captured in many ways – Part I

 

thread is Lizbeth size 10, pink 619 and seagreen 686

This decorative picot is something new. Many thanks to Muskaan who suggested the name: "Captured Picot". We’re discovering together that there’s a full range of possible effects and two ways of tatting it. But, sorry, I’m going too fast. Let me start from the beginning.

For the #PicotMeEndrucks April 2024 game in the Endrucks 1920 Project FB group, Muskaan compiled a list (only pictures) of Decorative Picots in Tatting - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D6l4gQWeGu1Se1ZXAhP2vWLQMd4lfzMJ/view

She’s always very inspiring (the visual compilation is coloured and brilliant) and I started a personal study/refresher of both Butterfly and Wide Picots, referring to the list of links of tatting tutorials in Muskaan’s page - https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/p/tatting-resources.html 

It’s always a wonderful moment when you “see” old things with new eyes. I love Rhoda Auld’s (1974) words – “Part of the time at least think of the activity of tatting, not the tatted piece, as an enjoyable end in itself. Don’t concern yourself with making something but only with doing something, in just the same way that a game of solitaire is an end in itself.” And so, I played.

Every effect shown here in rings can be applied in chains too.

Playing with the Butterfly Picot technique, devised by Lenka Hašková, I obtained a long picot that interlaces with any other picot (it can be in the same ring or chain, or on an earlier element). Of course, I first asked Muskaan if she had seen this effect before, and she suggested sharing a picture in Facebook with the same question. The post is public, posted on 7th May in my Fb profile, and I think that you can open it, even without logging in - https://www.facebook.com/ninetta.caruso/posts/7903614906337830 -. 

(Fig.1)

Actually I found two ways of tatting the basic version of the Captured Picot, and this gives rise to two versions, as shown in Fig.1 above, in pink and seagreen thread. I don’t mean to challenge you to spot the difference, I promise to reveal all details in this post and in the next.

Captured Picot – VersionA

In the comments of the Facebook post, I shared a video showing how I tatted my very first version, the ring tatted with pink thread. 

>>> This is the very short video, that I shot the same day of the Fb post: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qSx3w3sSOS-x_5IhA55-RLqLS5K24FkQ/view?usp=sharing 

Unfortunately, I didn’t make new videos, because my thumb has been “captured” too … it got stuck in a drawer, and, oh well… I'd rather don't make videos with a black nail in the foreground!

However, I prefer visual stepwise pictures to videos, so I prepared a collage for it. I used a thick thai lanyard used for crochet bags.

pic 1 - Start with 3 ds, then a long picot and one ds. The height of the long picot was eyeballed in the thai thread, but with the Lizbeth size 10 I used a gauge of 1/2” vertically.

pic 2 - Pull up a loop from the front through the long picot. This is the same movement that we do when joining. And when you join you put your shuttle inside the loop, right? But - IMPORTANT - in this case the shuttle won’t pass through the loop. 

pic 3 - Put your fingers inside that loop, in a way similar to what Dan Rusch has shown in his (2003) pictorial for the Wide Picot - http://pages.suddenlink.net/tatmeister/widepicot.html? . Also Muskaan did a pictorial on Dan Rusch’s method - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ejb7tVOk15VQHV0omhUt-HIb1CzYAI7I/view .

pic 4 – Then, tat 3ds with the thread coming from the loop.
Note that the stitch count in this step/pic is sort of “strategical”, because the effect will be more evident if the second picot is “captured” at a distance. Hence I would not recommend to tat only 1 or 2 ds in this step.

pic 5 - Open again the main loop of the ring, put your hand inside it, and the working thread will be “captured” by the first long picot.

pic 6 and 7 – Leave a second long picot and complete the ring (I tatted 3 ds and closed it). I used the same picot gauge used for the first picot.

Note that there isn’t encapsulation: the first long picot is not encapsulated in the next stitches.

Muskaan tatted it almost the same day of my Facebook post, and left this comment: “I was also thinking of symmetry. If we pull down the loop instead of pull up a loop through the previous picot, we should get the opposite overlap”. She’s very right! I tried it and here it is a “Single Ring Butterfly”. Who’s the designer? Muskinetta? Lol!!

Single Ring Butterfly - Pattern

Ring: 1 - - 1 +↓ (3) - - 1-1 - - 1+↑ (3) - - 1

Legend:

- -  long picot
+↓ Captured picot, VersionA, pull down loop
+↑ Captured picot, VersionA, pull up loop
(3) = 3ds tatted with working thread coming from the loop  

********

Muskaan contributed with many samples and observations, among these:
1.    the size of the long picots can make a difference in the overall look and how well the interlacing is visible.
2.    Important – the captured picots are both decorative as well as functional. You can easily join another element to either or both picots.

tatted by Muskaan (VersionA, pull up loop): Ring: 5 - - 1+↑ (4) - - 5

tatted by me (VersionA, pull down loop): Ring: 5 - - 1+↓ (4) - - 5

********

In the next post you will find another way to tat the same captured picot, shown in Fig.1 above as “VersionB”.

Ciao, 

Ninetta.

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This post is part of a series:

Captured Picot VersionA: captured in many ways - Part I

Captured Picot VersionB: captured in a twist - Part II

Adjoining Captured Picots and Captured Join: captured and caught - Part III

Triple and Quadruple Captured Picot: captured in Pairs - Part IV

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Fronkensteen butterfly

Please don't be scared by the title... 

Tatted from parts of patterns n.43 and n.24 in the Endrucks book, 1920.

It ended in a butterfly:

I'm calling this my Fronkensteen butterfly 😁!

Ciao

Ninetta 

cedronella

Cedronella is the Italian name of a yellow butterfly, so I called my tiny tatted butterfly after the real one:

Thread is Anchor, size 70, it is very soft, but it is thin like the DMC size 80.

Pattern is fast and easy: one shuttle and 5 rings. I finger tatted the second side of the last split ring.
Start from the upper right wing, leaving a long tail (about 10cm).
Ring1: 9ds, 5tds, very small picot, 1ds.

Then tat the bottom right wing:
Ring2: 6ds, join, like in the ANKARS down join, the hidden picot between the 3rd and 4th tds of previous ring, then 7ds, picot, 2ds, picot, 6ds.

The pattern continues with another ring:
Ring3: 6ds, join last picot in Ring2, 2ds, picot, 7ds, picot, 6ds.

The last ring is the upper right wing:
Ring4: 1ds, 2tds, TJ (treble join) to the last picot of Ring3, 3tds, very small picot, 9ds.

Finish with the "head", that is:
Split ring: 4ds/4ds.
Cut ends, that become antennas.

Ciao,
Ninetta
UPDATE: Please refer to the page "Treble Tatting Stitch - Summary" - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_95.html for any info about treble tatting stitches, thank you.

swirling butterflies - it's about time!

Please make yourself comfortable, I took many pictures, all numbered, to show you how I tatted the swirling butterflies. I tried to do my best. Anyway, sorry if you think that I missed/messed-up something, don't hesitate to leave a comment, thank you.

For the sequence of steps for tatting a tds (= treble tatting stitch), please refer to my post: treble tatting - ideas or this other post by Muskaan: dissecting tds
Or you would like watching this video in YouTube: https://youtu.be/ra0NnlqR0oA (for shuttle) or this video: https://youtu.be/vxl1ZzPLrZg (for needle)

You'll find all my posts about treble tatting with the label treble.

************
UPDATE: Please refer to the page "Treble Tatting Stitch - Summary" - https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_95.html for any info about treble tatting stitches, thank you.
************

For how to join a tds to a previous element, refer to this post by Muskaan (she shows us two methods, mine and hers): https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/07/multiples.html

The butterflies are the third round for the little doily showed here: fun swirly effect in treble tatting
You'll find this doily related posts, with pattern, with the label swirling butterflies.

But before writing the third round's pattern, I'd prefer sharing 2 samples, step by step.

🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾

In next pictures, from picture 1 to 12, there's one butterfly tatted with the same thread of the chain. That is only to show you that it is just something you can handle with 2 shuttles.
The effect showed in the little doily, that is the butterflies on the chains, it is just a trick, an optical illusion due to a third thread, encapsulated inside the chain. The steps from 13 to 22 show how I tatted it with 3 shuttles.

🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾

CTM= continuous thread method
ds=double stitch;
vsp= very small picot:
tds=treble tatting stitch;
hidden picot= a very small picot every each tds, also between adjacent ds and tds (or tds and ds, as well);
FR= floating ring;
TJ = one tds that join itself to a previous picot (I've used Muskaan's method, please refer to her blog);
ABJ= I used a method similar to an ANKARS back join (https://flic.kr/p/fzjRhh), for joining the two wings, but with a TJ.

The core shuttle in next samples is that one with the white thread, and those white rings are there just for the sole purpose of starting the next chain.

Butterfly with tds, 2 shuttles, from picture 1 to 12.

Pic 1) Start a chain: 4ds (the last one is already part of the butterfly)
Pic 2) 3tds
Pic 3) with the second shuttle, start a FR: 6ds, join to the first hidden picot, before the last ds and the first tds on the chain,
Pic 4) continue the FR: 9ds, picot, 6ds. Close the FR.

Pic 5) with the first shuttle, tat one tds. Then with the second shuttle: start a FR: 1ds,
Pic 6) 2tds
Pic 7) TJ (Muskaan's method):  here I join the second wing to the first: leave a vsp and tat one ds (that is the starting step of next tds), but then here I put the current FR below the first FR, like you were doing an ABJ. Insert hook through both picot of previous FR and vsp of  current tds,
Pic 8) pull a loop, then pull up another loop through it and finish the tds with 3 wraps.

I wrote there "front", where I mean the front side of the chain that we're looking while tatting the chain.
That is not what I call the front side of the 'Swirling Buttlerflies' doily, because I'm reversing the work form rings to chains. For me, the right(front) side of the doily is the side I have in front of me when I tat rings. So, the second wing is over the first, if you look at it from the front side of the doily. I'm sorry if I can't find better words. 🙇

Pic 9) Continue the second FR: 2 tds,
Pic 10) vsp, 9ds. Close the FR.

*************************************

UPDATE: Please let me clarify this: 
I wrote in the legend that "TJ = one tds that join itself to a previous picot".
But that definition it's quite unclear, sorry for this. Usually, a join is not counted as a separate stitch.
In this second FR, I started with one ds, then 2tds; then, there is the join to the previous floating ring in pic7 (you can choose my method or Muskaan's), that actually it is in the first half of a tds; then, in the description for pic8, there is the second half of the tds just joined; then 2tds more, a vsp and 9ds. 
So, I tatted a total of 5tds in this FR. In a short notation, I would have written FR: (1ds 2tds TJ 3tds vsp 9ds).
Thanks to Muskaan that has drawn my attention to this.

*************************************

Pic 11) with the second shuttle, start the third FR: 3ds, normal picot, 3ds, close.

Pic 12) continue the chain with 4ds.
Then, I reversed the work and tatted another ring with the first shuttle, just to complete the little sample.

Butterfly with tds, 3 shuttles, from picture 13 to 22.
I suggest putting a label on the shuttles, or use different shuttles.

Pic 13) the white ring is there just for the sole purpose of starting the next chain. I started with 2 shuttles CTM (white thread)
Pic 14) Reverse work. Add the third thread and work with 2 shuttles in hand, white thread core shuttle and yellow thread shuttle. Tat 4ds in that way.

Pic 15) Here is where the trick starts. Put the yellow thread around the hand and the white threads both in your hand acting together as one core shuttle.
Pic 16) Tat 1ds

Pic 17) 3tds
Pic 18) FR: 6ds, join to the hidden picot before the last ds and the first tds on the chain, 9ds, picot, 6ds, close FR;
Pic 19) 1tds; start second FR: 1ds,
Pic 20) 2tds, TJ (joining to last picot in previous FR, same as in pics 7 and 8), 2tds, vsp, 9ds, close FR;
UPDATE: Please read the clarification above.

Pic 21) FR: 3ds, picot, 3ds, close FR;
Pic 22) continue the chain with 1ds;

Exchange threads again:
Pic 23) work with 2 shuttles in hand, the white thread first shuttle and yellow thread shuttle, acting both together as core shuttle. Tat 4ds.
Pic 24) reverse work and turn to tat another white ring, if you like. That will end the second sample.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Pattern for the Swirling Butterflies motif - Third round:

Start with 2 shuttles with the green, CTM.
With the first green shuttle:
R1) start a ring (white numbers in pic): 3ds, join to the hidden picot between the 6th and 7th tds of one spiral ring of previous round, 3ds, picot, 1ds. Close.
R2) start a ring (red numbers in pic): 1ds, join to last picot of R1, 4ds, join to the hidden picot between the 5th and 6th tds of same spiral ring of previous round, 6ds. Close.
Reverse work.
Ch1) start a chain with the second green shuttle (black numbers). If you like, you can add the third yellow shuttle, already.  Chain: 4ds, picot, 4ds, picot, 4ds, picot, 4ds. Reverse work.
Repeat R1, joining next spiral ring.
Repeat R2 and reverse work.
Ch2) work with 2 shuttles in hand, green thread core shuttle and yellow thread shuttle. Start 4ds, then exchange threads and start the butterfly with 1ds with the yellow thread, with 2 shuttles in hand, the 2 green thread shuttles. Then the butterfly is exactly the same pattern showed in pictures from 15 to 22. Finish the chain, again with 2 shuttles in hand, the green thread core shuttle and yellow thread shuttle. Tat 4ds. Reverse work
Repeat again R1,R2,Ch1,R1,R2,Ch2, till you have seven butterflies. (The round ends with one Ch2 chain).
Use your favourite method to tie, cut and hide ends.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

Ciao,
Ninetta

butterflies

I thought I would have had something designed and tatted with venetian picots by the end of this month, but I haven't. Instead, I love butterflies and the past week I lost all my tatting time to catch two of them!

The first one is the butterfly designed and shared by Muskaan, she asked us to beautify her already nice pattern: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2018/04/make-me-pretty-please.html

That is my version

I added some downwards facing picots, that are explained here:  http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/DownPicot.pdf (she has everything about tatting! Thank you Jane Eborall!)
In the little ring for the butterfly, for example, the original stitches count is 6-10, with the downwards facing picot, it becomes: 6ds, picot, 2ds, (seta, picot, setb), 6ds.

The next picture is to scale the butterfly to her real size...

I used a thread that I hadn't tried before, it's Anchor size 70, very similar to a size 80 DMC but much more soft

I hope Muskaan likes how I added the body and the head to her butterfly. The head is a ring (3ds, long picot, 2ds, long picot, 3ds). The body is a venetian picot, I think that is easier than the puncetto tatting that I used to tat for the body of my little butterflies, back in 2011:

(there's a set in Flickr, here is the link: tutorial butterfly on cloverleaf).
But you have to be very careful when joining, in fact you see from the close up picture next here, that the venetian picots own two loops to be taken in the join, unless they unravel.

🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋

The second butterfly is the one shared this week in the Online Tatting Class:
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/2018/patterns/20180422nyh39.html
Pattern is from "Forty Original Design in Tatting by Nellie Hall Youngburg, Novel and Unique Designs with Complete Instructions for Every Pattern Designed and Executed by Nellie Hall Youngburg, Brookings, SD ©1921."

Almost 100 years and still flying! And that is the same age of my granny...

Ciao,
Ninetta

more of these

That is because I - like many others - long for springtime.
Also Renulek has started her new Wiosna2017, how could I resist? (why should I resist!!!)

I also tried one butterfly with a size 20 thread, it turned out pretty nice as well! Pattern is in previous post.

Ciao,
Ninetta

Related post:who needs a paperclip?

who needs a paperclip?

Did I say it before? I love butterflies! I still have a lot of bugle beads, only 10 are needed for this one-shuttle pattern:

(BB = bugle bead)
Six rings: (NOTE all bugle beads are in the core thread, so not in the ring's loop, they slide in place from the shuttle)
R1: 1-1 BB 6-1 BB 1;
R2: 1 BB 1 +(join to R1) 6 BB 6 BB 1;
R3: 3--(long picot)3 ;
R4: 1 BB 6 BB 6-1 BB 1;
R5: 1 BB 1 +(join to R4) 6 BB 1; Join to first picot in R1
R6: 6, close, tie and cut the thread.

I cut the long picot for antennas and inserted the paperclip in R6 and R3 rings.

Simple rings can do magic sometimes, isn't it?

I'm not sure I need many paperclips, but they are fast and easy. Don't worry, they can't fly away, exept those that have already been "kidnapped" by my mum!

Ciao,
Ninetta

yet another leaf - yet another butterfly

That's just another tatted leaf, as there're many and lovely tatted leaves. But if you compare this pattern with the strawberry's pattern, you surely notice that they are almost the same! I loved playing with split rings!

You see there's 3 puncetto knots in my pattern, that it's exactly the same knot described by Jon here:
http://tatsaway.blogspot.com/2011/06/pointed-chain.html
She had that clever intuition to use that knot for making the chain pointed! Thank you very much, Jon!
I tat that Puncetto knot in this way (drawing): https://flic.kr/p/9Cbk3R

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Pattern for a Butterfly with Ikuta's picots.
If you like learning what picots I am talking about, please go to Muskaan's blog, here: http://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2016/05/trials-and-jubilation.html
Many thanks to her for clarifying the theoretical part and for helping me to find a notation for this pattern. 

All rings' loops are with SH1. Always tat normal ds with SH1. In my pic, the yellow thread is SH1, yellow segments are normal ds in a ring, the white thread is tatted like in a chain, white segments are normal ds in a chain.

Black indicates ring segments and SH1 picots;

Red indicates chain segments and SH2 picots (please note that SH2 in this pattern may be a ball thread).

JSS is the "join to the smooth side" and it is followed by a second half stitch.

p = normal picot

------ = very long faux picot (used for antennae, cut it only at the end).

R1: 3-3-3-3-3-3, 1 p 4
R2 (inner ring): 8 p 8
R3: 4+(join to R1) 1-3-3-3-1, JSS(join to R2). 1-3-3-3------, 1 p 4
R4 (inner ring): 8 p 8
R5: 4+(join to R3) 1-3-3-3-1, JSS(join to R4), 1-3-3-3, 1 p 4
R6: 4+(join to R5) 1-3-3-3-3-3, 3 

(Post updated to amend an oversight, sorry!)

Tie and cut (hide ends).
Cut the very long faux picot in half and make a knot at tip of each antenna.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

dag/daag (have a nice day)
(http://blogs.transparent.com/dutch/how-to-say-hello-and-goodbye-in-dutch-plus-the-3-kisses/)
Ninetta

Related posts: 

mediterranean tatting diet

ready? 

butterfly in slow motion - part 3

Part 3 is the body of the butterfly.

The body starts at the ring on top of the antenna:

It is worked CTM with 2 shuttles filled with a yellow dmc size 80 thread. After the little ring, the antenna is a zig zag chain, that is 4 first half ds followed by 4 second half ds, repeated for 8 times. That is called also "victorian set", as I found it here: http://www.georgiaseitz.com/setstitch.html

Then there's a face inward picot, there's various methods to do it, I've just mine that I showed in a drawing in Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/agHxVU

Wings are joined along the body. It may be finished at this point, a pretty butterfly side viewed on a flower, so we need the pattern for a flower. Priscilla's pansy?

The pointed bottom of the body has two stitches made with the second shuttle, an effect that Jon called Pointed chain:
http://tatsaway.blogspot.it/2011/06/pointed-chain.html

That is how I do it:
https://flic.kr/p/9Cbk3R

When attaching the second wing, pay attention to don't twist picots. I lay the second wing over the first, then open it like a page of a book.

The 2ds split chain over the head, between antennas, it could be avoided, but I like it.

For the last antenna I have a trick. In the first I made, that actually came out very floppy, the tension can't be perfectly regulated at the end. So I thought to fold the core thread as in a SSSC, tat the zig zag chain and the last ring (with 2nd shuttle). Blocked the core thread loop with the ball thread, at the end I had just to pull the first shuttle to adjust the antenna.

That's all!
I hope to see your butterflies soon! Happy tatting!

Ciao,
Ninetta

butterfly in slow motion - part 2

The next photo shows that the join in the first butterfly I tatted in 2011 is a wee bit better positioned at that point. That is because I joined those picots (up and down) at the same time with a CWJ. 

But this time I first joined the upper picot (the one that belong to the lower part of the wing), then I joined the picot under the chain with a CWJ, that substituted for one double stitch. I think the effect is quite the same and the process is simpler than the previous.

It's fundamental that both threads are on the same side of the motif, otherwise it will be very tricky to continue. I put both on the back of what already done, but it's just my personal choice.

So, here it is the sequence of stitches at the connection point (we are at the chain already tatted of 2-2-2, where we stopped to join) :
- upper join
- CWJ (it replaces one ds)
- 2 ds
- upper join
- CWJ
- 3 ds
All that you can find in the pattern as 2 joins (with black dots - marked wrongly), a chain of 3 ds between and a next chain of 4.

Useful links for the CWJ:
http://www.janeeborall.freeservers.com/CatherineJoin.pdf
http://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/2011/03/catherine-wheel-join-my-video-demo.html
http://yarnplayertats.blogspot.it/2011/04/catherine-wheel-join-in-still-photo.html

After the chain, I reversed the work and tatted the last ring, then a last chain.

I hid the ends using a similar method to Frivole’s:
http://leblogdefrivole.blogspot.it/2011/03/more-hiding-ends-and-eightsome-reel.html

But instead of hiding both threads inside, I sewed the yellow thread with a needle.

All we can do now is tatting the other wing, exactly the same.

Ciao,
Ninetta

butterfly in slow motion - part 1

Tatting a butterfly in slow motion, I mean...

I chose yellow and black, dmc size 80 thread, just in spite of showing better the pattern, but I'd rather not suggest a so strong difference in colours, for the fact that hiding ends into each other colour is difficult, and maybe if you are fussy like me you'd like to avoid colours' blips.

The pattern is here: https://flic.kr/p/zsKuNk
But I'm - bumbling - sorry that in my patterns there's always something to amend. In this case, points in wings, marked as face inward picots, they are down sided joins instead. As you'll see later, I tatted CWJ there, because I wanted a smooth effect.

PART 1 - Wings.

I started with 2 shuttles loaded with those two colours but unwind a short tail from black. The pattern starts with a chain, I left a loop as though it was a scmr:

I've a drawing that shows how I tat a face inward Josephine Ring, it is here:
https://flic.kr/p/cb72Dj

I did a shoelace trick, then started the first chain.
At that point I cut the black and added the yellow for the first ring, hiding both ends inside the first double stitches (black inside the ring and yellow inside next chain):

The pattern is then a series of rings and chains partly connected to the central motif. The upper part of the wing starts switching shuttles and direction, so that chains will be yellow and rings will be black.

I continued till the point where the chain must be joined to the lower part.

Then, here there is the point where I put up and down joins very close together in the same chain. As it is a little fiddly, I'll put it off till the next post.

Ciao,
Ninetta