Beginning Tatting: A Lesson Book: Arts and Crafts Collection

Forget the star rating. "Beginning Tatting" gets a 10-GRRRRR rating from me.I felt cheated by this book. I specifically bought it because another reviewer said the book is very helpful for people who are just learning to tat. The other reviewer also said that the photos in the book were especially helpful.I've been sewing and crocheting for as long as I can remember. I taught myself to knit from books. I am the kind of person who can read a 'how to' book and then do it. That being said, I could not figure out how to even start tatting with this annoying book. The author doesn't even tell you how to wind a shuttle. (Yes, it does make a difference! Shuttles that don't have a bobbin will naturally 'unwind' more thread for you as you tat if you have wound them the right way.)Do not be misled by the lovely cover color photo. The 'photos' inside the book are black and white photocopies. Many of the 'photos' are QUITE blurry - so blurry that it is impossible to figure out what to do by looking at the photos. I've shown the book to friends and they all are horrified when they see the extremely poor quality of the so-called 'photos' in this book.The author also has an unusual writing style. I had to read many sentences over and over to understand what on earth she was attempting to say. Her odd sentence structure is made even worse by the use of incorrect words. For example, she repeatedly uses "taught" when she really means "taut." I don't mean to sound like the 'grammer police,' but when you're trying to learn something from a book, it is very confusing and frustrating when the author uses the wrong words in her explanations.I would have given this book zero stars if that were possible, but opted to give some credit because of the later chapters in the book. Now that I know how to tat (after buying a different book that did indeed teach me quite quickly how to tat), I think some of the info in the later chapters of "Beginning Tatting" (i.e. adding beads to a tatting project) MIGHT be understandable.In short, if you already know how to tat, the info later on in this book MIGHT be helpfu (although, if you already know how to tat, I'm not sure you really need someone to tell you how to add beads to your work). However, if you're trying to learn to tat, forget this book. I cannot imagine that anyone could pick up this book, study the beginning lessons and start tatting."Beginning Tatting: A Lesson Book: Arts and Crafts Collection" cost almost $30 on Amazon and its lessons on how to start tatting were completely worthless. For one-third of the cost of this book, you can buy  Learn to Tat (with DVD)  and with absolutely no frustration you'll be tatting IN MINUTES and making things.So, my advice is save your money, don't buy this book. I found "Learn to Tat" much more helpful than "Beginning Tatting."

I have tried many books that claim to teach tatting, but they all start out assuming the pupil knows something about the craft and how to read patterns. This is the first book I have picked up that does not assume I know anything, which made following along much easier. I also found the use of actual photos rather than drawings easier for me to compare what I was doing to what it was supposed to look like if I was doing everything correctly. This may not be the least expensive book on the subject, but it is well worth the money (and the lower level of frustration) if you are truly looking for instructions for learning tatting on your own.

Again the title says Beginning Tatting with approximately 6 pictures that show you nothing but pictures. Nothing about what goes where just hands holding thread and a shuttle. Then there are pictures of patterns written like knitting patterns. I like the way they are written, just would like to know how to do them instead of pictures of hands.

I totally agree with Auberry's review of this book. It definitely is not a good book for beginners. All the pictures are very poor quality black and white and blurry. Almost impossible to see what's going on. Also the patterns in there are all written and none are diagrams which would have been OK If the pictures were better. A better beginner book is "New Tatting."

Love the tatting books. Many patterns/.

I almost didn't buy this book because of the really negative review it got from one person. I'm on a fixed income, and I have to watch what I spend on non-essentials these days. I gave it days of thought and finally bit the bullet and bought it. I'm glad I did. I'm not the instant tatter I'd like to be, but I'm getting it better than I ever have before. I guess everyone learns differently. I have to admit that in the digital age, most of us expect color photos in everything, but when I checked out the photos on the sample pages, they seemed clear enough to distinguish the points the author was making. The illustrations that the negative interviewer posted were indeed very poor, but I couldn't help wondering if that had more to do with her photos of the book photos. When I got the book the first thing I did was check that out immediately, because I was going to return it if I wasn't satisfied. While some photos are less intense than others, I found the concepts were clearly illustrated. As a beginner that point was the most important to me. I decided it's not a coffee table book; it's a lesson book on tatting. So I kept it. I also noted from the contents posted on the site that the book is almost 170 pages of text--actually it's almost 200 with appendix. Almost all other tatting books are hardly more than 20-30 pages long. I don't like to think I buy my books by the pound, but really, I'm on a fixed income and more information for the dollar is where I'm at during my time of life!! When the book arrived, I realized that it included patterns as well as text and in working with it I've discovered that the process helps you actually think like an experienced tatter. It's about mental processes as well as technique. None of the other tatting books I've gotten from the library or purchased before have done that except Learning to Tat--which also has a DVD, though it was missing from the library book I borrowed. I also liked the fact that the whole technique is broken down into incremental lessons, so that a person can master things a bit at a time. I guess I'm just a lesson kind of girl--but then I was one of those girls who enjoyed school as a kid. Admittedly the breakdown can seem pretty intimidating on a first read of the contents, and I wasn't certain I could master it because of that. When the book came though, and I read parts of it, I realized that the lesson approach took away some of my initial sense of being overwhelmed by it all. I also liked learning with two colors of thread at the beginning so I could tell when I'd made a mistake; at least I wasn't practicing mistakes instead of stitches that way. It really helped. I've yet to try rings, but I really, really, really want to learn what I'm doing well before getting "beyond myself." In the meantime, I'm happy.---BJ Paige