Last night on the Online Tatting class the discussion was about if it was possible to make a ric rac ribbon tatted.  It was a very interesting challenge.  Ruth Perry came with an ideaand was explaining it on the classroom.  I was at the same time tatting and didn't understood really well Ruth's explanations and after the class finished I sent the piece I tatted to her; thinking that it was what she was explaining.  Well, it was something totally different!  Here Ruth's Ric Rac method:


It looks like a real Ric Rac ribbon.  She got the inspiration from the crocheted ripples patterns.  It's made in 3 rounds.  Now here is mine:

My version are small blocks with a tiny chain between them.  I used 2 colors because that was the 1st thing I had near the computer. I think that the use of 2 colors gives a very interesting effect to the braid.

Then someone (I think it was Ruth) mentioned about adding beads.  Oh!!!  Another rush....  I had to try my Ric Rac with beads!  It looks amazing!!!  I made it short because the thread was finishing on the shuttle and was too lazy to get up and find the thread I was using.












But the thread was enough to finish a quick bookmark:
















It's a little stumpy-chubby bookmark.  But the idea is there...  So, this morning, after sleeping like 6 hours I woke up and had to work with the idea again.  I tried to make the Ric Rac bookmark I made several years ago but using the tatted ric rac instead of the fabric.  Anyway, I don't have ric rac here in Egypt.  It worked again so beautiful! 


I think I'm in love with this technique!!!

Now I'll try the same but with Ruth's version. 

I was thinking now...  This kind of block can substitute clunny leaves. 

I have to write the instructions for what I did, but you can find Ruth's version here and on her blog.  For my original Ric Rac bookmark you can go to my site.

Yesterday, while watching Desperation (from Stephen King, I got it after looking for it a long time) I made this butterfly.  It's from Ruth Perry's Celtic Tatting book.  I have done it before and I still love it.  I even took a class with Ruth at Palmetto where she was teaching this cutie and other Celtic patterns.  I'm a big fan of Celtic, art, music, folklore, anything Celtic.  No, I'm not Irish nor have Irish family that I know.  My ancestor came from Spain and probably Arabia.  But anyway I like Celtic stuff.   The butterfly is pretty simple.  For me the most difficult part is to make the head.  After the head is done the rest is piece of cake!  Mmm...  Chocolate cake....  *ahem*  Back to tatting...

I used the Egyptian cotton perle #8 in pink and purple.  The blue is also cotton perle but Chinese!  I didn't notice it was Chinese until last night when I was looking for the label and didn't find it, then I noticed the tab inside the ball.  I don't like this blue thread because I think it's old and breaks too easily when I'm working.  I tend to tat very tight and if the thread is old or fragile it will break often and my work won't be smooth and pretty.  At least last night didn't break.

I still have plenty of thread on the shuttle, so I'll make another and invert the colors.

This is the other pattern discussed last night.  It's a celtic edging.  I love this one!!!!  It looks like first you make the white and then 2 braids and interweave it and put it in the center.  But the thing is that is all made in one pass.  It uses 4 shuttles; 2 with white thread and 2 shuttles each with one color.  I used a Baby Powder Blue with a mute Green.  I made it into a bookmark so the ends I made a weird braid. 




I tried to make a close up of the braid but it's too blurry.  I'll try to take another shot when it's day tomorrow.

The pattern is also by Ruth and can be found here.

This is last night culprit.    After so much trying I just did it my way.  Ruth's pattern ask for a twisted Split Ring, but I couldn't make it.  SO I just made SCMRs and the final result is very much similar to Ruth's.

You can find the pattern here.  It's a PDF pattern.