The exercises below will greatly enhance your understanding of tatting and its many variations. Print this out and follow along. You'll end up with some nice edgings and a neat snowflake and you'll be a lot more comfortable with your shuttle :-) If the instructions get repetitive, then you've noticed we used the same basic ring for everything you see here!

Figure 1
A basic edging

We begin with just the shuttle. Make a ring of 5 ds, p, 2 ds, 3 p sep by 1 ds, 2 ds, p 5 ds, cls R.

In longhand this would be: Make a ring of 5 doublestitches, a picot, 2 doublestitches, 3 picots separated by 1 doublestitch, 2 doublestitches, a picot, 5 doublestitches, close the ring.

Now look at your ring and make sure it is closed completely, but not so tightly that it has a bumpy look. Leave enough thread so that your next ring will be just past the last picot on the first ring you made. Now, make your second ring and join the first picot to the last picot of the last ring. Continue on with 2 ds, 3 p sep by 1 ds, 2 ds, p, 5 ds, cls R.

This is a basic and simple edging that can be used on a lot of projects. You can vary the rings with less picots or more, larger rings or smaller by adding or subtracting doublestitches...as long as you make them exactly the same, you will have a nice even edging.

Figure 2
Edging with chains

Now lets go to the next step of using chains instead of just plain thread to get to each ring.

R 5 ds, p, 2 ds, 3 p sep by 1 ds, 2 ds, p, 5 ds, cls R. (this shorthand is explained above).

Now, turn your ring completely upside down. Wind the ball thread over your hand and around your pinkie. The ball thread should dangle from your pinkie. Now, with your shuttle tat your chain the exact same way you tatted your ring. This may feel awkward at first but I promise you it becomes second nature with practice. Tat 5 ds, p, 5 ds. Turn your work rightside up again. Drop the ball thread from your hand and make the next ring: R 5 ds, join to last p of last ring, 2 ds, 3 p, sep by 1 ds, 2 ds, p, 5 ds, cls. R. Continue in this manner, turning your work upside down for the chains and rightside up for the rings. Now you are doing just about everything you need to do in order to tat almost anything!

Let's move on....