Lark's Head Picot Join from the Back Side

 The Lark's Head Picot Join looks just like a double stitch (on the front side). There are several tutorials for how to do it online, but the ones I found all showed how to do it from the front side of the tatting. I simply reversed those instructions to tat it from the back side.

Note: double stitches are in reverse order when tatting back side (2nd half first, 1st half second).

Earrings, Fall, and Orchestra

Finished 4 pairs this week! 

I decided to wire wrap earwires for each pair, including matching seed beads in the wire. I used natural niobium wire, a pure, precious metal that is very unlikely to cause an allergic reaction in anyone. The pattern is One Shuttle Glamour, found in the book Boutique Tatting.

Next up, fall colors. Sometime next week fresh batches of hand dyed thread will begin to be added to my Etsy Shop. I'll probably do Sugar Maple first (shown on the leaf in the photo below) and follow with Pizazz (the leaf I just started).

Some blog followers also are interested in the fact that I am a serious amateur cellist. I play at church with the choir and I'm also a member of the Wisconsin Intergenerational Orchestra. The orchestra rehearsals begin next week, and the date for the next concert has been set for December 14. Can you find me in the picture below?

One Shuttle Glamour in progress

Earrings in progress from my "One Shuttle Glamour" pattern in Boutique Tatting.

 Somehow this pattern begged to be tatted after lying dormant in my first book, Boutique Tatting, for 10 years! It still works! The title, "One Shuttle Glamour" implies easy, but actually it's a bit of a challenge with all the long beaded picots coming off a mock ring around a bead.

On the later earrings, I've begun trying a Lark's Head Picot Join (I learned from Karen Cabrera's video on YouTube) to join the tatted rings to the long beaded picots. Many thanks to Karen for her awesome videos!

So far I like this tweak - although most folks wouldn't notice the difference. I'm tatting the rings back side. I don't know if there's a video showing that Lark's Head join from the back side, but I figured out it's just the opposite of the front side directions: down through the picot instead of up, twist the opposite way each time. I decided to simply count the join as an extra double stitch. It changes the appearance of the earrings just slightly, but I think it's an improvement! Of course, they still work with the normal join, too!

In this earring, I used the normal join on the rings to the long beaded picots.