False Plaits

I'm way more tired than I oughta be for a Saturday.


I was up pretty early since we had a Lace meeting starting at 9:00 a.m. Not a big crowd, just a small cozy group. A few are in Ithaca. A few others were elsewhere. We had one new member. I told about my travels for tatting. Palmettos, Camp Wannatat, and Tatting Day in Greenfield. There's a year's worth of play right there if I ever get around to it.

After the presentation and some small talk, we were working on individual projects. I had taken my butterfly that I posted about yesterday but decided keeping track of the beads and stitches and talking was not a good idea. So instead, I decided to try the "false plait" that caught my eye a few days ago. I was looking for something different to use as a cord - thicker than the lockstitch chain, more substantial than split rings, but not as big as an edging. Tatting 2000 by Ring of Tatters has some false plaits that have intrigued me every time I saw them. It's on page 71 of the book and came from Jean Sharples. There are some earrings by Jean on page 52 and they looked like what I wanted, only I want them straight, not curved.



I had a couple of different colors handy in size 20. The yellow is Manuela and the peach is Regina - actually a size 16 but it's the same as 20. The sample on the left was my first try. I really like the way it looks. After I got home, I tried adding some beads like I do when I want the bead centered in the split ring. It didn't work out too well. It was much harder to close the ring and the shape just didn't look very pleasing. So then I strung some beads on the shuttle thread and started over in the second sample. The beads make it more obvious that spacing needs to be watched. There is one spot there where I must have twisted the original ring somehow before I pulled the shuttle pair through.

This involved 4 shuttles, probably best if each set is CTM and then tied together. When you wrap your thread around the hand, have one bead there. You make your stitches for the first half of the split ring and then before you start wrapping the 2nd shuttle thread for the second half, slide the bead up from the bottom to the pinch point, and then start your second half of the split ring. Then BEFORE you close the ring, bring your other pair of shuttles through the ring. This was the part I forgot a few times. I was so intent in keeping the threads and shuttles untangled and getting the bead just right - it was hard to remember to poke the shuttles through. I tried Riet's suggestion to keep the other pair of shuttles tucked in a scrunchie on my wrist. Sometimes I decided it was too cumbersome and other times it was a lifesaver! LOL! I just need practice, I think.

I do like the way this looks. I'll only be using one color thread for my project so I think spacing won't be such an obvious issue then. But then, the beads will be a different color so maybe it will be. It probably took me a half hour or a little less to do sample #2 which is slightly over two inches.

Everyone seems to be going through a strong inspirational mode right now. I'm seeing new patterns right and left. Mark Myers created a new Red Hat pattern. Jane Eborall has 2 new additions to her prolific designs. And my friend Gail sent me her diagrams for an acorn and leaf she designed. I had hoped to resize and group them to show here, but I guess it will have to wait another day. My legs are doing the achey-brakey and it's almost midnight anyway.