I haven’t been tatting much this week, instead doing a lot on our house project. This has de-railed me a bit from my tatting to-do list but I did finally decide to start one of AnneB’s dragons for my son-in-law. A dark blue had been suggested but I thought a dragon would look good in one of the Lizbeth Twirlz threads, so I ordered the Winter Ice #403.
As I don’t do Single Shuttle Split Rings (SSSR) very often I re-watched AnneB’s YouTube video to refresh my memory, using a shuttle filled with a random thread. It came back pretty quickly, so on to the dragon!
Four starts later (it might have been five) I have some semblance a decent tail. I think it must be the way the thread is colored that it makes it hard to work with doing SSSRs.
I’m not exactly pleased with this tail but I might – might- use it. Or I might start over – again.
When pulling out my copy of the dragon pattern I found the pattern for Ringtrim, which AnneB says is for practicing SSSRs for the larger dragon, so I made one. I certainly could use the practice!
Ringtrim came out well, with very little problems. Before starting I was thinking to make him a zipper pull for my purse then forgot to add the lobster claw hook, so I just made an extra ring for it.
You can see that Ringtrim is on the lobster claw, which is on another hook, which is on a ring, which is on the zipper. I’ve lost several zipper pulls (not tatted) and have just left the hooks and rings there. Attaching Ringtrim like this leaves plenty of hook to grab and pull without actually pulling on him. I’m hoping he’ll stay awhile this way.
Ringtrim turned out okay, now I’m ready to get back to the larger dragon. The fifth (or is it sixth?) time could be the charm.
“It’s never okay to give up on yourself.
Fall seven times, stand up eight.
Failure isn’t falling down,
it’s refusing to get back up. The reason why
people give up so fast is because
they tend to look at how far they still
have to go, instead of how far they
have gotten.
If plan A didn’t work,
the alphabet has 25 more letters,
stay cool.”
idlehearts.com
Great little dragon!!! I like those colors on it!!! 🙂
I forgot about those wonderful little dragons and this tiny one is cute! I love you poem to it is well needed at times!
It's so coincidental that you have mentioned Anne B's Youtube video on SSSR's because I came across it just last week and was intrigued at the excellent idea of temporarily using a 'post' shuttle instead of doing finger tatting! The extra shuttle makes it so much easier, and I wonder who first thought of it! . What I want you to know is that I'm using the shuttle you gave me when we met in Pittsburgh – one of so MANY special items (above and beyond the call) you gave me that day! You blinged the shuttle to match the wood around a crochet hook (another very useful tool!). . I always use bobbin shuttles to tat with, but the post shuttle is ideal for these SSSR's, and I had the perfect one sitting in my tatting box! 🙂
Speaking of blinging and 'altering' shuttles, you really went gung ho on those Boye shuttles! I've never looked at overstock.com! What a find! And talk about dedication and perseverance to improve them. What a marvelous transformation! Very impressive!
Looking forward to seeing your completed dragon. Just FYI though, the pattern works with regular split rings. I know a few of us used them with little to no trouble. Actually, I've yet to try a SSSR.
I have done the dragon in both SSSR and regular SR. but you are correct, I think the Twirls thread tats up a bit different in the rest of the Lizbeth threads. I am not sure why, and it isn't because of the kaleidoscope effect when looking at it. It is something in how the thread feels. I have done part of a project in it, one of the things I didn't post about in my catch up post. I will have to finish and post my findings