Q&A for How to Begin Tatting

You can do this by soaking your work in water or in a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water, and then letting it dry overnight. When the tatted item is dry, it will be stiff. If you do not want your project to be stiff, then you can skip this finishing step.

Yes, an alternative would be using a long, thin metal needle that you would wrap the thread around.

A flip or flipped stitch is the same as a double stitch, the only stitch you use in tatting. It's called this because you "flip" the loop of thread from the shuttle thread to the working thread using the technique illustrated above. You do not see this term in needle tatting because the stitch is formed with the working thread without any need to use a shuttle, and therefore, no "flip" will take place.

The same as a right-handed person -- by facing someone and watch them do it as they teach.

This may not be possible considering that you need to pass the thread through the loops you create and they can be quite small. The shuttle is small enough to easily pass through the loops, which allows you to work quickly and make precise stitches.

You can use just about anything that will fit on your shuttle, as long as it is tightly wound and smoothly finished. You wouldn't want to use wool, for example, nor anything that might fray or fuzz. I have used everything from Japanese silk embroidery thread to nylon crafting cord to polyester high twist carpet yarn. Just make sure your shuttle can handle the size.

Different patterns use different shorthand. Often 3=3-3-3 would mean the same thing as 3+3-3-3, it is a notation to join the first picot to the last picot of the previous ring.