swirling butterflies need a flower...

... at least one! I've been tatting spirals to test my pattern and I've plenty of yellow and lilac thread, that I'll soon have a spring garden!

Starting from this post, I'm sharing the pattern for the "swirling butterflies", the doily with spiral rings and butterflies in treble tatting.

I'm a shuttle tatter, but it can be done also in needle tatting (I've put a video in YouTube to show my way to do it. Link to the video: https://youtu.be/vxl1ZzPLrZg). 

I'm tatting with Anchor thread size 70, very soft.

Note: There is a little bare thread appearing between each tds, so we have a very small picot every each tds. I call it the "hidden picot".

ds=double stitch;
tds=treble tatting stitch;
⭐= don't reverse here, if you do direct tatting for chains

The spiral rings in this pattern are actually all rings of 1ds and 8tds, that is:
With one shuttle:

1. start a ring with one double stitch
2. tat 8 tds. (I don't tat any ds after the last treble)
3. insert the shuttle inside of the loop around the hand, from front to back, before closing the ring.
4. close the ring.
5. Then, the thread is passed to the back side and pulled upwards. 
6. Pull the thread toward the hidden picot between the third and the fourth tds. Then block the spiral in position with a lock join. 

Repeat those steps for a total of 14 spirals. Leave a long tail of thread and cut. Do not close the round of spirals. The spirals have a front and a back side.
(The tail will be used later, to close the round of spirals after you have the centre done).

The spirals will go as a second round, but I tatted them first. Then I tatted the yellow centre. That is because I found easier to join the yellow rings to the spirals, than joining the tds to the yellow rings. You may follow your favourite order.

Centre (with yellow thread in my pictures).
They are all rings of 3+3+3-3 and chains of 3, that is:
With one shuttle and ball (or 2 shuttles):

1.  Start with a ring: 3ds, picot, 3ds, join to the hidden picot between the first and the second tds of the last tatted spiral ring (Picture 1), then continue the ring with 3ds, picot, 3ds; close the ring and reverse work (⭐)
2. Chain: 3ds;  reverse work (⭐)
3. Ring: 3ds, join to previous ring, 3ds, join to the hidden picot between the first and the second tds of the next spiral ring (Picture 2), then 3ds, picot, 3ds; close the ring and reverse work (⭐)
4. Repeat step 2.  then step 3. , till you join all spirals, except the last
5.  Chain: 3ds;  reverse work (⭐)
6. Ring: 3ds, join to previous ring, 3ds, join to the hidden picot between the first and the second tds of the last spiral ring, 3ds, join to the very first ring, 3ds; close the ring and reverse work (⭐)
7. Chain: 3ds; use your favourite way to tie and cut ends. (You see the back side of my centre in previous picture, in the lower right pic. I still have to hide tails)

If you like avoiding the colour blip on the back side, you may read this post of mine: http://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2016/03/how-to-skin-cat.html

You may find a very interesting - and useful - post by Muskaan that is a compilation of methods for hiding ends: tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2016/11/beginning-or-ending.html

In next post, I'll show you how I tat those "swirling butterflies" all around.

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I've been to a fair, last week, thanks to a dear friend, who drove for 3 hours the way to there and back... An amazing fair with any sort of lace! Everything was breathtaking! There are some picture in "Scuola Di Ricamo Valtopina" in Facebook, and also have a look in this site: www.mostravaltopina.it. I'm happy because I met 3 tatters! 😍😍😍 One of them is Giuliana Pizzini, a Master tatter from Abruzzo (you can find her in Facebook, too) a very nice, smiling and friendly person, her tatting is truly beautiful, she sells it and her spot there was full of amazing lace! She gave me 😍😋 this lovely bookmark:

I also met the affable cheerful Giovanna, from Sicily, she embroiders but also tats, and sells, she displayed two amazing tablecloths with traditional tatting and embroidery (it is listed in her site as "Tovaglia in lino e Chiacchierino che può fungere da coperta o tenda").

I bought 2 books: one is "I fazzoletti. Breve storia d'un amore" by Damiano Pellicano; the second one is "Nappe, nappine e bottoni della Scuola del Pischiello di Romeyne Robert Ranieri di Sorbello" by Geneviève Porpora. 

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Dear Reader,
I share here what I like and what works for me. If you've been following me, you know that  I can change my mind from time to time, and feel free to comment that I'm completely wrong, you may be right. I'm not running a business. I'm not paid and have never received any compensation or facilitation for any review/brand/site here mentioned. In case one day we'll ever meet, I'll be the one offering you a cup of Italian coffee, too.

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.