(3 slideshows) So... I came up with my own needle tatting techniques... i think

I say I think because for all I know, they're already out there and I just haven't found them yet... and they probably are--but it'd be kinda cool to think otherwise, huh? ^_^

The first thing that kinda stumped me when it came to needle tatting was a way to do thrown off rings, or "floating rings". I remember seeing a video out there, but it had a result similar to mock rings with shuttles. 

I'm a little OCD sometimes, so... that kinda bugged me.

Therefore, I thought I might as well take a crack at figuring it out. 

Tada! Floating Rings (Thrown off rings) with with a smooth chain underneath!
(Click the little speech bubble button on the bottom left hand corner of the slideshow for the instructions in the comments)

As you may have noticed, making floating rings requires cutting the thread supply off from the ball... Now, in shuttle tatting, I don't have this problem because of the supply on the bobbin--so I hit the internet again. I found some good tutorials, but I still felt like seeing if there was a different way for variety's sake:

Adding thread to tatting with the magic thread trick!

And lastly, because it seriously bugged the biscuits out of me when I had a piece of thread left over on the needle afterwards, I give you: 

How to start tatting with a left over thread!

I have no idea if these techniques will work for you guys, but I sure hope they do!
All I know is I'm having fun over here.
^_^