Before I start - a new plane has just landed in the TIAS blog (number 83).
Well it's now 54 years since I learnt to tat and about time I made a confession!!!!
Well it's now 54 years since I learnt to tat and about time I made a confession!!!!
This is brought about by a tatter who asked the other day about joining the final join when you've got rings in a motif and they face outwards. I'll admit it publicly - I DON'T KNOW how to do the 'folded join' and I've never understood it!!!! I guess I've also never bothered as I've always done it without getting a twisted picot!!!!
Today I'm going to try to explain something that I'm not sure I understand myself but it's the way I do it!!!
When I get to the join all I do is hold the work as it should be with the first and last rings side by side but with the core thread below the picot it's going to join to. I then pull this up through the first picot of the first ring and then take the shuttle through that.
I've read and read about and studied this mysterious 'folded join' and spent yesterday afternoon studying it again before doing this blog post. I'm still none the wiser as to how to do it the 'proper way' but as I seem to get by without it I think I'll stick to the age old, tried and tested 'Jane way'!!!! I'm sure others must do it the same as me - don't you?!?!?
Hi Jane,
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has also been tatting for 40 years, I find it also hard to try and tell someone how to do this, I think your instructions are spot on, better than I would have been able to do. I hope she understands how to now.
Margaret
It couldn't possibly work! - it's SO simple. I will try it when I pick up my shuttles again.
ReplyDeleteDear Jane,
ReplyDeleteI always do what you do but with a "down" join, but since I use variegated thread, I often have to figure out a larks head join at this point.
Best,
Susie Arnholt, USA
I never do the folded join and don't really need to learn it. Never had a twisted picot either. I bring my threads to the back of the work and lay the picot I am to join to on top of the core thread(like you do a normal join), lift up, pass shuttle through, snug, finish ring and voila. Last ring joined to first with no twist and the threads are in the back side of the tatting waiting to be tied. This is my illustration of how I do it: http://www.tat-man.net/tatterville/howtotat/joinlastringtofirst.html
ReplyDeleteI am sure it is the same as yours. Just our descriptions may vary. :)
XOXO SOJ
There is a tutorial on my blog about the twisted join: http://threadsofatattinggoddess.blogspot.com/2010/08/knowing-when-to-do-technique.html
ReplyDeleteIt looks like you are turning the work over, which is another option. If it were right side up, it would be a down join which is often awkward. I don't like taking the thread off my fingers and switching it all around as I lose my "rhythm" but for some people, it might be easier.
Yes, Mark. Looks like we do it the same way. I don't have your 'wicked way' of describing it, though!!! I don't intend to do a technique page as you've done it SO well as usual.
ReplyDeleteGina - I don't turn the work at all - just carry on blithely!!!! I'm sure I'm not making sense!!!!!
Jane, I too, had problems with the "folded join" right from the very beginning of my tatting days. So I devised my own way to do it so that the "picot" was not twisted. (I guess we both think along the same lines in this matter.) It's not easy to explain, but it works for me and that's all that counts. Some of my students get it and others don't. It's all what works for you. (I finally did figure out how the "folded join" works.) I still like my way better.
ReplyDeleteI am self taught from books and the internet, and I never gave it much thought, I just sortta had to figure it out for myself on what made my work lay flat, and I ended up comming up with the way Tatman and Jane do it... It seemed the most sensible way to me. I never gave it any thought until reading this post, and normally when things don't make sense or seem difficult the way they are written, I play with them until they are workable. :)
ReplyDeleteRemembering how to orient the hook, so as not to end up with a twist, in the folded join has always given me a headache. I usually use the 'move all threads to the front' and tat on approach; which yields a regular untwisted down join, but it can be awkward to execute, and one does not necessarily want the threads on the front side after the ring is closed. I'll have to try your approach.
ReplyDeleteI’m in the same boat as Bri, self taught and never gave it much thought. Never had problems with that last join..everything lays flat, no twists. But you just watch, now that I’ve ‘thought’ about it all, will probably have all sorts of problems. LOL Sometimes if I over think a thing, it become difficult. Breaking it down, I do it like Jane does.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, I’ll continue in my ignorance and not have any problem with that last join. xxxx P
congrats, alternative to folded join in Craft Gossip
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lelia - I'd never have known if you hadn't told me!!!
ReplyDeletei do my last joins like that. it just seems natural.
ReplyDeleteYea, this is how I do the last r-r join. Now you've got me wondering what other join could work...
ReplyDeleteI use the folded method but i'm sure this way is better. Will try right away on a piece of tatting. I'd like more help taking care of ends which are so difficult for me. I cut and sew.
ReplyDelete