who knew

 ... who knew a fruit stand or fruit bowl would emerge from an edging pattern! Who knows what a designer's imaginative eye can see?!

Endrucks' n.3 edging pattern gave rise to 2 square motifs and now the seed has sprouted a fruit bowl, thanks to Paola Bevilacqua. Recently she shared her prototype, with sketched pattern, in our Endrucks 1920 Project Facebook group and the very next day she tweaked the count and posted a beautiful new version with modified count, in stepwise pics and diagram. It immediately caught my fancy and I quickly tatted it up.

This is fresh off my shuttles, unblocked. And I was trying not to snug the chain stitches too tightly, resulting in uneven lengths on either side. Lesson re-learned: snug tightly; you are no good with loose tension ;-P Or, apply Anita's tip to measure the chain but using a grid paper background to assess the curve as well.

As I worked the motif, so many minor details emerged making me truly appreciate the thought Paola put in!

My Thoughts/Notes -

1. I started at the leftmost single ring.

2. Techniques: 2 shuttle tatting, fs/bs tatting, thrown/floating rings, changing the direction of a chain, inward picot, lock join, mock ring using a lock join.

(refer to pic below)

3. Inward picot - the orange arrows show where I used a folded chain to flip a picot down - set-a (picot, 2fhs) and set-b (2shs, p) because I wanted a bit of space before the thrown ring. At other places I used a paper clip.

4. There are 3 types of paired chains! 

    BT: worked as block tatting - parallel chains where the new chain lies above the previous one and a lock join is made through picot; 

    BBT: worked as block below tatting - parallel chains where the new chain lies below the previous one and is joined normally through an inwards picot;

    regular chains: where the stitches face each other and the chains are joined normally. Now here's an idea for yet another Block Tatting effect !!!

5. Tiny Mock Ring -The yellow star is another important designer detail. This is a 3ds chain lock joined at the base to form a mock ring. Now if it was a SCMR, we would've had a clear point/break/dip in the chain's inner edge. By using a lock join, the picot creates a kind of continuum with barely a break in the inner edge!

I should add small mock ring to my Mock Ring series since the visual effect is different from that of  larger mock rings

6. Pointed Chain - The small green ring is where I tried to make a 1ds SCMR to create a point, and failed miserably, forgetting that the chain turns course at that point. 

Hence I followed Paola's example for the left one, switching shuttles and reversing/turning work to continue. The point is more marked here. 

Other methods to make a pointed chain - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2019/04/happy-tatting-with-old-and-new.html , and more options for changing the curve in chains - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2019/09/changing-chain-curves.html

In Anchor size 20, it measures 10.5cm x >7cm at the extremes. I rummaged and found these 2 daisy picot flowers to add some colour and density. When I tat this again, I'd like to add lots more colour and picots for a bowl of flowers, and/or strategically placed beads to enhance the effect! 

It could well be a trophy, too, right?!

This is very appealing to applique or glue to a card topper. Otherwise it needs stiffening to hold it's shape. Of course the bowl outline can be padded tatting (either BDS or inserting extra core thread). Perhaps some graduated treble tatting, too, especially at the base!

Many many thanks, Paola, for stretching the boundaries!

Please don't go by my sub-par model.... once we have her permission, we can put her model and pattern in our Project doc here -

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view