Tatting On the Go

I tried to pack some tatting to do on the go today and found myself with the thread and no pattern for one project, pattern and no thread for another. What I did have were the instructions for the single shuttle split ring printed off from Bina's website (Matthew Takeda method), Anne Bruvold's pattern Ringtrim - a microdragon and some shuttles I wanted to empty of their leftover thread. I had the Sine Bookmark with me so that I managed to untat the messed up chain segment, but I had forgotten the thread so that I could not repair my mistake.

Anne uses the SSSR (single shuttle split ring) in her Minor Dragon pattern as well, but I got around them there by using regular split rings. Since I was doing a two color variation, I relied primarily on her diagram. For some reason, I've put off learning the SSSR--looked at it a time or two, but it just seemed confusing. When I pulled it out today, I thought, that looks remarkably easy! And it was! My thanks to Miranda at The Tatting Fool blog for the inspiration to finally give this a try.

Here is Ringtrim. Isn't he cute? I love the 3d effect of his wing sticking up like this. Color selection could have been better, but I was practicing and I was emptying shuttles. Beside him is the bookmark I came up with to use up more of the thread left on this shuttle. I call it The Line because it reminds me of that geometric structure which is always drawn with an arrow on each end. It measures 12 cm. I'm not sure if this thread is a size 20 or 30 since I have this particular Manuela thread in both sizes.