More Hiding Ends and Eightsome Reel

I have just finished making another pictorial for hiding ends when finishing on a chain.  See the Techniques page on top bar.  I practised this whilst making a couple of Mary Konior's Eightsome Reels.

I'm really pleased with these new methods and now don't feel so daunted at the thought of making a larger project with lots of smaller medallions - if I don't have to stop to sew ends in all the time!

Please do let me know if you find the pictorials useful.

Update (March 2015):  I have been asked for the link to this pictorial a few times which I thought had been lost (changes to Flickr where it was hosted).  Luckily someone had saved it and it is still viewable.  I am adding a caveat:  on a couple of occasions, my tatting came undone after using this method so I had initially removed it because I didn't want to be blamed if anyone tried this method and their hard work fell apart!!  So please feel free to try it and see if you feel comfortable with it and make sure you are happy your tatting is secure!

HIDING ENDS IN THE LAST CHAIN PICTORIAL (link)

Best wishes,

Hiding Ends

We've been having discussions on In Tatters about how to finish a piece of tatting, whether it is acceptable to just knot it and leave it or whether you should always sew the ends in.  We all came up with our different methods and I said how much I disliked having to sew ends in.  We then moved on to split rings and how to hide both ends into a single shuttle split ring.  Then Patty D. said how she does a similar thing even when ending on a chain.  So of course, I had to figure out all these methods and people were asking questions so I made a second "pictorial" to show how to hide two ends in a SSSR.

Here is a link to the pictorial:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28725259@N02/sets/72157626225965652/

The link will now stay in the side-bar under the "Techniques" heading.

So then I gave some thought to the problem of when the last ring is an attached ring where you can't pass the thread over the ring to anchor it as you do a normal SSSR.  And I thought of a solution.

The next pictorial will show how to do this as well.

Hope it's helpful.  I find most of the time that a picture is so much easier to understand than words.

Best wishes,

Mary Konior Strikes Again

This is patchwork by Mary Konior.

Again, like in Orsi's design, I like the chains that curve in opposite directions.  I'd like to make a design of my own eventually that incorporates that particular element.

This is another great pattern which would create a different motif once you joined four of them together.

Best wishes,

Bird Cage

This is Mary Konior's Bird Cage.  

I made myself a little diagram of her pattern so that I was able to complete the whole thing in one go.  And also so that I could avoid having the lines of bare thread that she had in her original.  She also had some cutting and joining in two places but I was able to eliminate those by using split rings.

I find it interesting that tatting seemed to have remained pretty static for hundreds of years with seemingly few new techniques being used.  Mary Konior has so many lovely designs yet she only ever used regular rings and chains.  There are so many useful techniques nowadays, split rings and chains to name but two which I use regularly.  And what about self-closing mock rings or single-shuttle split rings?

All of these new techniques seemed to have been "discovered" or "invented" relatively recently.  Am I wrong?  

Anyway I think it's wonderful that the beautiful art of tatting is doing so well and being enjoyed by so many.

Best wishes,

Peacock Feather Bookmark

Found this bookmark through a link on In Tatters.  I had made several bookmarks very similar to it before... apart from the tail!  Very clever how those very long picots make it look like a peacock feather.  So of course, I had to try it.

It would be even better if I could get the colours to be symmetrical on the "feather" but I think that would be quite hard to achieve with the variegated thread.

I made the VERY long picots by winding the thread six times around a pencil before making the next double stitch.  

The pattern can be found here at Needles-n-Shuttles.

I like finishing bookmarks with a tassel but this makes a change and is very attractive.

What do you think?

Best wishes,

Quatrain Pattern Now Available

If anyone would like to make it, my new Quatrain pattern is now available with the other patterns in the right-hand column.

If you do make it, I would welcome feedback on the pattern.

Best wishes,

And Then There Were Four