English Please? Excuse Me?

Hello, lovely tatters.  Yes, I know, I’m posting to my blog two days in a row.  How will you ever get over the shock?!  Trust me; I’m just as shocked as you.

I need to vent a bit about something I saw in one of the tatting groups.  Someone made an excellent video about a technique, but it was in language other than English.  I didn’t think anything of it, I can follow video directions and hers were very clear.  I gave it a like, said "thank you" in English and I saved it for future reference.  I’m a hoarder that way.  Anyway, I thought nothing more about it until I saw what someone wrote in the post comments:

“English please”.

Excuse me?  I thought that was exceptionally rude, to be honest.  Every social media platform has a translate button.  If your social media platform doesn’t offer one, there are a dozen other ways you can translate something with any one of uncountable apps on your phone, tablet, or computer.

As for translating a video, just watch it.  If it’s not of good visual quality, politely ask for some clarification.  I’m sure the person making the video is able to use THEIR translate button and can understand what you’re asking.  If the video is of good quality and you can see what’s being said, then turn down the volume if it bothers you and watch and learn anyway.

Let’s put it into perspective: You’ve made a video or shared a pattern.  You’re very pleased with your accomplishment, as you should be.  You proudly post your finished product on the social media platform you’re using, and suddenly, out of nowhere, you get a message:

“ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΠΑΡΑΚΑΛΩ” or

“Nederlands graag” or

“ਕਿਰਪਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਪੰਜਾਬੀ” or

“Español por favor” or

“можно по русски” or any one of a hundred thousand languages spoken at any given moment on this big blue ball we call home.

You’ve put a lot of your time, your talent, and your heart into this, and now they’re expecting you to TRANSLATE it?  How are you supposed to know what language is needed?

That’s my point.  You don’t.  In 2019, there were more than 200 main-stream languages spoken in the world.  The top ten were:

1.     Mandarin

2.     Spanish

3.     English

4.     Hindi

5.     Arabic

6.     Bengali

7.     Portuguese

8.     Russian

9.     Japanese

10. Punjabi/Lahnda

 These are just the 10 most-spoken, and English wasn’t even first!  There are lots more that are used, ON A DAILY BASIS, and many people who don’t speak English as a first language are fluent in at least two others.  Most people who speak English as a first language (I’m ashamed to admit myself included) can’t speak much of another language.  Sadly, some won’t. 

Folks, we’re tatters.  We partake in an artform that is practiced ALL OVER OUR WORLD!!  We speak knots and thread, which in my opinion is a language unto itself. The videos are fairly easy to watch and interpret, even with the volume off. There are people in the groups who can translate a written pattern for you if you don’t understand the terminology. I’ll bet you any money though that if you just sit down with a pencil and a notebook, you can figure it out from the photo that’s shared with the pattern.  If the pattern is graphed, as so many are any more, you don’t need to translate!  It’s right there!  Of course, you need to post photos of your work because we all want to see your interpretation, and you’ll need to credit the originating artist, but it’s do-able!  I’ve done it! 

This is a small world.  It’s getting smaller every day.  We have a broader reach and a bigger view than we have had in any other time in history.  It’s also very difficult to remember that we do share this tiny world with people that sound, look, or act differently.  Being a little more open to different things might be an education we will enjoy.  Remember, to someone else, you’re the foreigner!

Happy tatting, my friends!

Projectile Tatting Moments

Hello, Friends.  I'm wanting to talk about "projectile tatting moments".  What is a “projectile tatting moment?”  What is “projectile tatting”, anyway??

To explain this technique, I must relate to you how I learned to tat.  Many moons ago, long before the birth of my children, I crocheted like no one else.  If there was a doily to be crocheted, I was your girl. Big or small, I did ‘em all!  I had a vast collection of those “Coats & Clarke” booklets with the doily patterns in them, If it was a book in my little library, then I was probably working on something from one or several.

I did notice, though, that there were several patterns in those booklets that I couldn’t read.  “What kind of crochet is this supposed to be?” I would ask myself.  I would look at the instructions, written out the “old fashioned way” (you know, a ring of 6 st, 6 picots separated by 3 stitches, another picot, another 6 stitches, that kind of instruction) and I wanted to know what the heck they were talking about.  Someone mentioned it was “tatting” and that no one did it anymore.

No one does it anymore?  Then why in the world were the instructions in a doily book if “no one does this anymore”?  This made no sense to me and it bothered me for some years.  Fast forward about 10 years, and I was mentioning my dilemma to a friend at work who comes from Greece. “I have instructions at home, but I’ll have to translate the instructions, they’re in Greek”.  Oh, my, could I finally have a solution to an issue that has been plaguing me? 

The day came a couple of weeks later when she presented me with a stack of notes.  I got a shuttle from the craft store, some really crappy crochet thread (you know the kind, the one that everyone stocked, but only in white and it felt like rope compared to anything else), and I settled in to learn to do this tatting thing.

I was determined!  I was focused!  I was enthusiastic!  I was having an awful time!! Try as I might, I couldn’t get a ring to close.  I could make a chain, even if it was upside down to where I wanted it, but I knew about blocking and figured that’s where I would need to block my work.

I tried to make a ring, and I tried and I tried and I tried.  Do you think I could figure this out?  I had no one but me and my translated instructions, and a seriously growing frustration.  One day I was sitting in my chair when my (now ex-) husband came home.  Just as he rounded the corner to come into the living room, a missile comprised of a tatting shuttle, a pile of knots and a ball of thread came within a hair’s breadth of hitting his nose and bounced off the wall on the other side of where he stood.  He peeked around the corner and asked if it was safe to come in the living room or if he would be dodging more “projectile tatting missiles”.  His eyes were as big as saucers and I will never forget the shocked look on his face (I know I'm cruel, but I still giggle). I muttered a few nasty words about knots and threads and crafts that should remain “dead” and left it at that.

I related my dilemma to my Greek friend.  I told her I could make no sense of things; I guess I must be too stupid to learn how to tat.  She expressed curiosity as to why I couldn’t get it to work, and asked me to bring my things, and the instructions, to work the next day and she’d show me what I was missing.

Well, lunch time rolled around and we were sitting in the lunch area.  As I watched and nibbled on a sandwich, she pulled everything out, cut off the mess I had made, and we started fresh.  She showed me how to hold my fingers and how to hold the shuttle. 

“Yes, I got all that, but why can’t the rings close?”

“Well, it’s right here, make your stitch with the shuttle and then flip the stitch to the other thread.”

“Flip? What flip?”

“It’s right here, right after….”

“Right after where, show me, I must have missed it.”

“Oops.”

“Excuse me?  What do you mean ‘oops’?”

“I need to take this home with me tonight, I will bring this back in the morning.  I think I missed something”.

So, she took it home and sure enough, she had forgotten the page that described the “flip”.  If you’re a shuttle tatter, or at all familiar with the technique, you know about the “flip”.  It's that little dance between ball and core thread that allows the ring to actually close when you want it to do that.  If your stitches don’t uniformly flip, they won’t move, and your rings won't close.

The next lunch break we went over her notes again and sure enough, that little flip was the beginning of a long and passionate love affair that has now lasted, on and off, for better than 30 years. With the advent of the internet and all things social media, I can now learn techniques and buy supplies to my heart’s content, and I never have to use that awful thread I started with ever again.

So, what about “projectile tatting?”  Have you EVER been so very frustrated with a project that you wanted to pitch the entire lot across the room, out the window, or, (and I’ve been tempted to do this) chuck it over the side of the boat and let the mermaids give it a go?  That’s where you’re starting to think about projectile tatting, also known as "pitch it across the room in frustration".

If you ever feel this way, please put it down, walk away, and take a breather.  It means you’ve reached a mental point where you really need to take a break. This is true of any craft, but it is an especially important point for newbies.  New crafters seem to throw themselves into a craft and do it to the exclusion of everything else.  It’s no sin; I do it all the time when I’m learning something new.  The excitement to actually do this is so attractive and alluring.  The adrenaline rush you get when you finally complete your FIRST real project is absolutely the same as a runner’s high!  It’s amazing!!  But to get there, you’re going to fail, you’re going to doubt yourself, and you’re gonna wanna pitch that sucker! 

It’s so easy to get discouraged, but you don’t have to.  Just take a break, have a cup of something hot and soothing (or alcoholic, I won’t judge, but I might like some of what you're having), pet the dog, scream into a pillow, take the rug outside and beat the dust out of it, anything!  

My point is that we all get frustrated.  There is help out there.  There are so many tatting groups and websites available to everyone, and you know something I’ve learned?  Tatters, both shuttle and needle, are some of the nicest and most welcoming people I have had the privilege to meet and with whom to exchange ideas.  Trust me, as many questions as you have, there are likely a dozen more behind you with the same question, or need help with something you’ve just had explained.

Help someone else.  I can’t say it enough; I’ve learned so much from other people asking me questions.  It’s true!  You might not think you know much right now, but if you’re able to make a ring, you are miles ahead of someone else just starting out, and they likely need someone to talk knotty with, too.  Be a mentor. Volunteer to help.   Let’s put a stop to the “projectile tatting” practice. 

Happy tatting, my friends!

Needle, Shuttle or Both?

So, hello again Lovely Tatters! I really do need to set myself a schedule.  I can't believe how long it has been since my last blog post.  I humbly apologize.  I do have reasons, but they don't involve broken fingers or a lapse in brain function, so I guess I have no excuse.  I am sorry.

Things are swimming along quite nicely.  My big news today is that I have been able to book my flight to Indianapolis (and via there to Anderson, Indiana) for the July 9-11, 2020 Tatting Corner Tat Days. I'll be driving to Winnipeg, MB and flying out of there on July 8 to arrive in plenty of time.  The bonus there is that I get to visit with a very dear friend.  No, she doesn't tat, unfortuntely, and I did try, but she's probably the best knitter I've ever seen, so I will forgive her.  She does love what I do, though, and her son, Devan, is learning to tat.  I'll get tatting in that family any which way I can!

Anyway, I'll be teaching in Indiana again, but I won't bore you yet with what I'm planning to demonstrate.  It's going to be a challenge, I can say that for sure!  I've spent the last couple of months making sure all the techniques I want to use in the project are documented and all the beads the students will need to complete the piece counted out and strung up.  Oh, boy, do I ever enjoy my bead spinner!  If you've never used one, you are missing a good bit of fun!  Sure makes stringing beads, even little wee ones, a walk in the park.

I'd like to talk a little bit about techniques, specifically shuttle vs. needle.  My question is: why is there such a furor about which is better or first or preferred or more convenient or easier or whatever!?  It's all the same knot.  It's actually the same knot you make when you do macramé, but you never hear anyone argue about what's the most convenient way to make a plant hanger!  Why are there so many passionate discussions about what tool is best or easiest or "correct" or whatever?

I have held exquisitely executed needle-tatted articles in my hands.  I've looked at them in amazement and wished my shuttle tatting looked that good.  I've held shuttle tatting in my hands and wondered what they were using for a tool (it really looked awful, I'm sorry to say).  I've been privileged to rub shoulders with very talented people who use each or either tool with skill and talent of which I can only dream.  There are good and bad with both.

What's my point?  It's this: Do what your heart and your hands let you.  If a shuttle hurts your hands, then use a needle.  If a needle proves to be problematic for you (I have arthritis in the saddle joint in my left thumb and I can only work a needle for a little bit at a time), then pick up and try a shuttle.  Are you able to work both without much issue?  Then you are a lucky person, indeed!  With all the available information online now it's really not a problem to get the basic techniques down in the comfort of your own living room or where-ever your tatting supplies are handy.

I look at it like this:  what was first?  The needle or the shuttle?  It's like the old question about what came first, the chicken or the egg?  Who knows?  We have eggs for breakfast and likely will have chicken for supper.  If you're a real rebel, you'll have chicken and waffles for breakfast and an omelette for supper.  No one cares what came first, what's original, what's right or what's wrong.  

Tatting provides nourishment for the heart, the mind, and the soul.  Non-crafters don't understand the rhythm of creation; they see the thread and the tools and are just thinking "tangled knots". The process gives the maker peace and helps us make sense of the world.  We make order from chaos.

Tatters are peacemakers, plain and simple.

Happy tatting, my friends!