treble happyness!

Treble tatting is now part of a published book! 

At the moment it is only in Italian, and available on Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/4MlEOyX

I think the title can be translated like this: "Tatting is a serious matter". That is funny but there's a good reason, because I found an Italian book, from 1941, where tatting is described by this phrase: "they say that is not a serious thing" - I wrote about it in the introduction of the book and also in an old blog post of mine (https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2017/05/are-you-serious.html). 

There are three chapters: the first covers the history of tatting, mainly from an Italian viewpoint. There are many contradictions and stereotypes about tatting, often confused (by non-tatters) with bottonhole stitch or with the "Fiandra a tre paia" bobbin lace. Some people cannot accept needle tatting. Also, just because we usually say that tatting has only 2 stitches, someone thinks that tatting is meagre. Sometimes it is not even classified as Lace! Alessandra Caputo writes in her foreword: "..., if on one hand needle and bobbin lace are indicated as laces with a capital L, on the other hand there are a whole series of laceworks considered "minor", sometimes with a history not less long and prestigious, which from a technical point of view are undoubtedly self-supporting and therefore can be rightly defined as lace." Phew! Thanks Alessandra!! 😊

In the second chapter there is the treble tatting. I improved my drawings for showing how to tat the treble stitch - and there are links to my videos, easily accessible thanks to qrcodes; I've used a free QR Code Generator: http://goqr.me/

The third chapter contains detailed instructions, pictures and diagrams for the Swirling Butterflies doily pattern. Maybe, some of you remember that I've shared here in my blog the first 3 rounds, and few people had tatted it. For example:

Jane McLellan (https://janemactats.blogspot.com/2018/09/butterflies-tethered.html);

Muskaan (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/search/label/swirling%20butterflies)

You can find my old blogposts about this doily, all posts with label: swirling butterflies 

 

This beauty is a gift for a good friend! Many thanks to Alessandra Caputo (www.merlettoitaliano.it) to help make this book a reality.

And many thanks to Muskaan (for her foreword, and for the many tips and improvements, beyond my requests) and Paola Bevilacqua (https://www.facebook.com/legioiedipaola48), who both were so nice to test the doily pattern.

I've sent a gratitude gift to Muskaan and Paola, too! Muskaan was so nice to blog about hers: https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/10/evviva-and-ouch.html

The next is a third version of the doily, that I've already given away to a close friend of mine.

Ciao,
Ninetta

where tatting is still art

I've been absent from the blogsphere for many months now and sorry I'm still at large. If it weren’t for Endrucks this blog would have been silent. Instead, I've been very active on Facebook. During the years, on Facebook I’ve met many lovely tatters, virtual faces that sometimes have become real acquaintances and we've even met in real life. Not yet with one of them: I still haven't had the pleasure to meet Anna Tedesco in person, but I really would like to. 

A long necklace with single shuttle split rings, tatted by Anna in 2020.

All the pictures in this blogpost have been poached off her page by me, I confess my crime. But Muskaan and I wanted to give her a surprise, with this post, to express our gratitude for her constant help in the Endrucks 1920 Project. Anna, I hope you’ll forgive us for not asking your permission in advance.

In fact, inspite of not being among the “official” list of volunteers for the patterns, she worked behind the scene enthusiastically and promptly helping us on many occasions. She was also the one to coin the terms "Endrucks' children and grandchildren" for derivative patterns and derivatives of derivatives, when she made these bracelets!

Anna’s bracelets inspired by Paola Bevilacqua’s brooch, derived from Endrucks’ pattern n.18a (pic already shared by Muskaan in one of her blogposts)

Anna is an expert and excellent long-standing tatter. She collaborates as admin in the Italian group “Chiacchierino: filo, amore e fantasia” and leads her own page and group, both named "Tatting art". I've been following her personal profile too, where she usually posts great pictures of her region. She lives a little far from me, in Calabria, that is known for the many natural and art sites (seaside, parks, archeological sites, museums). Also, she likes flowers and cats, and these are often the main stars of her personal posts.

This pattern is from the 4th issue of “Mani di Fata” (1973). I couldn’t find when Anna tatted this piece of art, she writes “many years ago”.

This is her fb page: “Tatting art” https://www.facebook.com/annatedesco2018/
And this is the group linked to her page:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/898495776900356

bracelet and necklace with interlocking split rings, tatted by Anna in early 2022.

It was very difficult to choose pics from her vast repertoire. Hence I encourage you to visit her page, where there is all her Art of Tatting: from old doilies to the latest earring. Anna, just like me and many other tatters, has started learning new techniques since the internet era. She usually says that she cannot design, that she needs patterns. But I think that she has put her personal touch everywhere, making each model unique. And she is a very prolific, highly appreciated tatted jewellery maker!

Hearts tatted by Anna in 2021.

I remember when she tatted the n.28 doily, actually many of them! Because for Anna one is not enough! When she finds a pattern or a subject that she likes, she can’t stop herself with merely 2 or 3 models!

And these are some of her Endrucks’ models!

She was my right-hand for the Italian translation for Endrucks' Preface. I trust her plain and dry style (reflection of her real-life job as an engineer). She is also very pragmatic and I remember that her help was decisive for setting the slant of the translation.
This is the direct link to the Italian Eleonore Endrucks’ Preface and Tips, based on the English translation done by Simone Beyer:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17R1LYneE2KDTWVOTjzv4yfsQ6oPizR8t/view

In 2019 she volunteered teaching her art to 2 dozen people: then she shared beautiful and promising pictures of her crowded tatting class: we started to call her "our Italian Tatyana"! (from the Russian master designer/tatter Tatyana Buyvolova who frequently shares photos of tatting by her young students on FB). In 2021 she repeated the experience and we wish her to come back to teaching soon!!

I have already introduced Anna in my blog, here:
https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2021/06/co-learning.html
And Muskaan wrote about Anna’s work related to Endrucks at least in 2 blogposts:
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/05/chain-reaction_15.html
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-small-gift.html

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

You know where to find all the patterns (they keep growing!) from Frau Endrucks and our Endrucks 1920 Project -
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view

With many thanks,
Ninetta and Muskaan

 

UNPREDICTABLE LIFE

Many things can happen in two years. The Endrucks Project “ate” almost all my tatting time, but despite all the work I still love this project! A lot of tatters walked the same path and Muskaan and I have shared the beautiful story of many of them (you can find all posts listed in the section “Meet the Tatters” in the Endrucks 1920 Project Document): some are well known people in “Tatternet” and others not quite known outside of FB and today we present both who also happen to be former nurses!

Wally Esther Sosa is among the first group. She is a very well known talented tatter and designer, also known as NeedleDreams, a nickname she has long used for her site and her online shop.
She started working on the Endrucks book when it was first put online, in the Online Tatting Class. The previous pic is her “Victorian Lace” bracelet. That motif is derived from pattern n.10 and it was tatted in 2012. Then she promised earrings and choker/headband too, but life is unpredictable, and the years flew past…
When we started the Project in 2020 she immediately offered her generous help, committing herself to tat and share the patterns n.10 and n.5.

Samples and draft pdfs arrived, we had published them as they were at the time, but lately I found the right time to edit them again to add diagrams and detailed text to her stepwise pictures. Now there are new links for these two patterns:

-    PATTERN # 5 - Wally Sosa, Ninetta Caruso, Cynthia Dooley
  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aZKVP1xZkH1IrMH7YV9XyX2Pg80Y_zCW 
(This new file also includes needle tatting notes with stepwise pictures, by Cynthia Dooley)

-    PATTERN # 10 - Wally Sosa and Ninetta Caruso  -
 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YFBYqbgssthqDKYi8YkTX-fvAPmIYbm-/view

If you want an overview of Wally’s tatting, she created a board in Pinterest, where there is a collection of tons of her tatting items:
 https://www.pinterest.at/needledreams/needles-n-shuttles/
Prolific designer, she has published many tatting books, covering diverse techniques, embellishments, applications, and skill levels.
Annually, since 2000, Wally has been sharing a birthday motif with The Online Tatting Class, founded by Georgia Seitz. Her last book “A Party of Tatting Designs” contains snowflakes, ice drops and motifs many of which have been designed for celebrating her birthdays.
Wally’s talents are not limited to tatting. She also learned – and sells – works in Tenerife Lace and Amigurimi crochet.
Some years ago, I think it was in 2019, she shared a lovely unique tatting effect, the “Polka Dot”, I have stolen the next picture from her facebook timeline, I hope she will forgive me, that is her Polka Dots with Rolled Picots:

She calls herself "Lupus Warrior": the disease makes her life really unpredictable being a show-stopper at times. But the Dreamer never gives up on dreams. Her strength and creativity insipire me. Staying positive and creating when you don’t feel well is not easy, that is something I experienced only for a short period in my life, hence I admire her good attitude.

 

“What I truly admire about Wally is her undying curiousity to learn and apply anything new that comes up in tatting. For instance using the Dora Young Knot filigree petals of this cute blue and white Ice Drop. Her thirst is infectious. Her penchant for coming up with fun patterns is inspiring. She was the one who coined the term ‘hybrid tatting’ for the use of both shuttle and needle in a same pattern/technique, and her combination of her Rolled Picot with my Intruding Picot – she called it Rolled Intruding Picot - in a flower motif is among the best so far.” - muskaan

⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕

Cynthia Dooley is among the very few needle tatters we have in our group. So when she picked pattern n.5 to needle-tat, we approached her to share her notes alongside. She willingly and enthusiatically sent in stepwise pictures of the edging, which she worked as per Wally’s pathway. The edging colourway is so cheerful and this is what she says: “Pattern #5 upside down it's an Easter basket with 2 eggs in it, then imagine all the other goods. I still have to sew it on my flour towel. My mom would have called it a "T" Towel. “

Life has proved unpredictable for Cynthia too. She graciously shared with us a little about herself: 

“My name is Cynthia Dooley a (disabled 2017) rehabilitation nurse (worked 34 years) was very difficult for me to share in the beginning. A long road of recovery.

I had a passion for tatting but never learned until 2017 - self taught through books and  YouTube. Struggled at first and all I can say is practice, practice, practice until things start to click.
I found FB groups "Beginners group", “Tatted Buttons” and “Ice Drop Addicts”. I learned even more from the posts and questions. I started with edgings attached to hankies/flour towels.
The groups referenced Muskaan. So I started reading blogs and  patterns.
Then I was invited to the Endrucks 1920 Project. I loved pattern #5 since it reminded me of an Easter basket upside down. Tatting has given me happiness,  friendship,  and a gift of giving.  Rarely do I keep a piece that I make with my heart & hands. I have cherished the comments and instruction others have given me; surely has helped me along my journey of tatting.”

Cynthia shares some of her tatted pieces with us:

She loves antique patterns made modern and can spend hours browsing through patterns!

We hope Cynthia works more patterns from our Endrucks’ collection and shares her needle tatting notes with the community.

****************************
Muskaan joins me in thanking Wally and Cynthia for their contribution to the Endrucks Project.
Ninetta and Muskaan.

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

Endrucks 1920 Project is a community project, where patterns from Endrucks’ German book of 1920 were converted to modern-style presentations and pdfs. We welcome you to join our Facebook group “Endrucks 1920 Project” (please read the group’s description and rules before joining: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1235560633606162) where the fun continues with derivative tatting, new variations, activities, etc. all within the gamut of Endrucks’ patterns.

Using the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project when posting in FB or Instagram, ensures that your pic will show up in a search.

If you enjoy sharing and experimenting, or even test-tatting, the group is waiting for you! All info and links to patterns (original and modern), including model images, are in the Endrucks 1920 Project Document, here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view 

There is still a lot to explore and extract, derive and apply and scrolling through this document will give you an idea of the possibilities and beyond.

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

bracelet Gertrude

This is a simple effect - but often "the simpler, the better"!

Only one shuttle, loaded with pearls.
I used swarovski pearls, 4mm, and thread is silver Sanbest (3 strands).

20 pearls are sufficient for a bracelet length of 18cm.

Start with a ring of 12 ds, leaving a short tail, that will be hidden inside the first pearl with the help of a beading needle.

Slide the first pearl. (*) Then, for each bead:
1) tie a simple knot and move it closer to the bead;
2) tat a ring: 4ds, 1 first half stitch, picot, 1 second half stitch, 4ds; the picot will naturally drop, but if it doesn't you can help it by blocking it in its right position, at the centre of the closed ring. 

3) put the shuttle's thread behind the ring and take a loop through the drop picot, from back to front, then take the loop around the shuttle and the ring like it was an sssr.

Pull the loop but let the knot trapped in the loop.

Slide another pearl and repeat from (*) along the entire length. I finished with another ring of 12ds and added a clasp.

(If you are wondering who Gertrude is, she is a character of The Betrothed, the Manzoni novel. Well, the pattern needed a fancy name, doesn't it!)

I made a video and shared in fb, but I am trying to upload it here too.

In case it won't be visible, here it is the link to my post in Fb, instructions and 2 videos are under the post, my first comments: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=5482873971745281&id=100000681988799

Ciao,
Ninetta

how to sweep in the project

 This necklace is the elegant contribution by Silvia Passaquieti to the Endrucks’ project. 

She was among the very first tatters who enthusiastically joined us last year, and she entered the project in such an elegant manner. She chose the pattern number 13 in the book. Her tatting and beautiful diagram arrived fast, about the first half of Nov 2020, only few days after we asked help in the Italian facebook group (“Chiacchierino: Filo Amore e Fantasia”).

In the above pic, the multicoloured sample was her first attempt. She tatted it with shuttle and ball (we won’t tell that to Eleonore!), but the pattern doesn’t - strictly - call for a second shuttle. Also in the original pattern, the shuttle in hand is always the same. This is an exception among Endrucks’ patterns (after a quick search, I noticed that only #13, #38 and #42 have the “shuttle 1” symbol alone), in fact here it is what Muskaan wants to add:

When Ninetta sent me this draft, I was stumped by the fact that this was tatted using shuttle and ball instead of 2 shuttles …. aren’t those 2 thrown/floating rings in the center? On close inspection, turns out they are normal rings and the chain pairs on either side are facing each other! And Silvia’s perfect tatting enhances the effect. Learning from each and every project/pattern is marvellous and continuous.

This is the direct link to the pattern reworked and diagrammed by Silvia Passaquieti:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qZ0BsgjQ81es0J7G1FI3mng3xwjjeHOT/view

I like the path that led Silvia from the upper rings to the bottom, in fact she warns us about the sequence, it is very interesting. Although I think that other paths were possible, I like it and the result is what matters. Endrucks taught us that we can tat anything we like, following the path we like, we need only the thread and the shuttle… or the needle. 

Silvia also tats with the needle, and she’s very skilled because you can’t say if her lace has been shuttle or needle tatted. 

She lives in Umbria (that is a region in the middle of Italy, you might remember this area for the series of earthquakes in 2016) and lately I’ve seen one of her fb posts, where she was at a fair wearing a traditional folk costume. She often shows us her tatting displays at local fairs. Also, she has an Etsy shop and a facebook page with her own designs.

Silvia Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/TatFantasy/
Silvia’s Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/it/shop/Tatfantasy
She also has a YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UCavGdkHEmTsyOfMCmN4hc4A  

I remember that in our Fb group she posted about how she started tatting: her mum loved tatted lace though she didn’t learn how to tat. But she passed the love to her daughter, Silvia, who, few years ago (4 or 5) started self-learning. I remember it because it is very similar to my personal story, many years before though!

In Silvia’s page you find her words: "Dall'incontro di un filo e di un'idea nascono piccoli gioielli" -
That means: “Small jewels arise from the encounter between the thread and an idea”.

Muskaan and I are very grateful to Silvia for her prompt help. We would love to see more tatting from her from the book, wishing her to sweep kilometres of threads and never sweep out ideas.

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

For Silvia, and for you all, talented tatters in search of inspiration, there’s still a lot waiting to be discovered in this booklet. Quoting Eleonore Endrucks:

“My book shows you the way out of the eternal monotony of all tatted lace so far. Tatted lace is eternally modifiable and will adapt to any style […] It is a great fortune to create something beautiful with simple means, I hope that my book will give you the key to this happiness.”

It’s wonderful that Simone Beyer translated for us the non-pattern pages from the German to the English, so that, after one century, we can enjoy Eleonore’s own words, shared in this document:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-LzBnvzj7azCWLXJACSvcNHegXfP4fv_/view
And thanks to Anna Tedesco, who helped me, we are happy to share the Italian translation as well:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/17R1LYneE2KDTWVOTjzv4yfsQ6oPizR8t/view

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

Endrucks 1920 Project is a community project, we welcome every one of you to join in and enjoy the modern-style pdfs that have been uploaded! Please let us know where we can find your renditions and derivative tatting!

We created the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project, so please use it for your pics to show up in a search. (https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/endrucks1920project)

We have a Facebook Group (please read the group’s description and rules before asking to join) – “Endrucks 1920 Project”: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1235560633606162   

We all enjoy sharing and experimenting and the group is waiting for you! 

All info and links (original and modern) are in the Endrucks 1920 Project Document, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view

Remember there are many more modernised patterns, derived and extracted patterns/ideas, already listed in the project document, with more still to come! So, do visit and scroll through.

*********************
Ciao,
Ninetta and Muskaan

Long-standing experience

 The Endrucks’ 1920 Project, in one year, has seen the enthusiastic participation of tatters with new experience and tatters with many years of tatting behind them. It has been a great adventure for all of us, everyone learned something new from Frau Eleonore.

In this post I’m honored to host pictures by a long-term experienced tatter, Paola Emilia Rotuletti. She’s been tatting nearly 50 years. If there’s a chance for you to visit our Italian Fb group (“Chiacchierino: filo, amore e fantasia”), you’ll find that she is one of our most active members! She doesn’t share her tatting in her own profile, but often enriches our group with her eye candies!

She joined the project in mid-July, and chose the pattern n.42, a doily that came back again after being adopted at the end of last year.
Then, in less than one month, she sent us at least 3 versions of the doily (and many stepwise pictures).

(Have you noticed? Paola and I love the same type of shuttles!)
She has not tatted in one pass, but I can’t make out where she ended her rounds as the ends are so well hidden. That is part of what “experience” means.

She’s another “volunteer” who learned how to write patterns, in fact she had never written a pattern before this one. I am very happy for that. I included her Italian text in the document. I’m so proud that many Italian tatters joined this project! 

This is the direct link to the reworked pattern’s document:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NgPuAzM83cjVoWvzFaiAIp7UDbuueBB0/view

This is a doily that can be tatted in one pass, using split rings and split chains, but in the original version, there were extra chains to climb out each round. If you would like learning a little more about Endrucks' old method, there is an interesting post shared by Muskaan (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/07/continuous-paths.html )

Paola Emilia told me that she is a teacher, and shared with me her wise motto:

“il mio motto é si studia sempre perché se non lo si fa si commette l'errore più grande🥰 “

That means: “my motto is to never stop studying, as one would make the biggest mistake ever”.
Muskaan and I fully agree! Thank you very much, Paola Emilia, for having put at work for us your long tatting experience, wisdom, and enthusiasm!
Also, Muskaan wants to remember how she (virtually) met her, as a nice anecdote:

I first ‘recognised’ Paola when she participated in a group event and not only tatted my Block Heart but displayed them spectacularly on mugs! She was eager for my reaction to this doily as well and I enjoyed our brief conversation. She is such a sweet lady.
What I noticed was her thrown rings in round 4! She tatted a normal ring and then folded it up to simulate a thrown/floating ring! Obviously, it broke the chain but also gave the entire center a more organic/natural rose flower look! I had never seen this before though Ninetta told me many Italian tatters do it similarly. It led to the ready reckoner for Thrown/Floating Ring methods and I termed this particular method Thrown Flipped Up Ring.
https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2021/08/thrown-floating-and-8-rings.html
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PhXhtq9K-WiUbys0dwwZuOIat10hGlB0/view
So, as both Paola and Ninetta say, the learning never ends!

**********************
Endrucks 1920 Project is a community project, we welcome every one of you to join in and enjoy the modern-style pdfs that have been uploaded! Please let us know where we can find your renditions and derivative tatting!

We created the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project, so please use it for your pics to show up in a search. (https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/endrucks1920project)

We have a Facebook Group (please read the group’s description and rules before asking to join) – “Endrucks 1920 Project”: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1235560633606162   

We all enjoy sharing and experimenting and the group is waiting for you! 

All info and links (original and modern) are in the Endrucks 1920 Project Document, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view 

Remember there are many more modernised patterns, derived and extracted patterns/ideas, already listed in the project document, with more still to come! So, do visit and scroll through.
*********************

Ciao,
Ninetta and Muskaan

willing volunteer

This post is to thank Mariantonietta Sangiuliano, our willing volunteer in the Endruck's project.

I got to know her in the Italian Fb group, through the few tatting pics she shared. I remember that a couple of years ago, we had a game there, asking us to talk a little about ourself and post a picture of our favourite tatting project. She posted a lovely tatted tea set, three-dimensional, worked in a previous tat-along in another group. She's tatting for about ten years now, self-taught. I was moved by her words, where she wrote that someone told her that tatting was much too difficult to learn but she faced the challenge and succeeded indeed! That is will power! And we are all very happy that she did it!

Then, last year I met her at another nice "virtual" venue: a "secret" group where we voluntarily test-tatted Edda Guastalla's patterns, those that ended up in her book "Quadrati magici". I was impressed by Mariantonietta's lovely doily - a beautifully tatted edging around a central fabric piece, attached all by hand. The picture is included in Edda's book. I have nice memories from that great adventure, it was a nice and productive group! All tatters worked together very well, enjoying Edda's patterns!

Then, at the end of last year we came to our new adventure: the Endrucks' 1920 project. Mariantonietta was among the first tatters who joined Muskaan (I think she was the first Italian volunteer, after me). She chose the pattern number 33 in the book. Her tatting and her drawing arrived in a blink, by the mid of November and we could publish the doc within that month.

Direct link to the n.33 pattern: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_u5nbBemi0fveB3Y2a_wFXKkfIACRCJ2/view

I feel really guilty to have pushed off for so long writing a post to thank her. Muskaan joins me in this heartfelt thanks, her example has inspired many others to follow and volunteer.

We are near the end of the project, even if life happens and things could take longer than what we planned; I am in late with my own tasks, gosh! We love all our willing volunteers, among which Mariantonietta is a forerunner, running with us during this wonderful adventure!

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

Endrucks 1920 Project is a community project, we welcome every one of you to join in and enjoy the modern-style pdfs that have been uploaded! Please let us know where we can find your renditions and derivative tatting!  

We created the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project, so please use it for your pics to show up in a search.

*** NEW! *** We have a Facebook Group (please read the group’s description and rules before asking to join) – “Endrucks 1920 Project”: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1235560633606162   
We all enjoy sharing and experimenting and the group is waiting for you! 

All info and links (original and modern) are in the Endrucks 1920 Project Document, here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view

Remember there are many more modernised patterns, derived and extracted patterns/ideas, already listed in the project document, with more still to come! So, do visit and scroll through.

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

With love and gratitude,
Ninetta and Muskaan

a personal touch

It’s always a pleasure when you get to know another tatter, even if only in “the virtual life”. 

I “met” Maria Grazia in the Facebook group “Chiacchierino: Filo Amore e Fantasia”, discovering her tatting, in which she never fails to add her personal touch. She helped us in the Endrucks 1920 Project, with the pattern n.43 and created a parure from it. She was among the first group of volunteers, in fact her first sample arrived very soon, in November 2020 (Gosh! Almost one year has already gone! And the great news is that almost all patterns have been modernised or are in the final stages of presentation). Then, a couple months later, her necklace and the earrings arrived.

Here I’d like to introduce her with her own words, in the way she shared them last February, in our FB group, along with some pics of her tatting:

Mi presento con qualche lavoro: ho 64 anni. Ho imparato il chiacchierino a navetta in prima media durante l'ora di applicazioni tecniche. Negli anni ho realizzato pizzi e centrini ma solo negli ultimi anni, grazie a fb, ho scoperto quante altre cose meravigliose si possono realizzare, anche se molte non sono alla mia portata.
Per chi lo volesse sono disponibile ad insegnare quel poco che so.

I introduce myself with some of my tatting. I am 64 years old. I learned shuttle tatting in 6th grade, during the so called “Applicazioni tecniche” class (we used to practice many handicrafts in that class). Over the years I have made edgings and doilies, but it is only in recent years, thanks to fb, that I have discovered how many other wonderful things can be made, even if many are not within my reach.
For those who wish to learn, I am available to teach the little I know.

She’s very humble but actually very talented, as you can see from just these few pictures:

From her photos, we understand that she knows many techniques, but she confided to me that only with Endrucks she has learned what Block Tatting is. In fact, in her modified version of the pattern, chains are faced opposite direction and not the same direction as in block tatting. But we love it, any which way!

My little contribution to this pattern was to draw the visual pattern, for which Maria Grazia had sent me a pencil drawing and her notes. I played with it last January, adding my own touch and then shared my experience here: https://ninettacaruso.blogspot.com/2021/01/testing-with-grace.html

In the last weeks I worked at it again and included the visual pattern in a pdf document, that now is available for everybody to try: 

Pattern (original and modified):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JRu7OggaSna0eXDRA2P18dRu6uE4-1J7/view

If you like the diagram only, it’s in my albums in Flickr, here: https://flic.kr/p/2kuTya8  

I enjoyed this pattern and send many thanks to Maria Grazia for inspiring us to adapt it into a lovely necklace! Muskaan joins me in thanking her!

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I cannot end this post without mentioning the “Strawberry Doodle” derivative motif by Patty Dowden. That’s a great example of her personal touch! Many many thanks to Mrs. Dowden for this very inspiring motif!

This talented tatter doesn’t need my introduction, being very well known. I absolutely love how she reproduced in tatting the corals of the Barrier Reef. The technique that she created (I think in 2008) is called "hyperbolic tatting".
Here it is a link to her tutorial, it is a revised pdf (version 2) from 2011, listed in Jane McLellan’s blog (thanks to Muskaan who helped me find it) - https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/6194296/hyperbolic-tatting-pdf-698k?da=y
Her work is on display in the Denver (CO) Museum of Art.

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This is a community project, we welcome every one of you to join in! Please let us know where we can find your renditions and derivative tatting!

We created the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project, so please use it!

We all enjoy sharing and the project is awaiting every one of you!

All info and links are in the Endrucks 1920 Project Document, here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view

Ciao,
Ninetta & Muskaan

love for lace, music, and nature, driven by a healthy curiosity

Tatting in this post is by Reiko Akamatsu, one of the most prolific volunteers we have had in the Endrucks’ Project, a very enthusiastic and supportive contributor. She tatted and diagrammed the cover doily, plus 3 patterns and many derivatives models, not to mentioning many more patterns tatted from Endrucks’ for her own study which are not included in this project. She started working on the book even before we made the project public last year.

Reiko’s prototype version of the cover doily, near her first pencil sketch for the pattern

Muskaan and I are highly grateful for what she has shared with us. She is very talented and a great resource and inspiration for us all.
In Muskaan’s own words:

For this Project, Ninetta and I have mostly been communicating with tatters individually and though I did not get the chance to collaborate with Reiko directly, I have been in awe of her inspiring work as she systematically works through the book and experiments alongside. She might not have followed my n.22 pattern from 2015, but it was a pleasant surprise to see her models from a couple years back on fb. Her personal printout copy of the book along with her own diagrams is aesthetically spiral bound that you cannot fail to admire every time!  

When I posted about the cupping dilemma (https://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.com/2020/11/d-to-c-cup.html) encountered in pattern n.37, she actually tatted a model immediately and shared her tweaked count with me, which I may end up using! She is a true asset to our community project and I certainly wish language wasn’t such a barrier. I cannot thank Ninetta enough for being a worthy linguistic connection.

We hope that she collects all her tatted models from Endrucks’ book and permits us to share it in the Project doc. A committed lady doing single-handedly what a global community is trying to accomplish – amazing!

Thank you, Muskaan! Wonderfully written!

Direct links to (modern version) pdf files, for patterns and derivations, shared by Reiko:

• PATTERN #2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m6VJ4oGevpIdvRXHTd8-2vwmucSezZLS/view

• PATTERN #23: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16yzCjrngQxjVy141hijgiZjNuf-IPm_-/view

• PATTERN #26: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sc3eHA-ADmYzODTv6FiyjuOQSlFg8vVh/view
  

• PATTERN for COVER Doily: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10KQwPg8fa4cy5l6P6bt3PIYg7H6GWfVc/view

• Derivatives (only pictures): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wY-Q09RioFnxdyXb60hkHmdUoYPDUS67/view  

• Mug cozy or broad lace from pattern #2 & #26: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SlGAG2Yx5qwz4vulezqhcqVtSnr40axy/view

For many more motif applications/derivations, scroll through her facebook page since mid-2020:
タティングムジカ Tatting Musica : https://www.facebook.com/tattingmusica/ 

I am a “latecomer” follower! I started following her page last year, in August. It happened that, in a group, she shared the picture of her, near her finished "Lagniappe" doily, a design by Mike Lyon. Here it is a recent link to that pic, hoping that it works for you: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4575343845863895&id=100001649732912

I was immediately captured by the thin thread and the colours of that big doily. I understand that she usually uses Lizbeth size 40 threads. Then, that is how I’ve found all her beautiful tatting, that is a riot of colour! All stitches are neat and joyful!

In the next picture, there is Reiko’s arrangement of the Original Book Cover, tatted in 2020, before our project started:

Reiko’s arrangement of the Original Book Cover

She tatted 3 models of the cover doily: the above arrangement (2020), a prototype version (2021, shown above, in lead pic) and the final version in white and mustard, showed next here. You can visit her facebook profile at this link, it takes you to a post with many pictures, the 3rd pic shows how she tatted three models: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4386442354754046&id=100001649732912&sfnsn=wiwspmo

Reiko’s reworked Cover doily

In her personal Facebook profile page, she loves sharing flowers and enchanting nature. She plays violin (that is the reason of the word “music” in her page name, I think) and teaches tatting. In many pictures she puts together amazing flowers and the lace, letting herself be inspired by nature, to choose colours for her tatting.

Here is the link to a fb post, in which there is a video of her big “Lagniappe” doily, with a window overlooking a grove, and her music in background. I found it enchanting: https://www.facebook.com/reiko.akamatsu.37/posts/4289855454412737

Reiko’s reworked pattern n.2

She told me that she finds the automatic translation very difficult, so we can understand each other only by exchanging short English sentences. In fact, it's the same for me from her language to Italian. Often, I struggle to get what she means in her original Japanese posts. Japanese is one of the most difficult languages in the automatic translation to English, it's a pity that we have the language barrier between us.

Reiko’s reworked pattern n.26

Lately she posted that she is planning to hold an exhibition in November. I understand that she will display the work showed in the video, that is a large hand sewed quilt (or is it a tapestry? or a bedspread?) with tatting sewed on it. The big doily symbolizes the earth, that is my guess from the translation, and the quilted carpet is the universe, with flowers and stars. Some of her Endrucks’ versions can also be seen there!
For the video of her exhibition held in 2019, follow this link (posted in her fb page “Tatting Musica”): https://fb.watch/7vK-DLVTQM/

Reiko’s adaptation from patterns n.2 and n.26

She also runs a very original niche business. 

From her other fb page, https://www.facebook.com/harurunleaf/ (that is mate of the internet site https://nijikoubou.square.site/) you can buy her very pretty bookmarks, with little rounded glass beads and Swarovski beads, called "Harurun Leaf", that is the same pattern tatted in many different colours. She often calls it Ruru leaf.

Here is what Google translated about the source of the pattern: “The design is based on P.28 No.28 of the book "the TATTED ARTISTRY of TEIKO FUJITO" by Professor Sadako Fujito, and I have added the string part of the bookmark. We have obtained permission to sell on September 25, 2012 from Mr. Sadako Fujito and President Nobuaki Seto of Vogue Co., Ltd.”- “The copyright of "Harurun Leaf" including the string part belongs to "Niji Kobo".”-

I love that she called the bookmark after her daugther, as I understand from the automatic translation:

★ "One leaf grows one tree, one tree creates a forest. People love the forest and are healed by the forest. Such a forest is born from a small little leaf." Youngest daughter We named it "Harurun Leaf" and "Harurun Leaf" from these words.
★ With that in mind, "What kind of people do you meet and what kind of books do you meet?" Each "Harurun Leaf" is created with an image entrusted to it.

Nice sweet words. I love reading books and often my tatting samples become bookmarks, and it is happening with some of my Endrucks’ samples, too.

Reiko’s reworked pattern n.23

 I love ending with her own words, the voice of a modest and pretty soul:

"I have no special talent. I just have a very strong curiosity." (Reiko Akamatsu)

Thank you, Reiko!

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That is a community project, we welcome every one of you to join in! Please let us know where we can find your renditions and derivative tatting!

We created the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project, so please use it!

We all enjoy sharing and the project is awaiting every one of you!

All info and links are in the Endrucks 1920 Project Document, here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view

Ciao,
Ninetta & Muskaan

that bewitching and mysterious beauty

Today I’d like to introduce you to Consuelo Piras and her tatting. She helped us in the Endrucks 1920 Project, with the pattern n.4 and also she’s created a bracelet from it.

The “model” in her picture is a reproduction of a Nuragic Sardinian bronze sculpture, four-eyed and four-legged mysterious hero from the Nuragic Sanctuary of Abini (the original is in a museum in Cagliari). I had to ask Consuelo for info because I hadn’t any clue about the sculpture! So then I studied and discovered that that archaeological site is about in the centre of Sardinia island, I would say in its heart!

Back to the bracelet, the pattern is two repetitions of the edging, the two sides are worked continuously, passing from one side to the other with long spiral chains. After completing both sides, she added those round elements, they are all split rings of 4d/4ds (that is first side 4ds, second side 4ds). Beads are sewn on at the end. 

Here it is another picture:

And that is on Consuelo’s wrist:

In the old original sample, in Endrucks’ book, the pattern starts with a dead-chain, but it can be also started with a ring, just like Consuelo did in her samples:

The double lines in the original pattern and in Consuelo’s sample and bracelet are tatted with the Block Tatting technique, facing all the same direction. But there’s no harm in trying to find alternative paths! Just like it happened with pattern n.43, tatted by Maria Grazia, there are only 2 chains that form the “bold” lines, then they can be tatted facing opposite direction, as we normally do in a simple rings and chains pattern. The consequence is that, in this case, it can be worked with one shuttle and ball without the block tatting technique. I prepared a little sample for this alternative, that you can find in the document for the reworked pattern.

I’ve tatted a short sample, too, that helped me to understand the pattern for preparing the document and I’ve enjoyed it so much, that eventually I ended with a corner and then a little square doily! I have a funny story to tell you, I was tatting this edging while a little girl came near me, quiet at first, staring at me and at my mysterious tool... then after few long seconds without a word from her, she stated: “oh ok, I can see, you are doing a line of teddy bears!” Adorable, sweet girl!

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I’ve been in touch with Consuelo since I first joined Facebook, in Dec 2010, she is a very nice and pretty lady, I remember that she used to be admin of an Italian tatting group that no longer exists. Some years ago, she also tatted all the jewellery worn by models in local fashion shows. She has a personal page where you can admire her tatting, that is here:

 https://www.facebook.com/ibijouxdiconsuelo

You will find there, for example, the next unique tights that she designed on request, for a dancer:

She can also do macramé! I like sharing with you two samples of her macramé work that, just like all her works, it is inspired by her bewitching and mysterious island. The “sun” is inspired by a Sardinian traditional jewel called “corbula”, usually made in gold filigree; then, the starfish is a typical Mediterranean theme.

Thank you, Consuelo!

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Direct link to modern version pdf file for this pattern n.4 : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zQh2jDfisoIx3PLZ84KpVZiwC51AlToe/view

That is a community project, we welcome every one of you to join in! Please let us know where we can find your renditions and derivative tatting!

We created the hashtag #Endrucks1920Project, so please use it!

We all enjoy sharing and the project is awaiting every one of you! 

All info and links are in the Endrucks 1920 Project Document, here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17LEVftXweztBIOWh4sL4BB7bX65ssoOsOn4oXIgCepY/view

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Ciao,
Ninetta & Muskaan