My History of Tatting

French frivolité, Finnish sukkulapitsi means 'shuttle lace'.

Schiffchenarbeit in German 'the work of the little boat'.

The 'shuttle', makouk is Turkish, or maybe mekik, for Turkish I don't speak.

India's tattie meaning 'mat', like those doilies we make.

in Italian it's occhi meaning 'little eye' referring to the rings.

Icelandic taeta meaning

'little pieces of wool combings, to knot, to pick up'.

Originally tatting was made in little bits

painstakingly sewn together with a needle.

In America it's called tatting which probably came

from the old English tat to 'entangle or weave',

or could it be that when women get together they tattled with gossip

(which is too outrageous to believe).

Tatting came from knotting and was used to decorate.

An Egyptian mummy's skirt, with rings, was overlaid.

The Chinese couched their knotting into embroideries

which eventually found their way to European furnishings.

In Europe, ladies, not wanting to be idle, would knot,

allowing them to sit still and still be useful, and show off

extravagant and expensive shuttles, gold and silken threads,

richly adorned and bejeweled knotting bags carried with them

to parties, the theater, and tea with their best friends.

While the French and English nobility were knotting,

flaunting their delicate hands, and brilliant rings,

an Italian nun decided to make a ring from her knot string.

Thus begins, unofficially, the art known as tatting.

Chaucer wrote about it in his Canterbury Tales.

Sir Charles Sedley wrote a poem,

The Royal Knotter, about England's Queen

who takes her knotting on her trip to Wales

(I made that up, but she would have if she went).

So from couching threads to a substantial edge

for a child's dress, or a lady's frill,

to bonnets, caps, and handkerchiefs,

from royalty to nunneries, tatting brings goodwill.

Once was made of silk,

now mostly made in cotton,

Tatting is not a lost art.

It has not yet been forgotten.

By: Paula D. Nevison

(re-post from July 26,2014)

Come see me tat at the Port City Craftsmen show this weekend.