Greek Key/Meander Designs in Padded Split Ring Tatting.
Use of 3 shuttles: 2 for main design element (dark blue) and one for the ancillary/fill-in element (light blue).
The main design path of the dark blue rings are continuous. The light blue (fill-in) rings are carried along (Padded) inside the main element rings and created using Take-Off Ring Technique.
The piece is tatted continuously (from start to end) in one round using Padded Split Ring Tatting (PSRT) Technique–will be taught in the book. The real trick is in how to tat PSRT Technique and not have blebs/blips of color show between elements!!!
Me, tatting and drinking a sampler of beers while waiting for a friend to comeI like dark (porters & stouts) and hoppy (IPS’s) beers. I rarely have more than a pint of beer at a time, that is why I love these sampler flights of beer. I get to taste several beers at one time and not have to commit to one. This is especially important in that the beers I like are very carb/calorie dense.My ‘sampler design’ in which I sample tat various colors of thread together to see if they match in size. Even thread colors from the same manufacturer may not pass my ‘split ring test’ which may be due to what the different dye process does to the fibers. Dark colors are especially troublesome and are usually ‘thicker’ that lighter-colored threads.
I bought these 3 threads several years ago at one of the IOLI Conventions and have just recently pulled them out to use them on a project. I looked it up on the web and found that this thread is a 3-ply cotton, still being sold in the EU and comes in sizes of ‘6, 8, 12, 16, 20 & 25’.
At first I thought that they were a form of perle/pearl cotton (perle thread uses a numbering system of 3, 5, 8, 12), but upon closer examination I wasn’t completely sure what kind of thread they were. As you can see, my thread is labeled ’12’ which is why I thought it was a perle cotton. However, I was positive that this Freccia thread size 12 (thicker) did NOT match perle cotton-12 (thinner) in size.
So I tried to figure out what thread size my Freccia 12 most closely matched.
What I really need, but have been unable to find, is the book Threads in Lace by Brenda Paternoster. In this book, Brenda (scientifically) quantifies thread ‘size’.
I noticed that the Freccia labels specified that there was 285 meters of thread in the 50 gram ball. That started me on a road-of-discovery…. I was able to find yardage/meters on many different threads in different sizes including DMC Perle, Lizbeth, Anchor Cordonnet, DMC Cebelia, DMC Cordonnet and calculated out yardage per 50 grams of thread.
I was able to determine that the Anchor Freccia 12 thread is closest to a size 10 crochet cotton which is the left one in the next photo. The Anchor Liana 10 was 300 yards per 50 grams. The Anchor Freccia 12 was 312 yards per 50 grams.
Anchor Liana (cordonnet) 10–6 ply–on the Left. Anchor Freecia 12–3 ply–on the Right.
To prove this sizing, I tatted a few rings in the two threads.
Blue piece is the Anchor Liana Cordonnet 10, Red piece is the Anchor Freccia 12
Since proving/learning about this thread type, I have embarked upon a large undertaking to quantify thread sizes. This is partly due to the fact that in my 4+ decades of tatting, I have used many different types of threads from many different manufactures and know that each thread has its own characteristics/personality. Even in the Size 20 cordonnet threads, that I have been using almost exclusively for my design work for my ‘Fun with Split Ring Tatting’ book series, I have noticed differences in ‘size’ between the same size of thread from various manufacturers. (Don’t get me started about the differences in size between different colors of the same size of thread from the same manufacturer!–that is for a future topic.)
To date, I have quantified almost 80 different threads based upon how many yards of thread in 50 grams of thread. Watch for this data in upcoming posts as I figure out how to use/publish my excel charts.
A recent study has indicated that threads give off certain pheromones that hypnotize women (and some men) and cause them to purchase ungodly amounts of thread. When stored in large quantities in enclosed spaces (ie. stores), the pheromones in the thread causes memory loss and induce ‘gathering syndrome’ (similar to the one’s in squirrels before the onset of winter).
Sound tests have also revealed that these threads emit a very high-pitched sound heard by only a select few (known as ‘tatters’). When played backward these sounds are heard as chants: ‘…BUY ME! TAT ME!….’
Furthermore, the pheromones seem to cause a pathological need to secret the thread purchases away when one takes them home and blend them into the existing stash.
In order to overcome the so-called feeding frenzy effect that these threads cause, one must wear a face mask and ear plugs when entering the primary acquisition facilities (stores or internet websites) to avoid being pulled into their grip. It is also beneficial to enter these facilities without the presence of cash or credit cards.
Sad to say, the addictive qualities of this compulsive behavior are cumulative and are ameliorated only by the purchase of more and more and more threads.
