calling them done

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 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!

Related Posts - 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/09/flower-in-flesh-in-thread.html

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

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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.

Related Posts -

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2025/01/last-and-first.html (slip stitch)

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

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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. 

Related Posts - 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/02/beautiful-hearts.html

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/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

Related Posts - 

https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/06/multiple-celebrations.html

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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 )

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

literally out of the box

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and functioning as a threader holder! Why didn't I think of this solution ages ago?! Here's the full story ...

Going back a few weeks, Anita showed me a vintage edging she had picked up at a thrift store. A single shuttle trefoil/clover edging with a curious way of joining the rings. It looked so good, too. Thought I'd work a sample but somehow I let my shuttle take over and ended up with this medallion.

Now I wasn't in the mood to use a picot gauge despite having a few handmade folded picot gauges, which is why the bare thread spaces are not perfect.

Nevertheless the highlight of this medallion is the little twist at the base of each ring. 

All I am doing is attempting to make a 1st half-stitch (ie. bringing the thread from Under the previous thread) without actually transferring or flipping it. This leads to all that twisting. One has to be careful with it. As you can see, the stitch is not tensioned and snugged completely since I wanted a loose twist. 

There is ample scope to play around with the effect, adding more half-stitches, etc.

It then reminded me of something that Ninetta had done. Turns out she used a lock join to simulate a twist in this vintage motif here - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2020/08/locked-in-old-corner.html - from Emmy Liebert's 1916 book.

So coming back to the problem that was awaiting a solution. I whip stitch tail ends using tapestry needles and a threader to thread the needle. The latter is kept in a different box within the larger project box. I wanted a way to have both the needle container and the threader to be together - pick them up in one go. Didn't want to use tape; couldn't use a magnet; couldn't glue it down for obvious reasons. 

This medallion which happened to lie over the circular box struck me as the perfect solution. I glued it down with a spot of glue at 3 points, that's it! 

Being so open and airy, the threader easily slips through any space yet stays put! And no fear of the wire being bent or getting caught anywhere. A safe haven!

Anita called this the Threader Keeper!!! Now she's one to think out of the box and guess it is rubbing off on me, LOL.

Oh, and I am submitting this BTS medallion (my 5th submission) for Natalie Rogers' Picot Bingo 2026 Level 2, crossing out one box -  

• Use Bare Thread Space. 

(Details here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/happy-new-year-147124370)

Happy Tatting

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A very happy International  Tatting Day to all tatters! 

While I will be tatting and also gobble up some chocolate today, what I am sharing here is a coaster or mat I worked on recently. It is a tessellation pattern by Karen Bovard from her 2013 book, 'MORE Fun With Split Ring Tatting'. 

It is made by joining individual houndstooth motifs on the go and there are slight differences in the motif depending on where it is positioned - whether in the main body or on a side, etc. The tails in the above piece are hidden but not trimmed. These acted as markers for my own comfort.

While the tatting itself is easy if you are comfortable with split rings, the arrangement of where each motif is attached needs careful attention. At least I needed that and had to cut off or retro-tat a few times.

The diagram was for a rectangle but I cut it short to a square. Which meant eliminating a row in the main body. To mark my place I marked the finished motifs in the diagram.

While I like the shape as is, it is not practical to use with all the arms sticking out. Hence I will be filling in the gaps, following Karen's pattern, but also outline it. Trouble is I can't decide the colour! Hubby suggested black or brown (the dark shade here is purple, not black) but I haven't made up my mind. Do you have any suggestions?
 

I had bought this book almost a decade back and so glad to have finally tatted something from it. The instructions at the beginning are very clear and detailed and make it easy to read the diagram-only patterns. There are myriad possible arrangements using some basic motifs as blocks or tiles and their niched arrangement in several patterns reminds one of MC Escher's tessellations. Of course, Karen has a lot of other designs, too as evident in the book covers. There are several I would love to try.

Karen even has a tip about making the split rings more circular. Huh, it just confirms why my own ring was circular too! (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2026/02/who-knew.html)

However, the spine of the book did not allow the book to remain open at the desired page. Hence I scanned and printed out the necessary pages and consulted them. 

UPDATE: (April 2, 2026) Karen has a new site which unfortunately does not show up in my feed. All the material from her old blog are also included in this new site. And she has some great tatting memes going ... looking forward to more. Here's the link - http://www.theshuttlesmith.com/

And I submit this as the 3rd piece for Natalie Rogers' PICOT Bingo 2026 Level 2 (https://www.patreon.com/posts/happy-new-year-147124370). Only one box to cross this time, though this too is a rings-only pattern, viz.,

• Tat from a diagram

freeform fun

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I've been enjoying some tatting time almost daily for the past several weeks/months. One of the outcomes is this freeform sprig with 4 colours which was tatted on the go using 'branching encapsulation' to pull out the desired colour where required (scroll to end for details).

I'm not fully satisfied with the shape or rather the length of some of the stems. Also I didn't spend time in choosing colours - just picked the first 'flowery' shades that had been used in recent samples. Wound four shuttles with the different colours, some of them using leftover threads. I've always multiple shuttles very freeing despite the risk and discomfort of tangling threads. 

I didn't start with all 4 threads together. Started normally with two colours and then added the 3rd and 4th colours where needed. If you look closely you might notice the difference in the thickness of the stems.

So this is the 2nd piece I am submitting for Natalie Rogers' PICOT Bingo 2026 (Level 2) which you can find here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/happy-new-year-147124370 and the boxes crossed out with this model include ....

• free-form tatting
• tat a flower
• tat nature

Huh, if only I had included a butterfly, I could've had a row bingo!!! Oh well, next time ...

A bit about Branching Encapsulation -

 The term was coined by Sherry Pence (2012) and she published a book dedicated specifically to this technique and you can scroll through her posts and samples here - https://ladyshuttlemaker.blogspot.com/search?q=branching+encapsulation. You can find Karen Cabrera's Lesson #155 - Branching Encapsulation video here - youtube.com/watch?v=2oB08uUYfzo&feature=youtu.be.

Elgiva Nicholls called it multiple dead ends in her 1962 book Tatting: Technique and History. Recently Marilee Rockeley (2024) worked the menorah from Elgiva's book using this technique and she also uploaded a video and free pattern here - https://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/search?q=branching+encapsulation

I had used branching Josephine chains in a card here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/05/i-love-floating.html but since they were dead end chains without any flower or bead, I used scrap threads to hold the bare thread at the desired length. You can find pictorial with options here - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2015/03/dead-end-start-to-split-chains.html

something new

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 For the last several weeks, starting around mid-December, I've been mainly focused on completing the Glossary for the book 'Six T's of Shuttle Tatting' by Net Best. Long back I had divided the glossary into separate letter files for ease of work and have gone through anywhere between 5 to 10 drafts of each over the years. Angela has been a patient and efficient support. This time it is 'final' ... my humble request to the tatting community is "Please stop bringing out new effects and techniques for this year so that I won't need to include it in the glossary ;-P Take a pause, my talented community!" 😁

So anyway, I've been tatting samplers for the glossary which were missing or for new entries. This, and the fact that I need a refresher on a few 'rarely' used techniques, I took up Natalie Rogers' Picot Bingo 2026 challenge again this year after skipping it last year. But instead of a completed project I might only make small samplers - to keep it short and quick. Some of these will actually dovetail with the glossary samplers, thus reducing any distraction or time constraint.

Learnt something 'new' - Stacked Dimpled Split Rings by Sandra Eichelberger (Crazy Mom Tats). It is a very clever application of techniques towards continuous tatting which she shared here - https://psychotatter.blogspot.com/2012/07/how-to-tat-stacked-dimpled-split-ring.html

NOTE: 'Stacked' is used for tatted elements that overlap and/or lay one above the other as a 3D formation. Hence in the present technique, 'stacked' is a bit of a misnomer and is probably used to indicate continuous tatting in a line or row of rings. (Thanks, Mary Arnold)

I used her stitch count. It is like working a split ring backwards where the 1st side is worked after working the 2nd side and the 1st side lies on the right instead of the left. Reminds me of Teri Dusenbury's SQDR (where she started with 1ds and then the entire ring was worked with reverse stitches) or a Reverse Ring, applied here to a dimpled yorkie split down the center.

It was a bit of a challenge to figure out the process but once I got it, it went smoothly. I think a pictorial or a video would help a great deal.

TIP: The main thing to keep in mind is to make the mock picot long enough. Notice how the dimple in the 2nd heart from top is less pronounced? The fault lies in a short mock or false picot.

Tied in a quick tassel made from the first scrap threads I could get my hands on. So one more tatted bookmark in my stash, though the body could've been longer.

The boxes crossed out in the Picot Bingo 2026 game (Level 2) -

• Dimpled Ring - I'm sure these count even if they are split.
• Tat a Rings Only Pattern - why do we limit ourselves to vintage rings only style patterns, LOL?
• Tat a Heart - five hearts here.
• Mock Picots - gravely important in this pattern/technique!

Two different levels of cards are shared by Natalie although I believe the above project falls in a bit of a higher category than even Level 2 (wink, wink). Check out the details and downloads here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/happy-new-year-147124370, 

UPDATE: (31 Jan 2026) Jane McLellan had worked on this technique to create a bookmark and a beaded bracelet here - https://janemactats.blogspot.com/search?q=stacked+dimple+rings

Many thanks to Sandra and Natalie !!! Keep it interesting and challenging! Great opportunities for new learning and consolidation of past learning.