WHY TAT? What's it Get You?

A few family and friends have asked me "WHY?" They all have a strange kind of querulous, expression when they say "tat". These folks will never appreciate how stumbling onto this odd hobby/obsession has changed my life.

As those on the old eTatters, now re-born as InTatters, may already know, I was given a shuttle by a stranger, visiting from the American South, who was chatting with me in a yarn store. I said I tried the shuttle a few years back and couldn't fathom how to make anything pretty. In fact, I couldn't make anything! She smiled sweetly, whipped a little plastic thing out of her pocket and said, "It's time to try again."


I think she gave my hand a small squeeze... I say this because I think she reminded me of the book and movie - Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil... If you haven't seen/read this, they are charged with an element of mystical spells, magical inference etc., that this woman seemed to wear like a lingering cologne.

Anyway, I took the shuttle, thanked her and promised to try my hardest. I never even got her name.

A few days later, I signed up on eTatters and was littering my living room with hens and chicks and other arcane twisted scraps of thread.

Then, while visiting Auntie, who is 92 (SHE appreciates my tatting! ) I met her friend. This complete stranger gave me a wonderful, tiny pair of scissors she had acquired years ago in Japan, which she no longer used.


There is an inscription on the blade - perhaps a commercial name or logo. Someone from that part of the world on eTatters tried to find the meaning, but couldn't. Anybody?

They are THE BEST.

Lynn of eTatters is also the best.

Of all the truly amazing and unbelievably helpful women I have met online - all my tatting teachers out there in computerville - (I know NO ONE who tats personally) she is the one who deserves the prize. From the start she encouraged, instructed, corrected and helped me so that I became more confident about not only tatting, but using my computer to ask for help. That was a great leap for me.

I AM SHY! Communicating on-line has become a lot of fun. So, a blog was a natural development. I was not prepared for responses right away and I could not be happier. You see, although I am shy, I also ADORE AN AUDIENCE! How pathetic is that!!!!!

It would be pathetic, indeed, not to give credit where it is due. People should always be acknowledged for their contributions.
For the tips and encouragement on downloading , I have to mention The Dark Ranger. For those of you who are aficionados of Hockey, this blog is amazing and already quoted in The New York Times.

To me, a puck looks a lot like a picot.
But a good friend is a good friend, no matter the sport.

So, from an unexpected gift to an old lady in a retirement home; from an old pair of scissors to teachers and friends on the Net; a new blogger is born. Sheer magic.


~Fox ~
~Aspiring Adept of TATROMANCY (magical meanderings with rings, chains and picots) ~