Home » Home & Style » Tatting » Tatting: A Dying Art?

Tatting: A Dying Art?

© Paulette Dal Porto

Over and over I hear that tatting is a dying art. To this I say, bah, humbug! I have been tatting steadily for a year now, but learned to tat twelve years ago from my husband's grandmother. I belong to two tatting mailing lists, E-tatters and TatChat, both of which are extremely prolific, and has, I believe, over 200 tatters on each list.

Tatting is one of the most convenient of the needlecrafts. It is so easy to throw your thread and shuttle, or needle into your purse and off you go. I actually carry my tatting in a little bag. It's great to while away the time when you are waiting in the doctor's office, or some such appointment. If you happen to own the handy little ball carrier, you can even tat while standing in line at the post office, like I did while waiting on the 14th of April to mail my taxes in.

The unsung anthem of tatting is heard everywhere a tatter goes. "Is that tatting? I didn't think anyone did that anymore." I must admit that when I learned to tat, over twelve years ago, I did not think anyone else tatted. It took me a long time to find a tatting shuttle. It also took me a long time to learn how to hold my hands, and just what Nana meant by the "flip".

The wonder of the Internet has brought some fabulous people together, and the supplies available to tatters are unlimited. There are some wonderful shuttles available on the Internet. For example, David Reed Smith at http://www.davidreedsmith.com/ has some beautiful handmade wooden shuttles. If you are at a loss for a project to do, surf on over to the Pattern Surfer at http://www.is-koeln.de/spitzentraum/DOL/... for links to patterns for bookmarks, doilies, edgings, and whatever else you can think of. If you're up to a challenge, check out Dianna Steven's Mystery Motif, at http://www.domesticarts.com/Mysteries/My... and see if you can guess how it was made. Or for some great threads to try go to the Caron website at http://www.caron-net.com/ to check out the Wildflowers collection. If you don't know how to tat and want to learn, there are some great teaching sites. Such as Lisa Trumble's Lessons and Tips site at http://www.capital.net/~ltrumble/lessons... . The resources available to the computer literate tatter are extensive.

I guess what I am saying here is that tatting is not a dying art.

The copyright of the article Tatting: A Dying Art? in Tatting is owned by . Permission to republish Tatting: A Dying Art? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.