refresher samplers

Another quick post with refresher samples. It feels good to refresh one's memory and skills.

There was a time long back when I found it difficult to do a SCMR (self-closing mock ring), let alone Interlocking SCMRs! Hence my trials and study focused on interlocking with normal rings but with shuttle instead of needle - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2014/05/interlocking-rings-using-shuttle.html

Over time I have come to adopt the SCMR as a convenient and often useful 'technique' and effect. And the above sampler is tatted following the pictorials by Sue (His Kid) and Umi & Tsuru. Sue's instructions are clearer while the latter's images are sharper. Hence my model utilizes both instructions.

The bare thread between rings should be long. If you look closely, a couple of segments don't lay flat because i used a relatively shorter BTS.  

There are a number of other ways to make 'flat' IRs - scroll down for all the links here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/tatting-resources.html

Jane Eborall left a comment and link in my previous post about an Alternate Way to make Josephine Rings. I had tried them back in 2014 and used them to create 3D buds (above) for the Tiny Heart Poppy - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2014/09/tatting-pattern-tiny-heart-poppy-part-2.html

However, it was time for a refresher! And this is what I made last night - 

This time I made the half-stitches in such a way as to leave 'picots' . They create a lovey twist! And they are more stable than Interlocking Picots and can be used for joining with care. However tatting them required a bit of calisthenics and keeping all the loose half-stitches under one's pinch meant the size of the ring was limited. This is not an issue if we remove all slack and snug the stitches without 'picots'.

UPDATE: Is this similar to Mark Myers' Dizzy Double Stitch (DDS)? It certainly appears so. He seems to use the same movement for the half-stitches but makes normal (double stitch) rings instead of Josephine rings. 

And today is International Lace Day. In the morning I wound my shuttle with Lizbeth (s0ze 30), sought out the brown ball (Anchor) and will tat the E14 autumn tree again. The one in the pic has mistakes as I had pointed out here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/06/impressions.html

Kind of refreshing the model, huh?!

With the reworked tree I would've finished the tatting part of the #colourmeEndrucks project.

Wishing everybody a very creative and happy ILD!

and many thanks to Sue, Jane, and Wendy for their wonderful tutorials!