happeeeeee birthday

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 28th June is Eleonore Endrucks' birth anniversary and we had shared 6 derivatives of the E monogram for a combined ILD 2026 and birthday celebrations. I got so caught up that I tatted all six ... they are fairly quick tats anyways. 

So, here's wishing our designer of Endrucks 1920 Project a very Happeeeeee Birthday with expectations that she would be looking down on her Endrucksian tribe with pride.

All worked in size 20 threads (though some are closer to Lizbeth size 10) and arranged in ascending order for comparison.

My original idea was to arrange them in an arc as if we were calling out in a rising crescendo but it didn't quite make the mark as seen above.

All six patterns were shared here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/06/double-celebration.html

Sharing my thoughts and details in the same order as above -

Letter E Cursive from E32 by Paola Bevilacqua - I already shared my notes here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/06/multiple-celebrations.html

Measurement: 3cm wide, 4cm high.

Letter E from E1 by Manju Talekar. Notes shared here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/06/multiple-celebrations.html

Measurement: slightly more than 4cm x 4cm.

Letter E from E41 by Julie Villegas. This was an easy and quick tat.

Measurement: 3½ cm wide, 4½ cm high

Letter E from E1 by Vani Kattoju. I have tatted sooo many E1 original/reworked and derivative patterns that my motor memory kicked in and I made a mistake in the vertical chains. Instead of 4ds between picots, I made 3ds as in the original. Discovered this only on the return journey and had to un-tat a few segments before tweaking the count by 1 less stitch each. Thankfully it doe not seem to have made difference.

My slight tweak which isn't too obvious since I did it too late - In the 2nd motif I shortened chains and rings in the arms by 1ds to make the horizontal arm of E shorter than the end ones.

I was forced to play thread chicken for several of the final elements but managed to have just enough tails left to be able to sew them in. Reposition methods help a great deal as did not cutting for 2nd row - simply made a slip stitch.

Measurement: 4cm wide, approx 6cm high.

And when it is rotated we get some interesting possibilities! I see a chandelier, a bowl, but also an elephant, LOL.

Letter E from E41 by Ninetta Caruso. Now I had always intended to tat this with bugle beads, but this time I went for speed. And I was so inspired by Ninetta's version of Julie's E (for ILD) that I copied her colourway ;-D

Measurement: 4cm wide, > 6½ cm high

.... When rotated 

Letter E from E17 by Manju Talekar. I could've done a better job with sharper angles and straighter lines. 

Measurement: 5cm wide, >7cm high.

So that's it for now. 

For plenty more derivative patterns, tutorials, and the original reworked patterns from Endrucks' 1920 book, Die Schiffchen-Spitzen save this EP LINKS url - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w1TZBg-HIzseGEUoJ-rko7tNbtSgZY5A18Oy2Y9Hh0Y/view

Hopefully my PIC Ninetta and I can return to our FB group activities in full earnest next year.

Many many thanks to all designers and participants!

vintage false CTM

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There are so many methods and even more combinations to add new thread to a work in progress lace. We came across Eleonore Endrucks' advice to fix mistakes in her 1920 book, 'Die Schiffchen-Spitzen'. Here is the translation - 

We now call it False CTM (false continuous thread method) and I have shared several scenarios and applications over time. Here, we limit ourselves to Endrucks' method, a variation of the same, and a knotless method.

All this has been presented as pictorials in this PDF - 

False CTM - Endrucks' Advice & Pictorials -https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_Jm7puHcMemY3lhwP2cP8G3EmcgamlVj/view

Since everything is already presented in the PDF, I will be brief here, with only a few selected pics. Please click on the link above to download the document.

1. False CTM - Endrucks' Method

Notice 1. the old tails tied together and the new ones tied together ; 2. the knots are far apart, with the new knot wound on the ball or 2nd shuttle, far from the point of attachment to the work in progress.. The blue thread between these two points creates the false continuous thread.

However, since the two tails (in each pair) are tatted over in the same element, it creates bulk. This can be countered to some extent by tatting very tightly.

TIP: Use a slip knot to tie the new threads (blue) so that it can be opened and the knot repositioned as desired.

2. False CTM - Variation of Endrucks' Method

In order to avoid bulk, here the old shuttle tail is tied with new shuttle tail and old ball/2nd shuttle tail to the new ball/2nd shuttle end. Preferably, maintain a distance between the two knots so that we have a continuous thread space to work with.

Look closely, all four tails are hidden (tatting over tails) in four different elements. The extra ends are trimmed later.

3. False CTM - Knotless Variation of Endrucks' Method

Knotting the tails can be completely avoided. Above the new ball or 2nd shuttle thread is being folded around the old tail and will be tatted over in the chain element. 

Similarly, the core thread can be added and worked over.

The other tail in each case can be sewn/whip stitched later, or pulled through stitches using a magic loop, etc.

The choice of the three methods would depend on the specific situation - how long are the old tails, etc.  The above is merely a small glimpse of the numerous ways in which we can apply false ctm. Some related posts/pictorials/PDFs -

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2019/10/false-ctm-part-1.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2019/10/false-ctm-part-2.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search?q=false+ctm 

Tatting Over Tails (PDF updated from 2017) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kwszAseuEZqkMdXosfTHtXdw0diCwmKz/view

Starter Picot or Starting with a Chain (PDF) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vzSHMxas51Yn5iujdmror1obx27AuIhw/view

Hiding Ends and Adding Thread - vast compilation of options and tutorials - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2016/11/beginning-or-ending.html

Hope you find this helpful in some future situation. 

2D solid tatting

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 Carolyn Craig's journey of 3D solid tatting started with a flat 2D fabric which she first made and shared publicly in 2020.

This was the piece. In her words -

"My first piece of solid tatting was for a tapestry purse in 2020. I tatted a flat piece of solid tatting for tube at the bottom of the purse for a scarf or umbrella."

This is what the 2D solid tatting fabric looks like without the appliqued tatted letters. It is worked continuously in to and fro rows with a shuttle and ball. Thus we work from the front from left to right, turn work and go back from right to left in continuous succession and repetition.

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Above is my first attempt when she privately discussed her process with me. I chose to start with a ring and worked in continuous chains around it.  It is worked all from the front and the joins are made through the waistband of each double stitch (she calls this LFW - lock join front waistband) of the previous round.

My mistake was to use knitting cotton size 10. This is not as firm as crochet cotton. Also I couldn't always make out the joining point and probably fudged.

Nevertheless it gave me enough of an idea of how Carolyn worked her solid tatting.

One can continue this piece and end up with a 3D model but more on that in the next post.

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Meanwhile Carolyn has created a PDF with her pictorial on flat or 2D solid tatting. She graciouslygave me permission to share her work here. I like the applications she included towards the end. 

2-D Solid Tatting with Carolyn Craig April, 2026 PDF - 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12-ti9Ut7j9KXvrubxncW1mK3lnhvRnFE/view

The tutorial starts with a foundation chain rather than a ring and I followed along ....

 

Her tip about using a marker or pin is Really helpful. 

This time I used Anchor crochet cotton size 20 in single colour and worked off a ball with single shuttle.There were some errors and I had to re-tat the 3rd row ... practice will make it neater.

This is how it looks from the back - like knitting!!! Seed stitch as some members said.

TIP: In a square or rectangular piece where we alternate between working rows from the front and the back, all joins are made through the 'hidden picot' since we are not deliberately making any picot.  Carolyn terms this the LBW (Lock join to back waistband), 

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Carolyn pointed out that while some pinholes are fine in a flat piece, if we wish to use it for 3D, the space should be as minimal as possible to avoid any stuffing from being visible. So I continued with tighter stitches ....

You can see the difference between the upper and lower halves. 

Texturally, too, the upper half is stiff. Although I do like the lower one - it feels more cloth-like when handled. Each has its use.

The same sampler from the back. The seed stitch pattern is more obvious in the lower half than the upper one, though it could be my own fault.

At present this is set aside. Oh by the way, I used 7 double stitches per row and am certain there was some fudging at some of the turns.  

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So far, when worked in ROWS of 1DS chains, it is nothing different than Dora Young's patterns. The difference is merely in design; in the combination of dense and open areas. And she deliberately made 'picots' at each lock join. 

Since I last posted, this is how far my Dora Young's Round Pinwheel Doily from her 'All New Knotless Tatting Designs' (2nd ed) has reached.  As of 5th Oct 2025, it is 14 cms or 5.5 inches in diameter. The dense pinwheel is complete and only the open chain rounds are left. However, I ran out of thread and couldn't decide on how to proceed. 

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To recap, 

Solid Tatting is simply dense area(s) in any tatted lace. Usually the dense is interspersed with lighter/airier portions in interesting designs. Solid tatting also includes tatted formations such as blocks, coils, tallies, onion rings, etc. Remember how many of Eleonore Endrucks'  patterns have broad and diversely shaped blocks interspersed with more open areas? Die Schiffchen-Spitzen, 1920 -https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view. The difference is that she uses longer chain segments as well as segmented blocks rather than single DS chains. Even before Endrucks. we come across a couple of projects in Lady Hoare's book (1910) where continuous rounds of tiered chains provide a dense highlight to patterns.

UPDATE: Double Chains also offer a solid design option, however they require a minimum of Three threads - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2024/09/pleasure-and-pondering.html

However solid tatting can also be applied to 3D models as we shall see in the next post. 

Many many thanks to Carolyn .... the best is yet to come! 

Starter Picot pictorials

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 Ninetta and I have been working on a resource page dedicated to the Endrucks 1920 Project. Over the years many tips and pictorials have been shared but they were scattered. In our attempt to finally gather and organise them, we discovered certain lacunae and decided to create pictorials and/or videos to address the issue. 

One such is the Starter Picot or Starting with a Chain. Elgiva Nicholls calls it the Link Loop or link loop picot. Several of Eleonore Endrucks' patterns in her 1920 book 'Die Schiffchen-Spitzen', start with a chain. She ties two threads together, and starts with a chain of 1ds, picot, and the rest of the chain. Of course most tatters now start directly with a picot and with continuous thread (CTM). Yet there are different approaches. Following are glimpses into the options detailed in the PDF which I won't repeat here....

Please note that this is a compilation sourced from various sites/blogs, some of which are no longer accessible. It is the reason Ninetta and I wanted a resource that did not have to rely on outside links, as far as feasible. The only outside link we included is for The Online Tatting Class, besides our own blogs. As it is my Tatting Resources page (tab above) lists tons of outside resources with credit. 

Starter Picot Options with Pictorials by Muskaan Oct2025 (starting with a chain) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vzSHMxas51Yn5iujdmror1obx27AuIhw/view

1. Starter Picot with paper clip, marker, or coilless pin.

Between the choice of spacers, I prefer the thread marker (or luggage tag loop) as you might remember from my past posts. I find it less interfering, and more importantly we can measure the picot to the exact size required - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2023/01/measured-picot-on-core-thread.html

2. Starter Picot with 1st half-stitch

or 2nd half-stitch

I left out this 2nd hs collage from the PDF since it is basically the same as the 1st hs pictorial.

3. Starter Picot with lock stitch

What happens when we want to work with two colours or we have leftover threads on our shuttles and wish to use them? Obviously CTM is not an option, but we do have False CTM. 

4. Starter Picot with false ctm in two-colour tatting

5. Starter Picot with false ctm in two-colour block tatting

The above collage was shared by Ninetta showing a two-coloured block in progress. And she starts the 1st chain with 1ds, picot like Endrucks. However, instead of tying the threads together, she uses the false CTM method.

For many more situations in which a False CTM comes in handy, click on the tag at the end of the post. I have two dedicated posts along with some specific projects where I used it. https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search?q=false+CTM

Hope this is helpful in your future projects. 

festival tatting

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 I should've posted this days ago but my head is immersed in another project and days kept slipping by. As always happens with me, I start off with a small goal but it keeps expanding and I seem to fall into a black hole, LOL! 

This is Manju Talekar's brilliant adaptation of a leaf pattern into an artistic collage of one of the most beloved and vastly invoked god with an elephant head - Ganeshji! There are interesting stories of how he ended up with the head of an elephant! Manju also added his vehicle, the mouse, and his favourite plate of modaks/laddoos. I'm sure you will find it interesting to read up a bit more about this god who is welcomed home every year and then sent off into the sea! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi

Among Hindus, any festive occasion, rite or ritual, starts with invoking his blessings for an auspicious start. Even wedding invitations have his image or mantra inscribed right at the beginning. 

 E15 Ganesh by Manju Talekar (2024) pattern pdf for #Endrucks1920Project -   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EgXVMpAEsXA0CASayy_rShQHjGGbbQvn/view

Adapted from E15 Leaf Doodle #1 (by Muskaan) which in turn was adapted from Eleonore Endrucks' pattern E5 in her 1920 book titled, 'Die Schiffchen Spitzen'.

There is also a short explanation of a Hidden Picot in the PDF.

Here you see the leaf doodles from which she made the head and used part of the motif to create the rest of the body. The entire collage is worked in several separate pieces and then assembled together. She meant it for a greeting card, but ended up framing it.

I worked the pattern as an unofficial test-tatter while doing the pattern presentation. I still need to complete the ears before I post my version. It tats up very quickly!

With Ganesh Chaturthi on 27th (through to 7th Sep) there is still plenty of time to tat your idol in thread and add to your decorations when Ganpati Bappa comes home!

PLEASE mention the name of the designer, the name of the pattern, and the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project whenever you post your version, as a courtesy to the designer.

Many many thanks, Manju, for this lovely model and pattern!

viral spread

Pin It now! This would've been the first time an entire month would've been devoid of a single blog post here in my 12/13 years of blogging! Couldn't let that happen, now.

 

The reason for this silence and absence has been my own viral flu which came on a bit severely this time. Since we started taking the flu vaccine annually, we only get some very mild symptoms, easily covered with some paracetamol tablets. Despite the antibiotic course, it left me totally devoid of energy - both mental and physical. I am still taking extra measures to overcome the inflammation and this leaves me very little time to do much.  And while I have been visiting blogs to see new posts, I haven't been in a very chatty mood nor mode, hence no comments ... hope to make up for it soon. As it is, the new line of treatment I started some months back hasn't worked, at least clinically, leaving me more exhausted than previously. The book editing has been shelved for probably two months now and I might not be able to get back to it till late September when I see my pulmonologist with blood tests, etc. :-(

All I can manage are kind of mindless activities which is why the  other virus (below) has been detected at an opportune time ...

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Interestingly, another virus was detected – a simple ‘s’ that spoiled the party! Spellings are so important especially when citing or crediting. 

‘Die Schiffchen-Spitzen’, 1920, by Eleonore Endrucks
NOT  

‘Die Schiffchen-Spitszen’

 

I profusely apologise for inadvertently introducing an ‘s’ into the book title when we started the Endrucks 1920 Project. Initially my spelling was correct, but when I typed it in my fall-back word doc, the 's' creeped in and I continued to copy and paste this in my blog, PDFs, and articles. :-( 

Except for a miniscule number, this has also been copy-pasted by almost everybody through the years till Manju Talekar’s sharp eyes spotted the error and pointed it out some weeks back. 

Since then, my extremely supportive PIC Ninetta Caruso and I have been on a mission to update all Google docs, blog posts, and pattern PDFs with the correct spelling.

We also created a checklist of other updates we had been mulling over since this has been an evolving and an unbelievably expanding Project. I am taking this opportunity to simultaneously incorporate as many of these updates as possible and Ninetta will be doing the same eventually (she has already completed the spelling-change in her PDFs!). This often requires some reformatting and could easily take up to an hour or more for each PDF. Unfortunately, we cannot do anything about articles written for publications but we can be extra vigilant in future.

PLEASE NOTE that while the original reworked pattern PDFs have her full name, Eleonore Endrucks-Leichtenstern, we have removed her maiden surname in the derivative patterns and now use only Eleonore Endrucks. And all her 44 patterns are listed as E1, E12, etc., where E stands for Endrucks.

We are also adding the links which did not exist before, viz., the EP LINKS and the Directory links.

My sincere apologies once again and please do not hesitate to inform us of ANY discrepancy or problem you might encounter in any of the documents. We wish to remain as error-free as possible.

And many many thanks to Manju and Ninetta!

a no glass ceiling

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This is something I pulled out from my art archives, LOL. Made around the turn of the century and lying unused in a box in my now almost defunct yet stuffed art closet. 

I needed something for the Small Decorations game organised by splocik and for the last 11 months I've submitted various specimens of tatted lace. For this final month, too, I had a few small pieces and a to-tat list of a few more, which I was going to put together as tree decorations to hang as simple ornaments, to cover baubles, etc. However, this value addition didn't happen when I suddenly remembered I'd never blogged about this project. Had to look through several of my containers to finally locate them, but the search did throw up so many forgotten memories!

 

These are mostly leftover glass paints on transparency sheets cut into rectangles for bookmarks. All are freehand, free-style, painting outlines directly over the bookmark and then filling with colour.

 

The black outline is not fine and even in many of them because the nozzle wasn't cooperating ...perhaps because the squeeze bottle was running low on the colour. Yet I enjoyed giving myself a free hand, LOL.

 

These bookmarks remain unused because at times the paint tends to stick to the page especially in the hot summers we have here. Would a coat of varnish help? While I didn't try varnish, I did try to cover up the painted side with cling wrap. Nah, unless laminated, the wrap just spoils the look.

A failed idea and experiment.

The box contained another painting on an A4 transparency sheet - lot more detailed and fine, but the paint has peeled off in several places. Another one has remained fine, though. My largest glass painting (a Medusa), this one on glass was framed and adorned the study for several years. Now it is wrapped up and closeted.

Would the newer generations remember what a transparency sheet is? Are they still being used for presentations or put to some other use? 

I could've punched a hole at the top and tied a satin ribbon for a tail. But I was just plain lazy to collect the materials and put in those few extra minutes and effort. Part of the reason is that these are not going to be used as bookmarks and are too long to stand in for tree decorations. Hmmm, I could cut around the outline of a few of them, though! Now that's something for next year.

So these bookmarks are my submission for December. You can scroll through the beautiful range of  November submissions here - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2024/12/male-dekoracje-2024-galeria-listopadowa.html

As requested by splocik, above is a collage of all my submissions for the entire year (there were two submissions in October).

I had tremendous fun thinking of what to present each month! And I didn't always have to make something special, though the game was instrumental in several. Glad I could complete the game!

UPDATE: December gallery - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2024/12/male-dekoracje-2024-galeria-grudniowa.html ; collage of year-round projects by each participant - https://splocik2.blogspot.com/2025/01/male-dekoracje-2024-podsumowanie-i-3.html

Many many thanks, splocik, for organising such a fun event in a supportive and creative way. So much talent was on display through all the submissions!

Happy holidays to one and all!