A use for Direct Tatting

I’ve come to accept the term direct tatting in shuttle tatting to mean that you simply wrap the stitches rather than flip the stitches. I find I can only execute it without getting confused when using 2 shuttles. Depending on which shuttle I’m holding, the chain will naturally curve one way or the other. The technique is quite useful in designing.

Recently, I lost one earring of a favorite pair. I’ve finally gotten around to making the replacement. In my zeal to bling the pattern up, I’ve added silver sliver thread to the final round. I wanted to wrap the curled rings at the outer edge with the bit of metal thread, but not the chains between those curled rings. The first time I tatted the ring, I used the clumsy technique of holding the two shuttles together while tatting the half dozen stitches for the chains. Very awkward. 

Enter the direct tatting technique! I have changed to wrapping both threads for the core and using the single shuttle to form the chain DS. Voila! It means you’re switching shuttles to lock join and such, but I don’t end up dropping shuttles either! Now, I just direct tat the chains and manage just fine. Pictures once the sun comes out again.

The fires are still burning in the area. The smoke is getting bad inland. I took this picture mid-morning in the direction of the closest fire. Resources are getting stretched pretty thin. People and animals are being evacuated. No word on how much we've lost for crops and such. Our neighborhood is in the opposite direction from where the fire is spreading. We're trying to help as best we can by  staying out of the way and let the professionals do what they train to do.