Technique discussion - Split Rings

The split ring is a composite ring made using two shuttles: the auxiliary shuttle forming an insertion of reverse stitches along a section of a true ring. As the true ring cannot close properly, it forms a scallop or half-ring. (This formation can be seen quite easily by using two colours.) The technique was developed circa 1920 - called 'ring with reverse stitch', and published by Anne Orr in several books, now Dover publications. Mary Sue Kuhn called the technique 'split ring' circa 1980 in two books she published.

The proportion of true double stitches to reverse stitches does not have to be 50:50. It can be whatever the tatter wants, e.g. 25:75.

Another name, not often used, is 'mousehole tatting'.

If a summary of comments were to be published some time in the future, it would be advantageous for all tatters if correct terminology were used to avoid any confusion for those who know stitches, techniques by other names.
For example: 'reverse stitch' (its original name) or 'direct tatting' (what actually happens) instead of 'unflipped stitches' (colloquial).
Just a thought for consideration,
Judith.

This is a Wonderful thread with so much insight into split rings & the various ways of making them, applying them, etc.
I think SR should be at an intermediate level of difficulty (in shuttle tatting). But once you realise that all one needs to do is to keep the core thread taut while making the reverse stitch, it becomes so very easy because the stitch will Not flip no matter how hard one tries.

My question is : Is Split Ring a 'True ring' ?

I've just spent time rereading this thread and still find it helpful. However, some of the links no longer seem to work.

@muskaan, according to @JudithConnors - if I understand her post (#25 above), the split ring is a composite of part true ring and part direct tatting. I never thought of it that way before, but it makes good sense. However, the result looks and acts like a true ring, so it may be 'splitting hairs' to make the distinction. Now if one were to work only in direct tatting, the results might be more complicated. But I have seen videos of a man, no longer active here, who tats left handed and only does direct tatting. All his rings close just like they're supposed to. It's been a long time since I had to tat left handed, but I think I remember also doing direct tatting when I did. I know my rings closed.

Is the dead spider method where you turn your left hand over so the fingers point up, and shuttle tat upside down? That is how I learned, but only after having mastered many other techniques first. It does require two shuttles, so I consider it to be an intermediate skill. I still haven't mastered single shuttle split rings. It was very easy to understand the spider method, and the stiches seem to fly along. I use it to end the ring somewhere other than where it began, and to produce two color rings or uneven sided rings as Patty describes..

Needle tatters consider split rings to be just beyond beginning rings and chains, and much easier than many complicated joins. If classifying rings by closure method, split rings (Needle) would belong to the SCMR group.

Here the translation in german: Occhi-Ring verkehrt

Quote=Lynn;223323]I've just spent time rereading this thread and still find it helpful. However, some of the links no longer seem to work.

[@muskaan, according to @JudithConnors - if I understand her post (#25 above), the split ring is a composite of part true ring and part direct tatting. I never thought of it that way before, but it makes good sense. However, the result looks and acts like a true ring, so it may 'splitting hairs' to make the distinction.

Yes, splitting hairs but want to make sure. Reason I ask is that in my latest post I called one version of them True rings. Now I am not so sure. Personally, I still think they are true rings, except that the threads emerge from a different point. Here is the relevant post : http://tipsaroundthehome.blogspot.in/2016/07/the-hedgehog-turns.html

As regards the left-handed ring - Ruth Perry calls it the Reverse Ring (RR) and Teri Dusenbury had used it earlier, calling it SQDR where if we make just 1 DS on 1st half of SR, and tat the rest of the ring with direct tatting, the effect is pretty much the same as a RR.

I am re-working that Rings off Ring post, Incidentally with a couple more options "thrown" in :-D

Thanks :-)

@amysperch, I prefer the dead spider method, too !

My naive definition of "true ring" is where the core thread make a complete loop, whereas a mock ring is really a chain with the end hooked back to the beginning. So then the split ring would be a true ring. Right?

in reply to GraceT's post:

Yes, that's my reasoning , too,, Grace. Thanks for putting it so beautifully. Now we await the final verdict from @JudithConnors :-)

in reply to muskaan's post:

In a true ring, the loop closes so that the last stitch sits beside the first one, and the core thread enters and exits at the same point visually.

True rings include:
* the normal ring of shuttle tatting
* the Josephine ring
* and the roselle of needle tatting. The roselle is made by starting at the end of a thread and forming stitches back towards the needle itself. The same motion is involved in closing this ring as shuttle tatters use.

In split rings the core thread enters and exits at different points. The same can be said for SSSRs and the Takeda ring (which needs an anchor to keep it in place).

There used to be a section on my InTatters blog about Rings, but I no longer have access to it.

@amysperch, like you most shuttle tatters would use the 'dead spider' now, though there may still be some who remove the ring from the hand and turn it over. Generally, tatters are refining most techniques so that the least movement of the L hand (R for l-handers) produces whatever effect is required.

@Judy, historically needle (and shuttle) tatters used mock rings l-o-n-g (c. 100 years) before the term 'SCMR' was coined in 1995. The SCMR actually belongs to the mock ring group.

in reply to JudithConnors's post:

Thank you Judith for clearing this part :-) Ruth Perry's Reverse Ring would be a true ring then, even though it is worked with a reverse stitch.

@muskaan, A ring using reverse stitches can be found in Rebecca Jones' book, 'The Complete Book of Tatting' (1985), Method Five - Wrong-Way Tatting, p. 26. The shuttle thread does not necessarily form the core, and the ring is closed using an auxiliary thread.

This ring technique is presently being resurrected by some teachers. However, to me it is like the sabre-toothed tiger - an interesting museum exhibit, for which the hunting skills are no longer required. C21st tatting has developed dramatically with its current skills.

in reply to JudithConnors's post:

Very true, Judith. The SCMR is a much better option than a reverse ring.
Thanks for the citation, too :-)

re the history of split rings:

There is a thread here called 'Split Ring Surprise' which gives the earliest date (so far) for tatters using such a technique as February 1901, in an Australian regional newspaper, 'The Queenslander'. In the article, reverse stitch is called 'point lace stitch', using a needle lace term.

@muskaan, information from my old blog on InTatters has been transferred to Craftree. It includes some of the topics we have been discussing, together with line drawings. Here: http://www.craftree.com/wiki/Types+of+Rings+in+Tatting