knot stitch and dora young knot

[xstchntat]

There is a stitch listed in Priscilla tatting book three that looks like it could be used for split chains and I'm not sure if what she calls "Knot Stitch Tatting" is the same as the Dora Young knot and the one used in split chains or not. Does anyone out there know?

[PattyD]

No, but I'd like to nail it down. Tatting was a major new craft in the 1900s, which makes it a relatively young lace. The printed patterns and techniques were not uniform, with each author or publisher naming things differently. Mlle. Riego authored many books on tatting and her work has a progression of terms that became more recognizable because they are closer to what we now call certain techniques. The point here is that she was struggling toward an understandable description of the process of tatting. I believe it's only in the internet age that we can truly build a uniform and consistent vocabulary for all things tatting. Of course, that does not address the treasure of tatting publications from the past.

I believe that tatters have always been trying to solve (and re-solve) the basic issues of tatting and finding better and better ways of doing things. I have seen pictures of very early tatting where the picots are tied together with little bits of threads. The ends are neatly clipped, but visible. Which tatter in 2010 would consider that to be the ultimate way to make joins? Another item from that period is that large circles of rings would have needle lace fillings, which can still be done today, but most tatters consider that tatting should be made of tatting.

After this world tour, I am trying to suggest that just because you find terminology that you may not have encountered before, doesn't mean that it refers to something that you don't already know how to do under a different name. I am also philosophically opposed to naming techniques with a person's name because that doesn't describe the function or purpose of a technique.

After looking at the Knot Stitch instructions, it is indeed split chains. It has an interesting little wrinkle in that the loops are held tightly and that may have some benefit in make split chains either easier or neater.

[tattingfool]

I'll have to look it up again, but sometime in the early 1920's Needlework Magazine (I think) taught a new tatting stitch and asked for patterns using it. They called it a knot stitch, and the winning pattern was a rose pattern, used for a yoke. I have the issue with the rose pattern and repeated knot stitch instructions, but not the earlier issue. It was something like a combination of crochet and tatting. You left a space of thread that you wanted covered, then worked the knot stitch over that thread back to the other end, then a chain, then another knot stitch chain down to the center and back, etc. Very interesting pattern. I experimented with it for a bit, but it wasn't my thing. Let me know if you're interested in it.

[Judith Connors]

'Knot stitch' is different from Dora Young's knotless method tatting. It is easy to practise it around a key ring which holds firmly while you make the loops. Knot stitch can be made from the L- or RHS. While one side of the resulting chain resembles a series of lark's heads (double stitches), the other is distinctly different. I quite like the knot stitch chain as it is a little more decorative than an ordinary ds chain. There is no reason that you couldn't use it in your work for a change when you are bridging from one point to another.