Tomorrow is Tatting Day in Ft. Wayne, at the Morning Glory Inn Bed and Breakfast. The link didn't show up when I went there but hopefully it will soon. Mark Myers will be teaching the daisy picot and other fun stuff!

I learned the lockstitch chain during the last Tatting Day I went to in Greenfield, IN. Someone asked me if I would explain it, so here you are! It's really very simple. You use the same stitches, 1st ds and 2nd ds, for the chain, but you leave one of them unflipped. It doesn't matter which one as long as you are consistent. I like to leave my first ds unflipped and then flip the second one but you can do it with the first stitch flipped and the second one not flipped and get the same results as long as you make every set of ds in the same order.

In my example here, the white thread is my ball thread and the pink thread is my shuttle thread. You can see in the first photo, that when I do the first half of the ds, I've left the stitch unflipped, so it is the pink (shuttle) thread that forms the loop. In the second photo, I flip the stitch, which is the white ball thread, and you can see the loop of the white thread is heading down. It's a bit ironic, after you've spent hours and hours practicing, getting that flip to come naturally, that you have to learn not to flip it. I do go slower when I make this kind of chain so that I focus on NOT flipping!

Click on the photos for even larger shots of the detail.

Unflipped ds In this case, leave lefty tight and righty loosey.
Flipped ds Remember Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty here. I couldn't hold the shuttle thread tight and scan at the same time so it appears loose, but when I actually slid the stitch down, I had it held taut.
Here are my samples. The larger one is size 10 thread and the smaller one is size 20.

This makes a nice flat chain that doesn't curve. You do need to make sure each stitch is snug up against the last one before making the next stitch because they won't slide later. That's why it's called Lockstitch!

I almost forgot! I ordered a book, Gloria's Tatting, off of abe.com. I'm also looking for a copy of Heritage Patterns, printed in Australia. I would also like my own copy of Phyllis Klosterman's book of Original Designs, 12 Butterflies. Email me if you know a source!