How to make a Split Ring

Split rings needs the use of two shuttles. For the purpose of clarity, I used two threads of different colours joined with a knot at the beginning. Shuttle 1 is the one with the red thread and Shuttle 2 holds the white thread.

Take Shuttle 1 and loop it round the finger to make the usual ring with, say 5-5, but do not close the ring, (picture on the left)

With the loop still round the fingers, turn the palm of your hand upwards. This position is usually called the dead spider position, (picture on the right). Imagine a dead spider with its legs in the air.


Now, with Shuttle 2, begin by making the 2nd half of the double stitch onto the core thread but without flipping it, (left) followed by the 1st half, also unflipped. What you will get is a set of double stitches made with the thread from Shuttle 2 in white, (right)





But I've never felt comfortable holding it by the dead spider method. Instead, after making the required number of double stitches with Shuttle 1, I take the core thread off my fingers and turn the work around so that that doublestitches of Shuttle 1 are now at the bottom. Then, I place the core thread back on my fingers, like in the picture on the right. You can try either way and see what suits you best.

Just like earlier, I use Shuttle 2 to make the other half of the split ring with the double stitches unflipped.



On the left is what the double stitches on the core thread should look like when done and before the ring is closed.

To close the split ring, pull the thread from Shuttle 1, and you will get a ring with the thread at the opposite side from where the ring was started, as shown on the right.

Update on the Anne Orr 'Square'

Here it is .....


All in, there are eight repeats of the triangle motif joined together in one pass. I have decided to stop at this point for two reasons .....

# 1, I am getting bored :-( with this thread and want to move on to different type, and

# 2, the more practical reason, the amount of thread that I have left will not be enough to make the square any bigger than this unless I get some more .. and ... I am not in the mood to drive all the way across the city to go to the only shop that is selling this thread.

But, there is good news .... I have sent this out to some one as a surprise. Just look out for the mailman ... :-) It might be YOU!... :-D

Tatting and Knots

This bookmark was made using HDT in size 80 that Zarina was kind enough to pass to me. She said she was not yet comfortable using fine thread for tatting. If you visit her website, I think you'll agree with me that she has done great working with the HDTs.

This is a simple shuttle-and-ball edging design joined back-to-back. At the end of it, it was either making a tassel at the end or weaving a lace through the centre.

To make a tassel, I will have to use more of the HDT - and I felt that would be a waste of some wonderful thread. To weave a ribbon in I have to start the car and drive to the shop and get the ribbon first - and I soooo wanted to finish this as soon as I can.

Then, I remembered that I have a lenght of satin cord that I bought a long time ago when my daughter wanted to learn making chinese knots. So, I used that to weave in the centre. And instead of a tassel, I made a chinese knot for the end.

This is a close up of the bookmark and the knot that I used. The name of the knot is the Good Luck knot.

And below is a scan of one of my current WIP, using a pattern from Tatting with Anne Orr tatted with size 80 DMC Dentelle. The Anne Orr motif is originally a triangular shape. I am working it into a square working continuously without cutting the thread. I reached this far with a bobbin full of thread and scanned this in when the thread ran out and before starting again with a new bobbin.


Laura asked me to explain how I am making the square in one pass. I felt it is better to reply in the post here because it will be easier to refer to the picture above.

You can see the shape of the original triangle motif in the top left which is a right-angled triangle, starting at the pointed corner at the top and ending with the corner on the right. The pattern ends with the last two rings joined together just like at the beginning.

At this corner, I have added one extra short chain (in blue) and one extra ring (in yellow) followed by another short chain (in blue). This brings me back to the starting point for the next triangle motif. The second triangle is joined on the straight side to the first triangle as I tat.

At the end of the second triangle, instead of making short chain-small ring-short chain, I made a long chain. This positions me for the third triangle. The third triangle is joined to the slant side of the triangle (the hypotenuse).

The process is repeated any number of times until you get the size that you want by deciding whether you need to make the short chain-small ring-short chain or the long chain at the end of each triangle.

Hint: It would help if you make a sketch or plan of the shape and size that you want, using the triangle motif as a template. Mark on the sketch the direction that you'll be working the triangle. This will help to determine whether you need to make the short chain-ring-short chain or the long chain on completion of each triangle.

I hope the explanation is clear enough to follow.

Snowflakes Collection .... The Book

Whoo..whoo... Dah Siap! Done! Finished!......Phew....

What am I talking about? My tatted snowflakes, of course. After months of work, at last, the patterns for my snowflakes are done. Most of the snowflakes are what I have written about here before. I have picked out 15 of the snowflakes and put the patterns in a book. Most of the patterns have split rings or mock rings in them. All are charted with written instructions as well.

A sample page of a pattern in the book

A sprinkling of the snowflake designs in the book.

Please e-mail me at jonyusoff at yahoo dot com for inquiries.

Octopussy - a Mother and Daughter Project

..... and very proud of it! :-D

My daughter came home for her 2-weeks semester break and asked if I can teach her how to make amigurumis. And I said ... errr.... I have not made one before, I don't know where to begin.

But, not wanting to let go of the interest that she is showing for crafts, and seeing that her brother and sister are not interested at all, I must give this a try. I asked a few friends, like Jullie, Janet and Sue who are familiar with amigurumis for sites that have tutorials in them.

My daughter browse through some of these sites and selected a few that she wanted to try out first. And the results are the slit-eyed Octopus with the wide grin and the bear head with the button nose. My daughter knows a little bit of crochet because I taught her to make a crochet tote bag before, but she can't read patterns. So I read the patterns for her and told her what stitch to use.

I started her off by making the first two rounds and she continued making the rest until complete. Then, I showed her how to start making the tentacles for the octopus and went off to bed. The next morning I saw the eight tentacles all done and laid out on the table. I continued by sewing all the parts together. As you can see I had to improvise on certain things, especially the eyes. I used beads in the bear head with a button for the mouth and nose. And I used yarn for the octopus' eyes. I don't have the proper eyes and don't know where to get them.

All things considered, we are very happy with this project.