Shuttling my projects

I have taken a hiatus from my onion ring projects. I am starting on a series of exercises that I hope will improve my tatting. For various reasons I should not discuss the various patterns and techniques publicly, so I will be even more limited on my thoughts here.

One strange turn of fate is that my first exercise uses size 10 thread. I used size 10 thread when I first tried tatting but almost everything thing after the first couple of edgings has been done in size 20 until my recent work on the onion rings.

The thing I did today was load my first shuttle. I am going to use the Jan Stawasz’s shuttles for this project. I have emptied the sapphire and the gold shuttles with the onion ring project and a few experiments, so today I loaded the pale yellow one.

The one thing I have learned using the Stawasz Shuttles is the importance of the stiffness of the material. The Plexiglas is fairly flexible so as I reduced the amount of thread in the shuttles the tips came closer together.

In loading the pale yellow shuttle I endeavored to not allow the thread to come in contact with the blades. This produced a very round profile to the winding. Now, once I load the other shuttle I am off to a new tatting adventure.

I still intend to return to the onion rings and a few other things as time goes by.

I am still not totally pleased with how this motif looks so I am thinking about it while I do other things.

I still think it is a very nice motif.

Still frying onion rings

I knew when I decided to take the plunge and start a BLOG that I would have little time to dedicate to writing. I just thought I would have a little more time than I actually have had.

I have been fighting onion rings. I decided that the size 30 project I mentioned before should actually be a size 10 project and instead of the GR-8 shuttles I am using a couple of shuttles made by Jan Stawasz in Poland. They are a little open for my taste but given the trouble Aero style shuttles have given me I am used to not being able to rely on the shuttle staying where I put it. A couple of my German Aero shuttles will unroll to the floor if I let them go.

Jan’s shuttles feel great and look pretty good also. They are also larger than all but the Tatsy shuttles in my collection.

The size 10 project consists of six joined onion rings connected by chains.

I am having difficulty getting the area between the chains and the onion rings looking and acting like I want them to look. I was able to incorporate some advice I received on the eTatters forum but they are still too floppy for my taste. Not to mention a slight tendency to twist.

I have decided to keep at my two projects, both with onion rings, while I begin a learning journey that I think will really help me with my tatting. But more on that at a later date.