Who created the split ring? The answer is Ann Orr - she describes it in her books in the 1930s and 40s but the technique wasn't developed until Mary Sue Kuhn wrote her book The Joy of Split Ring Tatting in 1985. She used it in its simplest form but it still was so different in appearance that the book was a groundbreaker in terms of tatting development. It's fascinating, I think, that even Elgiva Nicholls didn't seem to know this technique because it never appears in any of her books and yet she did know how to do the telescoping loop to create a self closing mock ring.

Many relatively new tatters regard the split ring with absolute terror and recoil with horror at the very idea of trying it because they think it will be difficult. Let's clear this up at once. Needle tatters - split rings are dead easy, no more difficult than making the ring only edging you made when you first learned. Shuttle tatters - again they are really not hard. The second half of the ring is a little more difficult because you make the stitch slightly differently, but once mastered there are so many things you can do with split rings that I know you just won't stop!

Let's take the needle first. Start with a length of thread about a couple of metres long, and make a single ring in the middle. Then start the next ring but make only the first half of the ring, as close as possible to the start of the last ring. Next, take the thread out of the eye of the needle. Turn it round, make the rest of the ring on the same side of the needle as the eye. Then re-thread your needle, draw up the split ring remembering to put the needle through the loop to close it. Finally don't forget to tie off as normal. Now you can do split rings! For a really simple little cross bookmark to practise on, have a look at the Featured Links on the right hand side.

Shuttle tatters, you have a little more work to do. Wind some thread onto your shuttles - it's easier to practise with a thicker thread, such as Pearl Cotton No. 5 or 8, or Crochet Cotton No. 10 or 20. Use two colours to begin with and just tie the threads together with an overhand knot to start. Don't worry about an out of line ring while you're learning! We'll say that Shuttle 1 has a white thread, and Shuttle 2 has a coloured thread for the sake of clarity. Make that first ring as close to the knot as possible.

Next, take Shuttle 1 and start your split ring as close to the previous ring as possible. Make 8 or 9 stitches just as usual but don't close the ring. Instead, take the unclosed ring off your hand and turn it round. The heads of the stitches will now be facing AWAY from the palm of your hand. Drape Shuttle 1 (the white thread) over the back of your hand and hold the ring so that the stitches are just between the thumb and finger where you want to start making the second colour stitches. Hold the ring thread taut on your hand, you might want to pull it up a little to make the stretch more comfortable. Taking Shuttle 2 (the coloured thread), start with the SECOND half of the double stitch. Don't let it flip over as you normally would - the coloured thread should be drawn up close to the line of white stitches to form a half stitch. Now make the FIRST half of the double stitch as you usually would, but without letting the thread flip over. Continue until you have a line of stitches, the same number as in the first half of the split ring. Then take Shuttle 1 (the white thread) and draw up the split ring. Congratulations!

Now practise making lots of split rings in a line. Notice something? Inevitably the stitches on the unflipped side of the ring are a little looser than the stitches you make on the normal side of the ring. As a result, you will never make an absolutely straight line of split rings.

To join two split rings together from the normal side of the ring, just use the standard ring to ring join. To join from the unflipped side, use the Shuttle Thread Join, if you don't know this one click here to review my tutorial.

There are so many things you can do with these. You can use rows of split rings equal on both sides to make mats and bookmarks. You can make one side of the split ring bulge by making more stitches on that side, to force a curved line. This can be very pretty and can be further enhanced by rings and self closing mock rings between the split rings to widen the strip. Split rings can also carry rings on the unflipped side, by dropping the whole split rings at strategic points when you are doing the unflipped side of the ring and making a new ring as close as possible to the split ring (just as when doing free rings standing on a chain), then continue and finish the split ring. This pattern area is still not common to see and has potential for development. Consider bulging out a whole split ring with unflipped stitches and just one stitch at the base of the ring or even none at all. What could you do with that one (ALERT - THIS IS A NEW TECHNIQUE - your host has done it and it can beat even self closing mock rings because it's a way of doing the same thing - with just one shuttle!!! Sorry no patterns available yet - try it yourself.)

Split rings can be used in those motifs with single rings at the centre surrounded by rings - you can climb out of the centre motif with a split ring to save joins. It's now used as standard in mignonette tatting (those gorgeous doilies with rows and rows of tiny rings and single threads between) to eliminate the difficulty of finishing ends in such small rings. Try also making two lengths of split rings with equal numbers of stitches on both sides, and pulling them through one another - see Mark Myers' bookmark in the Featured Links for an example of this.

Split rings are great fun to do and people are thinking up new ways of using them all the time - let's see what you can do with them!