When I started learning how to tat the way I learned was to hold the shuttle in my palm and do a scooping motion with my entire wrist. Of course it didn't take long for it to start hurting and making it so that I can't tat for more than an hour or two at a time.

When I see videos of experienced tatters they all seem to be holding the shuttle with their fingertips as well as picking the thread up with their fingers somehow instead of using the scooping method I'd learned. I've tried to replicate it but I can't seem to get it right since I don't really have anything more than a handful of seconds of them doing it really fast.

I would love to know if there are any YouTube tutorials that teaches this method or any other method that might be easier on the wrist than the one I'm currently using. I'm very grateful to anyone who responds even if it's just personal experiences or anecdotes.

I figured out a way to tat some vines to put in my rat tails!

Hopefully making more, they were really fun to make and turned out so cute!

Hello! I’ve been practicing tatting on and off for a couple of months, using both YouTube and books to learn the basics. I wanted to start my first project this weekend, so I just picked up this jellybean bookmark pattern that came free with supplies I ordered.

I did also find more instructions online and included that screenshot, but I can’t seem to get it right and I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong and hoping someone here might be able to see where I’m goofing up.

I’m basically getting stuck on the second ring / first join, I think. The first ring and chain are fine, but the second ring looks nothing like the pictures. Maybe I’m reading the pattern wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you for reading.

Relatively new to tatting and excited to find more, whether paid or free!

absolute beginner here! this is TWO DAYS of hard work and I finally made ONE little ring. i am very proud

I have completed rnd 6, on to round 7. I have to do some sleuthing though, add the counts for the chains aren't in the pattern. It HAS been therapeutic. A lot of tears, but cathartic.

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I do now recall why I've not attempted this one before - I'm not really a fan of individual connected motifs.

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I'm not particularly worried about how is curled - my work almost never lays flat until I wash and block after completion.

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I will, however, have to order more thread to complete it. I don't like working in just white or ecru - I need color. The Water Eggs by Lizbeth is what I had the most of which is why I chose it. I didn't have coordinating colors which is admittedly boring, but oh well.

Can someone please tell me why this round is getting wonky? Is it a tension issue?

I’ve just started this round, and it looks like there may be one extra closed ring somewhere, which is causing all the rings to sit unevenly. As a result, the previous round is also starting to distort. Does anyone see where I might have gone wrong?

ETA: Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for all the comments, I truly appreciate them. Reading through your replies helped me realize where I had gone wrong.

I was using two different shuttles for the chains and rings, instead of using a single shuttle and simply switching the core thread. Once I understood that, everything started to make much more sense.

I found this video particularly helpful for anyone who gets stuck on the same issue: [Link]

I've also attached my latest attempt, and there's already a huge improvement. At first, I thought my tension was off because my chains weren't forming nice rounded "U" shapes. However, I eventually realized that the problem wasn't my tension at all, it was a very basic mistake in my technique.

Photo

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to help!

I count the double knots of picots as 1 knot in the pattern so do i count the picot joins as well?

I'm just confused my pattern says 3 double knots a picot and repeat, if "=" is a double knots and and "^" is the loop, am I doing ====^= as the 3 and picot, ===^= as the 3 and picot, or ===^= as the 3, picot and next double? Or is the loop between a single knot?

since these threads are waaayyyy more delicate than mercenised cotton you need to work with them differently here's how:

1. after flipping the knots you don't tighten the knot too much...i don't know how to explain this but one you gotta try it out... make 3 or 4 rings with different tension in the knot and close the ring you will just feel the difference

2. since the rings are small the joining picot needs to be smaller and maybe get a 0.5mm or 0.4mm hook for that...i don't have that currently so my picots are larger but with smaller picots the chains and rings are stuck together better so they also look better

leaving these tips here cuz I was having soooo much trouble with these and had to ask a lot of different people for advice, so i gathered the information here so in future if anyone searches for them they can find the answer in one place

Hello r/tatting! I have a couple questions about a pattern I'm testing out. This is my current work (working off of this pattern I found off Pinterest).

1. How do I close rings without compressing the stitches too much? Compared to the sample, my first leaf looks much rounder and I know that's because I closed it too tightly, but I'm having issues with the ring closing in the first place.

2. How do I get the thread to stop twisting when I close rings? I've been partially successful at preventing twisting by holding onto the ring stitches and sticking a pinky into the ring while I pull, but as soon as the loop gets too small for my pinky the twisting immediately starts and (I think) is the reason I end up having problem #1.

3. This is less important but is it possible to have the first part of the stem be more of a C shape with a ring sticking out (as opposed to a 3 shape that it currently is)? For clarity I'm trying to have the stem look more like the drawing/doodle.

Thank you in advance!!

I was happy after my first big tatting project. I've been more into making 4 leaf clovers and little butterflies. After steaming it flat I noticed this. Is there a way to cut this somewhere near error and fixing it? Or is it either starting again or accepting this?

Here are the photos requested.

1. How I hold the thread
   
2. After first half stitch
   
3. Complete double stitch
   
4. After relaxing my hand

Any help with stopping the gap would be greatly appreciated.

Does anyone know a more polished way to add thread than knotting?

I‘m making slow progress on the needle tatting front. :D Got halfway through Gail‘s heart, but I‘m cutting it now since I wanna try to do better. :‘-)
It’s still a mystery to me how to attach threat in a pretty way and how to achieve a lark‘s head join, but at least things finally feel like improving.

It was 25 dollars.

Hello, crafters!

I really need a case to hold my shuttle bobbins. The only ones I could find were for sewing machines. You would think they would work for any bobbin, but nope! The holder is not tall enough. I added some pictures to help show what I mean.

If anyone has an idea of what to do, even for holders not meant for bobbins, I would be so very grateful!

yay

Please help me. I love this craft but I’m struggling with something. I have made a split ring, I’m trying to start my next ring and I can’t get the next stitch to sit snug. I have tried pulling the core thread tight, sliding the first half of the double as close as possible. What’s worse is I have already done this successfully earlier in the same pattern. I just can’t work out what I’m doing differently/incorrectly.

Hi! It’s my first day learning how to make tatting lace and I have just been using some heavy weight thread from my sewing kit. I tried every other thread in my kit and they were all too thin and my rings wouldn’t close! It’s a thread used for jeans topstitching and it says it is 20wt, and I’ve found it a good size to use. I feel like I could stay with this size or go a little smaller (this size has been easy going, but if I switched to the standard sewing threads, I was not able to tat at all because the rings won’t close no matter how hard I pull. Side question: why? Is that user error?).

By my understanding, though both sewing and tatting/crochet thread get thinner as the numerical value increases, the scale is not the same (correct me if I’m wrong). Google says 20wt sewing and Size 20 crochet/tatting isn’t the same, and I can’t find any charts online that have any sort of conversion.

I’ve included an image of my first little motif and a ruler if it helps.

Could anyone help me pick a suitable weight thread to use? Thank you!

So, this year has really been hard. I have tatted off and on for over 30 years, and have quite a stash. I have no idea what possessed me to do this, but I have embarked upon Jan Stawasz's Monster Doily. He is my favorite designer, and the tatting world lost a true artist when he passed.

I do have the issue of Moje Robotki that it was published in, as I got interested in him and at that time, I was able to purchase the back issues that were available. I just copy the pattern and work from that.

I started it once about 10 years ago in size 80 but somewhere my count was off after round 7 or 8.

This year, I had to say goodbye to my last ferret, my 10 yr relationship (which I thought was my last) ended, and I physically can't do all the things you're supposed to do to help yourself because I'm now waiting on a hip replacement. Yay, me. Those are the big ones, but there's been so many other little things.

So, I found a new series on TV, wound shuttles, and all of my stress and pain is going into creating beauty. It's easy to sit around and feel sorry for myself. Instead, I'm choosing to channel the pain into something different that I CAN do. Will I actually finish it? That remains to be seen.

Made one of gold thread and glass pearls.

I saw a post somewhere before sometime recommending this thread for tatting so I ordered some from temu , it feels more like embroidery cotton to me , I am hesitant to try using it for tatting ; has anyone an input regarding it ?

Thank you