Lock Stitch
A lock stitch is the unturned half of a double stitch. It can be used to break the
curve of a chain and change direction. Another useful way to use the lock stitch
is in joining long chains to a center ring. If you have ever made snowflakes
or flowers with long chains you may have noticed that when you join to the
center ring the stitches seem bunched and don't lay flat. Try this. Make
your chain up until the last double stitch. Pull up and shape your chain as
desired. Make the first half of the ds as normal then do not turn the second
half of the ds (a lock stitch). Now do your shuttle join, which is also a lock stitch.
If you use the two shuttle join I mention in the "shuttle join" instruction, you won't have a lump at your shuttle join. To start the return chain after the shuttle join make another lock
stitch then a normal second half. Finish your chain as directed. When you look
at your work you will see that your chains lay next to each other nice and flat.
In fact the ends of the chains will look tapered as they go into the ring join.
Giving a much more graceful look then before. The important thing is to maintain
an even tension when making the lock stitches. Don't make them
tighter then the full double stitches. Otherwise your chains will look like
they are standing on their tippy toes instead of tapering down to a graceful finish.
As I work my chains I pull up the stitches as I go. When it is time to make a chain
to chain join the stitches will be even on both chains and the join will be nice and
neat. I don't make a half stitch after a join, especially if I am using heavy thread.
I make the join then tighten the thread to bury the join and then make a full ds.
Rebecca Jones Complete Book of Tatting has lock stitches with pictures. Either make the first half of the ds as usual and do not turn the second half. Or do not transfer the first half and do a normal second half. You may find the second method better as the normal stitch is next to the rest of your tatting and you don't have a little dip. The lock stitch counts as the first ds on your chain.
Thank you for these tips Suzann Welker.
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