splitting the mesh

My Italian Connection is at play again, splitting chores! Couple of days back Elisabetta De Napoli shared a picture of her filet tatting in an Italian facebook group. On request, she readily created a series of pics and explanation to share through my blog. Ninetta, ever gracious, did the translation and added her notes. Yours humbly had the privilege to assemble, 'polish', and present. So without more ado, here’s her split chain method of filet tatting.

At the end is her Italian version, verbatim.

Filet Tatting (split chain method)

by  Elisabetta De Napoli

Two shuttles, continuous thread (CTM).

Fig1) Foundation Row: Start a dead end chain, holding a picot space. work for desired length, finishing with 4ds. The above model has 6 picots separated by 4ds.
       Ch: picot, 4ds, [1 picot, 4ds]x5 

Fig2) Turn the Corner: Reverse Work and switch shuttles or do a shoe lace trick (SLT), then continue with a chain to move to the next level or row.

Row 1: consists of 6 split chains, joined to the foundation row picots.

       SCh: 4ds, 1 picot, 4ds / 4ds.

To make a Split Chain (SCh) leave bare thread just enough for 4ds, lock join to nearest picot of previous chain, tat 4ds. 
(see tutorials - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/tatting-resources.html )

Fig3) Make split chains for the entire length/till the end.
       [SCh: 4ds / 4ds]x5

Fig4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for as many rows as desired.

This creates an Open Filet or mesh.

To Fill a Square: Plan ahead in the previous row to include small picots for joining. As can be seen in the image, the 2^nd and 5^th chain segments in Row2 have very small picots. This is how it is done here …

Picoted Chain segment (pCh): To fill a square in the next row, in the previous row a plain 4ds chain includes tiny picots as follows -  

       pCh: 1ds and 1fhs, 1vsp, 1reverse order ds (1shs and 1fhs), 1vsp, 1shs and 1ds.
(basically, 4 ds is divided into 1.5ds at the ends and 1rods in the center flanked by 2 small picots. The picots are made within a ds rather than at the end of a ds - as in backside chains)

Fig5) Row 3: Of the 6 squares, the 2^nd and 5^th squares will be filled here, which means there are 2 extra split chains within the square.

       Make 1^st open square:  4ds, 1picot, 4ds, SCh: 4ds.

       Filled square: [SCh: 1ds / 4ds]x3

       2 open squares: [SCh: pCh / 4ds]x2

       1 filled square: SCh: 1ds / 4ds.

       Last open square: SCh: 4ds / 4ds.

       Move up to Row 4.

Fig6) Row 4. We planned ahead in Row3 which squares we want to fill in this row. Hence picots were included and accordingly in Row 4, squares 1&2 are open, 3&4 are filled, and 5&6 are open.

For Filled Square Over Filled Square:

If next row has an empty square over this filled one, tat normal ds between split chains (total 4ds). If next row has a filled square over this filled one, tat the same sequence as in the picoted chain segment in this way: 
       the chain is 1ds and 1fhs, 1split chain (4ds), 1reverse order ds (1shs and 1fhs), 1split chain (4ds), 1shs and 1ds, all in place of 4ds.

∞∞∞

This is what Elisabetta says, for our Italian friends –

Ciao Ninetta, ti invio le foto che ho fatto e le spiegazioni:

2 navette e filo continuo

1° lavorare un arco di 1 pip  4 nodi fino a raggiungere il numero di spazi vuoti

 che occorrono;

2° girare e lavorare 4 nodi 1 pip 4 nodi e agganciarsi al primo pip  lasciando lo spazio per uno split chain di 4 nodi e ripetere, 4 nodi e split chain di 4 nodi, fino all'ultimo piop;

3° girare il lavoro e ripetere come il primo giro agganciandosi al piccolo pip che si crea tra i gruppi di 4 nodi;

4° per avere degli spazi pieni occorre prevedere, nel giro precedente dei piccoli pip nei gruppi di 4 nodi. (*)

Spero sia sufficiente, in caso contrario io sono qui.

Ti abbraccio e ti ringrazio anticipatamente **

∞∞∞

Filet Tatting - some other methods (with updates):

I have little experience with actual filet tatting. But here are links to a few other methods –

• 'Reversing Chain' method in John’s and Jeff’s blog. Read the comments, too, for answers.
• Mary Konior's rings/floating rings and chains method in Margaret's blog (image only).
• and a similar 'Filet-Ochhi' rings and chains method by Christel Wutzmer and Agnes Focke from "Doppelknoten" Nr. 7 (2005) in Jeff's blog (image only).
• Shoe Lace Trick method by Mandatory (my notes on this method here- https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2016/06/something-new-something-old.html ) She has done quite some experimenting with filling effects (pics in her Craftree album)
• Sue Hanson's tiny split chain basket (taught at Spokane, 2008 and pattern shared in many facebook groups) is a bit similar to the above method and uses 2 colours. 

I have been working on a tutorial series about lock join and chains, and this fits right in, especially if you take up a 2-colour challenge – I had forgotten about filet tatting! Life has intervened major-ly hence the delay in polishing it up. But soon – Anita has been proofing it …

Many many thanks to Elisabetta and Ninetta – share the joy!