hybrid tatting

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my musings.....

This is somewhat of a personal deliberation, contemplation - musings if you may. I haven't done a thorough exploration. So jump in with your comments, input, counter, reference, etc.

We know that any tool we use for tatting lace has it's advantages and limitations. Ingenious tatters have found ways to use the strengths of each tool Together!

Hybrid Tatting is a tatting method that uses both needle and shuttle to work an element. It started with using them together in a split ring as seen in the image above. The term was coined by Wally Esther Sosa, for this method by Rosario Ruiz Moreno. They taught it at Palmetto Tat Days in 2017. Wally narrated the genesis -

I first came across this term and clever adaptation last year when Sharon Fawns blogged about it here. 

Recently, someone shared a video on facebook, that clearly showed how to do the split ring in hybrid tatting. It was dated 2015! It is by ChariFriv and can be accessed through this link - https://www.facebook.com/charifriv/videos/1602794246605932. Another example of how tatters independently came up with the same technique, method, or effect!

UPDATE (Nov 2022) - Wally tells me that ChariFriv is Rosario Ruiz Moreno! 

Anyway, this got me thinking. 

Should the term hybrid tatting be limited to the use of 2 tools for the same element or can it include the use in separate elements or rows within the same lace? 

A pattern that comes to mind is Frivolé's Rose and Crown motif. It has interlocking rings as the central round and several shuttle tatters use a needle to tat only this round.

And what about the SSSR (single shuttle split ring) where we use shuttle to tat 1st side and finger to tat the other?! 2 tools in same element.

Going further back in time, when the chain as we know it, had not been invented in tatting. Tatters left bare thread between rings or ring clusters. 

 

This bare thread was later covered in several different ways. Elgiva Nicholls calls this the 'False Chain' where the bare thread was covered in numerous ways using a tapestry, netting, or sewing needle (Tatting Technique and History, 1962). I am selecting only 2 where the stitch clearly imitates the half stitch(s) as we see in today's tatted lace.

Larks Head Knot (LHK) - 

  

The bare thread being covered by mock ds or LHK. The unflipped over-under movement for half-stitch is underway (left pic). The unflipped under-over half-stitch being made (right pic).

  

3 mock chains completed with picots.

Buttonhole Stitch - 

  

Those with a preference for embroidery might have used the buttonhole stitch to cover the bare thread.

Turn work (or work back to the start) and cover the bare thread with buttonhole stitches. These resemble a repetition of half-stitches as in a Josephine chain.

These are merely a small window into the use of 2 tools specifically for tatting the same element, separate elements or rows in the very same tatted lace. I deliberately omitted several other ways we use a crochet hook, a needle, or a cro-tatting tool, focusing only on how a false/mock stitch can be made with 2 tools such that once the lace is completed, the difference in tools is not apparent or discernible.

So, what are your thoughts? Where, and how would you use 2 tools to ease your tatting; and which 2 or more tools?