Making the Thread Dance

The first part of this discussion Pearl Tatting was about multiple working threads on a chain. Now it's time to look at rings and multiple working threads. Since rings use both ends of the same piece of thread (making it difficult to count threads), I will use the term AUX to indicate when I am working with the thread that is not involved in actually creating the ring.

Maltese Rings

Maltese Rings are worked with an AUX working thread which ALWAYS works direct Tatting (NOT flipped). The normal ring thread and the AUX thread alternate working DS on the same shuttle thread.

The AUX thread in Maltese Rings is a little monkey of a thread. It can hang DS upside down (caps DOWN) or rightside up (caps UP) on the shuttle thread and throw off rings with abandon. When the AUX DS are rightside up, the AUX thread can also arrange its picots BEHIND, IN FRONT OF, or ENTWINED with the normal ring picots.

Maltese Examples

In all of these examples, the light thread is the normal ring thread and the dark thread is the AUX thread.



A ring worked with an AUX thread forming direct tatted DS BELOW the shuttle thread (upside down). This is the closest Maltese Ring technique to Pearl Tatting because the AUX DS are upside down (caps DOWN) on the shuttle thread. When the AUX thread is working BELOW, the AUX picots are independent of the picots of the normal ring.

Moving around the ring from the bottom, ring DS and AUX DS alternate, first without picots, next with picots. The top of the ring shows AUX victorian sets alternating with ring DS and picots. Also shown is a ring thrown off from the AUX thread.



A ring worked with an AUX thread forming direct tatted DS ABOVE the shuttle thread (rightside up) . The AUX picots are all BEHIND the ring picots. Note that the AUX picots are offset from the ring picots, an effect of alternating ring and AUX DS.




A ring worked with an AUX thread forming direct tatted DS ABOVE the shuttle thread (rightside up) . The AUX picots are all IN FRONT OF the ring picots.



A ring worked with an AUX thread forming direct tatted DS ABOVE the shuttle thread (rightside up) . The AUX picots are all ENTWINED with the ring picots.

Daisy Picot Rings

Daisy Picot Rings are worked with an AUX working thread which ALWAYS works direct Tatting (NOT flipped). The difference between Maltese Rings and Daisy Picot Rings is that the AUX thread in Daisy Picot Rings is direct tatted on the ring working thread and not on the shuttle thread.



This is getting very long! Instructions on how to make Maltese and Daisy Picot Rings in the next blog entry!