by bylili

Created on: March 07, 2007   Last Updated: April 26, 2012

Tatting

Tatting is a beautiful craft that is deceptively easy, considering the end results. It is easier than knitting, as the 'shuttle' fits neatly into any size hand, and it looks as good as bobbin lace. Children as young as 7 to 10, after fine tuning their motor skills, can very quickly pick up this craft.

The first tip my mum gave me about tatting was the hardest bit for new tatters to grasp. The shuttle does all the movement, yet it is the other thread that ends up looped around it. It's like a switch over every stitch that's made. When first starting out start with threads of two different colours; you will find that you can easily see any mistakes, and this loop over of the opposite thread is easier to visualise.

I love tatting for three main reasons:

1. It's easy, once you get the hang of the movements of each hand and holding the threads the right way, then you find that you can do it without having to look much, like Braille you can feel the stitches under your fingers, and the looping motions are easy to count.

2. It's very portable, the common shuttle is smaller than my pinkie. Also with all these stringent security measures on airplanes a shuttle will never be considered a security threat. You may need scissors, however the best patterns are continuous, until you run out of thread. In every day situations it fits quite easily into smaller size bags.

3. It's impressive. To the uninitiated it looks like you had to tie yourself up in knots to get the thread to go that way. You can make small tatted flowers or animals and attach them to bags or shirts, make your own jewelry or bags and give them as gifts. Cheap to make, yet very individual.

Tatting is easy, once you learnt the basics, it is easy to extrapolate into decorations, bookmarks, baby clothes, animals, hankies, jewelry...the list of uses is only limited by your imagination.

Tips, tools, threads and free patterns are plentiful on-line. Simply type 'tatting' into any search engine and get started. As for lessons to start you off, look carefully at the people around you...there are more tatters around than you know!

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