Still prepping for the workshop. I’m down to winding sample
bobbins of thread. I find that’s the best way to give folks a good length of
thread to use as they learn the DS. Should finish tomorrow. It’ll be nice not
to be up late the night before teaching stuffing the kits!
I took a break yesterday to master a technique that has been
intriguing me now for years: Tatting without the flip. Some have been calling
this Direct tatting. This is simply NOT flipping the DS as in the second half
of a split ring. It intrigued me because it allows a small section of chain to
be tatted as though you switch shuttles without having to cut from the ball,
load a shuttle, switch shuttles, forget which shuttle is shuttle 1, waste
thread having estimated how much for shuttle 2, and generally easier set up for
patterns.
I just couldn’t really execute the technique well. Call it
unflippingitis. Yep, I kept flipping. Sigh!
So, when Muskaan related that she used the Direct method for
the inner chains on her Brussels squares, I sat myself down and learned how:
These were done with much smaller thread as I wanted to use
up what was on the shuttles. I’ll be using some size 30 DMC thread I think.
That seems to work out to the correct size.
Oh, and here’s my TIAS:
