Tatting

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Rings, Chains and Picots

Tatted lace is built from a very small vocabulary of forms. The lace is formed by a pattern of rings and chains formed from lark's head knots, called stitches. A ring closes a set of stitches into a loop; a chain carries the work in an arc from one ring to the next. Alternating and repeating those two movements, with the counts varied, produces edgings, motifs and whole pieces. Gaps can be left between the stitches to form picots, which are used for practical construction as well as decorative effect. A picot is the small loop that gives tatting its characteristic scalloped, airy edge, and it is also a joining point, a place where a later ring or chain can attach to work already made, so decoration and structure are the same feature.

The tools are minimal. To make the lace, the tatter wraps the thread around one hand and manipulates the shuttle with the other hand. No tools other than the thread, the hands and the shuttle are used, though a crochet hook may be necessary if the shuttle does not have a point or hook. That economy is part of the craft's character: a portable shuttle and a ball of thread are the whole workshop, and the complexity lives in the pattern and in the evenness of the maker's tension, since knots formed at uneven tension distort the rings they build.

Shuttle Tatting and Needle Tatting

The shuttle is the classic instrument, normally a metal or plastic pointed oval shape less than 3 inches long, though shuttles come in a variety of shapes and materials and often have a point or hook on one end. It serves two purposes at once: it stores the thread wound inside it, and its pointed form passes the thread through loops to form each knot. Tatters may also use tatting needles instead of shuttles. A tatting needle is a long needle that does not change thickness at the eye, and the needle used must match the thickness of the thread chosen for the project. Shuttle and needle-tatted lace look almost identical, but they differ in structure, because the stitches are formed and held in different ways during making even though the finished pattern matches.

Tatting can be used to make lace edging as well as doilies, collars and other decorative pieces, applying a durable knotted lace where a trim must survive handling and washing better than a looser construction might. The technique can be documented approximately to the early 19th century, and some believe it may have developed from netting, as sailors and fishers would put together motifs for girlfriends and wives at home, applying knotting skills they already had to finer thread. Contrary to popular belief, many people around the world actively participate in the art of tatting, and the craft is experiencing a resurgence in interest, with tatting instructions and patterns available across the web, including streamlined video instructions that let a beginner watch each hand movement in turn.