Shuttles or Needles?

[moonswirl.livejournal.com]

Hello fellow tatters!

Have any of you tried tatting with needles? I first heard of tatting from a needle-tatting pattern I saw in "Fancywork" magazine some years ago. I picked up a set of needles and learned to tat with them, not even realizing there was this whole other world of shuttles out there...

Eventually, I caught on to shuttles - but had a hard time learning the technique until I came across the wonderful photo instructions on Jen's Tat-ra Sutra site. (highly recommended instrux for those new to the craft, btw!)

I prefer shuttles these days, but I was wondering what other tatters think. Do tell!

Comments

[moniqueleigh]

I have a set of needles from my MIL, but haven't tried them yet. I love my shuttles too much to put 'em down long enough to try the needles. :D

I've heard some say that needle tatting is easier to learn, but then I had no problem getting the "flip" (supposedly the hard part). I've also heard that needle tatting is slightly looser than shuttle tatting. But that might change with practice. *shrug*

And I looooove Jen's site for instructions!! Absolutely perfect when you're trying to teach yourself! I can't find the initial site I used anymore, but it was very similar to Carrie Carlson's site. Well, shoot! I was going to post her link, but it's not working at the moment. Hrmph.

[moonswirl.livejournal.com]

If you had no trouble with the "flip" then maybe you don't need to bother with needles, haha. The flip took me forever to figure out - it was Jen's instructions that finally did the trick for me.

[moniqueleigh]

Yeah, that's one of the reasons I've not picked up my needles yet. Plus, except for a very few instances, there's not much I can't do with my shuttles.

There actually are one or two patterns out there that are needle-only. Which translates to: You can do it with a shuttle, but you're going to have to remove the thread from the shuttle at least once! ;)