The Roll Stitch or Rolled Tatting figured prominently in Mary E. Fitch's "Tatting Series" #6 1916. The inside front cover had a note encouraging the tatter to use it on any regular tatting pattern and gave the basic instructions.
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In the last link replace the number 4 with numbers 5 through 21. Each page of the book is displayed on one page separately. There are 20 pages counting the covers. [Ed.'s Note: If anyone has an original copy of the book, I would be most grateful for pages 2 and 3.]

The roll stitch in tatting is not a stitch at all. It is only the thread from the shuttle being literally rolled around the ring thread and compressed back to the starting point. Begin the ring with a regular double stitch (DS.) Next take the shuttle and pass it under the working thread (ring thread) and over to the right and keep the shuttle thread straight. An half stitch is NOT formed. Continue bringing the shuttle under the ring thread and tightening the rolls back for the length needed. To create a picot, compress the rolls tightly and roll the last little bit between the fingers to get rid of slack. Tat a regular DS picot DS. Then return to the rolling of the thread. Finish the ring with a regular DS and close. It helps to prevent the first and last DS from rolling around if you post the shuttle thread through the ring before closing.

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Here's the latest article from the Tatting site at BellaOnline.com.

Joins - Tied, Catherine Wheel, Alligator

The join is a technique used in constructed large pieces of lace from smaller tatted bits. There are many types of join, i.e., up, down, shuttle lock join, onion ring, split ring, swirl, lark's head picot join (LHPJ), and many others.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art56959.asp

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