Every thing you wanted or needed to know about Tatting
Tatting is a technique for handcrafting a notably heavy duty lace constructed utilizing a number of knots and loops. Tatting can be used in order to make lace edging in addition to doilies, collars, and various decorative pieces.
The Tatting Lace is created by way of a pattern of rings and chains formed by a selection of cow hitch, or half-hitch knots, referred to as double stitches (ds), over the core thread. Gaps might be left amongst the stitches to form picots, that are employed for practical construction as well as decorative effect.
Tatting dates to the early 19th century. The word for tatting in most European languages springs out of French frivolité, which is the word for the purely decorative nature of the textiles made by this technique. The technique originated to mimic point lace.
Some reckon that tatting patterns could have developed from netting and decorative ropework as sailors and fishers would put together motifs for girlfriends and wives back home. Decorative ropework utilized on ships includes techniques (esp. coxcombing) that relate striking similarity with tatting. A good description about this can be observed in Knots, Splices and Fancywork.
Some believe tatting originated over two centuries ago, often citing shuttles seen in eighteenth century paintings of ladies for example Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Madame Adelaide (daughter of Louis XV of France), and Anne, Countess of Albemarle. A detailed inspection of those paintings shows that the shuttles involved are too large to generally be tatting shuttles, and that they are in fact knotting shuttles.
There’s no documentation, nor any instances of tatted lace, that date previous to 1800. All the available evidence shows that tatting originated from the early 1800s.
Older designs, especially through the early 1900s, tend to use fine white or ivory thread (50 to 100 widths on the inch) and intricate designs. This thread was either produced from silk or a silk blend, permitting for improper stitches to be easily removed.
Newer designs belonging to the 1920s and onward often use thicker thread available as one if not more colors. The most effective thread for tatting is usually a “hard” thread that will not untwist readily.
DMC Cordonnet thread is a very common tatting thread; Perl cotton can be an instance of an impressive cord that is nonetheless a lttle bit loose for tatting purposes. Some tatting styles incorporate ribbons and beads.
Because so many fashion magazines, and home economics magazines through the first part of the twentieth century attest, tatting had a substantial following. When fashion included feminine touches for instance lace collars and cuffs, and inexpensive yet pleasant baby shower gifts were needed, this creative art flourished. As the fashion moved to an even more modern look and technology made lace a straightforward and inexpensive commodity to obtain, hand-made lace began to decline.
Tatting has been utilized in occupational therapy to maintain convalescent patients’ hands and minds active during recovery, as documented, as an example, in Betty MacDonald’s The Plague & I.
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