Needle Tatting using TRUE RINGS

Here is the sound of my mind being blown: !!*!!
Why? Because I watched some YouTube videos on needle tatting with true rings that blew my mind and solved a nest of problems with which I have been wrestling for years!

First, a little background. Mostly, I like to bead. But I also like to combine fiber and beads to make jewelry--mainly using tatting, tubular bead crochet, and Turkish bead crochet. I am self taught (you can learn anything from books and YouTube videos!) and the first tatting technique I learned was needle tatting. After a while, I learned to tat using a shuttle, too. I find needle tatting significantly easier to learn and also faster to do, but it doesn't look quite as pretty as shuttle tatting. That is why I learned shuttle tatting. But it is a pain to work with beads on the shuttle thread--especially having to wind and unwind the thread all the time to move the beads along. Then, this week, I watched two videos that changed everything for me! The videos are part of the "Beginning Tatting Video Series" on YouTube (associated with the Georgia Seitz online tatting classes); I believe the woman in the videos is Tamie Montgomery. In these two videos, Tamie demonstrates how to construct a needle tatted ring that is a true ring--like in shuttle tatting--and not a self-closing mock ring, which is the usual type of ring produced by needle tatting. She credits Barbara Foster with devising the method.

Here's why true rings are so important...
The usual method of needle tatting involves using the ball thread to make the double stitches on the needle. When the needle is pulled through, you have to hold onto the loop and pass the needle through it--which really makes a self-closing mock ring. Then you have to tie a knot to reverse the work. So all through the tatting, there are these tiny little extra knots at the base of each ring and the end of each chain. Also, the ring isn't as tight as a shuttle-tatted ring is. The combination of these two things is what makes needle tatting look less delicate and less pretty than shuttle tatting (I think). If you use the true ring needle tatting technique, the rings are tighter and there are no extra knots! The resulting lace is, like shuttle-tatted lace, made up of double stitches only, without extra knots, and that is just better!

Here are the links to the videos that demonstrate how to needle tat a true ring and then how to continue with your work once you have done that. Go ahead--blow your mind!
Needle Tatting True Ring video
How to continue with true ring tatting

But wait, there's more...
Experimenting with the true ring technique over the past few days, there are a few things I would like to point out:

1. If you are making jewelry, the tail thread only needs to be between about 4 to 8 feet long, and that is a length that I can manage. The tail thread is used for the rings. I leave the thread for the chains on the ball, which means no measuring there.
2. This is the BEST method for incorporating beads into your designs! Bonus! Because the beads that end up in a ring have to be added before beginning EACH ring, you don't have to string long, complicated sequences of beads--you add the ones for each ring as you go. That also makes it easier to change your mind. And it is especially helpful if you are designing a new pattern or figuring out how to add beads to a tatting pattern that is just thread. You don't have to figure out the whole sequence and then reverse the order for stringing! Hurray! Note that all beads that are going to end up on the chain thread need to be strung before beginning your project, however.
3. The lace is stiffer and tighter than traditional needle tatting.
4. Elements like clovers work just like in shuttle tatting! Another hurray!

Onion Earrings by Janet Palumbo
True Ring Needle Tatting

So I encourage you to watch the videos and experiment with true ring needle tatting. Here are my first two earrings using this technique. In the next post, I will provide a photo tutorial of how to make the blue earrings. -Janet Palumbo

Anastasia Earrings by Janet Palumbo
True Ring Needle Tatting