001. How I started tatting...

001. How I started tatting.


Hello~ fellow tatters over the world~.
I'm Elaine and I've been tatting very slowly over two years. 
I just wanted to share with you how I started tatting, and also help out new tatters to blow away their fear of starting a new crafting hobby.

Tatting is very easy to start crafting.  
All you need to know is how to do double stitch to start with. 
It's not so hard, not so scary either. 

What I like so much about tatting:
1. You only need to purchase few materials to actually start tatting. (very low entry barrier. But of course you will buy more and more..)
2. Tatting shuttles and thread are not big in size so they fit just perfectly even inside your small purse.
3. It makes you concentrate and almost have same effect as meditating. 
4. It's just darn beautiful! Hermosa! とてもきれいだわ!

<This beautiful pattern is designed by Weed from Fireweed >

I was always fond of everything related to lace. I really wanted to learn crocheting but it was too difficult for me to understand. And all those needles and threads just made me dizzy.

One day, as I surfed at Naver I saw something called "Tatting Lace" and it looked very easy to start with.  All I needed was shuttles and Thread! So I joined tatting lace naver community to learn. But I was defeated again since it was just too hard to understand. I just didn't know where to start.  Now I know it but you know when you start learning for the first time it's like "what alien language are you speaking?" Yes, that was my first impression alright.

Then this tatting book got published in Korea.

This was the first Tatting book every published in Korea. The term "first" always makes your heart skip a beat.  This was a Japanese book translated to Korean.
So I bought it., and bought shuttles too.  "Daiso" lace thread was popular at the time in Korea. I bought them too. "Daiso" is like a one dollar shop in Korea.

But for a beginner, Daiso thread was not a good choice. 
It's okay now since I am more used to the thinner thread, but this was thinner than size 20 thread, almost like size 30. Tatting thread size is 10>20>40>80, bigger the size thinner the thread. Since I was a newbie I should have used thicker thread like size 10 or 20. Daiso thread made me defeated since the laces I tat weren't very nice they were wiggly and my hands were in pain. But I didn't give up. I practiced and practiced double stitches, hoping that one day I will be better. I think I practiced it almost a year. It took me very long time to move from Ring to Chain. The clips on Youtube really helped me. Thank you for those clips!!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+tatting

I finally decided to buy Lizbeth size 10 and 20 threads. I bought them at Kiss-the-lace size, the only tatting material web shop in Korea at the time. I also bought needle tatting beginner set to try. Needle tatting was faster than shuttle but I liked the shape of the shuttle tatting more. It may be that I am not really skilled but needle tatting results were a but puffy to me. 

Lizbeth!!! Lizbeth was!! Amazing! If you are a beginner you should start with Lizbeth size 20!
Good materials are really important for crafting!
I though I was just born with sloppy hands but I was wrong! Lizbeth is soft and beautiful.


And I started to attend local meeting. I met great people there and I got really better there. When I was tatting alone I wasn't sure what I was doing.  But at the gathering we could discuss about the technique and also got inspired. I improved so much tatting together with others. 

And the god of shopping came along.

I will post about what I have shopped and the tatting materials that Korean tatters use. 
Thank you so much for reading. Have a great day!

If you want to read this in Korean : http://elainetatting.blogspot.kr/2014/04/001.html