Tatting Isn't for the Faint of Heart

(Picture from here.)

All my life I've wanted to learn how to tat.  It is really a lost art. My grandfather tatted baby clothes for my mother when she was a baby, and it was beautiful work!  My husband has a cousin who tats, but Idaho is too far to go for her to teach me.

A couple of years ago, I found an older woman in our ward (church congregation) who tats.  Now that I'm not working, I finally have the time to learn.  I spent two hours the other day with her for my first tatting lesson.  I was thrilled that she was willing to teach me.  She is blind, which makes it even more intimidating for me -- if she can do it without sight, I should be able to do this.  Right???

This is not easy stuff!  After 1 1/2 hours working with tatting thread (which is very fine), she told me that I needed to go home and practice on bigger thread.  I pulled out some crochet thread which is much larger, and I've been practicing all week with that. Once I figured out how to do the stitches, it was a matter of perfecting  the stitches so they are even and pretty.  Tonight I went back to the tatting thread.  I'm getting it -- but this is going to be a LOT of work!

May I just say that this would have been easier had I learned how to do this before arthritis set in?  My fingers don't bend the way they used to, and they cramp up too!

I will do this!  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!  Toot! Toot!