Look Ma, I'm Tatting!

The 2 crafts I always wanted to learn but which seemed out of my grasp were spinning and tatting.  Tatting patterns are so often included with crochet patterns and all my life I've seen them, thought they were so pretty but, as they say, a lost art.  I've tried over and over to learn to tat from book instructions but I don't do so well from books.  Let me see done and I can do it but books - not so much.  My mother is great at picking over a book until she understands and can do it.  I'm not that smart.

Several years ago, I got to check that spinning box (although I would only just now really feel like I could justifiably say I was a spinner) but the tatting eluded me.  Until yesterday.  It all started one afternoon a few weeks ago when I was at my Mom's in North Texas.  I went over to the local JoAnn's Fabrics and found a tatting book with a dvd included.  Score.  But I've been so busy since I've been home that I hadn't had a chance to look at it.  Friday night I pulled it out and started watching the dvd and it just all made sense.  In the first 45 seconds, all of a sudden, in a flash it all made sense. 

But it was late and since I never stay up late (cough, cough), I put it away and picked it back up yesterday.  And it still made sense.  The book is "Learn to Tat" by Janette Baker.  It says this is her first book and, if that's so, she done good.

I've since been practicing and am feeling almost comfortable with it now and am beginning to pick up some speed.  That's one of the things about the video that I really liked - she shows everything very, very clearly but then she makes the stitches at speed.  That helped me understand what she was doing when she wasn't thinking about it and showed me how to make the stitches come together.  If you've ever wanted to learn to tat, you should get this book.  It's published by American School of Needlework and I saw it yesterday at the local Hobby Lobby so you should be able to find it most places now.

If you don't look too closely, it looks like the real thing!

So, the score is:

Spinning - check
Tatting - check

Ha!