Tatting

A shuttle and thread are used to make the lace. The stitch is formed over the hand. While the resulting lace looks quitedelicate, tatting is actually simple to do. The tatted piece is made up of basically ‘two half hitch’ knots which are used not as a clove hitch, but as a Lark’s Head knot (also Cow Hitch) where the second half hitch is formed to vertically mirror the first half hitch. This double stitch is used over and over to form a pattern. Extra thread used between double stitches creates"picots" or loops of thread.

From The Tatter’s Treasure Chest: "The history of tatting can be traced back over 200 years. It originally developed as anattempt to reproduce the expensive Venetian laces of the sixteenth century, but it has long since come to be appreciated for its own particular beauty." Additional history of the Art can be found in Tatting Technique and History, by Elgiva Nicholls.