I just finished this jewelry set using Lizbeth 20 thread in color 672. Although I don’t have an outfit to wear this jewelry set with (yet), I choose this color to match the gold color of the round findings I used (purchased at Michaels for $3.99).

While on a tourist trip to Turkey in 2019 I was ‘talking’ to this women in the photo about if she had some needle-made ‘oyasi/oya’ for sale like what she had on the edge of her headdress.  I pulled out my Moonlit tatting shuttle to try to tell her that I did NOT want ‘tatted’ lace (I can make that myself).  Her eyes went big when she saw the Moonlit shuttle and asked to hold it herself.  (Keep in mind that I did not speak Turkish, and she did not speak English.) After I realized that she was fondling the Moonlit shuttle longingly, she motioned to her table of lace wares and suggested that we make a trade–my Moonlit shuttle for a piece of lace from her booth.  I chose this piece of machine-made ‘tatted’ lace thinking that I was getting the better end of the deal.  She wanted me to take two, which I declined.

Proof that I actually still DO know how to tat chains!

I posted my second TattingTube video a week or so ago but haven’t had a chance to promote it.  Actually this video was created to introduce (more fully) my dream/inspiration of creating a video community of information about tatting to promote tatting.

Please consider creating a YouTube channel of your own and sharing your own journey/life with tatting.

When I went into YouTube today to get the address to my video I discovered that there is a new TattingTube channel & tatting content creator—Wanda’s Knotty Thoughts.  I was soooo excited to see this video.  Wanda’s YouTube video is exactly what I was envisioning.  The videos do not have to be long….its just a way to share what we’re working on; give patterns, designs, designers, etc exposure to show that TATTING IS NOT DEAD to the non-tatting public but also gives us a way to ‘meet/see’ other tatters.  I was so excited to be able to put a face to a name with Wanda as well as get an introduction to what she is working on.

Just today I was having coffee with my tatting friend, Beth when we bumped into my motorcycling friend, Dee and had coffee and conversation together. Upon hearing about Beth’s & my connection to tatting remembered hearing about a woman traveling with her mother in a sidecar. The mother tatted!!!

This really peaked my interest because: 1. I ride a motorcycle; 2. I used to ride a motorcycle with a sidecar (when my kids were little we took them everywhere with us, around the country, even to Alaska); 3. Tatting; 4. Cross-country touring.

So we looked it up and found the following article: https://ridermagazine.com/2015/08/04/effies-great-adventure-first-women-to-ride-cross-country/

According to the article, the mother in the sidecar, learned to tat in the first quarter of their cross-country trip and was after and avid tatter.

I just love this story!

I just today, created and posted a video to my new YouTube channel:  TheShuttleSmithTatting.

I’m a bit clumsy in my recording, but I had to start somewhere.  I find that if I ‘over-think’ something I never get it started/done. I hired a wonderful ‘social media marketer’ who has been helping me get-going in the confusing social media world.  She (Claire) pushed me to disregard my comfort-level and ‘just do it!’ That is why I actually have a video to post. (I can find a million excuses to not start something.)

In this video, I not only introduce myself  and my business, The ShuttleSmith, but I also am introducing my vision of creating a YouTube ‘community’ of tatters that I am naming ‘TattingTube’.  I will be posting more information about this concept in the very near future.  I’m very excited about TattingTube not only for myself but also for promoting the tatting world in general.

Please consider ‘liking’ and ‘subscribing’ to my YouTube channel to help me promote tatting.

Etsy.com/shop/TheShuttleSmith