (actually the thread broke at this point & it was my way of attaching new thread without having to hide ends).

Crazy Flower Motif*

Jane Eborall

Threads : Anchor embroidery cotton 2 strands 1305 in SH1

Anchor size 40 – 0300 (cream) in SH2

Measurements : Rnd 1 - < 1½” ; Rnd 2 – 2¼”

Techniques I used : SR, SCMR, LCh, SCh, SLT, RS

What was I thinking, tatting those teeny tiny rings with fine thread ?! I could barely see the rings in the center. Oh, but as the flower came together, it all looked so pretty & worth it. A fun tat & finished in one evening. As usual, the motif lay flat !

Tatted in one pass without any cuts, ties & hiding until the very end. In order to keep the SCh chain colour same in both halves, I made a kind of loose SLT with SH1, thus bringing SH2 in position to make the split chain. This was easier than trying to encapsulate SH1 thread within the SCh segment.

While writing this post, I remembered some tutorial where colour positioning was an issue & scrolled through my pinterest board. Voila there it was. Tatting Chic’s solution to a single colour SCh though one is working with 2 colours. Very clear pictorial.

What we familiarly call the Split Chain was Dora Young’s Knotless Technique or Dora Young Knot (DYK).

Just goes to show it is so essential to read all one can. I had read & pinned this SLT trick over a year back, and it stayed somewhere at the back of my mind, which probably came to the fore here (you never know what will stick ;-p).

Round 2 was continued with SH2, and instead of RW after SR1 & SR2, I simply made a 1RS chain (unflipped stitch) like Frivole had explained in detail recently.