Tatted Whatever-this-is

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I'm not even sure what this is. I had planned on designing a pear (who knows why), and came up with this. It doesn't quite look like a pear to me, so I showed it to my husband. He said "What is that?" Then I realized it looked like a Christmas ornament or one of the bombs in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.

I took it upstairs to my son, and he thought it was a crazed snowman because he saw the top clover leaf as eyes and a wide-open mouth. Then I looked at it again, and saw the back of a fat cat, if you take the stem off the top.

At any rate, whatever this is, I hope you find a use for it! I've decided I like the cat.

This pattern is beginner level and uses one shuttle. I used size 30 DMC Cebelia thread in white.

Printable pattern (176K. Opens a new window.)

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You will need:

Thread in your choice of color and size.
1 tatting shuttle

How to do a lock join

ds	double stitch	R	ring	p	picot
j	join	lj	lock join

Instructions:

Round 1: Body center
Start at RED ring on visual diagram

R: (3ds p) 5 times, close
Repeat twice more, cut and tie.

Round 2: Body
Start at GREEN ring on visual diagram

R: (3ds p) 2 times, 3ds j to center p of any R in previous round, (3ds p) 2 times, 3ds, close, turn
%*Ch: (6ds p) 2 times, 6ds, turn
R: 3ds p 3ds j to 4th p of previous R, (3ds p) 3 times, 3ds, close, turn*
Repeat between * once more.
Ch: (6ds p) 2 times, 6ds, turn
R: 3ds p 3ds j to 4th p of previous R, 3ds j to center p of next R in previous round, (3ds p) 2 times, 3ds, close, turn%
Repeat between % once more.
Repeat between * once more.
Ch: (6ds p) 2 times, 6ds, turn
R: 3ds p 3ds j to 4th p of previous R, 3ds p 3ds j to 2nd p of first R in this round, 3ds p 3ds, close, turn
Ch: (6ds p) 2 times, 6ds
Cut and tie.

Round 3: Head and outer body
Start at BLUE ring on visual diagram

R: (3ds p) 5 times, 3ds, close
R: 3ds j to last p of previous R, 3ds p 3ds j to second p of any Ch on previous round, 3ds p 3ds, j to first p of adjacent Ch, (3ds p) 2 times, 3ds close
R: 3ds j to last p of previous R, (3ds p) 4 times, 3ds close, turn
Ch: 12ds lj to center p of first R of this round
Ch: 12ds lj to closest p on Ch of previous round
**Ch: 7ds lj to next p on previous round**
Repeat between ** around
Ch: 12ds lj to center p of last R of this round
Ch: 12ds lj to base of clover leaf
Ch: 18ds (leave this off for cat or snowman)
Cut and tie.

Copyright 2008 by Nancy Tracy, All Rights Reserved.