BellaOnline Forums Hobbies and Crafts Tatting Introduction and a design question

Hello everyone,

I'm another of those odd males who knows how to tat. I learned when I was 12 years old (now 25) from my great grandmother who had been tatting (or otherwise embellishing) most of her life. She taught me basic shuttle tatting... rings, chains, picots, and joins. When I looked for patterns to make snowflakes for Christmas presents, I noticed "split rings" and "split chains" and two-shuttle tatting (among other neat knots). My wife was also interested in learning to tat, so I taught her. This all renewed my interest in tatting.

In my previous tatting experience, I have made about a dozen small (6cm) motifs, and half a dozen small doilies (18cm) all with #20 crochet thread. I only have picture of a couple of them floating around, and I have given the rest away as gifts.

Now I have one question. What strategies do all of you use when designing a new pattern? I would like to try my hand at designing a doily, and I have drawn out the basic layout on paper, but I'm not sure about the best way to determine the number of sticthes in a ring or chain, or how long to make the picots.

Thank you for reading this post!
Alan

Hi Alan and welcome to the forum!

I draw everything out, usually on graph paper but sometimes a freehand sketch, and quite often I find that patterns done that way fall quite nicely into a standard stitch count such as 5-5-5-5 or 4-4-4-4. Once I've established that I then play with the picot layout and decide whether I want joining picots only or any special effects which might suit the piece.

You might like to take a look at my Designing Tatting articles here - http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/2519.asp

There are some interesting off site links too.

Thank you Gillian!

After reading those I think I'm ready to simply start at the center, see how big that is, and make everything else fit accordingly.

If anyone else has something to add to what Gillian said, I am still interested to hear.

Alan

Hi Alan,

I sometimes just draw out the design freehand and start with the basic 4-4-4-4 or 5-5-5-5 ring, just like Gillian says, and see how it goes from there. The same goes for the chains. But be ready to abort half-way and start all over again. I have been able to produce some nice design for edgings as well as a few doilies. Also since I found out how to do the split rings and split chains, I found that my design ideas are expanding. Sometimes what ever that I tat did not come out as the sketch but something different altogether, which can be a new pattern in itself. So the way see it, you can't really go wrong.

However my problem is, once I have the designs mmade I don't have much idea what to use it for. So now I am just building up a 'catalogue' of my designs for when I know what to use it for later.

Have fun, cos I did.

Faizon

Yes Faizon! Learning some additional techniques such as the SCMR and the split ring and chain can indeed provide you with new ideas. I find I use two shuttles as a matter of course in my work because there are so many things you can do with two rather than one. Working with three or more shuttles can provide many interesting designs too.

I totally agree about changing a sketch as you work the design that happens to me too. And sometimes the sketch doesn't quite work as drawn because remember that a tatted line is much thicker than a pen line.

Hi Alan,

My name is Ben Fikkert (yes, another male tatter). Gillian said an interesting discussion was going on on this forum about design. So, I thought I share with you how I design.
What I do mostly is first produce a rough sketch on paper of any ideas I have for a new doily, or collar, edging and what else have you. Often, it is a rough drawing representing the completed piece. It's a drawing built up from with dark and light areas, and it won't show any rings or chains - I don't want to be limited by technique early in design. Later I detail the sketch and try several arrangements of rings and chains to match the "global design". When I'm satisfied, I use Adobe Illustrator to draw those rings and chains as precisely as possible. Last stage in design is deciding where to put the picots, where to do special stuff like spiral tatting, onion rings, cluny leaves, josephine picots to enhance the design.
Next step is judging the number of stitches. I start tatting a small beginning, estimating the number of stitches as I go. Next I scale, on the computer, the drawing such that it matches with my sample. When I have the right scale, I print out the design, and then tat, keeping the printed design at hand, by compare over and over again with the drawing to get the correct sizes. The same procedure works for picot lengths as well. So - there is hardly any guesswork here. Doing it this way I always get the number of stitches right the first time.
But... that's just one way of doing it, I guess. Sometimes I start with an idea consisting of a few rings and chains, and then take it from there.
Well, I hope this helps. I'd love to see some of your tatting someday!

Take care.

Well this is a way old discussion, but I'll add my two cents anyway since I'm new here.

My designs just start with the needle, thread and a basic idea in my mind. I'm not very good with drawing my designs out on paper and haven't figured out how to do that with computer programs either. So I'll just play around with an old ball of thread and after I complete a row I'll write the stitch count down and continue on from there. Sometimes I have to re-do a row a few times to get the count right or because I just don't like what I've made, but other times it all seems to flow together into a beautiful doily or snowflake.

Leen