'Allo!

[moniqueleigh]

Wow!! So, I don't have to start one of these myself!! Yippee!! I've been shuttle tatting (consistently) for about 2 & 1/2 years now. Learned about 3-4 years before that, but couldn't find any patterns back then.

I work at a historic house museum (target date is 1888), so now I've got patterns coming out of my ears. ;) Now, if only I had a working scanner here, or could take these things to hubby's office..... *sigh* I would so love to share all of these with you. Maybe one of these days...

Meanwhile -- HI! I'll go back & read through the community later this evening & see if I can contribute anything more than a hello. Anybody here a member of the email lists? I know of at least one very active on Yahoo, 2 on Smartgroups, & one other... On Lacemakers.org, I think.

Comments

[elspethdawitch.livejournal.com]

Welcome :) Funny how you learned how to tat at a historic house museum...I learned how at the the historic village I work at a year ago. What I lack is patterns, and someone I can get to show me things when I'm stuck. I still classify as a "beginner" at work when we put everything in to be judged at the agricultural fair at the end of the year, but it doesn't matter what I put in, no matter how pathetic - it wins. Of course the ladies who taught me to tat are competing in the advanced category so I won't win then...

I just joined one of the smartgroups email lists but my digest thing shows up blank...

[moniqueleigh]

Hrmmmm..... Which list? I think one of them was having problems in the beginning. If you signed up for etatters, then that is pretty high-traffic. I'm on individual mails, for that one. Try to contact the list-owner -- s/he can probably offer more help than I can.

[moniqueleigh]

I learned on my own through a website, but didn't really get started 'til I started at the Museum. I haven't entered any competitions yet because I'm just now getting into the finer threads (Olympus 40's the thinnest I've used so far).

I consider myself Intermediate-Advanced. I can do lots of the advanced techniques (not yet Cluny), but my tension isn't always that consistent. I blame the tension problem on bad thread, though. ;) Heh. What'll I do when I can afford the good stuff? Mmmmm... Blame the cats? hahaha

[elspethdawitch.livejournal.com]

Ok, I think that is the one. I'm not sure if I have the time to deal with all the emails though so I might not stick around.

[elspethdawitch.livejournal.com]

Nooo...blame the shuttle/needle! ;) I've never done Josephine knots or split rings, let alone cluny. My tension's pretty good though, as is my picot size.

[moniqueleigh]

JK's are easy! Just the 1st (or 2nd, your choice) half of the double stitch, repeated for the specified number of times.

Ummm, for example, if the 1st half is a & the 2nd is b, then a normally tatted ring might look like this before you close it: abababababababababab.

That same stitch count, but in a Josephine knot, would look like this: aaaaaaaaaa, or this: bbbbbbbbbb.

Split rings scared me to death until I realized that they're pretty easy too! Split chains still make me a bit nervous, but I'm getting the hang of them. My biggest problem with split chains is that I prefer to have definite front/back sides, meaning I have to figure out how to basically do them backwards.

My picots generally end up about the same size, but if I'm doing lots of ring/chain/ring switch-overs, especially of different sizes, sometimes the knot tension varies a bit. Usually not too badly, though. I just have to be careful if I put it down & then pick it up again later.

[moniqueleigh]

Eh, it's not too bad. If you can get the digest issue sorted, I think you'd enjoy it. You might also try out tatchat, which I believe is at lacemakers.org. (I get that on my work email, so I don't have the addy handy.)

[elspethdawitch.livejournal.com]

I understand the concept of a Josephine knot, I've just never come across one in any of the patterns I've done so far. Split rings and chains are both fairly recent innovations, so none of the stuff I have in hard copy calls for them, but a lot of the modern patterns online do, and I just haven't bothered trying to learn...I'm sure if I wanted to I could try learning it off a website, and if I didn't get it I could ask Sonia or Sharlene how to do it when I went back to work in May.

Sometimes I have trouble figuring out how to join something that isn't one of the working threads...like the two medallion patterns I posted, I had a hard time figuring out how to join the outside ring to the inside one, because I couldn't just join it without thinking, I had to contemplate the mechanics of a picot join so I could adapt it to the situation...I figure it out every time and then I forget it and have to do it all over again the next time I do something similar.

If I was working on something that took a lot of time to make I'm sure my tension would be really obviously uneven, but I mostly make small stuff so it's not that bad. I was making a snowflake for my mom though and the tension's unusually bad on it, enough so that I don't feel like finishing it. Bleh.

[elspethdawitch.livejournal.com]

Ok.

[moniqueleigh]

Ahhh, well, I'll just have to find some of the patterns I've got with JK's & see if I can get them to a scanner for you. :) Yes, there are lots online that call for all the "new & interesting" techniques.

Mmmm... I sometimes have to remind myself how to do the odd sorts of joins too. Glad I'm not the only one who forgets between-times. If you do get stuck in something before going back to work, let us know here. I'm sure somebody will be able to help!!

[elspethdawitch.livejournal.com]

Tatting is like riding a bicycle, generally, but I do forget little things sometimes and the odd joins would definetly fit in that category. I can usually just look at something and figure out what I did wrong...tatting's just like that. If pictures of peoples' projects were sharper I could probably guess at how they did it.

Aren't split rings and chains and such just something someone created so you wouldn't have to make more than one row of work then join them together? Something like that? I'm not sure I'd even know what they looked like.

[moniqueleigh]

Yes, indeed!! I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to just sit & cry because I was stuck in a pattern but had no picture of the original for comparison! That's why I love diagrammed patterns too! (I actually prefer that patterns include both, unless the photo is extremely clear.)

Yes, SR's & SC's were created to avoid lots of cutting & tying between rows. Done correctly, you can't tell the difference between a split & a normal ring or chain. Until you've practiced enough, though, you're likely to see a slight "pointing" in both at the end point (where both threads come out).