Bauble fever

I do have a huge shortage in time. I do not have the time to make a tatting tutorial the way I like it.
Lately I made some baubles. But one of the patterns used especially is pretty versatile.

I will post the picture and the written pattern. It is a very easy one. No idea, I may have been seen something similar. Anyway, did not copy voluntarily anyone. If so, Please let me know.
You can work it with a shuttle and a ball, CTM, of course. I prefer though the 2 colours version. No trick, simple sequence ring, chain, ring.
I worked this patterns with a Penny 30 thread and Finca Metallic thread (really fine one). Yes, I am not afraid to mix the threads sizes, the effect is always rewarding. So, please adjust your ds accordingly. All the picots are very small picots.

The only difficult step is the start: with a chain with a paperclip.

Place the paperclip, start chain: 10 - 19 - 1, snug, turn work.
* Ring 1: 10 + (remove paper clip, make join) 9 - 1, close, do not turn work.
R2: 1 + 9 -10, close,  turn work.
Ch: 1 + 18 -1 snug, turn work.
Work trefoil:
R: 10 + 6 - 4, close, dnt
R: 4 + 10 - 10 - 4, close, do not turn
R: 4 + 6 - 10 close turn work.
Ch: 1 + 18 - 1, snug, turn work.
R: 10 + 9 - 1, close, do not turn work.
R: 1 + 9 - 10, close, turn work.
Ch: 1 + 19 - 10, make lock join to the last ring.
Continue Ch: 10 - 19 + 1, snug, turn work. *
Repeat from * to *.

When you got the desired length, cut and work the second half, joining chains at the remaining picot.
You will get this. Bookmark, bracelet, also good.

For a 3 cm diameter baulbe: 4 elements were enough. I closed first the lower part with a ring (I think there were 6 or 8 ds between the picots from the trefoil). To close the motif on the bauble: just passed a thread through the picots and snug.

For a 6 cm diameter, I used 5 elements.

 

For a 8 cm diameter I placed the lace vertically, and fasten both ends. I made also 2 flowers and sewed the elements together.
Why did I say that the pattern is versatile? well... If you join the picots with a flower or a ring and if you stiffen the lace with an inflated balloon, you will get a lace bauble. I tested it, it works. If you work 4 elements, you will get a nice cube.
If you work only a half of the stripe with 5 or 6 elements and join the upper picots of the trefoils with a flower, you will get a star or a snowflake .
Have fun. I know I did.

Fringe... sort of

Corina tried to get in the snowflake mood. Toke a pattern tried to work it. Then she finds a lost thread of gold metallic Finca thread and the pattern gets forgotten. It is again one of the "Lets start the party" moments.
It did this:

 

See those threads? No picots cut at the end. Easy to see that the golden thread stay on the core thread. I do not know if this is already dowe and how. I am sure someone did it, but I did not see it yet. Please, if you identify a known technique, let me know, to give the right credits. 

My first test was done with simple macramé knots done on the core thread. Jane Eborall inspired me to try to use picots, when she mentionned the feelers for critters. And yes, I rushed to look at her superbe tutorials. Did not find yet this one. 

Main idea: who said that we can tat only beads into the lace??

What you need: 1 shuttle and a ball (CTM). A thread of a second colour.

Start by working chain on your shuttle with very long picots. As many as you estimate you will use. (my case: 7  x 6). The more even, te better. Cut those picots at the upper part, distribute them and just fill the shuttle. Treat them as beads. 

  

 Start tatting. When the moment comes (my sequence was 5 - 2 7 of those metallic thread fringes sep. by 1 ds, picot, 5, close) bring one of the knots with fringes in position then work the ds.

A bit uncomfortable at first but after a while, it gets better. It is sooo simple!!!
Keep only in mind that you will have to count this fringe as a ds... So you might need to re-think a bit before the pattern.

This little baby was done in less than 30 mins. Trim those fringes to give them a shape. 

I see this quite interesting for an aura for an angel, my husband suggested the winks for an angel, the snow as a border for a Christmas tree, a garland. 

Imagine a Josephine chain with fringes which get gradually longer... got your attention a bit?

Happy tatting. 

Necklace "Bow" pattern

Necklace “Bows”pattern

I played with 2 shuttles and some self closing mock rings, love it. Then I wanted to climb to the top of the SCMR with both threads and this is how the beads got in play. Made some elements, drunk some coffee, watched TV and then it hit me. Maybe you know it: take a small break, think that you are watching TV (tennis for me) but the brain is still tatting. Then the finger starts to draw in the air (this amuses my husband always) the the pattern starts to build itself.

2 shuttles, CTM, fine crochet hook, 5 mm rice mother of pearl beads. This is all you need. Skills required: nothing special, only not the be afraid to work stacked rings.

It gave this at first. It curves by it self a bit. First try: very fine black thread, the Penny 40 I received from Edda as a sample. By the way, she is a great tatter and I simply love her tatting solutions.  

The white one is worked with Penny 30 and Range 40 and it curves slightly more, some adjustments might be necessary if you work with different threads than mine. I would do it to the SCMR  the upper part (instead of a 5-5 I would work 2-3 or 2-3).

The pattern I will give you now is for 2 shuttles (Sh1: white, Sh2: silver), two colours.

Start with R: 20, close, do not turn. This is will be the clasp support one.

	Sh1: R: 10 – 10, close, do not turn. Let Sh1 hang behind the ring, switch shuttles.
	Sh2: 10 + 5 – 15, close do not turn work.
	Prepare to work the “collar ring” with Sh2. Turn the work 90 deg. to the left. Wrap the thread around the work and work ring: 15. Bring carefuly the end of this ring around the work and close. Do not rush if you want a nice, even finish. The thread from Sh2 must be now back where the collar ring startet.
	Flip work 90 deg. to the right. Start SCMR (white: active thread, silver core thread). 15 + 5 – 5. Add the bead to the loop pass the shuttle through the loop, close SCMR. Turn work. Please take care about the beads you will use, the sharp edged may cause some troubles. You can avoid them by chosing  fire treated beads or by adding fire treated rocailles before and after your bead.
	Work chain: 20. You can also change this to 15 or a bit more.  Snug, turn work. You can see now the back side of the work
	Take Sh1: work ring: 10 + 10. Do not turn. Work the first ring from this series.

I kind of like this bow effect the rings create, worked with 2 colours it is more obvious. 

As I said, different threads and different beads, different effect. Play a bit with the pattern until you are happy with the result. 

I hope that I gave you a reason to grab the shuttles and that you will enjoy trying to work this pattern. 

Happy tatting. 

Rosette with beads, funny beads

This is about the small black rosette I published some days ago... Love to tease you, love to make you find solutions. This helps a lot to get out a bit outside the box.

One box we are stuck in sometimes is the way to add the beads. They must come from the thread from the hand, from the shuttle or the needle or is has to stay on a picot. Really?? Not this time.
I tricked it. I am not the first one and there are more than 1 way to have this effect but the simpliest one, at least for me, will be described today.
This rosette has 2 rounds. The inner one as pretty easy.

Image	Steps and remarks
	What you need:  Your thread. In my case, Penny 20 this time. 11.0 rocailles, a very fine crochet hook and a beading needle. Or any needle which allows you to pass 2 times through a 11.0 rocaille.  String on the shuttle the beads you need. you must think: 8 beads for each petal. In my case, I needed 7 petals... 56 beads. Just put enough beads on the shuttle to be on the safe side. I was sure I will get a 6 petal flower... I had to unwind the shuttle and add the missing beads...  Prepare to work the inner round. Take 11 beads on the hand and work ring.
	Work 8 ds 4 bp 4 ds 3bp (2 from the hand, 1 from the shuttle) 4 ds 4bp 8 ds, close ring.  4bp: 4 beads picot 3bp: 3 beads picot Do not work these beaded picots too tight, you will want to have some thread for the next joins.
	Petal 2 until 6:  take 7 bead on the hand.  Work 8ds join to the beaded picot by separating the beads (3 up, 1 down) 4 ds 3bp 4 ds 4bd 8 ds, close ring.
	Intermediate phase.
	For the last petal taker only 3 beads on the hand. You will make the last join as a folded join. Do not let yourself impressed by the beads.  Finished first round.  Cute enough actually like this.
	We attack the second round now. I placed the small rocailles on top the the picots with 3 beads... This is where I want them to be.  Therefore, I let my shuttle away and I use a needle. Remember? The needle  supposed to be able to pass through the 11.0 rocaille 2 times... But please keep in mind: the bead will have 1 thread in the hole... when you pass with the needle you will have in that little hole 1 time the diameter of the needle and 3 times the diameter of the thread. When I will explain how it will be done, you will see.  Anyway, because of this simple math and some tests I had to use for this round Penny 30, a thinner thread.  The needle will be used as a shuttle.
	Thread the needle, let enough thread on the needle. It will be you core thread for the outer round. Don't make economy on it... you have some joins too. Do not cut the thread. You will work with the ball too.  Take 1 bead, keep the rosette in place and bead and pass the needle through the 2 beads on top.
	Now pass the needle back through the bead. Fasten.
	Done. Not hard, no science involved. Now you can start to work the chain. Needle tatters will be disappointed: I am tatting with flipped ds.
	I use for this the Riego tatting method. (Please correct me if I am wrong.)  First movement / first hs Wrap the thread on your left hand and prepare to work chain.  Pass the thread from the neddle on the left side of the active thread (the ball) and bring the needle under the active thread as shown in the picture. Pick the needle, make the flip.
	Second movement / second hs Bring the needle from right to the left, pass it under the active thread. Make the flip.  Congratulations: you just made a ds using a needle as a shuttle.  Again: I did not invented it. I guess it was already done before me.
	Easy peasy. I do not give you any ds count for the chain. It depends so much on your thread... My Penny 30 wanted 26 ds to lay flat...  Take 1 bead, place it, continue...
	Have fun.

I hope this is not that difficult. It is actually fun and you will notice how wasy using the needle this way can be. The same movements I use also when I am finger tatting...
Let me know if you do  not understand some steps. I will try to answer as soon as possible.

Small earring

Remember this one?

Bracelet

I played with the idea and the last one I uploaded. The basic idea is the same: 1 shuttle, all the beads strung previously. And with a crochet hook and some decorating beads, this is all you need.

Remember the small rings? You take 1 bead in the loop before you start the ring, work the ring and close it. The bead will remain on the core thread, at the base of the ring. If you are needle tatting, just work the ring and before you close it, take 1 bead and then close the ring. 

The left diagramm indicates the order of the work, the right one: the ds. Please note that you can adjust at any moment the double stitches and the small rings according to the thread, beads you use. You will feel it while you work it. 

I used a Brildor PB15 thread, a thin polyester (like an 80 size thread) blended with gold metallic Finca thread. 

1: R: 2 - 14, close, do not turn work. 

2: R: 3 dbp 2 dbp 2 dbp 3 - 3 dbp 2 dbp 2 dbp 3, close, turn work.

3: R (with 1 bead in the loop): 2 + 4 - 2, close ring, do not turn work. Repeat how many times you want, until you have a chain you like around the larger ring. Keep in mind that you must have space to work the 4th ring underneath the larger ring. In my case: 8 times. After the last small ring: turn work. 

4: R 2 - 6 + 8, close, turn work. 

5: R: 2 + (the the previous ring) 4 - 2, close ring. Make lock join to the picot from the previous small ring. Continue without turning work for as manny small rings as you wish. Last small ring will be a 2 - 6 one (no picot needed anymore). 

Now you can add the desired beads, by sewing them. 

Small remarks: 

- Do not rush when closing the small rings. It is not always easy to close them all the same. 

- Make the joining picots as small as possible. 

- While sewing the beads, use a fine needle and pass through the beads of the small rings. This will give more stability and stiffness to those chain-like elements.  Especially the longer one may need it. Pass through the bead, hide the thread between the ds, pass through the next bead. It takes time, but it is worth to do it. 

Have fun! 

Long time not here

I have been absent for too long. I miss my tatting, since I cannot do it like I am used to do it. Lack of time. My tatting is reduced now to 2 to 3 hours. Much to little for all I have in mind to do. A lot of projects wait in the line. A final touch here, a "check this idea" there, At least 3 patterns are on the way. Still.
I finished some of the pieces I started. I will post some of the patterns here, as promissed.
I finished today a bracelet. I will offer the pattern, more the way to do it, it is not difficult.

Central part: separate elements. 1 shuttle only. 
r: 10 - 10, close, do not turn.
R:  10 +  8 - 8 - 10, close, do not turn.
r: 10 + 10, close, do not turn.
Rr: 10 + 10 - 10.
Repeat until you have a square element done.

Work so many of those elements until you get the desired length. 6 of them in my case.

Outer round. 1 shuttle and 1 ball. 
Prepare the shuttle with the necessary seed beads for the rings. As you can see, 8 seed beads between 2 of the squared motifs. All those get on the shuttle. I placed also 16 seed beads on the ball (in this case add 8 extra beads on the shuttle). I wanted to have a double chain o the ends, better finish for adding the clasps.
Start from the point indicated in the image.

R( with 4 seed beads in the loop): 15 + 10 bp 5, close, do not turn work.
R: 5 + (separating the beads1 down, 3 up) 10 + (to the next element) 15, close, turn work.
Chain: 20. lock join to the next element.
Chain: 20 snug, turn work.
Repeat until you reach the end of the elements.
Have a look of the finished bracelet:

We work now the ending. After you have worked the 20 ds, make lock join.
Work chain: 25, make lock join. Do not turn work.
Work chain (with 4 beads ready): 3 bp (1 from hand, 1 from shuttle) 3 bp 3 bp 3 bp 3 snug, lock join to the next joining point of the element.
Work chain: 25, lock join to the picot from the other side.
Continue working the other side of the outer round.

The rest is up to you.
Feel free to change the ds for the outer round. My bracelet gos a nice, concave (or convexe) shape. And because of the Penny 30, the lace is fine and very stiff.
Ennoying fact: so many ends to hide!!! You can, of course, use the magic trick, but since you will want maybe to place a bead in the middle of the elements, better not. Personal choice, in fact.
Have fun tatting.

A matter of sharing

Internet is a jungle with own rules. Sometimes this is depository of a huge amount of information. 80% of the users use it to find relevant information for them. Some others use it also to exchange information. We all searched for something, we found the info, we used it, moved on. Only later comes the habit to apreciate the source of information we found/received. And very late, sometimes too late or never, comes the good habit to organize this information, to put some order in this search quest.
I am new in this world of the crafters. I tat only since 2 years. I learned alone, with my nose glued on the screen, I swalowed my frustration in front of the monitor and continued to search for help. Yes. I used Internet for this. I have been in all the places, learned from all what I could. And I am thankful for what I found and for the help I got. I grew up, learning from a lot of good tatters.
Now I can help a bit the others sometimes. I share what I know always when this is necessary. And SHARING is actually the keyword.
I am educated never to touch something which does not belong to me. This is called robery in my country. I learned that it is true that my freedom stops when the freedom of the other ones is menaced by my acts. As a philologist I learned that, when you use the ideas of someone else, you MUST quote, otherwise your entire work is called plagiarism. Another word for robery. The intelectual level. Cruelly punished. There is no glory coming by imitating.

Now comes the "sharing" principle. I can share or offer something what I possess, something which is mine. I cannot just come into your house, pick up something I like and then offer it to my best friend, only because I want to be nice and to keep this good friend. Is it a good friend this one asking me to steal for him/her? an other issue here. Only because we interract through bits ans bytes does not make us less real.

Ask anyone and they would say the same: Me, steal? Never.
Why this answer comes so quickly for a physical object and not for an idea, it beats me. Maybe only because the first one is associated with police and trials? The fear of getting punished is bigger?

Please, when you "share" a pattern please reflect: is it really sharing? Does it belong to you?

When you "share" a document, a scanned book, take a second or two and think: does it harm someones rights?

When you "share" your knowledge and copy a pattern from a picture and then "share" the picture with the instructions to work it, step back: is this sharing?

Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, you name them, are full of images. Mostly are there illegal: not the author placed them there. Please, do not keep this bad habit alive. Some of the designers/photographers try to make a living from their skills. "Sharing" their work kills their chances to succeed.

Don't hide behind "I did not know", "I am new", "I just found it"... it is lame. Ignorance is never an excuse. When the picture has a watermark, a name on it, a blog, just follow, take your time and follow the source and contact the author. So simple.

When you notice that a picture is scanned (one can see this easily), that it is part of a book (yes, the page numbers are always a good sign), do not re-pin or re-share it. You become accomplice.

I did the same, I have a Pinterest account too. I stopped using it. I would not just delete the collections I have there and I must take my time to remove all the pages I know they should not be there. But I do not have the time yet. I just use the "Ideas to tat" collection.

Again sharing. I share in this blog what I know. I share patterns and I always answer any question. It might be that I want I keep some of my ideas for my own use, they will become patterns to sell. My right.

Beads and tools

This entry will not be so impressive, but it might be helpful.
It is about beads tatted withing the lace and the tools you need. For the ones already familiar with the tatting with beads, sorry, no new territory. But, if you have some more hints, please share them with the newbies.
These would be beads you might consider to tat at the same time as the lace. Again, sky is the limit, it is just to get an idea.

No, no bead in the middle of a ring, no big bead tatted in Ankars. Except the ones used already as a joining element. But it is safer te work the elements separatelly and to join them while decorating the foundation than hanging a heavy bead. Ankars tatting is about beauty, perfection as it can be and resistance at the same time, the tatting skills stay more with the technique to create a perfect base for the beads than to incorporate the beads into the lace.
Recommendation: the smaller the beads the better. Preferably: even beads, especially when included on the core thread. This is changing the proportion little by little. For 3 rocailles 11.0 you will change the dimension of a ring by 3 mm. Funny. This brings us always some frustration while adapting an existing pattern.
Small bead = tiny hole. A truism which can really hurt. 11.0 Miuki has a hole of 0,8 mm, A 15.0 has a 0,7 mm hole. This is huge! And this can create problems to work with the beads, to string them on the thread. Not to speak about the choice of the thread.
Normally, I  use what you can see here. Forgot the place a paperclip. Important that one too.

Beading needles. Not only to sew the beads on the lace, but also to string the beads. And yes, a 10 size beading needle can be used with a thread similar to the Lizbeth 40. I did it. Never forget when choosing the beads and the thread: when you use a needle, a beating tool, a threader, you will always have a strand of 2 when you string your beads.
How to skip it: apply glue to harden the end of thread and try to use it. Not my favorite choice, though.

My "tool". Done from broken guitar string. My son knows already: I receive all his broken strings.
I prefer an open end to the ready-to-buy variant. A lot more versatile.
How to make it? Take some 10 cm of a tiny wire, (from electrical cable, from craft copper wire, the 0,3 is perfect, a fishing wire), fold it 2. Done.
For what it serves? To string the beads, to place the beads on the picots, to make difficult joins, to place beads/elements the fine crochet hook cannot place.

  

Crochet hook. We know it. The finer, the better.
Perfect tool to string individual beads, to place beads on the picots.
Why finer? Not only because the holes are under 1 mm but also because sometimes the joins can be done in between the beads:

In these cases I tend to use my tool. 

Limits: cases like this one: 

 So you turn to the cheap wire tool: place it on the thread, place the bead, fix the paper clip.

 

 

The smart ones will make very long (gauged) picots. Viable solution when you work with regular beads. What about the irregular beads?
See the last picture? it is what comes next int he blog: placing the seed beads and using them not only as decorative elements.