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Basic Tatting Lessons
- Tips for Beginners
Suggestions for
New Learners:
- Until you are comfortable
with the "flip", check after each half of the ds or each complete ds
to make sure that it has flipped correctly. Each half stitch must be
flipped or you will not be able to pull the shuttle thread to make the
ring close.
- Your threads may
twist as you work. Every so often, while holding completed stitches
firmly between your left forefinger and thumb, let the shuttle dangle
to allow the thread to untwist.
- It is extremely
difficult to undo a tatting ring after you've closed it. Before closing
any ring, be sure to check that it contains the necessary number of
ds and picots indicated in the pattern. If you need to correct a closed
ring, you will most likely have to cut it open, undo some knots and
join a new thread to re-make the ring.
- If a pattern starts
with a ring, calls for both rings and chains, and you've just filled
your shuttle, do not cut the thread from the ball. Simply begin to tat.
After the ring is closed, you will have both a ball and a shuttle thread
- and no need to hide any thread ends!
- Picots are not
made between halves of a ds. "Picot" refers to the loop, not to the
ds on either side of it. When you make a picot, the next ds counts as
the first stitch for the next group.
- Try to make the
picots within a pattern all the same size unless the pattern tells you
to make some larger or smaller than others.
More tips and tricks
are available from your fellow tatters in the Tools
& Tips section of this site.
Continue Lessons:
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| Page 3 | Lesson Tips |
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