I found this video tutorial on Joy's blog for the single shuttle split ring. It's from Etatters, which has moved. Etatters is now at a new location. You can go to http://www.intatters.com/register.php to join. I have to admit that I hardly read any of the grouplists other than my own because I don't have time.


Find more videos like this on eTatters


This is my third attempt. I kept missing the part about putting the loop over the ring before pulling on the shuttle. If you're stuck somewhere tatting and need a split ring and you only have one shuttle with you, this can be very handy. It might be useful if you want to avoid a two-color split ring when working with two threads too. Otherwise, I would use two shuttles.

I had to do the bracelet again! I felt the wrong beads just didn't do it justice. Besides, the first tatting is like a draft...you learn all your weaknesses and where you are likely to make mistakes. This is an Altin Basak thread I bought about 4 years ago at Hector. I hate it. It has a metallic thread in it which is what made us all buy it but it breaks so easily! I have a newer ball in a different color that doesn't seem to break as much but I wanted to try to use this one up.


I happened to be at JoAnn Fabrics on Friday for something else and noticed many beads were 40% off so I bought some 6mm beads! Well...turned out the bag was assorted sizes but because I had looked at another bag of beads that were 6mm, I knew which ones to pick out. I also got some smaller beads which are bigger than seed beads, more like the size 6 beads I used as the BIG bead last time. I didn't think I had any seed beads like this one, a pearlized clear so I started out just putting one of the smaller beads on each side of the big bead which took up as much room. But it bothered me that I wasn't using the right bead....AGAIN.....so I went hunting and yep, I do have a very small stash of the seed beads in that color.

So I started over. I tried to retro-tat but that &*^%$)* metallic thread broke so I cut it off and began again, tying my ends together and hiding them in the first ring and chain. Well, that threw me off again and I missed the first join but by the time I noticed it, I was too aggravated to attempt retrotatting or starting over again. I figured I could improvise something and I did, but I still like Marilee's beginning and ending better. I had to tat loosely and carefully to keep the metallic thread from breaking or pulling loose.

It was worth it. I think this one turned out GORGEOUS! I'm setting it aside to enter into the county fair this summer.


I figured out how to keep my embellishments inside the puzzle piece lines - I just basted around the pattern and when I'm ready to finish I'll either stitch over it and hide it or pull it out after I've done the final stitching. I have other color combinations to work with but I really wanted to try to feature this rose. Using it on the outside didn't work. It seemed like all the big roses are outside of the lines. So we'll see how it goes.