Tatting at Fours and Sixes

Gentle Tatters,

We're going to be home a lot more in the next few weeks. Social Distancing requires that we don't congregate in person but it doesn't mean that we can't come together through other means. Don't forget that we have email, facebook, chatsy, instagram, other social media and even the old fashioned telephone.

We can still come together and tat.

IF you are looking for tatting patterns and supplies we have terrific online shops like Handy Hands, Tatting Corner Artisanthropy, Be-Stitched, Roseground (I'm missing a lot on this list)

-Money might be tight but there are a million tatting patterns for free out on the interet. Check out the pattern library that exists on Craftree, thanks to Kersti Anear for buildling this site. The Ice Drop Addict facebook group has over 81 free Ice Drop Patterns.

- the online tatting class webpage has over 20 years of tatting classes you can tat your way through lesson by lesson

-consider tatting a 6 ring flower for the Celebration of a Classic Wall hanging for the Palmetto Tatting Guild Fundraiser

-I'm adding an unfinished collection of patterns (no pics of the finished project, they're at the cottage) called Tatting at Fours and Sixes to the files of various facebook groups. Feel free to download it, tat the patterns and share pics.

It's just for a short period of time that we need to be more careful.

Let's take this opportunity to celebrate our craft together!

Can you help?

Can you help us make a
wall hanging?

Fixing a cut picot..

I cut a picot by accident on my Renulek Spring Napkin 2016.  This happened when I was careless about putting the doily away after tatting on it.  It was fairly stable so I debated about leaving it alone but finally decided to fix it.  Here are the steps I took to do this:
1.  I unpicked the ball thread from the core thread so I have a small tail on either side of the core thread.

2.  I pull a length of thread and used a needle to wrap the stitches around the core thread starting from the left.  I left a length of thread so I could come back and sew in the new ends.  Apparently I didn't take a photo of that.  I covered the short tail on the left at the same time.

3.  Join to the ring in the next row by going through the stitches that made the original join
Then I stitched in the new right sided tail

5.  Then I went back and sewed in the new left handed tail.

I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures of that.  I thought I was taking too many pics at the time.

Good news, I made a mistake a few rows back in the Renulek 2019 so I can take more pics of fixing mistakes without cutting back.....

Cut Picot

Ball thread removed
Core thread still intact

all fixed....

Super Nova Star and a Fundraiser

This is a pic of the project I am teaching this spring at the Fingerlakes Tatting Seminar.  It is a 3-d star  that uses a cabone ring as the center.  This project can be done by both needle and shuttle tatters.  You will learn how to tat around a cabone ring in class so don't worry if you haven't don it yet.  

In other news Wally Sosa is doing a fundraiser for Puerto Rico until the end of January.  If you purchase anything from her store all proceeds will go to a fund to purchase tents for people who have lot their homes.  Wally is from Puerto Rico and has family affected by the earthquakes.  There is more information on her timeline on Facebook (and my facebook timeline Victats Clarke).  If you don't know Wally Sosa then I invite you to check her out at her Etsy store called Needles-n-Shuttles.  Wally is a long time tatter with many books and patterns available, check her out there is sure to be something that will interest you!

Never Ending Christmas Tree

This pattern came to me a 2 years ago.  I didn't share it because I was trying to be too precise.  This is a loosey goosey style of pattern because once you finish the first row it can be different each time you make it.  I have shared pictures of 2 of the trees I've made.  I'm pretty sure you can make the tree as big as you want.  

Warning: this can be fiddly.

Never Ending Christmas Tree Vicki Clarke 2017

Materials

 Beads

Crochet hook with small tip

Green Thread (I used size 20 Lizbeth #687 in sample)

Shuttle or needle

Terms:

 FR- folded ring

SR- small ring

LR- large ring

lj-  lock join

bp- add bead to picot 

a- first half of the ds

b- 2^nd half of the ds

vsp- very small picot

String lots of beads on thread and then fill shuttle.  Cut from ball.

The bulk of this pattern is based of the basic Ankars motif of: 

*SR     5 – 5

LR         5+ (prev ring) 5 – 5 – 5*       

Note: I added 2 beads to the 2^nd picot of the large ring then joined the next rows between the beads.  I don’t think these show up so did not include this as part of the pattern.

Start with the tip of the tree:

FR 1    1 vsp  2a  4 2b p 8

*SR     5 – 5

LR       5+ (prev ring) 5 – 5 – 5*

Make * to * 4 times for wide tree

Make * to * 2 times for narrow tree

R         5 – 5

FR       8 +(p of 1^st FR) 1 2a 4 2b

Pull up as many beads needed to reach the 2^nd picot on the 1^st large ring, join to the 1^st large ring (this bridges you to the next row)

 *SR     5 – 5

LR         5+ (prev ring) 5 – 5 – 5

Join to the picot of the next large ring in the previous row*

So you will repeat the combo of [SR, LR join] until you have joined to all the 2^nd picots of the large ring on the row. 

Finish with a small ring then pull up as many beads on the thread that you need to reach the 2^nd picot of the first Large ring of the next row.

I have included pics of the back side of the wide and narrow trees so you can get an idea of how many repeats I did.

I did not always join between sets of SR, LR and the wider the tree gets the more likely you will have a few repeats before joining to the previous row.

This is a loosey goosey pattern that can go on forever….

Front of trees.  

Back of trees so you can see how many big rings I used for each row.  

Gnome For Christmas

I am in love with the Crochet and Knitted Gnomes I've seen around.  So I decided we need one for tatting too.  Your job is to let me know if there are any mistakes.  

Gnome For Christmas
Vicki Clarke 2019

Materials:

Hat Red or Blue thread

Beard thread

Nose thread

Needle or shuttle

Crochet hook

Terms:

vsp very small picot

R- ring

C- chain

SCMR- self closing mock ring

lj- lock join

Hat 

Center

R1        6 vsp 6 vsp 6 vsp 6

Round 1

C1        4 vsp 4 lj (1^st vsp of R1)

C2       4 vsp 4 vsp 4 lj (2^nd vsp of R1)

C3       4 vsp 4 lj (3^rd vsp of R1)

C4       4 vsp 4 lj (beginning of round)

Round 2

C5       4 lj (vsp of C1) 4 p 4 lj (vsp of C1) 4 (lj of C1)

C6       4 lj (1^st vsp of C2) 4

SMCR 1          4 p 4

C7       4 lj (2^nd vsp of C2) 4 lj (lj C2)

C8       4 lj (vsp of C3) 4 p 4 lj (vsp of C3) 4 join to lj of C3, cut and hide ends

Beard

Choose a beard color, you will also need the nose thread for this part

Wind on 1 yard of beard thread onto shuttle CTM with ball

R         4 + (last lock join of Hat) 4

C9       4 vsp 4 vsp 4

For the nose: change to a shuttle with nose colored thread. 

R         6 +(vsp on C4) 6 vsp 6

Before closing the ring pass the beard shuttle through the ring, this helps to hold the ring in place and you can hide the ends of the nose in the next chain.

Cut the nose thread so you can hide the ends, you no longer need the nose thread

Using the beard shuttle:

C10     4 vsp 4 vsp 4 lj(vsp on nose)

C11     4 vsp 4 vsp 4

R         4 + (1st lock join of Hat) 4 tw slt

C12     8 lj (vsp C11) 4

SCMR                        4

C13     4 lj (next vsp C11) 6

SCMR                        4

C14     6 lj (vsp C10) 8

SCMR                        4

C15     8 lj (next vsp C10) 6

SCMR                        4

C16     6 lj (vsp C9) 4

SCMR                        4

C17     4 lj (next vsp C9) 8

join to beginning of beard, hide ends

Holly Jolly Christmas Tree

I realised that I have lost the Holly Jolly Christmas Tree pattern from this blog.  I suspect it didn't get changed over when I made a separate page for my patterns.  So given that its the time of year that everyone is thinking of Christmas Trees, I have added it back to the page.  The link is also below:

Holly Jolly Christmas Tree