Tags
Tatting has always held a bit of a contradiction for me, and I don’t mean to scare anyone by saying this, but it is difficult to learn. That’s partially because it is difficult for many people to find a tatting teacher, and partially because the craft is simply difficult to learn. (Was that another contradiction?)
Like many tatters, I’ve tried most popular needle crafts at some point; I can crochet a little and knit, though badly, and embroider decently and sew and quilt pretty well. Now here is the contradiction. In my experience, tatting has the steepest learning curve of all of these, but, and bear with me before you run screaming to a knitting website, once learned, tatting is the easiest needlework to actually do.
It’s just that blasted stitch transfer that trips everyone up. Once you’ve got that down, you’re golden. Okay, so there are a few other things to learn, but that’s the tricky one. When I was learning shuttle tatting from my grandmother, I kept going back to her and insisting “show me that one more time, Gram” till she was blue in the face. But I was determined to learn.
Now, as I have been teaching quite a few tatting classes lately at Santa Fe Quilting, I’m getting a good perspective at where most people are having difficulties, and what questions they keep coming back with. So, in an effort both to give my students a way to review lessons at home, and to introduce tatting to the world at large, I’m starting this Absolute Beginner Tatting Series.
Here is the very first video in the series, which starts off with the very first skill in tatting: how to wind your shuttle. There will be many more videos to come, so please give me feedback on what topics you would like to see, how the video is presented, what is helpful and what you would like me to do differently. These videos are for you, so let me know what you want.
Without any further ado, here is How to Wind a Shuttle:
Notice that there ARE closed captions available! Yay!
See you at the next video lesson!
This post is the first in a series of Absolute Beginner Tatting Lessons. Jump to the next lesson, The Dreaded Double Stitch.
You might also like:
Video tutorial shows how to join two elements together in ta...
I purchased my first tatted piece from another tatter, a set...
Here's a lovely idea from Craftaholics Anonymous to frame li...
Very nicely done! The only thing I do differently is that I knot my thread around the post at the beginning. Otherwise, I lose all control when I near the end of the thread!
Diane,
I hadn’t thought of knotting the end on, thanks for sharing. That would keep the end threads from unraveling, but might make the tail end unusable, and sometimes I need every millimeter of thread! Maybe a simple slip knot that you could take out without damaging the thread would provide the flexibility of both.
Thank you for your suggestion.
Heather
This is great! I have a friend of a friend in England who is looking to learn to tat and this will be great help to her!
Michelle, please pass this along to your friend, and there will be more to come. Next up is the double stitch. I hope it helps her!
Looks great and easy to follow. Like the idea of absolute beginners.
Pingback: » The Dreaded Double Stitch Tatted Treasures
PLEASE NOTE: This video doesn’t specifically mention how to wind shuttles with bobbins, but you can do basically the same thing. Just hold the thread to one side, and wind until that end is hidden and keep winding. You can also the the thread on with a little knot, hold it down and wind.
I’m planning on making a video that shows this process more clearly, as soon as I get my one and only bobbin shuttle back from a friend who borrowed it. Maybe I can trade her one of my post shuttles…
Pingback: Tatting for beginners · Needlework News | CraftGossip.com
Will you be featuring any tatting using needles? I’ve found these are easier than the shuttle for tension purposes for me, but I am still a beginner and could use some tips.
Veronica, I hadn’t planned on doing a needle tatting series, but that is a good idea. Thank you for the suggestion.
Pingback: » Absolute Beginner Series Tatted Treasures | Needlework News | Scoop.it
Thank you for doing this! I sort of figured out tatting one time but once I got one circle thingie done I wasn’t sure what to do next. Obviously my vocabulary needs some sprucing up as well…..
Sue A, Funny you should mention the circle thingie. I’m actually preparing a “tatting lingo” post or two to include in the series! Stay tuned for more tatting fun. Same tat time. Same tat channel.
Wonderful!!! I actually started trying to learn tatting…I even got the stitch transfer! I got the double stitch and the picot, but I couldn’t get past those to actually following patterns without someone to show me. I’m really looking forward to your series….maybe there’s hope for me yet!
Thank you so much for sharing,
♥Anita
Anita, keep with it and you’ll be a great tatter!
I will be doing a video or two soon on how to read patterns, so I hope that will help you out. Keep checking back for more interesting things…including my first giveaway next week!
Thanks for the vote of confidence! I’ll definitely be on the lookout for those videos…I’m really enjoying this series of videos so far. Thanks again for so generously sharing your talent with us!♥
Thank you for this tutorail. I appreciate it is truly from the beginning. So many times tutorials skip over the beginning steps assuming everyone knows those steps. I will wind my shuttle and be ready for the next step!
Deb
Mosaic Magpie, thanks. If I’m missing any steps, feel free to point that out to me.
Pingback: » Your Tatting Toolkit Tatted Treasures
I’m so glad to have found this! Both of my great-grandmothers tatted beautifully and while I was too young to have learned before they passed away, I’ve always wanted to. My Grandma kept all of their shuttles, patterns on index cards w/pieces of the lace either taped or stapled to them, along with a lot of the threads. My Mom has those now, but I’ve thought about getting a couple of the shuttles from her to learn and then eventually getting some of the patterns too, once I have learned.
I’m making a folder right now in my favorites to bookmark this!
Thank you so much for your tatting learning videos, they were wonderful and helped me so much to learn the tatting skill. I was just about to give up, after many books and videos, and then watched your video on how to transfer the stitch, finally the light clicked. Jean
Pingback: Absolute Beginner Tatting Series
Thank you so much for these tutes. I’ve been trying to teach myself and yesterday I would have liked to shoot myself in the head. But today I found this, so I’m putting the gun away.