Learn about tatting terms, abbreviations, and techniques.
Basic Tatting Kit
- Some Type of Container to Hold Your Tatting Kit
- Shuttles or Needles or Tatting Hooks
- Scissors
- Crochet Hook
- Frog-Stitch (Un-Tatting) Tool
- Picot Gauges
- Any Other Tool You Usually Use When Tatting
Additional Ideas for the Basic Tatting Kit
- Magnifying Glass or Cheap Reading Glasses (For Those Small Threads, Especially for Frog Stitching)
- Some Type of Intense Light (For Night-Tatting)
- A White Background Fabric (Like a Sheet, for Tatting Black Threads)
- If You Are Using Beads, a 12" X 12" Piece of Veluz So Beads Won't Scatter
We are currently seeking feedback on the skill levels listed above and what tatting skills need added. We'd love your input!
Symbols
- +
- See join.
- ++
- Sometimes used to mean a beaded picot in which a bead is splitted onto the picot and then the picot is joined to. See bead join.
- -
- See picot.
- --
- Medium length picot.
- ---
- Long picot.
- ±
- Symbol for a picot to which subsequent picot joins are made.
- =
- Sometimes used to mean the picot to which an adjacent motif will be joined.
- ≠
- See picot.
A
- Adjacent
- Adj
Indicates an adjacent element.
B
- Bare thread space
- BTS, UTS
- Beads
- Bead join
- Beads can be added to the rings of chains by sliding them into place wherever there is a picot. Sometimes the picot is also a join and the way to do the join and still have a bead at that location is to do a bead join. Make sure the picot is long enough to fit through the center of the bead and leave a little extra room at the tip. Then do the join through the tip of the picot. When completed the join is invisible inside the bead.
- Beaded picot
- Beanile (advanced beading style)
- Beginning
- Between
- Block tatting
- Bobble tatting
C
- Cabone ring
- CR
- Catherine wheel joins
- Celtic knotted picot
- Celtic tatting
- Central ring
- CR
- Chain
- CH, Ch
A chain is a string of double stitches used to link rings together or to form design elements. - Cluny
- Cluny picot
- Cluny tatting
- A method of holding the fingers like a loom and weaving threads back and for across a ring making an interesting leaf shape of solid threads.
- Continuous thread method
- CTM
Working without cutting the shuttle thread from the ball or with 2 shuttles wound with one long unbroken thread. - CR
- See central ring or cabone ring depending on circumstances of pattern being worked.
D
- Dimpled rings
- Rings are usually round or oval in shape, but an interesting heart shape can be achieved by tatting a ring with a picot near the top of the ring then tat 2 or 3 stitches and join to the picot. Complete the ring and close. The join will make a fold at the top of the ring giving it a "dimple". Care must be taken to tat somewhat loosely or the dimpled ring will be very hard to close.
- Do not cut
- DNC
- Do not reverse work
- DNRW
- Double half-hitch set
- DHS
Formed by working 1st half of double stitch twice followed by 2nd half of double stitch twice. - Double knot
- dbl k, DK
- Double picots
- A very long picot that is joined back to the chain or ring after one or two stitches. The picot is then arranged with one side pulled out longer than the other giving the effect of one picot on top of the other.
- Double Stitch
- DS, ds
The double stitch is formed in 2 halves and is the basis for all tatting. It is sometimes called a double knot. See also Lark's Head Knot LHK - Downward facing picots
E
F
- Form stitch (similar to a cluny leaf but more square in appearance)
- Free Thread Join
- FTJ
- Free Thread Space
- FTS
- Front side/back side tatting
- Beads can be added to the rings of chains by sliding them into place wherever there is a picot. Sometimes the picot is also a join and the way to do the join and still have a bead at that location is to do a bead join. Make sure the picot is long enough to fit through the center of the bead and leave a little extra room at the tip. Then do the join through the tip of the picot. When completed the join is invisible inside the bead.
G
H
- Half moon split ring
- Hanging cluny
I
- Inner circle
- IC
- Inner ring
- IR
- Interlocking rings
J
- Join
- Josephine knot
- jk
A Josephine knot is a small ring made using only one half of a double stitch. - Josephine ring
- See Josephine knot.
K
L
- Large ring
- LR
- Lark's head knot
- LHK, LH
Used in more advanced techniques, is the reverse of a double stitch, done often in split ring tatting on the unflipped side of the ring. - LH
- See left hand or Lark's head knot as pattern circumstances require.
- Left hand
- LH
- Left hand thread
- LHT
- Left hand wrap color
- LHWC
- Left hand wrap thread
- LHWT
- Lock joins
- Lock stitch
- Long picots
- Loop over connection
- LOC
M
- Magic thread trick
- In order to avoid having knots in your finished lace it is advisable to hide your ends. One method of doing this is to pull the ends inside the tatted stitches. This is accomplished by tatting over loops of thread at the beginning and ending points of the final round. The ends are inserted into the loops which are then used to pull the ends under the stitches.
- Mignonette stitch
- Rows of Josephine knots or tiny rings separated by a measured spaces of bare thread, where the next round is joined to the bare thread. This makes a very lacy network of tatting and several rows may be used to edge a handkerchief before a final row of edging is applied, or it may be used for an interesting effect to separate rows of edging or to create 'negative space' in a doily or collar.
- Mock picots (climbing out)
- Mock ring
- See self-closing mock ring.
- Multiple row tatting
- Multiple shuttles (more than 2)
N
- Needle lace filling
- Node stitch
- Needle tatting
- Number (e.g. 2, 3, 4)
- Number of stitches per section (usually double knots but may be different if spiral stitch, etc. is being used).
O
- O
- See second half of double stitch.
- OR
- See outer ring.
- OU
- See reverse order of double stitch.
- Outer Ring
- OR
P
- Padded tatting
- Pearl tatting
- Multiple threads used so that a chain can be more than one color and have picots or rings coming from either the top or the bottom of the chain.
- Picot
- P, p, -
Picots are tiny loops of thread between double stitches which may be either decorative, or may be used to join elements of tatting together. Traditional tatting uses an abundance of picots to achieve a lacy effect, but more modern tatting uses fewer picots. - Previous
- Prev
- Previous chain
- PCh
Indicates the previous chain. - Previous inner ring
- PIR
- Previous large ring
- PLR
- Previous outer ring
- POR
- Previous ring
- PR
- Previous small ring
- PSR
- Previous split ring
- PSR
- PSR
- See previous small ring or previous split ring depending on date of pattern and circumstance in which the pattern is being worked.
Q
- Quadruple Victoridan Set
- QHS
Formed by completing 4 1st half of double stitch followed by 4 2nd hald of double stitches worked in sequence.
R
- Reading patterns and symbols
- Remaining
- Rem
- Repeat
- Rep
- Respectively
- Resp
- Reverse Lark's Head Knot
- RLHK
Done when working the second half of a split ring with the back side facing in front side/back side tatting. Work the LHK with 2nd half then 1st half. - Reverse Order of Double Stitch
- OU, RDS, RODS
Reverse order of half stitches that make a double stitch. Done when working front side/back side tatting, with back side facing you - do 2nd half of double stitch followed by 1st half in sequence. - Reverse Work
- RW
May mean to flip work from top to bottom or turn like a cartwheel depending on the circumstances of the pattern. The term "turn" is also used to mean "reverse work" in some early books. - Rickrack Tatting
- See Victorian Sets.
- Rings
- R
A ring is a continuous circle of double stitches. Tatting may be made exclusively with rings or combined with chains. - Rings off chains (hanging rings)
- Rings off split rings
- Rolled tatting
- Round
- Rnd
S
- Second Half of Double Stitch
- O, 2ndHS
2nd half of double sticht, created by going over the thread - Self-closing mock rings
- SCMR
A ring made with the chain thread so that it is a mock ring. A loop at the beginning of the mock ring is kept open so that the shuttle can be slid through the loop when the ring is completed. Pulling on the shuttle thread pulls the stitches into place and tightens the chain into a ring shape. - Shoelace trick
- SLT
When working with one shuttle or running out of thread it is possible to switch the thread positions by doing a shoe lace tie. This is simply doing the first half of a knot the same as you would to tie shoe laces. Doing this wraps one thread over and under the other thread and reverses their positions. This lets you switch your ball and shuttle threads so that the thread with the shuttle can be used for making rings, then another SLT will put the shuttle back in position to continue. It is also helpful when you are working with 2 shuttles, but one of them is running out of thread and you only have a little more work to do. You can switch to the shuttle with more thread and continue working. - Separated
- Sep
- Shoelace Trick
- SLT, ST
Tying an overhand knot to switch positions of your thread. - Shuttle
- SH
A shuttle is a device used to hold thread when tatting. They come in many shapes and sizes. Some have an oblong shape with a fixed center post the top and bottom come together at the tips with a narrow space though which the thread is wound. Others have a detachable bobbin, which holds the thread. Some shuttles are flat. Shuttles often have a hook or point at the front which can be used for joining. - Shuttle joins
- The shuttle thread is used to make the join whenever a downward join is required. Frequently used when chains are joined to a previous row. It is also used when joining the end of a split chain.
- Single shuttle split ring
- Split chains
- SC
Part of the chain is tatted in the usual manner, but in order to have the thread exit the chain at a different point than the end of the chain, the shuttle thread is used to do a shuttle join at the point where the chain would normally end. Then the shuttle thread is used to encapsulate the bare thread making imitation double stitches. This lets the tatter work back toward the middle of the chain, and exit the chain at a new point. This technique can also be used to climb out of a round and avoid having ends to hide. Split chains are often used in conjunction with split rings for this purpose. - Split rings
- SR
Rings made with 2 threads where the first part of the ring is a normal ring and the second part of the ring is made of un-flipped stitches. It looks like a normal ring, but where a normal ring has the thread exiting the ring where it started the threads (2) may exit the ring at any point. This is useful for "climbing out of a round" so that you avoid having ends to hide. The split ring can begin at it's normal point at the base of the ring, but the threads can exit at the top or the ring, in position to begin the next round. - Square rings
- SR
- See small ring (for patterns written before 1985) or split ring for most patterns written after 1985. Look at pattern images/diagrams for context clues.
- ST
- See stitch or shoelace trick depending on context in pattern.
- Stitch
- ST, Sts
- Switch Shuttles
- SS,SShs
T
- Tatting thread
- Anything from crochet cotton to the finest sewing thread can be used for tatting. A hard twist thread like crochet cotton or tatting thread works best, but any thread that is even and can withstand being pulled without breaking, can be used. This includes quilting thread, sewing thread and embroidery thread. Linen and similar threads that are "nubby" make it impossible to close rings and are unsuitable as is polyester thread which binds too much for rings to close. No Victorian lady would ever tat with anything coarser than size 40, but things have changed and modern tatting will typically use size 20 or 30. Thread referred to as tatting thread is usually size 80.
- 3D tatting
- Triple picots
- Triple Victorian Set
- 1st half of DS three times followed by 2nd half of DS three times in sequence.
- Turn
- Can mean reverse work, can mean rotate like a cartwheel. Context dependant.
- Twisted picots
- A decorative effect in a ring created by making a very long picot, then twisting the picot and joining into the tip of it before closing the ring.
U
- U
- 1st half of the double stitch; the stitch made when you go under the thread first.
- UO
- DS
A formal way of writing out the way the DS is made. It is used in some advanced node stitch and Victorian Sets work. - Unworked thread space
- UTS, BTS
See bare thread space.
V
- Victorian Set
- VS, Rickrack Tatting
This may go under other names, but it is done like the Josephine knot, making a chain by using one half of the Doublestitch for a specified number of stitches, then reversing and using the other half of the double stitch. Tatting in this manner creates a zigzag effect in the chain. When the same half stitch is used instead of alternating you get a spiral rather than a zigzag effect.
W
- Weaver's knot
- A weaver's knot aka a square knot is made by tying two threads together, left over right, then right over left. A weaver's knot can be positioned anywhere you want it and won't come undone. It is often used to tie final ends together.
- Wire tatting
- Working shuttle
- Wsh, WSh
X
- Extended picot
- XP
This marks and extended picot that is usually measured.
Y
Z
Help us grow this resource!
If you know of a tatting term, symbol, or technique that we haven't listed, let us know! We would also like to add links to resources (like video tutorials, written directions, etc.). So if you know of good resources, please let us know - shuttlebirdslibrarian@gmail.com!