Box and Bookmark

I finished the first stage of the tatted box from last week, and it will definitely need to be stiffened. Thank you for all of the suggestions on stiffening in the comments of my previous post. I'm going to look through them in more detail and see what products I can find at the store.

The box is difficult to photograph, so I put a few shuttles in it to help see the dimensions. These are old German Silver tatting shuttles that I bought on eBay a while ago:

Here's another view from the side. Although the walls stay upright, they are wavy. If the box is picked up by one of the sides, it will collapse because it has no rigidity.

The next step will be blocking and then stiffening the box. I want to try using card stock to create a box form, to block and stiffen the tatting on. I'm hoping that wrapping the card stock in plastic wrap will prevent it from getting wet. If that doesn't work I'll have to find a small Tupperware or something at The Container Store that I can use as a mold for the tatting. If that goes smoothly, then maybe I can design a lid for the box as well.

I also had the chance to test out criss-crossed picots in the bookmark from a few posts back. I ended up scrapping the idea because the crossed picots don't add anything of value to the bookmark design. I think they would work better in a pattern with larger open spaces.

Anyhow, the pattern for the bookmark and variation has been added to my Etsy shop. Here's a photo of the two bookmarks together and a link for the listing.

Two Bookmarks pattern Click Here

An Experiment

I wonder how it will look if I attach these two repeatable squares together to make a small box. The smaller squares would go around the larger square, so I'd need eight of them.

I've never done any three dimensional tatting before, so this will be an experiment for me. It will give me the chance to see how well (or poorly) tatting holds its shape on its own. I'm sure I will need some kind of stiffener for the finished box. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to stiffen tatting?

Pattern for Dillmont inspired bookmark

I received a comment on a previous blog post, asking if I had a pattern for this bookmark.

Coincidentally, I've been working on writing a pattern for this, but haven't gotten around to proofreading or testing it yet. However, I do have some diagrams ready.

It's a simple concept, but does rely on the use of split rings to travel from one triangle to the next. The pattern is based on Figure 23 (Triangular motifs) from Therese de Dillmont's DMC Library: Tatting, which was published in 1880. I think it was Kathy Niklewicz who directed me to her and Sue's experiments with this pattern.

I changed the stitch counts to be able to more easily go from one triangle to another. It starts as a simple "braid" which works well in size 20 thread:

Here is the accompanying diagram for the braid. Red indicates rings made with Shuttle 1 while blue indicates rings made with Shuttle 2. Rings with a line down the middle are split rings. All triangles have the same stitch count:

If you turn the corner and go down the other side, you can make it into a bookmark. This works better in smaller threads. The bookmark I made is done in size 80 but it would probably also work in size 40 thread. In size 80 it measures 1.6 inches wide and can be made however long you want:

Here is the accompanying diagram for the bookmark:

Following the same concept as the bookmark, you can zigzag back and forth to make a mat. I wanted to make my mat symmetrical on the left and right side, so I had to follow a more creative path to do so in one pass. Here is a photo of the mat:

And a diagram showing the order of operations for a symmetrical mat (please refer to the bookmark or braid diagrams above for stitch counts).

If you understand the flow of this somewhat complicated diagram, you can extend the mat to any length or width that you want. You can also just zig zag back and forth if you don't mind a mat that is asymmetrical.

Organizing the triangles in a different way will make a hexagon, which can be used as a coaster:

Here is the accompanying diagram for the hexagon. Like the diagram for the mat, it shows the path of completion, but does not have any stitch counts. Please refer to the diagram for the bookmark or braid for stitch counts, as they are the same in all triangles.

If the numbers aren't big enough in any of the diagrams, you can right click on the images and open them in a new tab.

I'm still working on a PDF file with all of these patterns and will post a link here when it is done.