Day 3 completed

I am making progress on the Quarantine Tat-along. Day 3 is completed for both of the little doilies.

Shuttle work above and needle tatting below. 

I gave each a spritz of Best Press and a few pins and allowed them to sit overnight. Now to check Facebook and get the stitch counts for round 4. 

Quarantine Doily

Jon Yusoff, a talented tatting designer from Malaysia is doing a 14 day tat-along on Facebook . Each day Jon shares the stitch count for the next round. I am challenging myself to follow along with both shuttle and needle. As the rounds get longer, I may not be able to keep up, but here is the start.

Shuttle tatted. Lizbeth size 20 Denim Whisper

Needle tatted. Lizbeth size 20 summer fun. size 8 needle. 

Still tatting

I'm still tatting, some projects I'll be teaching in 2020, some test tatting and lots of bookmarks. I am a real slacker when it comes to documenting my work.

I recently completed these cross bookmarks. Pattern is by Gina Butler and can be found here.

The pink is shuttle tatted with size 20 flora thread. the white is needle tatted using size 10 Cebelia and a size 7 needle. 

September update

What an exciting month September 2019 has been. Palmetto Tat Days, a new grandson and a trip to Canada for Fringe Elements Tat Days. No more tatting events until April. In the next few weeks I need to get busy writing up teaching proposals for 2020. Karey Solomon says there is an interest in the Cro-tat I taught in New York (Finger Lakes Tatting) last spring so I need to come up with something to teach.

For the Fringe Elements event, several of my Face Book Tatty friends made tatted hats. It started with the two Carolyn's in Indiana showing a picture of their hats. .


It became an I will if you will sort of thing. My tatting travel buddy Mary Anna got in on the game. When I got to her house Wednesday prior to heading North to Canada, we showed  off our hats, and then Mary Anna decided the hats needed to be embellished. She gave me a tatted butterfly (Nina Libin pattern) sitting on a silk flower for my hat. Then she called Jane (Canadian tatter) and asked if Jane had a mouse she could put on her hat. We got a little crazy.

All hats are patterns from Jan Stawasz. I left off the last 2 rounds on mine.

 Mary Anna added a large mouse, butterfly on a flower and a needle lace flower to her hat.

I did not get a picture of Jane's hat, which also had a mouse on it. Bernice's hat can be seen on her blog.

Edging with shuttles

After working the edging/insertion via needle tatting for a fellow Face Book tatter. I worked the same pattern using shuttles.

Pattern requires two shuttles.


Begin at upper left of diagram and going left to right for rings A, B, C , D 


Ring A         2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 - 2 RW

Chain  14 – 6 Reverse Work (RW) and Switch Shuttles  (SS) join to middle picot of ring A , chain 20 RW


Ring B   2 – 2 – 2 + (to area of chain joined to ring A) 2 – 2 – 2   close ring 
 DNRW (Do Not Reverse Work)


Ring C    2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2  RW


Chain   14 – 6  RW and SS join to picot on ring C.  chain 6  join to the first chain you made  14    RW


Ring D   2 – 2 – 2 + (join to previous chain area where ring C was joined) 2 – 2 – 2 close ring DNRW


Ring E   2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 



Ring E is the same as ring A and begins the sequence of the pattern again.  The chain following ring E will join to the chain beside it.



Notes: A lock join could be used when joining the long chains, but I found that reversing the work and then doing a regular join made for a smoother looking transition. I tried several ways of making the join at the junction of ring/chain/ring. Reaching around the chain and into the ring’s picot looked OK. Putting a placeholder (paperclip) to hold open a little space on the chain until you got back to make the join
 worked best for me.

The more I tat and teach, the more I learn. Sample was needle tatted with Lizbeth size 10 and Havels size 6 needle. It has not been blocked. 

The above diagram appeared with a question on one of the FaceBook Tatting groups. This edging/insertion pattern is one I have seen many times in older tatting books.  Here is my interpretation for needle tatting this pattern.


Begin at upper left of diagram and going left to right for rings A, B, C , D

Ring A         2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 - 2 turn and tie

Chain  14 – 6 turn and tie join to middle picot of ring A , chain 20 turn & tie

Ring B   2 – 2 – 2 + (to area of chain joined to ring A) 2 – 2 – 2   close and tie. DNRW (Do Not Reverse Work)

Ring C    2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2  close, turn and tie

Chain   14 – 6  Turn and tie off then join to picot on ring C.  chain 6  join to the first chain you made  14    Turn and tie 

Ring D   2 – 2 – 2 + (join to previous chain area where ring C was joined) 2 – 2 – 2 close ring and tie off, DNRW

Ring E   2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2  



Ring E is the same as ring A and begins the sequence of the pattern again.  The chain following ring E will join to the chain beside it.



Notes:   When I first looked at  this pattern diagram,  I thought Lock join for the chain to ring join. I tried this, but in order to have my threads in the proper position  to continue I had to then tie a second shoelace trick. This did not look nice.  I then realized if I tensioned,  reversed and  tied off the chain, a regular join would work and threads would be positioned to continue the chain with the desired curvature.



I am a Front side/backside tatter. Every time I reverse the work, I reverse the order of my double stitches.

Holding a piece of History.

This afternoon I began teaching a 98 year old knitter how to needle tat. We began forming double stitches with size 10. She had a bit of trouble, so we switched to size 3. She did better with the larger thread, and using her thumb to form the stitches.  By the end of the hour, Thelma was making double stitches and a few picots and was thrilled to have closed a couple of rings.

I held a piece of History in my hands. This bonnet was made for Thelma's mother. It was made in 1901. That makes it 118 years old. I think it's size 80 thread.

We  put her smallest mixing bowl inside for the photo.  It is all rings and bare thread spaces. No chains. Decorative picots are only used on the final round.

In the bag with the bonnet was this shuttle. I think it is celluloid, it is more blue than it looks in my photo.  Treasures! I got to look at, and hold and examine a piece of tatted history.