Ambitatterous? Moi? Mais Pourquoi Pas!

Ambitatterous...  a neat expression for those who tat with either a needle or a shuttle.

I like the look of interlocking rings.  As most people know,  I'm a shuttle tatter, but my previous experience of making interlocking rings with a shuttle was not enjoyable.  They have a life of their own when made with a shuttle and I got them wrong as many times as I got them right!  After some trial and error, it still seemed a mystery to me when they did work out!

Last night, I was inspired to have another go and thought "why not make the interlocking part with a needle and then carry on with a shuttle?"  Interlocking rings with a needle are easy.  So this is what I did for the motif above.  I made five interlocking rings and then used a shuttle and ball to complete the following two rounds.  I just improvised as I went along.

I'm no expert with the needle and I think I need to firm up those centre rings a bit more so they keep their shape better when making the next rounds but I like the overall look of this. 

So why not use both needle AND shuttle if you can?

And another brief update on the Butterfly doily (are you fed up with it yet?):  I'm now more than halfway through round 15... it has 112 repeats, so that's 336 small rings, two thirds of which are split rings!  It currently measures nearly 20 inches across.

Best wishes,

Frivole

Still Interlocking...

I played with the pattern a bit to come up with something that looked "fuller" with the shuttles, like Rachel's design does with the needle.

What do you think?  An improvement?

Motif 16 of 25-motif challenge

But don't look too closely... I still got that last interlocking ring wrong!  I don't know why it's so difficult to get right; it's like I've got a mental block about it.  It all works fine until that last ring which needs to connect to two other rings (with one side going over and one side going under).

Oh dear...

More work required despite all the tatting shrapnel that litters my work table!

Hope you're all having a nice weekend.

Best wishes,

Rosalie

Here is my attempt at Rosalie (by Rachel Colvin Jackson) with its interlocking rings centre.  I have to say that I don't like it half as much as I like Rachel's.  Hers looks gorgeous! - mine looks ordinary.  The shape worked up differently (due to threads? shuttle instead of needle? Beads? My tension?).  I think the round seed beads looks better than delicas for this motif.

The first motif on the left is my first attempt but I found my beads were too large and crowding the design too much so I started again with different beads to complete the motif on the right.

Motif 15 of 25-motif challenge

Been practicing the interlocking rings some more... but I tell you, they have a life of their own!  I still can't consistently get it right but I'll keep practicing until I get there.

Meanwhile I will just admire Rachel's Rosalie because it's so much prettier!

Best wishes,

Eureka! Interlocking Rings

I looked at it again with a fresh head this morning and I was also able to view Karen's video to the end and I had another go.  I just had to post again straight away.

Eureka!

Here is my first interlocking rings rosette:

I'm a happy bunny.

Best wishes,

Interlocking Rings

Well, it all started when I saw the post by Rachel Colvin Jackson about her free pattern called "Rosalie" which I thought looked so pretty I wanted to have a go.  But I'm useless with needle tatting!  I tried with the centre motif but I just couldn't get it looking neat and tidy with the needle.  So then I started to search for interlocking rings with a shuttle - can it be done?  Surely it can.

Karen Cabrera to the rescue!  She has a video on interlocking rings with a shuttle - yeah.
Thanks so much Karen!
(Sadly I never got to watch the video to the end as it appears to be jammed... can that happen with YouTube? - I'm still unable to view it at the moment).

So I watch and I try.  I'm not there yet.  But here is the fruit of my labour this evening:

I still can't quite figure out what I'm doing... but I'm doing something!

And I like it.

These interlocking rings are made with one shuttle.

Now I need to figure out which direction I'm going and how to make

six of them going the right way so I can join them into a ring.

Anybody out there more of an expert on this?  Have you tried interlocking rings?  That bit on the left  nearly looks like the Olympic rings which is appropriate at this time in the UK!

Best wishes,