Schiffchenarbeit
Occhi
Makouk
Frivolite
Frivolitet
Sukkulapitsi

What do all these words mean?
Come on, keep thinking, you must know?
I'll give you a hint, look at the title of this article.
Tatting.
Now was that hard?
Plain and simple, no matter what language*, tatting is found in almost all parts of the world in some form or another. You think tatting was reserved for dusty corners of old furniture covered in antimacassars and doilies? Well guess what, tatting is experience a resurgence in popularity not seen since the 1920's.

Want a definition? (I know you all love my definitions). OK, I will give you one; "Shuttle and Thread make a lace, the stitch is formed over the hand" Want more? "Tatting is a series of knots, two half hitches equal one stitch, that is place together in an way to simulate lace". How's that one?

Now that you know what it is, how about a picture of some tatting. I happen to have an example right here:

Nice, huh? Did it myself (ignore the tails that haven't been worked in). Before I get into to how this feat is accomplished, let me tell you a little about where it came from.

Most authorities on the history of tatting agree that tatting started somewhere around the 16th and 17th centuries (granted that's quite a wide span of years, but there isn't an ancient book that said, "Thus she created Tatting"), although examples resembling a type of tatting have been found in Egyptian tombs. It is thought to originally derived from knotting. The shuttle used in tatting is very similar to the needle used in net making.

Knotting had been around for many centuries as a decorative way to embellish clothing. China has a long history of both practical and decorative knotting (it was even used to count the days). During the 17thy Century, the Dutch, while trading in China, fell in love with it and brought it back to Europe. Soon, all the rich and fabulous were doing it, Queen Mary is said to have been a big knotter (sounds dirty, doesn't it?).

Since, Ladies of the court were expected to be using their hands at all times (ok, enough gutter, mind), either fanning themselves or embroidering, knotting became quite the rage. It was small and portable and it allowed the hands to appear elegant as they worked. Original shuttles were larger than todays (which allowed a variety of fibers to be knotted, even gold thread) and this led to great adorning and bejeweling. The elegance of your shuttle was correlated with your status (sort of like the cell phone today). It is said that at one elaborate royal wedding, an Infanta was given "5 gold caskets, each containing a gold shuttle".

The French in all of their finery found the shuttle to be irresistible when it came to adornment. The French ladies even carried a "knotting bag" which of course was heavily adorned. All the fashionable ladies would not be seen without this bag, even going so far as to include it in their portraits. Madame Pompadour (mistress to Louis XV) was a big proponent of knotting.

Somewhere along the way, people began to start calling it "tatting" although the origins of the word are vague at best. Various theories have been put out, including a derivation of the word tatters (due to the look of individual pieces of tatting before it was put together to form a more complete piece), but no explanation is 100% convincing. We do know that in 1843 the word tatting first appeared in print. "The Ladies Handbook of Millinery, Dressmaking, and Tatting" was published featuring patterns. Up until this point, patterns were handed down by word of mouth. It is also of note (A Sharp) that at this time, tatting contained no chains, only rings.

Jump to 1850 (not so hard to do) and the "mother of modern tatting" comes upon the seen. One Mademoiselle Eleanore Riego de la Branchadiere was running a "fancy house" (no, not a nice name for a brothel) that sold linens and other delicate items. Mlle Riego (as she called herself, thank goodness, I don't have to keep typing Mademoiselle Eleanore Riego de la Branchadiere) published a series of pattern books (11 in all) featuring tatting. Mlle Reigo is also credited in using a needle for the first time to join picots (in 1851 an unknown writer published how to join with a shuttle). For the record, a picot is the space between a stitch (this creates little loops that make tatting look "hairy", you can join these to other rings to create a larger piece) The other technique that Mlle Riego is known for is her use of a central ring with picots that is used as a center motif. She then created a "wheel" around that center, thus creating the doily look most associated with tatting. (Here's a bonus fact - use it at your next party. The doily is credited to Mr. Doley (or D'Oyley or Doily) who ran a shop on the Strand in London. He sold small pieces of cloth with fringe on them to put under finger bowls to avoid marking tables).

In 1886 Therese de Dillmont published the "Encyclopedia of Needlework" which covered tatting using two shuttles and two colors. Ms. de Dillmont is credited to having invented the Josephine Knot (or here for a needle version) By the end of the 1800's though, the popularity of tatting faded, mainly because of the amount of time it takes to create a tatting piece. It had a brief surge between 1920's and the 1940's but by the 1950's it was only mentioned in passing in most needlecraft books.

One final note on the history; needle tatting was around as far back as the 1800's, but because of the popularity of adorning the shuttles, needle tatting did not become the rage. Many people find needle tatting to be much easier and most shuttle patterns can be converted to needle tatting. A great resource for needle tatting can be found at Handy Hands Tatting.

Through the wonders of the internet, though, tatting has made a remarkable comeback and now is quite popular. I'll share some of the hundreds of links at the end.

I will not pretend to be able to explain to you how to tat. There are fabulous tutorials on the internet (some with moving pictures) that can do that for you. I can tell you that once you figure out how to "flip the knot" and understand what that means, tatting is relatively easy. I can also tell you that if you are having trouble learning from books and the net, find a tatter to teach you (meet me at my house at 8 tonight).

Two stitches are used, which mirror each other. This stitch is the half hitch, the second mirrors the first vertically. This creates what is known as the "Lark's Head Knot". Although one website emphatically describes why this is a misnomer. Other names for the two half hitches; ring knot, cow hitch, bale sling hitch and tag hitch. The first half of the stitch is similar to cast on stitches used in knitting and in Brazilian Embroidery (the second half is the same stitch reversed). Needle tatting is an easier alternative (although you aren't creating true tatting with needles, according to the purists) Here are some differences between the two styles.

This month's challenge to our silkribbon@yahoogroups members is to combine tatting with silk ribbon. As in our past challenges, I am sure what they come up with will be innovative and beautiful. I also hope you try your hand at this simple art. You will be surprised at how easy it is to create small motifs.

All I have left to say is "Bring on the Links".

Enjoy!

Online Instructions:

http://www.picotnet.com/TatOnline/tatting_instruction.htm
http://www.crafts4kids.com/projects/tatting.htm
http://www.georgiaseitz.com/classes2/crotat.html - CroTat!
http://www.craftown.com/instruction/tatting.htm
http://www.is-koeln.de/spitzentraum/DOL/tatips.htm
http://www.wcnet.org/~scwheels/page14.htm
http://www.thisntat.com/lessons1.html
http://www.craftown.com/instruction/tatting2.htm
http://www.hhtatting.com/learn.html
http://www.interlog.com/~gagechek/slb/index.html

General Info:

http://www.hhtatting.com/pattern.html
http://www.sandbenders.demon.co.uk/tatting/tatting_terms.htm
http://www.nlibin.addr.com/index.html
http://www.shuttleshop.com/
http://www.thisntat.com/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/5082/
http://www.shakal.org/crafts/tatting.html
http://www.corporaterefugee.com/tatting.html
http://www.is-koeln.de/spitzentraum/DOL/tatting.htm
http://www.hottub.org/~audrey/kersti/tatting/
http://www.fibreartsonline.com/fac/lace/laceResources.htm
http://lace.lacefairy.com/tatlinks.html
http://www.hhtatting.com/ (Needle Tatting)
http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/1216.asp
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?index&ring=etatters
http://www.tribbler.com/tatman/needle-tatting.html
http://www.users.bigpond.com/casmitchell/
http://www.tribbler.com/tatman/
http://www.frontiernet.net/~schyler/ndl_knot.html
http://pages.pinkpig.com/maus/
http://www.snowgoose.cc/
http://members.tripod.com/~Habit_Tat/index.html
http://www.is-koeln.de/spitzentraum/DOL/tatpatfinder.html
http://www.beanile.com/ - Beads and Tatting
http://www.logicaldatasys.com/tatting/Tatting.html
http://home.netcom.com/~ntrop/mimi/tatting.html - Tons of Links!

*Schiffchenarbeit - German,
Occhi - Italian,
Makouk - Turkish, Frivolite -
French, Frivolitet - Swedish,
Sukkulapitsi - Finnish*