I Can Tat too

I've been tatting for too many years to count. But since I discovered the tatting community on the web I have been learning and enjoying it much more. I've found many good friends through the tatting community and spend way too much time trolling for patterns and reading my Here Be Tatters mailing list. And I do actually tat occasionally.

Last night I went to the Minnesota Lace Society meeting and when we had "show and share" as usual I didn't have any thing to show. I had given away the tatted cross that I made when I was in Maryland to Eric's mother in a sympathy card. Now that I'm fairly sure she has gotten it I can show you it. I've made this cross before and I really like it. It's done in size 20 thread from the book Tatted Bookmarks - cross shaped by Lene Bjorn.



Tatting is a very economical art to practice. That is if you don't have to have every pattern book and kind and color of thread out there like I do. It takes a long time to work through a ball of thread. This is what I have left out of a ball of size 20 cebelia thread. It's one of my favorite threads to work with - easily available and tats easily. Now that's a lot of tatting for about 4 dollars, most of it given away (unfortunately a lot of crosses in sympathy cards).

I remember my first meetup with my tatting friends that I met online someone said that their husband was worried about finding people online and then meeting them in person. You know, maybe the tatting ax murderer was out there. We got a chuckle out of that. I know knitting and tatting people are the best! Just think - Amy and I went to a knitting night in Delaware absolutely sure that we'd meet up with kind generous people - and we did. Amy now has new friends in her area because of knitting. Tatting is like that too - and maybe more so because there are fewer of us. If you meet a tatter out in the wild it's like you've met a rare and precious species. That's not to say that tatting is "a lost art". There are many people that tat and many generous people on the internet sharing patterns, videos of how to tat, and just plain cyber friendship. So tatting keeps growing. There will be a class at Double Ewe on tatting in March, taught by my friend Jane. I'm sure we will get a few more to join the tatting community. I always have my tatting with me when I go to the open knitting times at Double Ewe, and I'm always willing to help anyone with questions.