(no subject)

[coyotemama.livejournal.com]

Hi! I am very new to tatting and I needed some help. emmacrew sent me over here. :)

I am trying to learn the basic techniques of tatting on my own because I don't know anyone around me who does it. So, what I'm having trouble with is the second half of the double stitch. The first half works fine. I make the stitch and I can "pop" or "flip" it into place like my little book says to do. It'll slide all over my shuttle thread, just like the books says as well. But when I make the second half of the stitch, it is HARD to "pop" it into place. And I really do mean hard. I have to completely let go of the loop around my left fingers, brace on it, yank with my shuttle, and strain until the little bugger "pops" into the correct position.

I am assuming that you don't have to work so hard to do this, or why do it? ;) Can anyone guess as to what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks so much!

P.S. I enjoyed looking at the past posts and seeing all the neat things that you have all made. I hope I can get that good!

Comments

[angelicmystique.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, but I don't have my shuttle, and can't think of a way to answer until I can work it out myself. Sorry I'm weird that way.

I love your icon- it's from Red Dwarf, isn't it?

[coyotemama.livejournal.com]

Yes! It's Lister. I love that series so much. ;)

[elspethdawitch.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...try doing it at an angle? I don't have a shuttle on me at the moment either so I doubt I'm much help...

[moniqueleigh]

Wow. I just pulled out my shuttles to try to recreate that, &... I couldn't. It's become such second-nature to me that doing it "wrong" is difficult.

One thing I noticed though: When I'm making my stitches (either half actually), I don't hold the thread around my hand that tightly. The "loop" is rather loose, & I do the "flip" as I tighten the loop. As well as making the flip work, it also helps pull the stitch into place more easily/quickly.

I'm sure that was about as clear as mud, but I hope it helped at least somewhat.... Ummm, perhaps Sharon's demo will help more? I don't hold my thread exactly like she does, but the concept is similar.

[coyotemama.livejournal.com]

The "loop" is rather loose, & I do the "flip" as I tighten the loop. As well as making the flip work, it also helps pull the stitch into place more easily/quickly.

Thank you, thank you! That really helped me! I was tightening the loop, then trying to flip it. I love doing things the hard way. ;D

[moniqueleigh]

Heh. I soooo understand. Btw, I finally checked your user info. Even though I've probably (definitely) got too many people already, I'm adding you. ;)

[coyotemama.livejournal.com]

Yay! New friends are fun. I added you back. :)

[same-sky.livejournal.com]

I blinked a little when I saw you post here, since I recognized your name as a friend of queensheba. :) Small world, considering how tatting is an unusual sort of hobby!

You can kind of force the flip, as it seems you're doing, but it's much harder that way in the long run. It's so hard to explain in text like this, but I tend to relax the fingers of my left hand and then pull the shuttle out in a quick, rather gentle sweeping motion from straight down (as you do the looping over-under) into a straight line with the thread that goes around the left hand. Try to think of the shuttle thread as just being there to manipulate the flipped thread into place, because that's really all you're doing. There are some really good videos at http://tatting.net/techniques.html (http://tatting.net/techniques.html) that will probably show this a little better.

There's a lady named Wilma (who's been tatting since 1938) in Cinci that does demonstrations every.. month? somewhere. She's an active member of several of the online tatting groups. I assume you're somewhere in that area.. I'll try to figure out where and when she does it if you want. (You can see her yahoo photo album here: http://photos.yahoo.com/wlmwpkw1929) Other than that, if you still have trouble and happen to be somewhere in the Frankfort area sometime, I could try to help you. If you have any other questions I'll be happy to try to answer them. :)

[coyotemama.livejournal.com]

Actually, queensheba recommended that I ask you about it! lol That would be great if you could find out when she does her demonstrations. I do live very near Cincy, in Northern Kentucky. I will check out those links, too. I did finally figure out my problem - I was trying too hard. ;P I was pulling everything so tight that I had to yank to make the stitch flip.