snood and a wannabe

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Remember the snood I made recently from Linda’s Split Chain Doily ? My MIL loved it and immediately asked me to make her one, albeit a very small one. I chose this …

Flowery Meadow (for snood)

“Tatting Patterns and Designs”

Blomqvist and Persson (Dover, p58)

  

For a hair net/snood, I needed a semi-dense pattern and liked this. However, all except the joining picots have been discarded, for practical reasons when used & washed.

It got me thinking as I worked the looong outer chains, how picots have their advantages and disadvantages. To list a few …

Without Decorative/Free Picots

• Clean, crisp lines of the design become highlighted. 
• Quicker to tat, too.
• No hassle about even picots, picot gauges, etc.
• Easy to keep track when joining since they are the only picots there.

With Decorative/Free picots

• Enhance the lacy, airiness of a piece.
• Decorative picots come in numerous forms and can add a lot of effect and interest.
• Picots at regular intervals help us keep track/count of stitches, which is especially handy in case of long chains and large rings !

Since I didn't know the final size, I decided to cut off after each round in order to stop when needed.

Used one shuttle and ball, cutting after each round instead of climbing out. Simple techniques call for simple tatting J

Techniques used : directional tatting, clover, rosette center, join to the right.

The design element that caught my eye was the clover arrangement.

Row 1 has outward facing clover rings,

Row 2 has inward facing clovers, &

Row 3 again has outward facing clovers. (This row was not done, since the size seemed right for the snood).

And in Row 2, I really like how the clovers are joined as pairs !

Each round looked very pretty when completed, but I didn’t take pics.

Works out to 3½ inch diameter in Anchor size 40.

The complete doily will look good in colours to do justice to it’s name. A snood for MIL called for something subdued.

Added a Lock Chain string with rings at either end – normal ring and tatting over tails at the starting point, and SSSR tatting over tail for the end. No sewing in ends !

I intend to tat a few more snoods for her in different colours & patterns, once I know for sure that this size is fine.

how far can I go ?! 

In fact this is a challenge I’m setting myself – trying to design a larger pattern. I don’t know how far I can go with it, but this is the very first stage. Already I need to change the picot position in 2^nd round so that 3^rd round reflects the long ring effect of inner circle instead of oblongs.

I'm going to start over tonight to see how it looks. At present there is a lot of ruffling as well.

What do you think ? Any suggestions ?

tatting simple patterns can be just as exciting !

stay tatting stay happy 

medallion stars

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“Tatting Patterns and Designs”

Blomqvist and Persson (Dover)

2 stars/medallions in Anchor size 40 thread

Been a while since I tatted from the book. These 2 stars were done some months back.

It is always good practice to study the round a bit before jumping in to tat. Look for the most convenient elements to start & end with, or in case of multiple rounds, the best element to climb out with. And in case of old/vintage patterns, place(s) where one can substitute techniques for ease of working or for colour placement.

This preparation helped in working Star #4 (p46)

I started with a right-side outer ring so that the round would end in a ring (easier to hide threads).

And as is so common now, the central ring was worked as a thrown ring from the first chain (with mock picot space).

Terms & Techniques : central ring medallion, thrown ring, mock picot, directional tatting. 

However, I made the joining picots too small causing this huge cupping. Will use it to cover a bauble, egg, or cabochon. The back of an Ice Drop perhaps, or without the central ring, it could well be the front.

My first thought was of a basket – tat a handle, add some flowers ! In size 40, it is fairly small.

TIP: Cupping v/s Ruffling : cupping occurs when outer round is tight ; ruffling occurs when outer round is loose.

To avoid cupping – decrease inner round or increase outer round ;

To avoid ruffling – increase inner round or decrease outer round.

Star #2 (p50)

is a very pretty medallion – simple, straightforward pattern.

Easy, quick to tat up but need to keep an eye out for which picot to join to.

Terms & Techniques : Inward-facing rings, clover, closed space medallion, picot join to the right (last to first join), long chains, directional tatting, avoid gapsosis in clovers.

I ran out of blue/green thread on the shuttle. This gives me an opportunity to pick up other shapes and colours, although I plan on keeping the ecru.

For all past and future medallions from this book, click on 'BnP' on the Label list. 
I have also updated (partially) and cleaned up my Jottings page. 

enjoy your tatting with a cuppa :-)

the star bursts forth

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a tatted star/snowflake and picot join to the right in tatting

 

Star #1 (p49, Dover)

'Tatting Patterns and Designs'

Blomqvist and Persson

Techniques : 2 shuttles, thrown rings, fs/bs tatting, clovers, picot join to the right*.

In Anchor Size 40/50 & 3 strands of pale blue embroidery floss for center it measures 2¾”

I did the central ring separately in embroidery thread.

The outer part was worked continuously in 2 colours.

What attracted me to this medallion is the changes in chain orientation ! And with the use of 2 colours, I was able to highlight these shorter chains.

In order to do it, I switched shuttles, but did not reverse work (SS, DNRW). Voila, the curve of the chains changes from convex to concave when seen from front.

In order to get full stitches on the front, yet avoid colour blips in 2-colour tatting -

the rings around the central blue ring were joined to the former as follows :

Before starting the join, make 1fhs, then a picot join with up loop, then continue with rest of pattern.

That extra stitch is barely seen in fine thread.

In tatting and joining an element backside (RODS), the joining loop follows 1shs.

Works for me.

* Picot Join to the right is what we generally know as the last to first join performed using the folded join or twisted picot join or even ‘avoiding the folded join’. I have updated my list of tutorials for these joins here (scroll down to JOINS)

In this star the last element was a chain to be joined to a ring; though most often we end up joining the last ring to first ring in a medallion.

Okay I can hear you groaning and muttering "not another term!!!" 
But think about it - if you read down the list of folded joins and avoiding them, there are many other terms that mean the same and do the same job. 
Yet, there are questions and queries and confusion about when, whether, or which join to use.
The Common Thread is that ALL THESE JOINS ARE MADE TO AN ELEMENT ON THE RIGHT OF THE PRESENT ONE. 
In majority of our tatting, the picot join is made to an old element/picot which lies to the LEFT of the present one.
It is only when the old element lies to the Right, that we need to either twist a picot, fold the work, or reorient the work in order to make a connection. 
Hence this grouping under the heading "Picot Join to the Right". Once we have this category, How we go about accomplishing it is our own prerogative. But at least now beginners know that a 'different' tweak is required.

Yes, I'm getting off the soap box - it's already cracking under my weight ;-)

whether we join to our left, or to our right ,
it's happy tatting time always ... :-)

edging out a snowflake

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Patterns in this book start with edgings, and I was interested in the way the chains seemed to be curving around like a continuous scroll in this one. Annette was my very first tat from this book, even though I shared the star medallion first.

Annette Snowflake

Adapted from Annette (p28, Dover)

“Tatting Patterns and Designs”

Blomqvist and Persson

Techniques : 2 shuttles, fs/bs tatting, thrown rings.

Overall direction of tatting - clockwise

Worked in Anchor size 40 (closer to 50), it measures 3½” point to point 

All the blue elements are tatted backside, so the majority pink elements can be frontside.
Using 2 colours shows clearly which shuttle is in use – SH1 has pink & SH2 has blue.

This attempt was discarded because I joined the 2nd repeat incorrectly - to the left of first (going counterclockwise!). Wouldn't have been a problem in traditional tatting, but in fs/bs, it shows ;-(

TIP : colour blip : On the return, when joining 2^nd chain to base of blue ring, here’s how I avoided the colour blip from showing above :

pull down a pink loop ;

pass blue shuttle through loop ;

snug and tension, but do not pull the loop up – keep it on the backside.

This is kind of like the slope and roll join. 

I intended to tat a bookmark by returning back along it’s length. But the first repeat was larger than expected.

How about a square instead ?! Pink chains were supposed to be joined at a picot along the chains, which I did not, thus allowing room to turn an angle.

Turned out it needed more repeats to lie flat. Yes, 6 !

The interconnecting chains were left to overlap for a layered effect. Remember to interlace the last chain correctly before joining and tying off.

A central ring was added later for stability, following the same stitchcount. This can be tatted as a thrown ring on the first blue chain for continuous working.

There are a lot of mistakes in this work, including the interlaced chains, which I am not proud of. And modern tatting techniques, along with 2 colours took their toll on the scroll! But I can't see myself tatting it again just coz. Live with it, sweep it under the carpet, or hide my head in the sand ;-P

TIP : Pattern Notation

Remember the Sunday puzzle which listed some ways of shorthand pattern notation?

This book threw up yet another notation, which had me crosschecking again and again and yet again to verify correct number of picots, even though the longish form is shown at beginning of each pattern.

The authors do not tell you the exact number of picots. Since the stitches between picots is the same, say 4 ds between each picot, here’s how they write the notation :

4 x 10

So how many picots is that ? No, not 10. It is 9 picots total, because 4 stitches are made 10 times, like so :

4 – 4 – 4 – 4 – 4 – 4 – 4 – 4 – 4 – 4

 

This pattern does not tell you when to reverse work or when to switch shuttles. This can be a bit of a bother for newbies.

Since the pattern or stitchcount hasn’t been changed, except for very minor tweaks, I will not share any diagram or pattern for this snowflake.

Which snowflake do like better – with or without the central ring ?

happy tatting always, with or without oopsies :-)

a new project

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I’ve started a new project (as if there weren’t enough unfinished ones!) as part of my unspoken 2017 resolution : working patterns from the books I have.

It’s the only way I can justify buying new books (space crunch)! I Have to work through at least some patterns from each of my books.

Partly random selection – mostly small motifs and medallions.

You might see the same colours for consecutive workings. That’s because I am loading the shuttles fully with size 40 thread and working them off. I will try to pick similar-looking shapes so that they can be strung/joined together later for a bookmark or mobile.

So here’s the one I will share now (although I made another first).

Star #1 (p39, Dover)

“Tatting Patterns and Designs”

Blomqvist and Persson

In one colour, the beautiful spyrographic continuity of the elements is highlighted. But I decided to go with 2 colours.

Worked in Anchor size 40 (closer to 50), it measures 2½” point to point ; 2” side to side ; each side of the ‘hexagon’ is about 1¼” .

Techniques : 2 shuttles, fs/bs tatting, thrown rings, thrown clovers, last to first ring join.

• Since there are more thrown rings, I chose to work the inner rings backside, so that the chains and thrown rings & clovers could all be worked normally.
• The medallion is worked in clockwise direction overall.
• For the single thrown ring, stitch count at either end of ring differs by 1 stitch in written notations. Taking the clover stitch count as my guide, I chose to use the smaller number.

This beautiful hexagon could so easily be used as a motif for a larger doily or mat ! I like this pattern very much.

Looking at this pic, I now realise that the chains under the clover should've been snugged more. groan !

I am also drawing a diagram of each for myself, to print & save in book for future reference. 

Question : Can I share the diagram (without stitchcount) on my blog?

(The book was first published in 1967)

happy tatting always :-)