dancing continuously

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 My apologies to those who have participate in the TAL - a bit under the weather. 

Carin Jansen’s Angel Choir doily TAL – Round 4 

pattern - http://handwerk-fee.blogspot.com/2020/11/engelenkoor.html

Techniques : 2 shuttles ctm, long chains, lock join, dot (tiny ring).
Optional Techniques : 1 shuttle and ball ctm, mock picot, adding thread on a chain, substituting dot, fs/bs tatting.
All tutorials, including for needle tatting, can be found here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/tatting-resources.html

Anita Barry and I join forces to share our notes and thoughts .....

This is Anita's doily all pinned out on foam at the end of round 3. In her own words -

"I felt I needed to pin Round 3 flat in preparation for next round. I needed my Picots of the Round 3 rings to be fairly centered above each ring. That way as I’m tatting the chain of Round 4 I have correct distances from one center picot join to the next center picot join."

As pointed out in previous post, we can climb out of round 3 by working the final ring as a split ring. Then leave a tiny mock picot and continue with the chains.

I wanted to change the colour, so after making the mock picot, I added yellow ball to the green core from shuttle, hiding the yellow tail under first few stitches. 

I snipped the unwanted green (on left) and later whip stitched it under the split ring.

Cristina Reb (facebook) followed the tip to work both rounds in one pass.

Carin tells us she did the same for her white version. But a designer has to keep the pattern simple and uniform to make it easy to follow. As tatters, we have the liberty to tweak the basic framework to suit our skills. All the hard work has been taken care of by the designer!

My round ruffled, but settled beautifully after blocking with the rolling pin.

This round is made up of mainly chains with just one dot per repeat where we need to reverse work to tat it. I realised too late there was this barely visible ring - I might've gone with yellow throughout!

Worked clockwise, mainly from the front, this is a speedy row.

In Lizbeth size 80, the doily is now 12cms in diameter.

The dot is merely a 4ds ring but it serves to increase the height of the adjoining chains. Perhaps one can easily substitute these dots by simply adding a couple more ds to the chains on both sides, and a small picot to join them. The quick round will become quicker still with All Chains only. Just a thought for the lazy tatter!

TIP : We can climb out of this round as well with a short (8ds) split chain. The next round will then start with a split ring for the center ring in the clover.

If you join us on facebook, remember to tag your post : #AngelChoirTAL to allow us all to enjoy your version!
I have completed the next round and started the 6th. Wonder what you will think of the colour placement!

Related Posts -
Round 1 Notes - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/01/two-to-tango.html

Round 2 Notes - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/01/a-quadrille-or-more.html

Round 3 Notes - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/01/dance-nonstop.html

Round 4 Notes - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/01/dancing-continuously.html

meet me and continue

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Meeting with Tatting

Skip over to Anetta's blog to get to know me a bit. If you are interested, that is! 

As I mentioned earlier, Anetta has started a monthly series where readers get to meet a different designer each month. Said designer shares her/his tatting journey along with a free snowflake pattern. At the end of the year, at least 12 snowflakes will be ready compounded by the joy of tatting along with friends, and learning new techniques. It is also her endeavour to educate about copyright and giving credit even when a pattern is free.

Everybody is invited to play along. Before the end of the month, send a pic and link of your snowflake by clicking the 'blue frog' button. Anetta will further summarise all entries in a separate post the following month.

Renulek opened the year with a beautiful snowflake, followed by a couple from Anne Orr (due to unavoidable circumstances), and I was invited to share in March for which I chose the Rosette Enchained Snowflake & Ice Drop. 

Check out Anetta's beautiful 2-colour version. She even prepared a lovely pictorial for split chain, leading up to the pattern. 

And don't forget to visit the post again at the end of this month to check out what the talented tatters send in.

Seeing the patterns shared so far, I am tempted to tat and send in entries, too. May be I’ll catch up later in the year.

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Continuing with the topic of continuous tatting ….

Mock Picot to climb out and Changing chain curve

In my previous post, I spoke about Sheetal’s question on facebook, which led to 2 methods of climbing out with a mock picot when there is a bead at the base (down bead or bead on core thread). {If the beads are on the picot (up beads) and we need to climb out with a mock picot, then I described it for the Sitka Rose}.

Sheetal uploaded a pic of her 2^nd round – a flower motif {! The petals are very similar to the rosette enchained ones where the chain changes it’s curve. But her brilliant stroke was adding beads on picots to the concave segment! Thus the beads face inside. Love it!!! If you are a member of the Just Tatting facebook group, you can read and see the entire post.

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…and about continuous threads...

Extending thread in CTM or CTM with Extra Shuttle 2 thread!

A post without a pic is like a faceless body! So here’s a little trick to extend the length of shuttle 2 thread when winding continuously. 

Pony shuttle bobbins are fairly small. For the Split Ring Heart I didn’t want to have to reload later. 

So, after cutting and winding the Sh2 bobbin fully, I wound the remaining length of Sh2 thread on a spool between the 2 shuttles (red is Sh1 & yellow is Sh2). Look closely and you can see which thread goes where.

I started with the inner clover, working it as mock rings, thus saving on Sh1 thread.

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climbing out with mock picot

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A question was posed in a facebook group and my first answer was incorrect. Got my shuttle, thread and beads out, and gave it a few whirls. Wahoo, got it! (I'm getting good with bead solutions ;-P) Later, Lee Buchanan posted another option.

Climbing Out with a Mock Picot …

with a bead at the base!

What’s special or new about climbing out with a mock picot, you ask? Well, this time there was a bead at the base of the ring and a long picot over it. Looking back it seems, huh, what’s the big deal. Try it with a normal ring, and you’ll discover the issue.

This may have been done before but I’d like to keep a record on hand for future. Sharing both methods here.

For this pictorial, only 1 shuttle is used, with a long thread left attached (ctm).

Method 1 : Mock Ring

1. String beads on the shuttle thread and start a mock ring. I find the self-closing mock ring (SCMR) is neatest and the closure almost ‘invisible’.

Leave a loop and slide a bead after each double stitch (or as per pattern). I have 6 beads here. 

2. After sliding last bead, do not make any more ds, pass shuttle through loop ...

3. ...and close the mock ring. 

4. Leave bare space for the mock picot and make a lock stitch or overhand tie (SLT). Continue with pattern.

Method 2 : Reverse Ring

Lee Buchanan got into the swing of things and offered this RR solution!

1. Start a reverse ring (tutorial links here). A reverse ring or wrong-way tatting starts on the opposite side of a normal ring, and has reverse or unflipped stitches. Make sure the beads are within the loop of the ring, and slide a bead after each reverse stitch. 

2. After sliding the last bead, close the ring. 

3. Threads emerge on either side of bead. 

4. Make a mock picot by securing the bare threads with a lock stitch or SLT and continue with next element in pattern.

As you can see, the end result is the same. Of course, getting that last picot to look unbroken is unavoidable, Unless the next element is a split ring in which case no lock stitch or shoe lace trick is required.

TIP : If beads are on the picot (up beads), one can climb out with a mock picot as in this beautiful Sitka Rose motif here.

Thank you Sheetal. Each time a question is asked, 

there is an opportunity for mutual learning and improvement!

Thank you Lee, for being such an enthusiastic and adventurous tatting sport! 

PLEASE NOTE: If you wish for a pdf of any of my posts, let me know. I now have a mail app thatnallows me to convert any post into a pdf easily.