Easy Edging

Shown above is a trio of tatted edgings that I've recently been working on. Busywork, really. The upper left bit was supposed to be a tatted heart, but I completed one half and realized I'd made a mistake and had to abort the project. I may use the resultant 3 inches or so on a card or collage. Tatbits are too pretty and precious to waste.

The light orange edging, composed of split rings, I started simply because a friend gave me a ball of pretty thread and I wanted to practice split rings. It's delicate and would be a lovely collar trim.

It's the center edging that most intrigues me. It's one of the simplest edgings I've ever done, and it is also one of the most attractive. To me it looks like an Arts & Crafts motif of leaves. In fact, my 19-year-old daughter, who teasingly refers to tatting as "twiddling," made the comment that she would like a necklace made of this lace. Maybe I'll work it up in color and present it to her on her birthday. It's all rings, so I'm using up several bobbins and Clover shuttles worth of white thread remnants. I want to free up those shuttles and bobbins for other projects. A bonus is I can carry the single shuttle required for this edging in a small plastic bag with me to pull out whenever I have a few minutes to work on it. The pattern couldn't be simpler, a repeat of four rings performed thusly:

Ring A: 4 ds, p, 4 ds, p, 8 ds, rw.
Ring B: 4 ds, p, 4 ds.
*Ring C: 4 ds, p, 4 ds, p, 8 ds, rw.
Ring D: 4 ds, join to last picot of previous ring A, 4 ds.
Ring A: as above.
Ring B: 4 ds, join to last picot of previous ring C, 4 ds.
Repeat from * for desired length.

Easy!
Tatted Edgings photo by JulenaJo.