Tatting Pattern Calendar: March 28 - Little Tatted Easter Peep by Ruth

Two Shuttles wound CTM with yellow size 10 or 20

Peep Wing
Ring (2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2)] turn
[Old style tatting notation would be: Ring 8P sep by 2DS, RW]

Peep Body
Begin tatting the top of the peep's back then the tail, the bottom with two picots for legs then skip one picot of the wing and tat the chest up to the beginning of this row. It goes like this:
Chain (2+2+3-4+2+2-1-1+2+4)

Tie the ends at the beginning of the chain so what you have is the peep body tatted around the wing, and the ends are tied to where this row begins and we are now ready to tat the head.

Peep Head
Split ring (5 /3-3) The picot is the beak

Now fold both ends towards the center of the ring, one on one side and the other on the opposite side of the ring, and bring one of the threads through the center of this ring and put a small black bead onto both threads.

Now take one thread back through the center of this ring to the opposite side again. Pull the ends just snug so the bead rests nicely inside the ring to make the peep's eye.

Tie the two ends together around the outside of the ring at the neck where the head joins to the body ( where we started the head ).

Tie, hide, cut the ends.

To tat the Easter grass: shuttle and ball wound CTM with green thread the same size as the peep. Join to one of the picots of the body (leg of the peep) tat a chain with all picots the length for the grass.

Chain ( 1-1-1-3-1-1-1) This bends in two around the front of the peep at the 3 ds so there are picots on both sides of the peep. Join to the same picot as where you started with the green.

Join to the other leg picot then Repeat the chain so the grass goes around the back end of the peep. Join to the same picot and tie the ends together at the beginning of this row.

Cut the ends to about 2' and add a piece of the yellow thread that is about 4' long folded in half, matching the center at the peep body, and the ends with the ends of the green.

Make twisted cord, or pearl tat to form the bookmark and add a tassel.