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.

Last Thursday was a "snow day" - 12 inches of snow fell, the schools closed, the City closed, I got to stay home. I had found an online tatting course that has a chat for beginners every Thursday, so I joined in. The lesson centered around reading tatting patterns. One of the samples looked rather interesting, so I printed it off and gave it a try tonight. The first thing I noticed was that the ring is so big that it was hard to hold onto the stitches when I got halfway done. The second thing was that closing the ring was very difficult; the stitches wanted to clump together and the core thread wouldn't slide. The third thing (after I finally got it closed) was that the ring was so big that it was floppy. No elegance at all. Now that I've taken a picture of it, I'm going to undo the ring and put the thread back onto the ball. It's all just a continuation of the class, and I did learn from it. That's the goal, right?

Lizbeth 129, size 10.