Current obsession?

 Tatting!!!

Tatting is a form of lace making made with fingers, shuttle, or needle.  

    There are TONS of places to learn about what tatting is online, and it has a full and wonderful history.  It is an old art, but it's being revived again.  Thank the Lord for that and that I found it! Maybe if there is an interest, I'll put some more information here or even make a whole blog about it, but for now I'm just leaving this here.

How did I get started in tatting?

Well, that needs a bit of backstory.  Let me start by saying that I love helping people.  The Lord opened an opportunity to begin doing just that with some older members of my church.  This is how I met Grace.  She had lost her husband a few months prior (I sadly never got to meet him) and she was moving from her house into an apartment.  Grace is legally blind, so when I helped her move, we had to go through every little thing with me describing what I thought it was, her deciding if she wanted it, and then remembering which pile was which.  I LOVED doing this.  She thought I was nuts!  I should add that I'm in my 40's and she in her 90's.

I have always been fascinated with "older" things.  Not antiques per se, but the stories of how people did things.  Unfortunately, in the past when I've had more opportunity to learn some of these skills (canning, hand-making things, etc) I did not avail myself.  As I've gotten older, I've wanted to learn and in the last few years have set my sights on crocheting, knitting, and most recently, tatting.

Back to Grace.  While packing up her home, I noticed she had several pieces of lacey crosses in picture frames.  She told me, "oh that's my tatting."  I of course asked her what that was.  She told me how she had taken a class at the local Y many years ago to learn with a shuttle.  Her and a female friend took it together and out of a class of 6 people, only 3 learned the skill. (Her friend dropped out the first day).  Grace stayed up till 3am trying to master the art of what I've now come to learn was 'the flip'.

So, that's how I got started.  Intrigued by these strange looking devices called shuttles, I bought a cheap one, some crochet cotton, and set out to find some videos on YouTube.

I should add that I started learning crochet, then knitting.  Debi, the person teaching me these skills had heard of tatting, was intrigued, and wanted to learn, too. She was more interested in needle tatting, however.  I've fallen in love with shuttle.  As of this post, I'm taking a free needle class online.  I'm learning a lot, and should really stop blogging and go practice.

Until next time... grab onto one of life's crafts and get to it!

-Angie K