Well, i sort of know how to tat, but i don't know anything much about the craft. its very old.

tatting, and net making (as in fishing nets) are the same 'knots' and same technique. even the shuttle used in tatting looks like the shuttle used in net making, only its all smaller. Usually tatting is not done in big sheets (but i do have a pair of tatted gloves!) but in narrow bands, that are closed into loops or rings, and these are knotted together (with the same stitch as use to knot the egde of a fish net!) to create lace.

i don't really know anyone who tats, and i found it slow going (but i did make a collar and cuffs once) but i have read that good tatters can go quite fast. nowdays, the only place one sees tatting is as a fill in word in a crossword puzzle (current editor uses lace=tat all the time
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but sumptuary laws also gave us 'the bonfires of the vanities', in case you ever wondered where that phrase came from.


my other obsession