Tuesday Tatting Tales – Week 2

· by · in Tatting. ·

The theme for week 2 of my learning to tat lace has definitely been practice, practice, and more practice. I still have a long way to go before all the practice makes perfect, but for now I’m happy with Practice Makes Progress!

There is visible improvement and my attitude towards learning to tat has also improved significantly. A few light bulbs went off this week – I’m starting to understand what I’m doing more. This is a huge step when learning anything new – it’s easy (sometimes) to copy what needs to be done. It’s that point when you actually can see why you’re doing something that is critical to someday be proficient at it.

Tatting Week 2
Tatting Week 1

The picture on the left is this week – look how much thread I went through compared to the picture on the right from Week 1. I could have probably crocheted a half a dozen doilies with the thread I threw away this week. 🙂

I continued to be steadfast with my strategy for learning to tat. I practiced at least 10 to 15 minutes a day. Except for today when I created my “Progress Showpieces”. I spent about two hours creating this record of my tatting adventure. I am even more determined now than ever because it’s getting easier. I have even become more patient – I know right!!! It’s amazing how much more patient I can be when things are going like they are supposed to be going.

Shuttle Tatting – Week 2

learning to shuttle tat

My goals for this week were to learn how to make closed circles and add some picot stitches. Hooray! Success!! I tried to get a little fancy and make some chains on a couple of these. It didn’t work out so great and I needed to remind myself to stay on track. Picots and circles, that’s it. I’m going to give myself bonus points for not poking myself with the tip of the shuttle as much as last week. 🙂

  • My shuttle tatting goal for next week – work on getting picots the same size and learning to make chains.

Needle Tatting – Week 2

learning to needle tat 1

Between the two methods I ‘get’ needle tatting more than the shuttle. I have the hand motions to make the stitches down pat. Picots are relatively uniform in size. My goals for this week were to continue to be able to remove the stitches from the needle without getting tangled up. I also wanted to be able to make some connecting chains. Success on both counts!

  • My needle tatting goal for next week – continue practicing chains and try to join circles.

I was thinking today about what I was going to say in this post. I hope that anyone that is even slightly interested in learning to tat finds my weekly updates encouraging. It is not my intent at all to discourage anyone from learning a new craft. I know that I may have implied……..okay I very clearly stated, that tatting is VERY frustrating to learn. I want to tone that down a bit. It is tricky but ultimately it is going to be worth every shuttle poke and knotted tangle that I make as I learn this.

If I hadn’t already committed publicly to learning to tat would I bother to continue? YES! Yes I would. Tatted lace is so uniquely beautiful AND it is a craft that is being learned by fewer and fewer people as time goes on. That alone makes me more determined to learn it and to try to lure all  of you to the tattered side.

As you may have gathered from the posts I’ve done already – it won’t be easy at first, so don’t expect instant results. Don’t give up!!

For all of you that can tat and make amazing things – I bow before you, tip my hat and dream of the day I can join your ranks and proudly state – Hi, my name is Tami and I am a Tatter!

Thanks for reading!

~ Tami

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41 responses to “Tuesday Tatting Tales – Week 2”

  2. Damn, props for you sticking at this. Deffo something I won’t be in a rush to try, not that i don’t like it but I’m having more fun watching you learn and get better. Are you learning from Youtube or a book? You can really see an improvement with this week, it’s amazing that your doing this because it is a hidden gem of a craft. Looking forward to your next post 😀 You will pick it up in no time, once you master the basics and all that shit you will be making some beautiful things. That needles is scary :/

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks Rebecca!! You know it’s weird – I hate needles, but this one is pretty dull on the end and doesn’t scare me at all. There is a sharp point on one end of the shuttle that really hurts when I poke myself!! All I want is to get a little better every week and I’ll be happy. Of course when I can be churning out tablecloths and curtains I’ll be insanely happy!! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks Tracy! I’m so happy you’re coming along for the ride. It started out bumpy but I think it’s getting a little smoother now. 😀

      Like

  6. I’m really enjoying watching your progress with this, as I’m currently focused on my knit and crochet projects. In looking forward to seeing your joined circles! 😊

    Liked by 1 person

    • I knew I could appeal to your ancient art forms sensibilities!! After we are tatting masters we can tackle making Needle Lace!! 😀

      Like

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  11. As soon as I get done with the Mandala, I will join you in this venture. I am ocd about having unfinished projects always have been and I am almost done with part 10. I sometimes have a couple projects going at once but then I get stressed about not finishing them so I cap myself these days and finish before starting anything new.
    Wow, you’ve made leaps and bounds on tatting, Everything looks consistent! Way to go Tami!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks Lyn!! We’ll see how consistent it looks when I try to join the circles LOL!! I can’t wait to see your tatting skills. My mandala is my intentional unfinished project. I picked it specifically because I could take my sweet time with it – and of course because it is absolutely beautiful and will be pushing my crochet skills to the limit. I have a nice spot on the couch that the air conditioner points straight at so it won’t be too warm to work on it when it’s 5 feet across!! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

  12. I think it’s important for folks to see what it takes to learn something new because often times, we think something will be easy to learn, and when it’s not, to give up. But if we work through the frustration, the learning comes and you feel great that you mastered it. So kudos for showing the process. Now, if I could only take my own advice with knitting. You haven’t convinced me to take up tatting but I might try my hand at knitting again. I don’t want to go down knowing knitting defeated me!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Exactly Yolanda! Tatting looks really easy. It is only 1 stitch done in 2 parts, then picots – which is really just a space between stitches then squished together and then joining the circles. Easy right??????????? I’m hoping that if you can all experience my pain (literal and metaphorical) then see me push passed it, then we can all get beyond that “give up” phase! You should do the same type of thing with knitting and then maybe I might take my scary evil knitting needles out from the bottom of my yarn bin and give them another shot too!! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

  13. Tami, I especially enjoy the part of your posts where you “draw back the curtain” and talk about how you’re feeling as you’re doing something.

    “I was thinking today about what I was going to say in this post. I hope that anyone that is even slightly interested in learning to tat finds my weekly updates encouraging. It is not my intent at all to discourage anyone from learning a new craft. I know that I may have implied……..okay I very clearly stated, that tatting is VERY frustrating to learn. I want to tone that down a bit. It is tricky but ultimately it is going to be worth every shuttle poke and knotted tangle that I make as I learn this.” <– I loved this! So encouraging to hear your thoughts, to hear that struggle when something does not turn out perfectly the first time. Kudos!

    Liked by 2 people

    • Thanks Theresa. 🙂 At this point in my life I like to leave the curtains wide open. It is at the reader’s own risk what they might see if they peep in. I do temper it sometimes – if I were to post an unedited version of my feelings I would need to change my intended audience ratings from PG to R – especially when I poke my finger on the shuttle! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      • I’m going to have to find a video of the needle technique. I don’t have a clue how that works. But I do have one, so if it’s easier I’ll give it a try. And you should keep your eyes open for an old shuttle at an estate sale or Goodwill store or something. The old ones are shaped a bit differently..I think a little flatter..and my old ones don’t have that pointy thing on the end. I’ll have to take a picture and show you what I mean. I don’t recall learning to tat being painful… except to my ego, because I felt like such a klutz…so I think the shuttle was a little gentler to use.

        Liked by 1 person

      • The pointy tip is curved to catch the thread when joining. I believe it was to replace needing to use a tiny crochet hook along with the shuttle. I probably keep poking myself because I’m still in the klutzy stage. Next week I’ll include links to the videos for both methods that I have found helpful. I ended up watching a lot of videos and kind of mashed them together in my head to figure how to make the stitches. There wasn’t one video alone that helped me get started. It was little bits from about half a dozen. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

  16. Yeah, Tami, I used a little crochet hook to do that. Some of my old metal shuttles have a teeny tiny hook on the end that’s really handy, and it’s curved at the “point” so that may be why I don’t recall poking myself. Looking forward to getting some other things off my plate so I can dig into my tatting box.

    Liked by 1 person

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