Monday, January 16, 2017

Rings, split rings and single shuttle split rings

If you're not a tatter, there's probably no way for me to effective describe the difference between rings, split rings and single shuttle split rings.  Rings are basic tatting elements; the shuttle thread makes a ring and comes back to the beginning to meet the ball of thread.  Fine, if you only want rings to the side of the piece.  If you want rings in line, like beads on a thread, you have to use both threads so they can both end at the same place.  This means working with two shuttles, stitching backwards, all sorts of fiddly bits.  If you only have one shuttle, it gets even more complicated.  I have a pattern that I want to make (a flying dragon), that requires single shuttle split rings.  After three tries, I think I have it down.  I can't show you the first one because the ring fell apart completely.  Here are the second and third tries.  The first one became a lower-case "e" because I forgot that the goal was to end at the other side of the ring, not back at the beginning.  The third one came out right.  It's going to take a bit more practice to feel comfortable with the process, but I've made a good start.

I used size 3 thread so I could clearly see what was going on.  The first ring was in size 20, in a solid color, and it was too small to compare with the instructions.


3 comments:

  1. Nice progress & as Jane says, well worth learning.
    One little tip - when you start the loop tatting part, make the 1st half stitch normally and start the loop tatting with 2nd half stitch. Reason : it is easier to pull through and keeps the thread to back in case you are using the SSSR to finish or to hide ends.
    Hope you don't mind ... I love this technique and use it frequently in various ways.

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  2. So if the pattern is 6/6, I would really do 6 1/2 then 5 1/2? Am I understanding that right?

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