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.”

First of all, watch carefully and make sure every half stitch flips every time. All it takes is one unflipped stitch and none of them will move. Here’s what one unflipped half stitch looks like:

So how are you ending up like this? Without watching you tat I can only guess, but here is a very common beginner’s mistake.

Let’s start when you take the shuttle over or under the working thread. Then relax your left pinkie, ring and middle fingers and tighten your right hand.

Now, KEEPING THE RIGHT THREAD TAUGHT, slowly tighten the left fingers again so that the stitch slowly moves left. See how straight the right thread is in this picture? Keep it like that.

It is easy to relax your right hand during this, so that even if the stitch initially flipped, it will flip back and just knot up. Make sure the right hand thread, that is the working thread, is completely straight the whole time you’re moving the stitch.

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