Tatting Along

Many of those who have known me for a while know that I also tatt - these days just little pieces custom-made for whatever I am embellishing. Tatting is something that is very portable - usually I am sitting around in waiting rooms, or passenger in the car on long journeys.

The bottom pattern in the picture below is one I have memorised, and I can produce it endlessly without reading a pattern.

Hint to other experienced tatters (ETs) - I always work, if at all possible, only in groups of five double-stitches. It makes them easier to remember. So there is a larger one HERE, if you want to try and work out the pattern.

So, after a while I get bored with it - so I try and work out variations, which the smaller piece, a WIP, represents. I rather like it. (ETs - yes, there is one group where it is not five stitches - there are two between that group of three picots on the major chain).

The colour of these two pieces is intended to blend in with the Dragon Vest.

Up until now I have always worked with my mother's shuttle, which was an early 1948 plastic one. It is beautiful to work with, but is splitting, so has to go somewhere safe, not be left in hot cars, have things dumped on it in a basket and the like.

So I am trialling my late mother-in-law's shuttle, which is a bone one, hand-made and irregular. She did not tatt, although she did try to learn, and late in life could not remember who it came to her from in the family.

It is almost spooky to use, as the finger holds are very clear to feel, although you cannot see them. It has had many, many years of use.

I did try and search Flickr for photos of tatting, but between sifting out all the tattoos, and dealing with people who use about fifty handcraft tags for every picture, whether it is related or not, it proved too frustrating. Drat!.