Bookmark with Overlapping Chains

Uses Shuttle and ball

Round 1


There are no joins in this round except for where the last chain is joined to the base of the first ring.
Begin with R(4-4-4-4), RW followed by chain C(8-8).
Repeat these two steps for the length of the bookmark that you need and make the end as follows;

• After the last ring of one side of the bookmark, make C(4), RW followed by R(4-4-4-4). RW again and make C(4).
  

Make the second side as the first and repeat the opposite end, ending with C(4).
Cut off the thread. Arrange the chains so that the first row chains overlap the second row chains. When you have made the overlaps in the chains, join the last chain to the base of the first ring, tie and hide ends.

Chart for Rounds 2 and 3

Round 2

Begin with a ring R(4+4+4+4),

• 1^st join to the side picot of any ring of the Round 1;
• 2^nd join to the opposite chain of Round 1; and
• 3^rd join to the side picot of the next ring of Round 1.

Reverse work and make the chain C(3-3). Lock join to the middle picot of the next ring of Round 1 and repeat the chain C(3-3).

Repeat the steps until you have made the lock join to the last ring of one side of Round 1.

For the end, make C(3-6), reverse follwed by R(6+4+6), joining to the picots on each side of the rings at the end of Round 1. Lock join to the middle picot of the ring at the end of Round 1. Repeat, in reverse, for the other side.

Continue with the earlier steps for the straight side and the other end. Cut and join to the beginning.

Round 3

Round 3 are all chains with 2 double stitches separating the picots as in the chart.

Awards ......1 .......2......3

Thank You!


I know I am a little late, no make that very late in acknowledging this, and I do wish to apologise to the peoples concerned.

By such wonderful grace. I, or rather my blog, have been chosen to receive not one, not two but three awards for creativity (?). I have never won anything before. And these are special because they are from my friends who share the same interest, i.e. needlecrafts.

I would like to thank these wonderful persons who felt that I am deserving of these awards -

Tattycat and Ais for the Arte y Pico award;

Nik for the Kreativ Blogger award; and

Kathy and AngelSan for the Brilliante weblog award.

I set up this blog as a form of sharing what I know on the subject that I enjoy most, and that is tatting. I am glad that in the process, I have made some people happy. Thank you very much.

I just hope that I can live up to these and that visitors to my blog here will continue to enjoy reading my posts.

The latest on theTat-Along Doily

Well... the latest is that I have finished it. I used size 40 thread for this and the finished doily measures 7.5 inches diameter.



I had to snip of the first of the three rounds of chains and begin over because I didn't like how it looked after I started the 2nd round of chains. I figured that I can afford to do it because the thread that I am using is not really my favorite.

I re-did the first round of chains with a tighter tension and it turned out better when I did the second round of chains. The last round of this doily was the easiest of all and tat up quite fast too. I managed about six repeats in between watching one episode of CSI: Miami on the telly.

Okay, with this one done, I'm going to work on some snowflakes next. Most will be the designs from my book. If I am happen to ride the design express, I may come up with something new in the process :-)

No More Excuses

Now I don't have anymore more excuses for not getting things done because I've got a Round Tuit

Another Edging Cornered

Another edging design with the corner included.....


... and the diagram.....


I don't have a name for this design. At first, it looks like a series of crowns. Looking at it again, it appears like scared faces with the hair all standing up!

A little explanation about the chart -

1. Make the third picot in the R(3-3-3-3-3-3-3) small.

2. The ring shown in blue/green at the corner is a SCMR. After making (4+4..) of the SCMR, switch shuttle and make the clover. Resume the SCMR with another 4ds and close. Using SCMR allows you to make the corner in one pass.

3. If you do not wish to use the SCMR, ignore that part when you make the corner. Instead make the chain as (8-4) for the first repeat at the turn. When you have completed the round for the edging, go back to each corner and fill it in. With shuttle only, make the clovers as in the diagram. Then, make the fourth ring R(4+4+4), joining to the picot in each chain at the corner. Cut and join to the base of the clover.

How to make a Ring, Chain and a Join

I hope this tutorial can help beginners to shuttle tatting get the basics of tatting, i.e making the ring, chain and a join. To prepare for this tutorial wind up some thread on to a shuttle but do not cut from the ball.

Note: This tutorial is written for a right-handed tatter. Left-hander may have to make some adjustments.

First up - How to make a ring.

Pinch the thread with the thumb and forefinger. Wrap the thread around your fingers moving away from the ball in the direction of the shuttle, and bringing it up to meet the beginning. Pinch the two threads together. This loop round the fingers will be used to make the double stitches. The thread from the shuttle is referred to as the core thread.

With the shuttle, make a double stitch over the core thread, refer to the earlier tutorial on how to make a double stitch.

Make several double stitches and picots over this core thread, eg. 4-4-4-4. Remove the thread from around the fingers and you should have something like this.

To close the ring, hold the double stitches just made between the thumb and the forefinger of the left hand and with the right hand, pull the shuttle thread in a clockwise motion. A properly closed ring looks like this.


Next - How to make a chain

Reverse the position of the ring so that it now points downwards like this (left). The position of the ball thread is on the left of the ring and the shuttle thread on the right. Grip the ring with the thumb and forefinger of the left hand and wrap the thread from the ball round the fingers. Do not bring the thread back to the beginning, instead anchor it by the little finger by looping around it a few times. The thread from the ball will be flipped to make the double stitches for a chain, and the shuttle thread becomes the core thread.

Make the double stitches for the chain, 3-3. Make sure that the first half-stitch is snugged up close to the ring. You should then have a chain looking like this (below),

 Finally, a join -

Reverse work again so that now the ring is back in the original position and the chain is pointing downwards. Loop the shuttle thread round the fingers to make the next ring. After making the first four double stitches, bring the last picot of the first ring close to the finger thread of the ring in progress. Pull up this thread with a hook through the picot and pass the shuttle through it. Make sure that the thread that is pulled up through the picot is not twisted. bring the shuttle through and pull back the finger thread to close the join. Make sure that the shuttle thread is not pulled through the picot when closing the join.

A completed join looks like this.

Complete the rest of the ring and close it. Now, you have two rings joined together with a chain.

Click here for a printable version of the tutorial.

Doily Update #2

I have started on Round 5 of the doily, the first of the three rounds with the chains only.

I thought it would be a fast round, just doing chains. But not so! The long chains need gentle handling, not to tight that it bunched up together and not to loose that it doesn't hold the curve.

Funnily enough, the centre of my doily is the part that is curling up. My tension may have been tight when I did the second round. But it not so serious and can be straightened out by blocking it when the whole doily is done.

I am beginning to understand what Marty meant when she wrote about having trouble with the chains.

The Lady of the Night

I stayed up to wait for these. I have missed the blooms a few times before but I made sure that I did not miss it this time.

at 10.38pm

at 11.07pm
By its side is another one waiting to open, most probably tomorrow night.

at 12.44am

These are blooms of a variation of the Epiphyllum oxypetalum species, sometimes call the orchid cactus because of its gorgeous large flowers. At full bloom the flower can reach a span of 15cm. This beautiful flower is also called the ‘Belle de Nuit’ or the Lady of the Night.

The flowers have a slight sweet scent, opens up on warm nights and closes up before daybreak. The sad part is that the flower only lasts one night. The next morning the flower will droop limply until it finally shrivels dry and drop off from the stalk.

Locally, the flower is also known as the Bakawali.

I am afraid I deserve a royal reprimand. I have since found out that the Lady is not a lady but a Queen. It is also called the Dutchman's Pipe cactus - must be because part of the flower stalk curves upwards when it blooms (see second photo). See here for more information.

Update on the Doily

I have started round 4 of the doily. As you can see in the picture, so far so good. No curling up in Round 4.

Well, okay... even it did, you won't see it because it is pressed down by the scanner cover, :-)

The thread is still giving me problems with the twisting but the stitches don't look so bad. But it'll still need blocking and stiffening to make it lay flat.

Right, must get back to my sewing now. I am sewing two pair of clothes for my mother and she wants it ready by the weekend, that is two days away. The attire is each made up of a tunic and a long skirt. I have made the two tops and now will start on the two long skirts.

I just had to make this doily

I have been reading about this doily on a number of blogs and couldn't resist anymore.

I first read about it in Marty's blog when she wrote about the hairy and the bald.
Then, Ais wrote about hers curling over at the 4th round. (I have to watch out for that)
And Tattingchic used the finished doily as the background to show her wonderful collection of shuttles.
And the latest is on Melissa's blog!

I don't know how many other tatters are also making this but I have a feeling that there are a lot since it is a tat-along on e-tatters. I found that out from Marty's blog.

I am not a member of e-tatters so I don't have the pattern to start with. But, following the links from Melissa's blog I came to this pattern. I know I have to make the doily myself, now that I have the pattern. And this is what I have done so far.

The thread I am using is Twilley 40 which I bought from the local store a long while back. I don't know much about this thread except that it has a lot of twist in it. I had to let the shuttle hang to untwist after almost every other ring. And boy, you should see the shuttle spin!

I had not used the thread before this because of the twisting. Finally decided to make something with it, rather than just letting it lie there in the box. I only have one ball of this thread, so I hope it'll be enough to complete the doily.

Dimpled Edging - Pattern

Okay, here it is - the chart and pattern for the Dimpled Chain Edging. It took a while because I couldn't figure out how to transfer a word document into a jpeg file so that I can upload the chart here. Had to ask my daughter and she did it in a blink. Had to ask her to show it to me again so that I can do it myself the next time, LOL.

Please note that this edging is made up of chains only.
sp - small picot
vsp - very small picot
RW - reverse work
DNR - do not reverse
SLT - shoe lace trick

The pattern
Wind a shuttle from a ball CTM

The straight side
1. Start with a picot at the beginning of the first chain. I used a paperclip to hold the thread for a mock picot. C(6 sp 3-3 sp 5+3-3 sp-6+), where
1st join is to the previous sp of the chain;
2nd join to the mock picot left after the paperclip is removed from the chain. RW and SLT.
2. * C(3-3 sp 5+3-2), join to the sp of the same chain. RW and SLT.
3. Make a downward facing picot at the beginning of the next chain.
4. # C(5+3-3 sp 5+3-3 sp 6+),
1st join to the sp of the previous dimpled chain; 2nd join to the sp picot of the same chain; 3rd join to the downward picot at the beginning of the chain. RW and SLT.

Repeat from * for the length of the straight side.

The corner
5. After #, make C(3-3 sp 5+3 vsp 3). RW and SLT.
6. Make a downward picot at the beginning of the next chain, followed by (6+3-3 sp 5+3-3 sp 6+). Joining as in Step 4. DNR.
7. C(6+3-3 sp 5+3-3 sp 6+), 1st and 2nd join as in Step 4; 3rd join to the same downward picot joined earlier. RW and SLT.
8. C(3+3 sp 5+3-3), 1st join to the adjacent vsp; 2nd join to the sp of the same chain. RW and SLT.

Continue from # for the straight side until you are ready to make the next corner.

Additional Note
If you study the chart, you'll realise that this edging can also be tatted up similar to making the standard ring-and-chain, except that now the rings and chains have dimples in them.

But, I don't fancy the idea of having to close loads of dimpled rings. Working with chains are whole lot easier because I don't have to worry about closing any rings. For those who want to try it that way, Jane Eb has drawn up a neat method on how to close dimpled rings.

Please test out the pattern for me and point out any corrections that needs to be done. I got confused myself when writing this out, especially with the RWs and the SLTs.

Dimpled Chains ver. 2

Here is the revised version of the dimpled chains shown in my previous blog.

And below is the two together for comparison.







I like the version 2 better because of the symmetry in the design. I have changed the shape of the corner in the new one to give it a firmer hold. Since it as all chains, it tats up nicely with variegated or multicoloured thread because the change in the colours flows through nicely.

It would be obvious that this design can also be made with shuttle and ball - i.e. if you don't mind having to close all the dimples rings.

And that is something that I don't particularly like to do. I don't mind the occasional ones appearing in small motifs but not for the length of an edging.