Laurel Leaf and Mirror Image

Spoiler alert: If you are working on muskaan's This Way or Tat series, and wish to complete the challenge of creating a mirror image of the Laurel Leaf on your own, read no farther!

Laurel Leaf by muskaan

Motifs #2 & #3 in 3rd 25 Motif Challenge of 2016

size 20 Cecelia, sage green

The tatting is still damp from spritzing and finger pressing, but I'm so excited I just had to post this right away. 

Have you ever persisted in doing something just to see if it could be done? Some of you might have figured this out right away, but it would have spoiled my fun had I asked you how to do it. (Hence the spoiler alert above.) 

The background: You see, it's obvious to me that there are a lot of tatters who prefer to use traditional double stitches. That's fine. It's my own preference most of the time, and there is no right or wrong method.  I knew that I could use RODs to create a mirror image. (Muskaan shares more about this method in her blog.) My challenge to myself was to do it with traditional double stitches only. 

I won't tell you some of the many things I tried before it suddenly occurred to me to tat it from the bottom up! I began with a true ring just as I did with the first one, but I was actually starting the tatting from the back. The tatting of the double stitches in the rings must be in reverse order, but that is really easy to see in the diagram--instead of that bottom ring being tatted 3+6-9, it had to be tatted 9-6-3 with the last picot being very small for joining the bare thread as I worked my way up. That same rule holds for all of the rings. I left the shuttle thread attached to the top ring of the mirror image so you can see where I ended. The final thing I needed to do was to bring up the starting tail and join it to the bare thread between the two base rings.

Notes: 

1) By starting both leaves with true rings and reversing work as instructed in the pattern, when the leaves are posed as above, the outer rings of each leaf are 'face down' and the inner rings are 'face up,' making the top ring of each leaf face up. 

2) TWoT direction in this project is very straightforward. Movement is down in the original leaf and up in the mirror image above.

Happy tatting, everyone.

'Geocities' Doily Complete

When you don't know what else to call a design that is not your own, you make something up. In this case, I found it on geocities.com back in March 2008, so I've been calling it the Geocities Doily. It was the wave of the outer round of motifs that drew me to the pattern.

Motif #18 of 2nd 25 Motif Challenge of 2016

Designer unknown

Retrieved from http://www.geocities.com/orange_on_black/MFF.html on 3/30/2008

I apologize that it has been so long since I've posted. I've even gotten terribly behind with blog reading and participation in the Craftree forum, but the demands of work and family lately had to override those of my hobby. (I do think I might have heard my shuttles calling out to me from my bag on a number of occasions, because, of course, they went with me everywhere just in case.)

The timing of this post fits perfectly though with a project that muskaan has been working on. Let me explain what happened with this doily.

First, I remind you that I don't usually care about front sides and back sides to my tatting. I even like the flexibility of being able to display things either side up. However, the option does sometimes come in very handy. Notice the round with the green thread? I wanted to use two colors so that the lighter color would be repeated in the clovers between the purple motifs. This round joins to the previous round with a large ring and has both inward and outward facing chains. Some shuttle switching was necessary to keep all of the chains green. With traditional tatting, those chains were going to be flipping back and forth in direction and that really didn't appeal to me. I wanted them to flow and, to me, that meant they needed to face the same direction. 

Since I like to hide threads in areas of the same color whenever possible, I chose to start with one of those outward facing clovers. When I got ready to join to the doily, I realized I was going to be moving counterclockwise. It took me a bit to figure out where to make that first join and to get myself oriented properly to follow the diagram. 

Several times in the last year or so, I've noticed that my tatting direction fails to match the tatting direction indicated in a designer's diagram. When the pattern is a simple one, I make the adjustment without much bother. With a more complicated pattern, though, more thought is required to figure out where I am and where I need to go. I rarely tat with a proper front and back side, so it didn't seem likely that this was the problem every time.

Muskaan has spent a great deal of time searching for the keys to this by asking the questions of "Why?" and "When?" You don't have to have a passion for searching out the details to benefit from her research because she has come up with some fun little tatting patterns for us to use as we learn from her discoveries. I'm very excited about participating. Check out the comments she has shared in this post just to get us thinking and watch for more in the series of "This Way or Tat." (I think I'm beginning to sound like a commercial, but I did tell you I'm excited about this. I do hope some of you will pull out your shuttles and tatting needles to play. After all, the more the merrier!)

Happy tatting!

muskaan's Split Color Edging in One Color

Motif #9 for 2nd 25 Motif Challenge of 2016

While muskaan designed the Split Color Edging for two colors, I just couldn't resist trying it out in just one, and I like it! This was my first effort at split Josephine rings, but her excellent tutorial is included in the pdf of the pattern. I was able to start with a true ring rather than a split one, but it really doesn't matter to the finished product in one color.

My effort at this pattern in size 80 thread went straight into the trash bin. It was obvious I needed a magnifying glass to see those half stitches. I can fudge quite nicely for a double stitch, but not for Josephine rings, split or normal! Those of you with good eyesight must try it in size 80 and share the picture with us. I'd love to see it done.

Thanks, muskaan, for a lovely edging pattern. The grouping of Josephine rings between the clovers give it a delightful appearance in one color or two.

Happy tatting, everyone!

Butterfly with Ikuta Overlapping Picots

Butterfly with Ikuta Overlapping Picots by Ninetta Caruso

Motifs 7 and 8 for 25 Motif Challenge (2nd for 2016)

Left: Lizbeth color #112; Right: Flora color #228 (both size 20)

As I promised, here is the first of the reports of my weekend adventures into new techniques (new to me). Georgia Seitz first introduced me to the Ikuta picots (double, layered and overlapping) through the Online Tatting Class on May 2. When I first tried this technique in a ring (my May 9 post), I used one shuttle and a ball thread. I found it a bit tricky to keep my threads in the proper position to get the correct overlap. The step-by-step tutorial that muskaan put together for us beautifully clarified the technique for me with clear instructions for handling the two threads.  I found her use of two shuttles to be much easier, and I was able to remember the process to produce this 2nd butterfly the day after carefully following the tutorial as I worked through Ninetta's pattern to tat the first butterfly. The tutorial works! Thank you, muskaan.

I love this little butterfly. I had a little trouble with the first butterfly's 3rd and 5th rings. These are the rings that encircle rings 2 and 4 forming the upper parts of the wings. My outer rings weren't large enough. After looking carefully at the picture in Ninetta's pattern post, I tried a count of 8-8 for the inner rings with the green thread and I think it looks much better. I must say, though, that muskaan used the 14-14 count from Ninetta's written instructions and hers looks great, so it may just be a difference in tatting tension that made the smaller inner rings work better for me.

In addition to gaining confidence with the Ikuta Overlapping Picots, Ninetta's pattern also inspired me to learn the Ann Dyer Join to the Smooth Side (JSS). I used Karen Cabera's YouTube video for instruction. Karen does a great job. I think my efforts with this join got better with practice. The join in the upper right wing of the green butterfly was my 4th attempt and I did a better job of 'popping' the threads into position. It looks beautifully smooth! Thank you, Karen and Ninetta.

I have to say that when I first tried the Ikuta picots, I didn't really think I'd actually use them. Now, I think I'll enjoy adding this picot effect to some of my projects. And the JSS is a definite keeper.

Happy tatting!