Wrap stitch With Needle Pt 2

Finally managed to get some photos taken on the wrapping stitch with needle. Unfortunately, the picture is a bit fuzzy.

This is after Step 2 where the double stitch is loosely formed over the plastic ring.

After making a few more of the wrap stitch, make a knot with the ball and needle thread. Then take the needle and make a ring as normal. make sure that the first double stitch formed on the needle is tucked very close to the plastic ring. Close the ring as normal.

Here is a picture showing two tatted rings made on the outside of the plastic ring with a few more wrap stitch between the rings.

Sorry about the fuzziness of the pictures, but I think you can sort of figure it out.

Wrap-stitch Round a Plastic Ring With Needle

I wonder ... has anyone done it this way before? Or, have I stumbled across something new!

I received an e-mail from Alan asking if the patterns in my book, Tatting With Rings can be needle-tatted. Well, the patterns in my book were developed with shuttles. My only experience with needle tatting is limited to the basic rings and chains, but the thought of using a needle with the plastic rings gives an interesting challenge. I gave it some thought and started working on this idea that I have. I think I may have got it.

I am going to share the steps here. I would appreciate very much if they could be tested out by some of the needle-tatters among us to see if it can actually work.

Step 1 - making the first half of the double stitch
With the needle threaded, pull a loop of the needle thread up from under the ring and slide the needle through, pulling it all the way. You will get the thread looped round the ring as in the diagram above.

Step 2 - the second half of the double stitch
Bring a loop of the needle thread down under the plastic ring and slide the needle through, pulling it all the way.

You have made the first double stitch over the plastic ring.

It you continue making the double stitches this way, you'll find that the ball thread will be on one side of the double stitches and the needle thread on the other end. From the little that I know about needle tatting, both the ball thread and the needle thread must be at the same position to make the ring or chain. In this case then, the ball thread should move along with the double stitches.

Step 3 - moving the ball thread along
It is so simple! I can't think why it did not occur to me before. I think my brain cell has taken to running off, like Jane's, :)

To make the next double stitch, lay the ball thread along the outer edge of the plastic ring. Then, repeat Steps 1 and 2. This, in effect, means that you are making the double stitch over both the plastic ring and the ball thread. Make sure that the ball thread lies on the edge of the ring when you tighten the thread to neaten the double stitch.

The different colours used in the diagram are for illustration purposes only.

Now you have two double stitches over the ring looking like this.

To make the outward tatted ring, tie a knot with the ball and needle thread and make a ring as you would normally do with a needle, bringing the double stitch as close to the plastic ring as possible.

After making the outward ring, make a knot again to switch the position of the two threads. Repeat the steps for the next set of double stitches over the plastic ring.

I would love to hear what needle-tatters think of this.

The weather is not good for tatting

Besides working on completing the tiny hearts, have not been able to tat much otherwise. The weather is not very kind to me.

It has been rather hot the past week. Not blistering hot but very humid and sweaty. I feel like taking a shower every few hours. I can't tat in this high humidity weather. My hands are always damp with sweat and that is bad for the thread. They don't slide easily when wet or damp.

But you can't stop a tatter from tatting, ;-) In between the showers and frequent washing of hands to get rid of the sweaty palms, I managed to finish these.

I think I'll call them 'phone-dangles' because I often see things like this, not done in tatting though, hanging from mobile/cell phones. But they can also be put on zipper pulls on purses or bags, or anywhere for that matter. Anywhere that can catch the eye.

Hopefully, whoever notice it will be curious enough to ask about it and I can start telling them about tatting. :-)

Medallion

Another motif of tatting over a plastic ring. You are going a few more of this type for a while to come.


This designed caused me to retro-tat at a point when I was already at the last ring of the second round. I know it would be easier to just cut and start over, but it is not a very large motif so I took the risk and survived the retro-tatting bit, :-) Now all done except for the tidying of the thread ends (which is another pet hate)

The thread is size 20 Hakelgarn Online and the plastic ring used measure 23mm wide

Earrings Again

A couple more pairs of earrings. Both were tatted with Olympus 40. The '40' may not be indicating the thread size, because it feels thicker than the other size 40 that I have used

Earrings

My latest, hot off the shuttles,

.... or rather, shuttle because each piece is worked with one shuttle only and a little bit of finger tatting for split rings.

Made with Coral Reef size 40

I used plastic rings tatted over with double-stitches for the circle in the middle to add weight to the earrings. The length from the top down is 5.5cm and 3.5cm wide. The plastic ring inside is 2cm wide on the outside.

Here are a few more using the same design concept, but turned into a hanging ornament.

Wrapping a plastic ring with double-stitches

This is a simple tutorial on how to wrap up a plastic ring with double-stitches, like I did for this snowflake.

The snowflake is a remake of the Hearts snowflake which I had posted earlier, which you can get through this link. I made it again and added a plastic ring with a tiny motif in the centre. A few tatters have asked me to explain how I did it. I hope this tutorial helps.

I first make the tiny motif with 6 rings with a ds count of (5-5) each. I used size 20 thread for this, and the plastic ring measures 2cm diameter which is suitable with the ds count that I am working with. A different thread size and/or plastic ring may not work with this ds count. A paper clip is a handy tool to make picots.


Leave a length of about 4 inches before starting.  Holding the thread end and the ring together, so that it doesn't slip off, bring the thread up from under the ring and slide the shuttle through the loop of the thread. This makes the first half of the double-stitch, though it doesn't look like it yet. This is the same method used for making split chain.

Next, for the second half of the ds, bring the thread down under the ring and slide the shuttle through. Make sure that the loop does not twist when passing the shuttle through it. Pull the thread close and you will see that a double stitch is formed.

Next, to make a picot.

I find it easier to use a paperclip when making a picot because I find that my picots become smaller when I tighten to close the ds on the ring. Slide a paper clip onto the thread and make the ds following the steps explained above. When made, it looks like this with the paper clip on. The paper clip can be removed after a few more ds are made.

Now is the part where the tiny motif is attached to the centre of the plastic ring. The paper clip is used if there is a picot on the outside of the ring at the same position where the tiny ring is attached, as is the case in my snowflake above. If not, there is no need for the paper clip.





We are still using the same method of making the ds as above. But this time, for the first half of the ds, bring up the thread through the picot of the tiny ring - you'll need a crochet hook for this. Then slide the shuttle through the loop made.





And for the second half of the ds, bring down the thread, going through the same picot. Again, make sure that the loop of the thread is not twisted when sliding the shuttle through. Tighten the thread to close the ds.






A completely wrapped plastic ring with the motif in the centre looks like this. Leave a length of about 4 inches and cut off the thread. The thread ends can then be hidden in the ds of the plastic ring - the beginning thread end into the last few ds, and the ending thread end into the starting few ds.

A tip here - when you start, make the first ds somewhere in between the picots to make it easier for you to hide the ends. For example, if the ds count between picots is 5, start with 3 ds and finish with 2 ds, unless the design allows you to climb out of the ring with a split ring or split chain, then you can start where the picot is.

Now that you know how to add the tiny centre motif, try and design something of your own, like this, maybe? This was made in one pass (except for the tiny motif, of course) with shuttle only - even the long loop.