Tatting With Metallic Thread Part One© Copyright KNOTS Please do not duplicate without permission from SWELKER@delphi.com Thread TypesThe perfect tatting thread is smooth and tightly twisted. Unfortunately, there is no metallic thread made just for tatting,so it is important to understand the difference between the metallic threads available. Most metallic threads are made for hand or machine sewing, or knitting and crochet. All available metallic threads offer different problems for tatters. The most readily available is Kreinik Blending Filament. This comes in either a smooth, flat, or bumpy round. Both are some what stretchy. This is also true for Sulky, which is a flat machine metallic thread. The flat varieties are the easiest for first time users. Another type of widely available metallic thread is Coats and Clark Machine Metallic and Coats and Clark Glitz. The C&C machine metallic thread is a bumpy, wiry type of thread. Maderia metallic is a bumpy type of thread, but, it is more pliable then the Coats and Clark, and, it is also thicker. YPL has several metallic threads that are also bumpy and pliable. DMC gives you Fil Argent and Fil Argent mi-fin. The former is a bumpy wiry thread thicker than the blending filament. The latter is smooth and has a nasty habit of kinking on itself, and, creating little lumps that will not be drawn through your stitches. There are several very thick metallic threads and cotton with metallic threads. The very thick metallic threads are meant for knitting.While they can be tatted, you will end up with a rather giant product. The cotton and metallic combinations such as Knit-Cro-Sheen look rather patchy when tatted. The effect isn't as attractive as adding a strand of blending filament to your tatting thread. All of the metallic threads( except for Maderia and YPL ) must be worked with another thread. Use either a cotton thread of your choice or, for a very fine finished effect, a strand or two of sewing thread. To do your first project I suggest that you purchase a spool of blending filament.For a shiny effect, choose the flat blending filament. Or, for a more subtle effect, use the bumpy filament.Wind your shuttle with your tatting thread and start your pattern. When you come to your first chain simply lay the blending filament across the chain thread and make the chain. You do not have to knot the two threads together; the metallic will not come undone. After you have tatted your next ring you can go back and trim the end off, even with the starting chain. The metallic thread will not fray and leave little thread tufts. Pull up your finished chain, with and even tension. Remember that the blending filament has more give then the cotton thread, but is also more fragile. Choose a pattern that has a last round with lots of picots, and make the picots larger then normal. The metallic thread will gleam and catch the light. I prefer to match the metallic threads with my tatting thread; white with silver and ecru with gold. I find that colored metallic threads with white thread give a tweedy effect, that isn't as attractive as matching the threads. The match needn't be exact either. One snowflake and you will be hooked on metallic thread.ToolsI find that I need a larger crochet hook to draw the double thread though the picot. I usually move down to a ten or a nine, depending on how thick my tatting cotton is. Nothing is more frustrating than having to do a joining over and over because your hook didn't catch all the threads the first time. There is a new double bobbin shuttle available from Beggar's Lace that is ideal for tatting double threads. But any shuttle that does not have super tight points will do . I prefer an older, well used shuttle with an easy action. The metallic thread will become worn as it is wound and unwound doing rings and chains. I usually keep my ball and metallic spool in a zip lock bag; it's not very classy, but it works. Don't put your work in progress in the bag, or all those nice picots will catch the loose thread and you will have to separate the two before you start working again. I put the work in progress and the shuttle in a second bag. Bee's wax is helpful to tame those wiry types of metallic threads; simply run the thread through the wax. After your project is finished you can soak the tatting in some hot water to melt the wax away.
|