28 October 2013

'New' (?) Technique

Well, not sure if it's new but it's an answer to a problem that's annoyed me for ages.  
I'm currently testing and improving an old pattern of mine which has a lot of block tatting in it.  I'm bone, bone idle and hated the way block tatting used to be done 'in days gone by' by switching shuttles and turning the work round.  That's why the new way appealed to me greatly and it's the way I always use now.

BUT I didn't like the regular lock join on the return chain as it always seemed ugly to me.  So, fiddling around the other evening I found a better way to do it.

The ordinary lock join works fine on the 'odd numbered' rows but NOT on the even ones.  So off went BC3 with me tagging along behind to see if a better way could be found.  It worked - BC3 found the answer!!!  This new idea is SOOOOO easy and doesn't interrupt the flow of work at all.

I decided after a few false starts that the best thing to do was just start again from scratch with a whole new set of drawings and text too instead of trying to update the block tatting page.  So here's the link to the easy block tatting page with the new join.  I've no idea if this is going to be useful or not or if anybody's worked this out before but that's of no concern to me.  

All I know is that it kept me out of trouble for several hours and that's the best medicine that Nick could ask for - a quiet OG!!!

12 comments:

goudenregen said...

Thanks! Always love your explanations, they are so clear and easy on my braincells.

GraceT said...

Thanks, Jane! I will definitely try this out the next time I do blocks!

Ladytats said...

Perfect, looks like a modified Catherine Wheel Join. where the core thread is enclosed in the join.
Thanks Jane.

Tatfully Yours said...

Looks kind of funny to me....with those two colored oval shape things!!! Oh right they are shuttles......silly me!!! ;)))))

Jane Eborall said...

Well, Tatfully Yours (Kelly) when you grow up and do proper tatting you'll find out what a shuttle is!!!!! Off out now so I don't get anymore of your 'funny' comments!!!

Pigmini said...

Well this may just persuade me to try block tatting....

Marla said...

Terrific! I LOVE simple solutions!
I have avoided block tatting.....I don't know why really.
I do have a couple of items on my 'to-do' list that use them, maybe now I should try out your nifty fix and give one a try! :)

Marla said...

Terrific! I LOVE simple solutions!
I've always avoided block tatting...... I don't rightly know why.
There are a couple of items on my 'to-do' list that use them so maybe I should finally give it a go....

Margarets designer cards said...

I have tried to avoid blocking for years, while I was ill in July/August I played with blocking and will be doing more, looking at your suggestion I will be trying this.
Margaret

AKTATTER said...

SHUTTLE LOCK JOIN MARRIED A CATHERINE WHEEL AND CREATED THIS HYBRID JOIN

Jane Eborall said...

Hope the marriage is a success, AKTATTER!!!!

Karen said...

Thank you, Jane. Just finished Iris's "Perfect Earrings" using your "old" block tatting instructions only making the 2nd half instead of the complete ds at beginning of each row before the vsp. Now I need to try this and think I'll like them even better. Karen in OR

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