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Tatting involves more than making a lot of rings and chains; you’ll also need to join them together to make the designs. This is where picots come in really handy.
Useful for more than frilly decorations, picots also allow us to join two or more elements together. The process is pretty simple, too.
Essentially, you’ll pass your crochet hook through the picot you want to join to, pick up the working thread and pull that up through the picot. This will create a little loop, which you pass your shuttle through, then pull the extra thread from the loop back out. And that’s your join. Make at least one more double stitch to hold the join in place.
For visual learners, here’s the video tutorial:
Happy tatting!
This post is part of a series of Absolute Beginner Tatting Lessons. Go back to the previous lesson, Tatting Vocabulary Primer, or jump ahead to the next lesson, Reading Patterns and Making Projects, Part 1.
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I wondered how you would get that shuttle through those small picots! Now I know!
Deb
Mosaic Magpie, this is One of those tatting secrets that is a lot simpler than it seems. Fortunately there are a lot like that now that you’ve gotten the hang of the double stitch.
Many thanks for another great video tutorial.
Can I just ask – when you’ve made the join (which I understand counts as the 1st half of a ds) do you need to make the 2nd half of the ds or not; or is it personal preference to do or not to make the 2nd half?
Ann, after you make a join, you make a full double stitch.
ahh so it’s just the passing through of the shuttle is the join and then you make your ds’s…. I’ve been counting the passing of the shuttle through the loop as the 1st half of the ds and then making a 2nd half of the ds to complete the join….
Ann, a join is just a join. Counting it as half a stitch would probably be fine (not make much difference) for most simple patterns, but for the more complicated or finicky ones it sometimes really does matter if you have every stitch right. Taking out a half stitch every picot, especially if there are a lot of picots, can add up to a lot of missing length.
Keep the questions coming! Good luck!
The way I do my joins, I count the join as the first half of a double stitch, then I “complete” the join with the 2nd half of a double stitch. I then count the completed join as the first double stitch in the next part of the pattern. So, it is a personal preference, like with many things.
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I love your tutorials and I am so pleased to have found this website. Thank you so much for making your art available to those who would like to learn.
Sibyl, you are very welcome.
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I wish I had found this website a few years ago. I had taken a class on how to shuttle tat and was totally lost and discouraged. I have since taught myself to needle tat, but decided to give shuttle tatting another try. The shuttle tatting looks so much easier to me now that I have seen the videos and I am excited about giving it another shot. I will definitely be a regular to this website – it is the best I have seen as far as tatting demonstrations.
This is the best. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to do this until I watched this video and then something clicked. Thank you!
Yay, glad it clicked!
Hey, I am very new to tatting, (got my suplies today) and am having trouble closing my circle. Any tips to help? Oh, and I appreciate the vidoes, they help so much!
I too, am a new self-taught tatter. I so appreciate these tutorials and helpful explanations. I know I will keep coming back to my new Best Friend Forever.