Do thread adventures belong here, alongside the yarn? I think that they must, for where else could I put them?
I have been building a resources page for tatting on the craft club’s wiki. (It’s open for all to view at the moment, if there is any interest.) It’s a work in progress that I will add to as I learn more.
I thought it appropriate to test some resources, so I set to last night and determined to teach myself tatting in advance of the group meeting on the 7th Jan.
I thought it was easy
I was going great guns after watching some YouTube videos to supplement the beginner’s tutorial that I had found. I had a row of beautifully even stitches - and a slightly uneasy feeling…
Then I tried to form a ring, and the knots just wouldn’t budge when I pulled the shuttle thread in the manner suggested.
I roped Mr L in to help. We watched YouTube videos and Googled until 1:30 this morning… and finally we determined that the uneasy feeling I had, which was based on the diagrams in my first tutorial not looking like my tatting, was well founded. My knots were wrong. It’s all about the flip - and I just hadn’t been flipping.
Now I can see what is needed, I have to practise some more. I can get the odd flip, but haven’t yet achieved consistency. What I need is a coloured thread, but I only have white (suitable) thread in the house.
Tatting verdict = Harder Than It Look
I shall try again this afternoon, once I have made my mince pies. I am not looking forward to those - I screwed up the pastry while rescuing the DIY master at work this morning. Mr L is occupied in attempts to eliminate draughts in the old part of the house. We have green squirty stuff all over the walls and the carpet. It’s OK. I’m not house-proud.
Gwen | 28-Dec-07 at 11:02 pm | Permalink
Hi
When I was in my teens 30 odd or so years ago I tried to learn to tat from a book and gave up in disgust, like you I couldn’t flip the knot. I tried again about 6 months later and was successful but put off by the endless tying in of threads. Last November I took up my tatting shuttles again and started to see what was on the web - and joy of joys some bright spark out there has found a few ways of moving from row to row without tying in, my enthusiasm has been revived. Good luck and if you don’t succeed the first time try again a little later.
Regards
Gwen
woolgatherer | 29-Dec-07 at 12:04 pm | Permalink
Thank you, Gwen. Welcome to Woolgathering.
My flips are coming along quite nicely, but I still terminate a run of 8 or 9 stitches with a duff one. I think I know why, but I don’t seem to be able to cure the problem yet.
I’d appreciate the reference for the avoiding tying-in thing, if you can recall its location.