In the last lesson on reading patterns, we went over the three types of tatting patterns you will encounter, and tried them out by tatting three small motifs. These were ring-only patterns, made with a single shuttle.
This time we will branch out into making chains, too. These patterns will require either a shuttle and ball thread, or two shuttles. At the end of this lesson you will have the flexibility to make the vast majority of tatting patterns.
HOW MANY SHUTTLES?
When beginning a new pattern, some authors (especially in vintage patterns) will tell you whether you will need one or two shuttles, or a shuttle and ball thread. This is handy info, but not always included (especially in modern, diagrammed patterns). If the pattern doesn’t say how many shuttles to use, how do you tell? Here are a few hints:
- If the pattern is only made up of rings, you only need one shuttle. Case closed.
- If the pattern makes rings and chains, read through the pattern if it is text, or if it is diagrammed trace it with your finger or eye to look for these two-shuttle features. Roughly in order of commonality:
Rings located in the middle of chains, called “thrown rings” or “floating rings”
Any references to using the “shoelace trick”
Any Celtic patterns or themes
Single Chain Mock Rings (SCMR)
Pretty much any other techniques you don’t know how to do yet —We’ll learn how to do all of these, and other fanciness later. Promise.—
If the pattern is free of the above list, then you can probably make it with a single shuttle and ball thread. If it includes split rings, Celtic designs, etc. then you will need two shuttles.
READING PATTERNS WITH CHAINS
Reading patterns with chains is not much different that what we did in Reading Patterns and Making Projects, Part 1. Here are a few additional things you need to know.
- Chains are usually abbreviated as Ch or C, just as rings are usually abbreviated R.
- When you are tatting with two shuttles, many patterns will label them as S1 and S2, or Shuttle 1 and Shuttle 2. This makes it easy to keep them straight when referring to them in instructions, so make sure you decide which is which from the beginning and use them consistently.
- When switching between rings and chains, you will usually reverse work. Unless the pattern tells you not to for a design reason, you can assume that each switch between a ring and chain will require you to reverse or turn the work.
- Remember the sp and lp, small picots and large picots from Part 1? Sometimes it is helpful to make a vsp, or very small picot, to join two elements together. Instead of being decorative, these functional picots are made just big enough to stick your crochet hook through to make the join.
- Chains are sometimes used to make rosettes, or rounds of chains on top of each other. These will usually start off with a small ring in the middle that has a lot of picots, which is the first round (Rnd). The second round will be made of chains that join to the picots, and from there each round will have slightly longer chains that join to very small picots between the chains.
When making rosettes, the number of picots in the center ring will equal the number of petals in the rosette. Six picots will make six curved petals.
Try making this rosette:
Rnd 1: R 2-2-2-2-2-2. Close the ring and do not cut the thread. Tie the two threads together leaving a space the length of a picot. This will look like a sixth picot and let you move to the second round without cutting the thread. Begin Rnd 2 at this knot. This is called a “false picot” or “mock picot.”
In Rnds 2 through 4, begin every chain with a vsp. To do this, begin the first half stitch but do not tighten it all the way to the last chain. Instead, leave a small space as you would for a picot, make the second half stitch and only then snug the stitch close to the last chain.
Rnd 2 CH -5+ joining to the picots of Rnd 1, repeat around ring. When you get back to the first chain, join to the first vsp you made on the first chain, and continue to Rnd 3.
Rnd 3 CH -9+ repeat around ring. Move to Rnd 4.
Rnd 4 CH -13+ repeat around ring. Move to Rnd 5.
Rnd 5 CH 7-5-7+ Do NOT make the beginning vsps. The picots on these chains are decorative; make them like normal. Repeat around ring, join the end of the last chain to the same picot that began this round, tie and cut the thread. Now you have a rosette!
ROUNDING UP
Speaking of rounds, you will see them quite a bit, and not just in rosettes. Patterns come in parts, which means that anytime you are making a doily, many times with jewelry, animals, ornaments, sometimes with edgings…well, you get the idea…you will make one part building on another.
Here is a doily with each of the rounds, also called rows, highlighted separately.
To get from one row to the next, you will usually finish the current row and then cut the thread off—leave SEVERAL inches of extra thread—and tie and hide the ends. (I’ll go over how to hide ends in another lesson soon.) Then wind your shuttle(s) again and begin the next row around the edge of what you just made.
Another way to get from one round to the next is to “climb out” of the row. There are a few ways to do this, depending on whether you are making rings or chains, and how you want the design to look. I’ll make lessons on these techniques in the intermediate tatting series coming up.
Note: If you made the rosette above, when you made the false picot and then began the second round, that was one way to climb out of the row. You just did some fancy tatting, don’t you feel good about yourself?
Now that you can do some fancy rosettes, are you ready for a flowery edging?
Try this lovely vintage daisy edging from 1915:
Begin with the leaves at left of the daisy:
R 9 ds, p, 5 ds, p, 14 ds.
R 14 ds, p, 5 ds, p, 9 ds. Ch 16 ds, turn.
To make the daisy:
Ring 1: 10 ds, join to 1st p of 1st r, 4 ds, p, 4 ds, p, 10 ds.
Ring 2: 10 ds, join to last r, 8 ds, p, 10 ds.
Join all rings. Repeat R 2, twice; R 1, twice; then R 2, omitting the last p, turn.
Ch 15, join to upper p in second leaf; ch 10 ds, p, 11 ds, turn.
Repeat first leaflet, join 1st p to 6th R of the daisy.
Repeat R and ch 16 ds.
Join 1st R of daisy to first leaflet, and 5th R of first daisy.
Continue pattern for desired length.
CONCLUSION
Patterns with both rings and chains are not much different from ring-only patterns, and are not any more difficult. Using two shuttles can appear intimidating to new tatters, but it is truly no different than using a shuttle and ball thread, and will open up whole new worlds of possibilities. Give a few of these patterns a try and see what a difference two shuttles makes.
Happy Tatting!
This post is part of a series of Absolute Beginner Tatting Lessons. Go back to the previous lesson, Reverse and Turn Work, an Exploration, or jump ahead to the next lesson, Finishing a Tatted Motif with a Folded Join.
Shoelace trick is sometimes used with ball and shuttle, getting the ball thread into position.
I think the thing that you were trying to say is switch shuttles or SS
Rosettes and the vintage daisy edging are both on my “To Do” list, so this will come in very handy. Thanks!
Deze side heeft mij enorm geholpen.Het draaien van het werkstuk gaf mij nogal wat problemen.Na het lezen en bekijken van de side werd mij een heleboel helder.
Fantastisch!
groetjes,
Mieke.
I’m halfway through round 4, and I can’t find my vsp on the previous chains. So when I’m joining them, I think it’s in the wrong spot. Then the second colour of thread shows through. Any tips for finding them, or should I just make them bigger? Also, could I switch colours in between rounds to make each round a different colour? It looks like I can from the way I’m doing it, but, like I said, I’m probably doing it wrong…
Emmi, if you can’t find your very small picots, then they are a bit too small. Try making them a bit bigger next time.
That said, sometimes that happens to the best of us. If you can’t find your picot, or even a little bump between two double stitches, try counting the stitches around where you think it should be. You should be able to find where the picot should be and jam your crochet hook in there to make a very close join. As you mentioned, this might make the base color show through a bit.
Second question, you can switch colors between rounds if you like, just tie off the thread, hide the ends, and add new thread in another color. See my tutorials for how to do this.
I’ve tatted the rosette pattern twice and both are very ruffly. Isn’t it supposed to lie flat? The second time, I made the rnd one picots a tad larger and it didn’t help. What is it I am doing so wrong?
Jessica, try making the picots smaller. The more space you give them, the more it will ruffle. Also, don’t worry if the rosettes aren’t perfectly flat. Without a little blocking, they rarely are.
To block them try wetting with water and placing under something heavy and flat to dry.
I’ve worked my way through the first set of patterns and am now working on the daisy edging but I am having problems when I run out of thread on the shuttle. How do I pick up more thread to continue the pattern? I assume there is a way to do this for larger projects but I haven’t been able to find it in the tutorials.
I am trying to find out what the “shoelace trick” is. I’ve searched your web site and it is mentioned but I can’t where it is decribed how to do it.
The shoelace trick is actually very simple. Simply tie the ball and shuttle thread once as if you are tying a shoelace, so that they come out in the opposite hands. Now use the former shuttle thread as if it is the ball thread, and the formal former ball thread as your new shuttle thread.
I love your tutorials and pics and have learned a lot. I just started needle tatting because I’m not very good with the shuttle. Since I crochet it just seems easier to me.
I hope you can answer a question for me. I am reading your notes on closing rings/reversing/tie off; and it says that sometimes it doesn’t tell you in a pattern (especially charts). If you were doing a clover or cluster of 3 or 4 rings how would you tie off the last ring of the cluster before continuing on to the next element? I know you don’t need to connect all the rings together initially but if I don’t attach the last to the first it’s just “hanging” out there and doesn’t form a perfect clover or cross. The directions don’t tell you how to connect them. Can you offer any help?
Keep going, lesson 15 shows exactly how to do this.
http://www.tattedtreasures.com/2011/10/finishing-a-tatted-motif-with-a-folded-join/
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I’m having trouble with the joins for the rosette: Either my stitches are upside down or the next picot is on the wrong side for a simple join. What am I missing?
Bethany, you are probably forgetting to “reverse work” at some point. Look for my post on how to do this.
I am just learning how to tat and have followed along nicely until now. I do not understand “Tie the two threads together leaving a space the length of a picot.” Do I add the second thread here per a previous post or do I start with 2 threads from the beginning? I learn better with videos. Old timer!
I am also a new tatter and have been doing fine up until this lesson. It would be very helpful to have a video here showing how to join threads, and how to use the two shuttles (how to hold them and which thread is which). I am loving this series of lessons. THANK YOU for posting them.
Never mind, I somehow skipped a bunch of lessons between reading pattern part 1 and this lesson. I found what I needed. THANKS
I have just finished my center ring and now I need to start the next round,my pattern says to join to any center picot of my center How do I do that
I’m working on the rosette currently, but I have a question. I’ve just finished the first mock picot, and want to change the color so that the petals are a different color and the instructions, at least that I could tell, didn’t elaborate on how to do that. I’ve watched the video about how to add a second thread, but that shows how to add it onto a finished ring. Is it the same for the picot?