Took all of maybe an hour and a half? I have a new hobby here LOL. This bookmark was done in the ring and thread method. I have started a medallion in the ring and chain method and will share that soon!
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Tatting Tasks
I have always admired the look of tatting. So, a few years ago I bought several books on tatting, which somehow managed to get placed on the bookcase and I never tatted. I thought about it once in a while, but never got to it. Till recently, it was one of those things I was going to do "someday." Then my recent discovery of all things MaryJaneFarms led me to watch a short video on needle tatting. Wow. None of that silly shuttle maneuvering, needle tatting is EASY. I knew how to make the tatted stitch in less than 5 minutes. Seriously! Of course, I already crochet and knit, which might help in visualizing it, but needle tatting is ridiculously easy for the beautifully lacy effects it produces. Here's a bookmark I made as my first project:
Took all of maybe an hour and a half? I have a new hobby here LOL. This bookmark was done in the ring and thread method. I have started a medallion in the ring and chain method and will share that soon!
Took all of maybe an hour and a half? I have a new hobby here LOL. This bookmark was done in the ring and thread method. I have started a medallion in the ring and chain method and will share that soon!
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6 comments:
Ah, needle tatting may be 'easier' BUT shuttle tatting gives a neater finish AND is traditional!! Needle only came about in the 70's. Now you've got the hang of needle you'll find shuttle will fall into place. DO hope you give it a whirl.
Glad to hear you got the hang of the needle! I prefer the shuttle but I did use the needle for a bit when I got frustrated teaching myself the shuttle. Then it came back to me. (had taught myself very briefly years before) There are some fabulous needle tatters out there and even a group. Plus, Georgia Seitz has an online tatting class and there is one class specificially for needle tatters. Check her site out to sign up: www.georgiaseitz.com
Thanks for the info, Gina! My great aunt used to tat with her fingers (no needle OR shuttle) but that was long before I came along. I know no one personally who tats, so online and printed info is precious to me :)
And Jane, I hope it is not too pompous of such a newbie as myself to disagree, because I simply must. Needles have been used in tatting for centuries, originally in conjunction with shuttles. Needle tatting per se has its published origins in England it would seem, in the 1850s with Mlle Riego. Beside using a darning needle to make her joins, she also presented a fully needle-based tatting method. The 1970s craze seems to be based on the Jiffy brand marketing but was original only in using thicker yarns. There are various tatting methods as well as techniques, and from what I have read they seem not to matter a bit as long as you work well. The finished products are the same. Reading the intros to a bunch of pattern books I see two camps: the ones that state my opinion above and present historical facts to back it up; and the others, who state the shuttle is the only true tatting but at the same time seem to be quoting the same source. The latter never even mention the various shuttle methods. I actually do want to play with all the main types of shuttle tatting just because I like doing that sort of thing, but I am sure from what I have read that I will always return to the needle method, based on how simple and quick and easy on the hands it is. I would have tried it a lot sooner if I knew how darn easy it was! I have RA so ergonomics matters a lot, more so if I do not have to sacrifice quality.
Could you send me some links to the Riego method of needle tatting, please? Also I thought that tatting only started in the 19th century so any further information on that would be very welcome. lovetotat @ gmail.com
I'm afraid I don't have any online tatting resources BUT what I have found to be the most exhaustive historical source so far is the book The Complete Book of Tatting: Everything You Wanted to Know but Couldn't Find Out About Shuttle Lace, by Rebecca Jones. She gives in detail six different ways to tat, needle being only one of them. Two are based on Riego's techniques. I like that her info has primary sources, as well. Apparently tatting evolved into the forms seen today, it didn't just appear as it is now. So I guess it might be an interpretation to say when "true" tatting came to be, but certainly some of the form was seen as early as the 1700s. Apparently, it kind of evolved from other knotting and other lace traditions. Besides being a great how-to source and pattern book, I really like the history in that book.
Oh, and another book....anyone wanting to learn needle tatting, I highly recommend the two-pamphlet set from the Handy Hands lady Barbara Foster "Needle Tatting." Super easy to follow and you could literally go through them in one day of you wanted to! I found it at my public library. The MaryJane Butters books also show you how but not quite as systematically, I think. HTH!
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