Trouble needle tatting a trefoil

[i4gott]

I have tried and tried and tried to learn how to do this but no matter how i try i can't seem to get the hang of it.No matter what i do when i join the first ring to to second it looks wadded up and twisted.Any suggestions?

[carolivy]

One way to make the trefoil work better is to RW, Ch 1, RW, work the next ring. This gives just a bit of room between the rings so they don't "squish" each other. Another way is to leave just a tiny bit of space between the rings. Personally though, I prefer the single stitch between the rings.

[rsmre]

I have had the same problem, but I have noticed that others' trefoils looked that way, too. I always thought that it was just my "hand" at tatting. So, many thanks for the question and many thanks for the helpful answer.
Rosemarie

[i4gott]

Thak you ! I'll try your suggestion here in a little while.My son wrecked my car yesterday so...... lots to deal with today.

[carolivy]

Hope he wasn't hurt too. Cars can be fixed or replaced, but our kids can't.

[i4gott]

That was my first thought.He wasn't hurt too bad,a sprained neck and concussion

[Judy]

That's quite enough for one day. Have you considered changing the lengths of picots that you use for joining leaf 1 to leaf 2, and leaf 2 to leaf 3? Maybe you're pulling the rings too tight. Remember when you close the second ring that there is NO KNOT after the first ring of the clover. The tiny space between the rings can get pulled down to nothing, and if you keep pulling even more, you can indeed get a wad of stitches. Unless you do as Carolivy suggests, its possible to shirr up the first ring. no lock stitches, The same thing can happen with the 3rd ring.... think of them as one long gigantic continuous chain... when you take the stitches off the needle you can't tell where one ring ends and the next one begins!.. So TIE a KNOT, do 1 ds, then TIE ANOTHER KNOT between the rings. RSRME.. can you show us an example of what you mean. Is there a photo in anybody's album you could point us to?

[i4gott]

Hmmm.I may be guilty of pulling too tight.I.m gonna have to try another one and pay attention to what i'm doing.

[i4gott]

It worked ! I tried both judy and carolivy's suggestion,and it worked!!! Now i can attempt those beautiful patterns i wanted to try but couldn't because i was afraid of the trefoils.

[Judy]

Great! There are fantastic patterns that are nearly all clovers!