captured onion rings

Ninetta has been posting a comprehensive study of Onion Rings – their construction and variations – along with pictorials and tutorial links. A must-read for anybody wishing to learn, explore, or improve. A sumptuous dish!

My guess is that Marilyn followed one of those links to my blog and left a comment for help with captured onion ring. 

Ever since I tried it here for the first time, I have been hooked to this method and have used it consistently with good effect. I think this is a good excuse, and opportunity, to present a stepwise tutorial.

Captured Onion Rings

Kathleen Minniti's method

BACKGROUND :

Captured Onion Rings are a pair of concentrically placed True rings. These true rings can be tatted with the same shuttle, or with different shuttles for a 2-colour version.

Aurora Lozada first shared her Perfect Onion Ring method (pdf) in 2014 with the Online Tatting Class. She captures the inner ring between the core and working thread After making 1ds. Thus the inner ring is captured Between adjacent stitches of the outer ring. After closing the outer ring, the emerging thread is offset by the 1^st ds. 

Kathleen Minniti improvised Aurora’s method to capture the inner ring Within the 1^st half-stitch of outer ring. After completing the outer ring, the thread emerges from the center.

I can now understand Aurora’s method, but am still unsuccessful at executing it! Kathleen’s method is like tatting over tails, substituting the inner ring for the tail. I can do that - and if I can, You certainly can!  

Captured Onion Ring Pictorial - FRONTSIDE

I have used a single shuttle for the pictorial. 

Inner ring : 6 – 6.

Outer ring : 10 + 10.

1. Tat inner ring. Close ring and loop the thread around to start outer ring.

2. Hold in pinch.

3. Start 1^st half stitch – under ….

4. …..over

5. 1^st half-stitch seen clearly after the flip, but do not snug.

6. Pass the inner ring through the open leg of this 1^st half-stitch. Follow the core thread (just as in tatting over tail).

7. Bring the leg to the base of the inner ring by wiggling your left index finger, and

8. snug tight. Make sure the stitch is as close to the base as possible, and that the core thread slides freely.

9. Make the 2^nd half-stitch (over-under) and

 10. snug normally. 1^st ds complete.

11. Tat around the inner ring, joining to the picot. I used the ball thread or onion ring join. 

12. Close the outer ring normally. A pair of concentric or onion rings is ready.

In the above ConcentriCITY snowflake, there are 3 concentric rings where the outermost is a chain or mock ring. To bring the shuttles in position, the middle ring is worked backside. This is what Marilyn was referring to. Hence here are a few pics showing the backside working of the captured onion ring.

Note: In directional or frontside/backside tatting, the sequence of half-stitches in a ds is reversed (hence called RODS – reverse order of double stitch) working 2^nd half before 1^st half-stitch. 

Captured Onion Ring Pictorial - Backside

In this pictorial, both rings are worked backside, but this is not compulsory.

1. Inner ring worked backside. Loop the thread around to start outer ring, and pass shuttle over-under to make the 2^nd half-stitch.

2. 2^nd half-stitch made, but do not snug.

3. pass the inner ring through the open leg of the half-stitch, following the core thread.

4. Snug the stitch as close to the base of inner ring as possible.

5. Make 1^st half-stitch. 1RODS complete.

6. Continue around, joining to the picot, and close the outer ring normally.

7. This is how it looks from the front. (There is some inadvertent space left at the base - the ring should've been pulled close more tightly to avoid that pink line).

Note : This method is so basic that it can be used even for chains/ mock rings, etc. , either in onion rings or in other situations. 


Hope this answers your question, Marilyn?

Many many thanks to Aurora & Kathleen :-) 

My onion rings have certainly improved!  

UPDATE : Comparison of Captured Onion Rings - original and variations!