Bauble pattern

I posted some time ago a Christmas bauble and I promissed to share the pattern.
It is not dificult to do... except you want to do it the way I did it: with 3 shuttles and using padding tatting.
The pattern is just rings and chains and at the first glance, one can say: 1 shuttle and a ball, 2 different colours would do it. But if you search for neat work, no knots to change directions and smooth finish, then I would still chose the 3 shuttles solution. Trust me, I have tried the easy way, I was not happy with the result: the elements were twisting and the lace did not bend but just fold at the point where the knot was done. This is, by the way, what I disliked with needle tatting: pictures are nice, but the actual lace not that much.

Why 2 shuttles and the ball would not do it? Because you will want to have the possibility to switch 2 shuttles with green thread without making knots or "jumps" between the upper and the lower side of the ds. Which will lead to a not nice finish.
Why padding? Well the same reason. See that lower red ring? With 2 shuttles you cannot make it look really nice. And by padding, you can nicely hide that red thread and use it only when you want it. Happy GR8 owners....


So 3 shuttles for me. Padding. For the ones needing to refresh the technique you can refer to the video of Karen Cabrera here or to a tutorial from Georgia Seitz. Both perfect to learn this technique.
All the chains have 20 ds, and are done with padding, no turn work.
You will use the upper green shuttle for the rings and the lower green shuttle for the padding.

Prepare the 3 stars. Mine were 5-5-5-5 or 5 -10 - 5 for the petals with no joins.
Make with the red thread a 10 ds ring. Snug, and keep it.

Pattern:

Green shuttle: 

R1: 10 - 5 - 5

R2: 5 + 8 + (to 1 red star) 8 - 5. 

R3: 5 + 5 - 10. 

Do not turn 

Place at the base of the trefoil the small red ring (R4) and prepare for padding. Hold both threads together. Make 20 unflipped ds. Snug well, you can also pull a bit the thread thread. 

Red shuttle: R5: 10 ds. Close ring. Do not turn work. 

Upper green shuttle: R6 10 + 8 - 2 close. 

R7: 2 + 8 - 10 close. 

Lower green shuttle: padded chain 20 ds. Snug well. 

Red shuttle: R8: 10 ds. 

Upper green shuttle: R9: 10 + 8 - 2. 

R10: 2 + 8 - 10. Do not turn work. 

Chain 20 ds. padded. 

Upper green shuttle: R11: 9 + - 2- 9. Turn work. 

Red shuttle: R12: 10 - 10. Turn work, prepare for padding. 

Chain: 20 ds. 

Repeat to get to the upper trefoil. 

Work trefoil and join to the star. 

Do not turn work. Chain padding: 20 ds. Shug, turn work. 

Red shuttle: R13: 8 + 5 - 3. Do not turn work. 

Red shuttle: R14: 3 + 5 - 8. Turn work. 

Chain, padding 20 ds. Repeat 2 more times. 

Join the last eement to the first one. 

Cut and hide ends. 

Now you can finish your baubles as you like. I made them this way: 

 

 

They are not that bad and all the trouble with the 3 shuttles is really worth doing.  

If you get inspired to work them and if you get stuck, just give me sign. 

If you find an easier way to do it, please let me know. 

Needle tatters could trick the encapsulating by using 2 threads in the needle... and then switch the needle from 1 thread to the other. Sorry, hard to find a decent equivalent for a 3 shuttle pattern to be worked with the needle. Of course, you can ease your life and give up the 2 colours and use 2 shuttles and red beads instead... 

Have fun.  

Assymetrical earrings

Too long... waited too long to make the pattern for the earrings. For some I just gave the rough written pattern  over Facebook. There you have it:
One shuttle pattern.
String some seed beads in the shuttle. No turn work what so ever. 20 minutes tat. Promise.

Start
R1: 10 - 10.
R2: 10 + 5 - 10
R3: 15 + 5 - 20
R4: 20 + 5 - 25
R5: 25 + 38 - 2 (or how much you want, but keep the 2).
Rb: take a bead in the loop for the ring. work 2 + o large ring) 6 - 2 close. The bead stays at the base of the ring. Continue until you have the nice curve needed for your bead.
As you see, 4 rings are also ok.


You can think avout working the last ring as a SCMR (2 threads).

The rest is ading the rest of the beads by sewing them. I added first the large one, then went back, added the light blue ones, came back and added the small seed bead... went back throught the large bead, added the bead in the R1. Secured thread. Done.

Have fun.

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.

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. 

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.

Simple ROR earrings

Those ones were waiting to get a how to tat history... And since I would not like to tempt some tatters to try to estimate, I just rushed a bit with the pattern. Which I promissed anyway.

Skills required: shuttle tatting, tatting with beads, up and down joins. 

Small reminder for the ones liking a neat finish, no twisted picots. Never fight against the thread. This always can punish sooner or later. Better learn the right technique than making compromises to the quality of your lace. Not even when worked "for fun". Yes, I've been told this one too: "We do not work at an academic level, just for fun."

· Up join - marked with + in the pattern (the regular one, the one we learn at the beginning) will make that the ring you are working lay under the rings already worked. Reason: the thread you pull from the left hand to make the joining loop brings the worked ds from underneath the work. You will pass the shuttle also from down towards up.  

· Down join - marked with * in the written pattern: when you pull the thread to make the join, the worked ds are on top of the previous rings anyway and the shuttle passes from left to right ON TOP of the work, so this ring will remain on top. 

That  simple. 

There you go for the pattern. 

1 shuttle project. 

Material needed: thread of your choice (my Penny 30 gave me a 2,5 cm long earring), 28 seed beads (29 for the daring variant, with the tatted in crystal). Beads of your choice for the finish. 

Shuttle, beading threader, fine crochet hook, scrissors, needle (for the finish). Magic thread trick is beautiful, but maybe you would like to place 1 bead and then hide the thread. 

All the picots will be very small picots.

Basic pattern: 

8 rings worked in the given order. 

R1: 5 - 5 - 10, cl, dnt

R2: 10 + (to R1)  20 - 10, cl, dnt

R3: 10 + (to R2) 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R4: 5 + (to R3) 10 - 5, cl, dnt

R5: 5 + (to R4) 5 - 10, cl, dnt

R6: 10 + (to R5) 15  - 10, cl, dnt

R7: 10 * (up join to R6) 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R8: 5 + 10 + (folded join to R7) 5 cl, cut thread. 

The beaded variant requires the use of the beads. Known already: 3 beads in the loop for the ring, 1 from  the shuttle to form this diamond (marked dbp in the pattern).  All rings will start with those 3 beads in the left hand, except the ring 6. Feel free to change it if you prefer it. 

String on the shuttle 28 beads. 

R1: 5 - 5 dbd  1 - 11, cl, dnt

R2: 11 + (to R1) 10 dbp 10 - 11, cl, dnt

R3: 11 + (to R2) 1 dbp 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R4: 5 + (to R3) 5 dbp 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R5: 5 + (to R4) 5 dbp 1 - 11, cl, dnt

R6: 11 + (to R5) 15  - 11, cl, dnt

R7: 11 * (up join to R6) 1 dbp 5 - 5, cl, dnt

R8: 5 + 5 dbp 5 + (folded join to R7) 5 cl, cut thread. 

Now, you are ready to embellish your earring as it pleases you. 

For the daring ones, I tell how I worked my earring. Not a big thing, bit it requires a bit of patience during the work. I like challenges so I tatted in my crystal. I placed all my seed beads on the shuttle and also the crystal blocked with a seed bead, like for the free stamen for the Sakura patern. 

The beads sequence to fill the shuttle is: 25 seed beads, this crystal with the seed bead blocker, 3 seed beads. 

Start from the ring 2 with the 3 seed beads and the crystal + blocker in the loop. When the ring will be closed, the cristal will remain trapped at the base of the ring. Then you must tat  the ring 3... In this case you should not have any folded join. Only take care about the placement of the layered rings. 

Have fun. For any questions I am always around. 

Happy tatting. 

  

Ankars tatting rules for a simple pattern

Please, do not make the mistake to believe Ankars means stacked rings, 3D tatting and multilayered pieces.
This technique uses common tatting patterns but there are some details which make from a common pattern an Ankars piece.
- work it with shiny, resistent, polyester thread (Lavsan, Isacord, Brildor, any machine embroidery brand you find as long as it is resistent, shiny, not elastic).
- tat the ds according to the Ankars requierments: right hand completelly still, no moving, thread tight, form the knot with the left hand. This is Rina Stepnaya's way of tatting for Ankars. This makes a stiff lace. The video of Karen Cabrera shows it perfectly. Remember it looks like regular tatting, but this makes the difference:

- combine 3 or 4 strands, one of them can be easily from a different colour or metallic.
- choose good quality beads, even ones (Toho, Miuki, quality ones).
- plan your beads to tat it the lace with extreme care.

I will show you how a simple tatting element can become Ankars. I admit, not the spectacular one, but it is something different than tatting with beads. And no, beanile is not Ankars, Nina Libin is clear about this one.

The simpliest rosette ever. Tatted with polyester thread (Penny 30), really stiff. All gold Toho rocailles 11.0 are tatted in.  The white and the red ones are sewed. This is one of the ways used in Ankars. 

You need to tat the rosette: 

12 x 4 = 48 beads for the rings (they will be on the shuttle). 

6 beads on the ball. 

To finish it: beading needle required 6 Toho white, 6 Toho red, 11.0 size. And 1 finishing crystal (if you wish). 

All rings: 10 - 5 - 5 - 10. 

All chains: 25. 

All joins are done between the beads. 

R1: take 11 beads in the loop. 10 ds, bring from the loop 4 beads, 5 ds , bring 3 beads from the hand, 1 from the shuttle, 5 ds, bring the last 4 beads from the loop, 10 ds, close ring, turn work. 

Remark: when you make those 4 beads picots, do not make them too tight. You will want to have some manoeuvre space when you make the join. 

Chain 1: bring 1 bead from the ball, hold it tight, start chain. 25 ds, snug as tight as you can (too bad for the aspect if you work with coton), turn work. 

R2: take 7 beads in the loop.  10 ds, join between the beads, 5 ds, make the diamond beaded picot, 5 ds, bring the 4 beads from the loop, 10 ds, close ring, turn. 

Repeat until you finish the flower. 

The last join is a bit difficult, make sure you make it between the right beads. 

You will notice that the flower is not stable in the center. 

You just come with the beading needle and wave in the beads you kept for finishing. My piece gained in stability after sewing the red ones. The white I added in fact just to bring some contrast. 

I played with one of those beaded centers by adding a 4 hole pearl and giving some volume to the piece. 

Do not be afraid of experimenting. But if you want to make an Ankars piece, just respect the Ankars basic rules. This way of making the ds will improve your tatting too, since this movement forces the thread to wrap better around the core thread. As for the beads, unleash your imagination, sky is the limit! There is actually no Ankars pattern... the originality comes from the way the elements are combined, the beads scheme and the colour scheme. 

Have fun and happy tatting. 

  

1 shuttle bracelet, beads all around.

I avoid Pinterest, even though I have an account. I pin in there only in some boards (my ideas to tat and the art board). I do not delete de other ones because this would cause to many broken links...
But this does not mean that I do not spend a good amount of time in front of the PC starring at patterns. I don't know you, but since some time I discovered how clever were the creators of the antique patterns. How they solved some problem, how they invented new methods or techniques. I cannot thank enough Sue for 2 excellent books, both teasing my curiosity.
And this is how I got to this idea: what if I can make a beaded chain with 1 shuttle? And then combine this element with rings. I experimentes with dead ends, (yes, they work with 1 shuttle only), chains in the middle of the work finishing where they want to (encapsulating, padding... you name it). There is nothing a shuttle with thread cannot do. Some solutions are simple, some come from riddles but what would be tatting without a bit of riddles?

The first attempt was this one. All rings. No chain at all. 

Pattern? I give it to you just to guide you, but it really depends on your thread and your beads. 

1 shuttle, all beads on the shuttle. Keep your crochet hook handy. 

Start with ring, 1 bead in the loop. 

16ds, bring 1 bead from the shuttle and make a small picot for a future join, 2 - 14. Close ring. The bead from the loop will remain at the base of the ring. 

Turn work. Bring 1 bead from the shuttle, prepare to work the first smal ring: 8-2, close. The bead will be trapped ar the base of the ring. 

Do not turn, bring one more bead, make small ring: 2+6-2, close, do not turn. Repeat this until you have 6 small rings. Make lock join to the picot on top of the bead on the core thread. 

Do not turn work. 

Take 1 bead, start another big ring: 2 + (to the picot from the small ring) 14, bring another bead on the core thread and let the picot for the next join, 16, close, turn work.   The bead from the loop remains at the base of the ring. 

Start to work the small rings as the previous ones. 

Not so difficult. 

But I did not like it , the beaded chains did not lay flat on the wrist and since I do not like to stiffen or to block, I changed some things: reduced the beads from 6 to 5 and gave up the beads from the bigger rings. 

Lot better. 

  

 I start to like these 1 shuttle patterns. This would be my third no-Ankars 1 shuttle pattern. But I really like the freedom one can have. Just as I said: 1 shuttle, thread, beads, a crochet hook. One of those projects you can tat while waiting for something or in a bus, with no fear for the ball of the second shuttle.
Have fun. Please let me know if I did write something wrong. It always hapen.

Tatted stud earrings and ring

Last week, I think, I posted a pair of earrings and a ring. I just made a test to see how a light grey silver thread will look with some honey gold beads I had (11 Toho Gold Line Jonquille). Simpliest pattern ever, but you know me... simple tatting it is not just simple tatting.
Reasons? More than one.
1. Being a small item, it has to be perfect. This means that is the beads are not even, you do not get the same result.
2. Tattig pattern may be simple, but even knots are required for a small item.
3. Tatting with beads may be mastered, until you must make your joins through the beads. Which is the case here.
4. Folded join through certain beads not for unpatient tatters, at least at the begining. Of course, you can make the alternative join to finish the rosette (the Riego join), but still...

Remember these babies?

1 shuttle project, a very fine crochet hook needed. You need a good amount of beads (48 for every rosette + 12 or 24 for each middle element). Pearls of your choice. 

Pattern for the base: 

Told you. Simple. Just careful. 

bp4: beaded picot with 4 beads (from the ones from the loop)

dp: diamond beaded picot (3 beads from the loop + 1 from the shuttle). 

R1 (with 11 beads on the loop): 8ds, bp4, 4ds, dp, 4ds, bp4, 8ds, close ring, do not turn work. 

R2 (with 7 beads on the loop): 8ds + to R1 (by letting 1 bead between the rings int he lower part) 4ds, dp, 4ds, bp4, 8ds, close ring, do not turn. 

Repeat until you have 5 rings. 

R6: (with 3 beads in the loop): 8 ds + to R5, 4ds, dp, 4ds, join (folded) 8 ds, close ring. 

Work now the central element.

Start ring with 6 beads in the loop. Work 1 ds make picot with 2 beads (1 from the loop, the other one from the shuttle) 2 ds. repeat until you finish the beads from the loop, finish with 1 ds, close. 

You can also change the amount of ds, depending on your beads. 

For the ring I just made diamond picots instead of these double beaded picots. 

I worked with 30 Penny thread (like a 40 Lizbeth thread) and 11 Toho rocailles. With a different thread size and other beads, the appearance may be different. 

Mount the elements together. If you have stud little pearls, they are perfect. You can even think about working more of these elements to make them as exchangeble sets, why not?

I hid the head of my stud with another small flower (3-6-3 petal) for a better finish. 

Have fun!