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!