Katie's Tatting Pages

Tatting is a form of very delicate, handmade lace. If you have ever watched someone tat, it looks like they are making lace out of thin air. I like to tell people who seem so amazed when they watch me tat that all I'm doing is tying knots, and that's the truth! If you have done a lark's head knot, you can tat. The only twist is that once you make the knot, you transfer or "flip" the knot from one thread to the other.

Tatting is created with only one stitch (the "double stitch", which is made up of two knots over a core thread), but the design possibilties are endless! In fact, new techniques are always being developed. One myth is that tatting is a "lost" or "dying" art. But it's "knot"! There are over 700 people on the internet email lists for tatting alone...think how many "unwired" tatters there must be out there! Also, all tatters are not 96 year-old women (another myth). I can name several tatters (including me) who are under 30!

I learned how to tat in May 1999, over Memorial Day weekend, from Jeff's grandmother, Mimi. She was taking a class from another lady in town, and one day I saw a shuttle and some thread on her coffee table and asked what it was, and the rest is history! She took out her little "Learn How..." book and got me started on rings. Once I got those down, I felt very proud, because as any shuttle tatter knows, the initial "flip" is sometimes the hardest thing to learn!

I have really come a long way since I first began tatting. I look at photos of my earlier projects and can really see a difference. Like I said before, though, new techniques are constantly being developed, so I know I still have a lot to learn!!!

Follow the links to the different parts of my tatting site:

Other Fun Stuff...