Jenn asked, “They say when you make the double knots while tatting, that if done right the knots should be able to move on the shuttle thread, but mine doesn’t do that. And I was hoping you could tell me what I might be doing wrong.”

In my last tatting tip I described one common mistake that will make your stitch knot up. Here is another common beginner’s mistake. I hope one of these helps you.

Let’s start at the very beginning. Set up your hand position to make your stitches, move the shuttle under then over the working thread to make the first half of the stitch. If you need some help with this setup, here’s a video.

Now, the standard instructions usually go: “relax your left hand and tighten your right hand.”

When you relax the left hand, only relax your left pinkie, ring and middle fingers so you can keep hold of the thread with your thumb and forefinger.

What are you holding onto? Either the last stitch, if you’ve managed to make one, or the very first knot, if you’re making a chain, or just the thread if you’re beginning a ring.

Hold the stitch or thread with your thumb and forefinger:

If you let go of the thread and try to flip the stitch, it simply pulls the working thread into a straight line and the stitch knots up, like this:

So hold onto that stitch with your left thumb and forefinger, and see if your stitches will now flip.

What are your questions? Email them to me or leave them in the comments and I’ll answer them as well as I can.