Shuttle Tatted. Pattern by Marilee Rockley:
https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/4098469/one-small-candle...

The base was easy enough, and I was amazed at how easy the block tatting was. I just followed what she said to do in the pattern and found there was no reverse stitches needed, as there are no picots in the chains, so no need for frontside backside tatting.

HOWEVER, I totally could not get the wax drips right and was constantly baffled at which direction I should be tatting from front / back / upside down / backward. And my attempts to join only worked on the first one, which now looks glued down to the candle. I found that even though it seems the rings want to stand up, once you put the lock stitch behind them, they lay down and that worked good enough. I had to pay close attention to the flame directions as I had a preconceived idea how that would happen, and I was wrong.

Oh, one thing I added was at the end of each block tatting row, after doing the L J and turn, I went ahead and put a normal 2nd half of the ds, to gain height for each row. Mine doesn’t seem as tall as the pattern, even though the rows are the same, can’t figure that out.

At any rate, I feel like I learned a lot and had fun making it, and actually want more!