muskaan's T*I*P*S: inserted rings

Showing posts with label inserted rings. Show all posts

Monday, 27 July 2026

calling them done

Several pieces of my tatted lace over the past months are 'incomplete' if one considers the respective pattern. Yet, I am calling them done. And interestingly, most patterns here were gifted to me by kind and friendly tatters. In no particular order .....

Dora Young's Round Pinwheel doily - from All New Knotless Tatting Designs (1974).

Back in April I had wondered how to continue since I had run out of thread. And Jane McLellan commented 'to leave it as it is'. Sound advice 'coz I really like these arches better than the final circle it turns into.

Against a different background where the grey shows up.

In Anchor perle size 8. the diameter is 17.5cm.

There is a slight overlap at the dips in the arches but that's fine - hardly even visible. And hubby is quite happy with this on his table!

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/04/2d-solid-tatting.html

💜💜💜

Centri Rotondo - from Il Lavaro Chiacchierino 7, Mani di Fata (1994)

A while back there was a post in a FB group which mentioned Cyprus tatting where continuous tatting involved simply leaving bare thread right up to the point in the next round where the next element starts. This is visible unlike Mlle Riego who kept the bare thread at the back of work.

I used this doily pattern, leaving off all decorative picots, to show this spiralling climbing out.

Only 5 rounds tatted in Anchor size 40 measuring 10cm in diameter. Yet I had to snip off two rounds because there was cupping, but I re-tatted only one adding 2ds to the chains. I have come to the conclusion that my chains are more snug than normal.

The pattern was gifted to me, along with her hand-drawn sketch, by Anna Bertini.

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/02/not-one-ring.html

💜💜💜

April Fool's Rose Circle (2016) -

This is merely the center motif which gets repeated in a later round of the doily pattern. This single round in Red Rose perle size 8. measures 9cm in diameter. The full pattern was gifted to me by Erika Tashiro. Hopefully I will complete it some day, but with different threads. Not happy with this perle cotton as seen in the stitches and imagine my surprise when the dye ran!!!

This angle highlights the raised/3D effect where the rings of a running scroll are interlaced one over the other and joined to create Celtic Interlacing and a realistic-looking rose motif. The pattern has very clear colour-coded diagrams, yet I found it easier to refer to my own sketches to confirm how the rings were inserted into each other.

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.co m/2021/05/rosebud-heart.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/04/honoured-and-humbled.html

And remember Lauretta Tondelli's Interlaced Onion Rings earring (2024)?

Notice how it uses the same technique to interlace the three rings in an onion ring. In this case, however, the rings get kind of squished resulting in different shapes. This is the only piece I tatted, but single earring is not a new phenomenon for me ;-P

💜💜💜

Its been a while since I crossed out another box in Natalie's PICOT Bingo 2026 Level 2. This time I am offering the above two models for Celtic Tatting box. (Details: https://www.patreon.com/posts/happy-new-year-147124370 )

💜💜💜

My heartiest thanks to all named in this post (and some who wish to remain anonymous)

Wednesday, 6 April 2022

honoured and humbled

Pin It now!

I wanted to share this post on 1st April but got delayed. My bag of expected and unexpected gifts had arrived just 36 hours prior!!! But let's start from the beginning ....

Last November I was approached by an awesome designer whose blog I have been following for some years now - Erika Tashiro, better known as Tat-Marmelo (or tass_tat on Instagram). She was going to publish her 1st book of doily patterns in English (the Japanese version had been published in September) and needed some help with the Techniques. How could I refuse - it was such an honour.

This is her fabulous Lotus Flower motif she sent. Each stitch is perfect, each chain arched evenly, the thread has a stiffness that I haven't normally encountered in Anchor, Red Heart or Lizbeth. The tatting is so seamless, that one cannot locate the start/finish. Such a joy to hold in my hand.

She offered me a generous fee and free books (up to 30!) I immediately declined the former but asked for 4 copies. When they did not arrive after a month and she couldn't get any clear response from the postal service, she kindly sent me 4 copies by air, along with the motif. So now I have 8 copies, 2 messages in her neat hand, and all these goodies! I am truly humbled.

I have always admired her artistic patterns and had printed out a couple of her free patterns years back. To have them all compiled in this spectacular book is bliss. Colour-coded diagrams accompanied with textual patterns, tips, and techniques. Clear pics of tatted lace. Very high quality throughout. Impressive and inspiring!

In the foreground is a cute cherry blossoms pop-up card with birds.

These small Clover shuttles are ideal for tatting with size 80, and am so happy these are bobbin shuttles since post shuttles refuse to move in my hand.

See that reddish circle? It is April Fool's (Reiko Akimoto) 2016 Rose Circle Doily. Erika remembered my attempt to decipher the inserted rings and sent me the diagrammed pattern and technique! One more doily coming up, besides all the lovelies in Erika's own book!

5 balls of size 40 thread - yummy!!!

Erika's book provides plenty of minute engineering and visual tips for impeccable tatting using Jan's method. Normally we have a few simple 'rules' for directional or fs/bs tatting. Her minute observations have revealed aspects I never even considered. She has micro-managed Jan's method and the above motif bears witness.

For years now, I do fs/bs tatting and often choose to start a ring or round backside. Erika has done the same and lays out her philosophy in a prioritized list of which elements/rounds to start frontside or backside.

Clover polar grids that double up as design guides and blocking sheets. The last pages in her book have these grids, too! These, however are made of non-woven fabric and I'm sure they are washable, too.

This cloth fabric from Atelier Shishicass, has 2 halves of large polar grid printed on it. Very functional and practical. Now I have no excuse (except laziness ;-P) to not pin out my lace instead of using the rolling pin.

'Tatting Lace, Marmelo. Pattern Book 1' has so many gorgeous doilies, motifs, and jewellery to tat. I haven't been able to start on any, but treat my eyes on them frequently. And of course, she made my ITD memorable!

I mainly helped with the techniques section, that too at the final stages, and did not deserve the Supervisor tag, but she insisted. It was such a pleasure to communicate and work with her. She has been very receptive to all my suggestions and made respective edits, including some on one of her patterns. Her graphic depiction of beading and some other schema and legends are so clear and I hope to learn and apply the same to my patterns.

Erika has already started to design and tat in preparation for her next book! Yet for close to 2 years she worked on her book, leaving little time to create new designs. Her 'inside story' of the entire process with lots of relevant information is something any designer wishing to publish a book would find useful. She uploaded 3 consecutive posts, the last of which is for her English version - https://tat-marmelo.blogspot.com/2022/03/3.html.

Many many thanks for the opportunity to work with you, Erika, and for all your generous gifts! I wish you success and creative satisfaction in all you do.

Wednesday, 19 May 2021

rosebud heart rings

Pin It now!

Recently a tatter wished to understand how these inserted rings in the Rose Circle doily were made. I, too, had tried to figure it out back in 2018 from which arose this Rosebud Heart. Following is the roughly and quickly drawn sketch I shared in the group illustrating how the rings are interlaced/stacked/inserted ....

Note that it can be made with one shuttle and ball. It has the Russian ANKARS-style stamp on it.

After a lengthy search in my compy, pen drives, and other storage areas, I finally found my original pictures (haven't looked for the real heart yet) and decided to share the prototype pattern. You are welcome to tweak it and hopefully share the adjusted count so that we can all benefit.

Start with the central ring (each ring is 15-15) and move around, ending with the tiny mock ring at the base.
Design TIP: The central (1st) ring is squished. My tip is to increase the chain segments , thus pulling that ring upwards.

Back to the original query (may 3rd, 2021) in the Chiaccherieno FB group.... It led to a diligent search for the original designer/pattern. This is Ninetta's summary of all the findings -

'Summary: The pattern of the centipede is by Reiko Akimoto (who signed April Fool's) and the pattern was granted by the author during a course held in Japan in 2016. This information can be found on the website of Ka-ryun (link is above in my comment). Until now the scheme has never been made available online, neither free nor paid. The pink element, formed by inserting circles into each other, is similar to the one used in a JTatter paid scheme (Celtic 3), on etsy (link is above in Linda's comment -https://www.etsy.com/listing/400761825/tatting-pattern-pdf-celtic-3?ref=shop_home_recs_1).'

If you wish to see the Rose Circle doily by Reiko Akimoto (April Fool’s) taking shape, check this out - https://ka-ryun.com/category/tattinglace/april-fools/

Click here for pics and links to all my Heart patterns

muskaan's TIP*S

Pages