squirreling away gapsosis

Pin It now!

how to avoid gapsosis in thrown rings and birdhouse squirrel !

Nothing new here for experienced tatters but do scroll down for the latter. 

Avoiding  gapsosis  in  thrown  ring clusters

Newer learners often face a problem of gapsosis in case of thrown rings and especially thrown ring clusters such as trefoils and clovers. 

Ungainly bare threads can be avoided with these 2 simple steps : 

1. fold the last ring of cluster over the earlier rings and hold in pinch ;

2. tat 1 ds as close to the base of the last ring as possible WITHOUT removing from pinch ;

voilà, now you can release from the pinch, unfold and continue with chain tatting normally – the gapsosis has been avoided and the thrown rings will sit close upon the chain.

NOTE : this same fold, pinch, and tat is equally effective with trefoils and clovers when a normal chain follows it after RW (reverse work). 

A pictorial on how to avoid gapsosis

If required, wiggle the knotting thread a bit till you can feel it flush against the last ring, 

with no core thread left.

 Release the pinch and unfold Only After 1 full double stitch has been made .

In case there is still a gap, untat the 1ds and do over.

This works for me. There may be other equally effective ways, too.

A few previous posts about gapsosis – how to avoid and also when/how it can be useful.

I will talk more about this snowflake in next post, in response to a tatter’s dilemma.

Our  birdhouse  owner !

And here is our birdhouse resident for this season. Not a bird, but a squirrel !!!

(click on pics to enlarge)

Notice how it has stuffed the house with rags n ‘riches’ ;-P

S/he does not take kindly to guests ! After a few moments of glaring motionless at each other, the ‘owner’ jumped at the intruder and it squirreled away. Our guest went back to resting on the rooftop J

We've had this birdhouse for over 2 decades and except for the first couple of years, no bird has made it's nest. Squirrels, do stash their pickings before winter, using it as a storehouse. But this time we have an actual resident for the last few weeks and can see it sprawling on the roof every evening !

These pics were taken through out French door glass. Hope to take a few more with doors open, and a closer view. 

happy tatting while bird , errr , squirrel watching  :-)