Archive for May 18th, 2011

Tatting—a short love story

Posted May 18, 2011 By FairyKateH
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    Do “you” love tattting as much as I do? There’s just something about those intricate knots and swirls of thread that amazes me. What I’d like to know is who invented this stuff out in the first place? Who developed the first tatting shuttle?  What person figured out how to hold their tongue just right so all the loops of thread, the knots, and the click of the tatting shuttle blend so beautifully to make a gorgeous motif?


          You do know, holding your tongue in the right position does help you tat, don’t you?  Personally, I haven’t got that part down yet.  Learning how to needle tat just about did me in.  I love the idea of tatting, but haven’t developed patience enough to perfect it. 


              I keep saying, someday, I’ll master this process. Someday, I will . . . I will . . . I will . . . ~~~!!!


              But until that day happens, I’ll be haunting antique malls, rescuing old tattting and loving it to pieces. I told a friend about someone I know who made a three-inch piece of tatting with silk thread. The pattern was so intricate that it took two hundred hours to complete. Yup, you heard me right!  Two hundred hours.  This was the most amazing piece of handwork I’ve ever seen in my life.   The smaller the thread, the more breathtakingly delicate the results and the longer it takes to complete.  She stored it in a plastic case to protect it. 


      My friend’s reply:   “Just an idea, Kate, but maybe the first 199 hours were spent learning how to hold her tongue just right.” Well . . . after seeing the end product, I believe she definitely got “that important part” of tatting down pat. 


      Please tell me your tatting stories.  I love hearing where you find “your” tatting treasures.  By the way, I’m sharing a photo of some different pieces of tatting I rescued.  You can see the delicacy of threads in the top two pieces as apposed to the lower piece of tatting.  Who says, “size doesn’t matter”.  GGGrin!

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