| This knotted lace made its first published appearance in a short story by Charles Robert Forrester, published in 1835. The first instructional mention of tatting appeared when Mrs. Jane Gaugain used the word tatting in 1842. At the beginning it was used exclusively as a substantive noun; the verbal forms not appearing until later. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the etymology of this word (despite numerous speculations by tatting authors) is unknown. I have done research in this area and you can read the monograph that I have authored and submitted to the OED's Reading Programme to be considered for inclusion in the next edition of the dictionary; they tell me there has been no change to the entry for 'tatting' since the first edition. Here are some of the earliest needlework usages of the word and other examples of its appearance in literature over the years. Many thanks to the uncredited readers who supplied some of the citations. If you have a quote to add, please email me by clicking HERE and supply the title, publisher, year of publication, edition, chapter, page, and exact quote. | |
| A Masquerade; Author of Absurdities, (Forrester, Charles Robert). Short story published in The Comic offering: or, Ladies' melange of literary mirth; ed. Sheridan, Louisa Henrietta. London, 1835 | |
| 1835 | p. 170 "In needle-work, I have a new stitch for watch-pockets, to be worked on tick, with a sprig of thyme border. Knitting, knotting, and tatting for spare moments; and as for worsted-works, I forbid them entirely, because they are crewel." |
| The Lady's Assistant for Executing Useful and Fancy Designs in Knitting, Netting, and Crochet Work. Fifth Edition. Re-arranged and Improved by the Proprietor . . .; Gaugain, Mrs. Jane Edinburgh, 1840-46; 3 v, octavo | |
| 1842, vol. II | p. 411 "Common Tatting Edging"
p. 412 "If the Tatting has not been properly worked, this scollop (sic) will not draw. All Tatting stitches must be formed with the loop around the fingers." |
| Saturday Review; London | |
| 1864, 22 May | "It retires to talk scandal over her tatting with any fashionable old maid with whom the party may be tormented." |
| Wives and Daughters, A novel; Gaskell, Mrs. Elizabeth [Stevenson, Elizabeth Cleghorn] Harper & Brothers, New York, 1866 (From a magazine serial published 1864-66) | |
| 1864-66, chap. 20 | "It was exactly one of the speeches Molly had disliked him for before(....) Molly took great credit to herself for the unconcerned manner with which she went on with her tatting exactly as if she had never heard it." |
| Reader; London | |
| Oct. 28, 1865; 479/3 | In 1851 the Census showed a return of 902 pupils in the various arts of crochet laces, point lace . . ., pillow lace, . . . plain sewing, knitting and tatting. |
| Little Women; or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy; Alcott, Louisa May Roberts Bros, Boston, 1868; octavo. | |
| 1868, part II "Good Wives" chap. 27 | p. 341 "They were early, and while Miss Crocker set the heel of her stocking, Jo amused herself by examining the faces of the people who occupied the seat with them. On her left were two matrons, with massive foreheads and bonnets to match, discussing Women's Rights and making tatting." |
| Middlemarch; a study of provincial life; Eliot, George (Evans, Mary Ann) W. Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1871-72; 4 v, 19 cm | |
| 1871, chap. 28 | "'Her back is very large; she seems to have sat for that,' said Rosamond, not meaning any satire, but thinking how red young Plymdale's hands were, and wondering why Lydgate did not come. She went on with her tatting all the while." |
| Tatting; Whistler, McNeill, James Abbott; 1834-1903 Etching and drypoint, 1873; 125 x 75 mm | |
| 1873 | Click HERE for image of etching. |
| Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary. A description of tools, instruments, machines, processes, and engineering; history of inventions; general technological vocabulary; and digest of mechanical appliances in science and the arts; Knight, Edward H. Hurd & Houghton, New York; The Riverside Press; Cambridge, MA; 1877 | |
| 1877 | "Tatting-shuttle, a small shuttle used in tatting." |
| My Day, Reminiscences of a Long Life; Pryor, Sara Agnes Rice The Macmillan Company, New York, 1909 | |
| 1884, Aug. | A letter by the author p.395 "MY DEAR AGNES: . . . p. 396 But lately she has brought up to the roof in the evenings a small rocking-chair of the Mayflower pattern, some crochet or tatting; and a great cat with an enormous upright tail has followed her, and rubbed himself comfortably against her knees. . . . p. 397 The little Mayflower chair rocks a bit more nervously, the cat is overwhelmed with surprise by receiving a slight push from the tidy slipper, the tatting takes on new energy, and I see - well, now, you surely don't expect me to tell you what I see? . . . p. 399 Your devoted SARA A. PRYOR" |
| What Katy Did Next; Coolidge, Susan [Woolsey, Sarah Chauncey] Boston, 1886 | |
| 1886, chap. 9 | A Roman Holiday "In fact, all that Sister Ambrogia seemed able or willing to do, beyond the bathing of Amy's face and brushing her hair, which she accomplished handily, was to sit by the bedside telling her rosary, or plying a little ebony shuttle in the manufacture of a long strip of tatting." |
| From Flag to Flag, A Woman's Adventures & Experiences in the South During the War, in Mexico, & in Cuba; McHatton-Ripley, Eliza D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1888 | |
| 1888 | pp. 289-90 "We embroidered conventional morning-glories and wheat on pillow-shams; scalloped flounces and dress-waists, and made yards upon yards of senseless tatting, till we wearied with the work." |
| Times; London | |
| 1895, January; 13/2 | "Orders for cotton embroidery edgings, trimmings and tattings have been disappointing." |
| Life on the Stage. My personal experiences and recollections; Morris, Clara McClure, Phillips & Co, London, New York, 1901; octavo | |
| 1901 | p. 46 "The 'tatting' craze was sweeping over the country then; everybody wore tatting, and almost everybody made it." [Context here is U.S.A c. 1863] |
| Lavender & Old Lace; Reed, Myrtle; 1874-1922 G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, NY, 1902; The Knickerbocker Press, London; 21 cm | |
| 1902, chap. 2, The Attic | p.32 "It seemed an age until six o'clock. 'This won't do,' she said to herself; 'I'll have to learn how to sew, or crochet, or make tatting. At last I am to be domesticated. I used to wonder how women had time for the endless fancy work, but I see, now.'" |
| ibid, chap. 3; Miss Ainslie | p. 53 "'If I don't take up tatting,' she thought, as she went upstairs, 'or find something else to do, I'll be a meddling old maid inside of six months.'" |
| Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm; Wiggin, Kate Douglas Houghton, Mifflin, & Co; Boston, New York; 1903 | |
| 1903 chap. 7, Riverboro Secrets | "The 'rich blacksmith's daughter' cast the thought of dotted Swiss behind her, and elected to follow Rebecca in cheesecloth as she had in higher matters; straightway devising costumes that included such drawing of threads, such hemstitching and pin-tucking, such insertions of fine thread tatting that, in order to be finished, Rebecca's dress was given out in sections,--the sash to Hannah, waist and sleeves to Mrs. Cobb, and skirt to aunt Jane." |
| Girl Tatting; Renoir, Pierre-Auguste Oil on canvas; c. 1906 | |
| c. 1906 | The Louis E. Stern Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, PA |
| New Chronicles of Rebecca; Wiggin, Kate Douglas Houghton, Mifflin, & Company, Boston, New York, 1907 | |
| 1907 3rd chron., Rebecca's Thought Book | "The other girls could wield the darning or crochet or knitting needle, and send the tatting shuttle through loops of the finest cotton; hemstitch, oversew, braid hair in thirteen strands, but the pencil was never obedient in their fingers, and the pen and ink-pot were a horror from early childhood to the end of time." |
| The Story of Waitstill Baxter; Wiggin, Kate Douglas Houghton, Mifflin, & Company, Boston, New York, 1913 | |
| 1913 chap. 16, Locked Out | "Patty had retired to the solitude of her bedroom almost at dusk, quite worn out with the heat, and Waitstill sat under the peach tree in the corner of her own little garden, tatting, and thinking of her interview with Ivory's mother." |
| T. Tembarom; Burnett, Frances Hodgson Century Company, NY, Oct, 1913 | |
| 1913, Oct. Chap. XII | p. 138 You come up to my room and bring your tatting or read a newspaper while I dress. |
| ibid Chap. XIII | p. 153 And I'm here, with three hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year around my neck and not a thing to spend it on, unless I pay someone part of it to give me lessons in tatting. What is tatting anyhow? He didn't really know. It was vaguely supposed to imply some intensely feminine fancy work done by old ladies and used as a figure of speech in jokes. |
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Letters written by Mary Ann McIntosh to David Monroe Henderson Compiled by: Porter, Anthony & Kris (Last Link - Now Broken) http://hometown.aol.com/tporter111/private/letters.html, [no © date given] |
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| 1914, Mar. 9 | Otto, Wyo. "Dear Dave, . . . I finished tatting the ring for that 'beau-catcher' that I as working on Friday night and began to make the other today in school. After school I worked on the doily I am making for Ruth. When that is done I’m going to work on 'yours.' . . . Yours Mary" |
| 1914, Mar. 19 | Otto, Wyo. "Dear Dave, . . . I’ve gone to bed early every night this week, so I haven’t done any embroidering. I have done a little tatting, though. . . . As ever Mary" |
| 1915, Jun. 14 | "Dearest Dave, . . . On rainy days when we can’t get out, I tatt (sic). I have made two collars like my white one for Roah and Caroline. My next fancy work is going to be a pair of pillow slips. I started to embroider a pair my cousin gave me, while I was at Sprague’s and I’m going to see if I can finish them. Aunt Tive has knitted lace for another pair for me, so I’ll have some pretty ones, I guess. . . . Yours for keeps, Mary" |
| From inside cover of a boxed tatting set: Inside lower left corner reads: Copyright 1915, F. L. Morgan Co, San Francisco Click HERE for illustration. | |
| 1915 |
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| A Summer in a Canyon: A California Story; Wiggin, Kate Douglas Houghton, Mifflin, & Company, Boston, New York, 1917 | |
| 1917 chap. 1, Preparation and Departure | "Three young girls, perhaps fourteen or fifteen years old, were seated in different parts of the large room, plying industrious crochet needles and tatting shuttles." |
| The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years After; Bok, Edward Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, 1921; octavo | |
| 1921, ch. XXVIII, Going Home with Kipling, and as a Lecturer | "Usually," said Bok, "men, for some reason or other, hold aloof from me on these lecture tours. They stand at a distance and eye me, and I see wonder on their faces rather than a desire to mix." "You've noticed that, then?" smilingly asked the poet. "Yes, and I can't quite get it. At home, my friends are men. Why should it be different in other cities?" "I'll tell you," said Riley. "Five or six of the men you met to-night were loath to come. When I pinned them down to their reason, it was I thought: they regard you as an effeminate being, a sissy." "Good heavens!" interrupted Bok. "Fact," said Riley, "and you can't wonder at it nor blame them. You have been most industriously paragraphed, in countless jests, about your penchant for pink teas, your expert knowledge of tatting, crocheting, and all that sort of stuff. |
| A Lesson in Tatting; Anna C. Sterling Needlecraft Magazine, Needlecraft Publishing Company, Augusta, Maine, March 1923 | |
| 1923 | Poem, click HERE for full text. (Thanks Mad Tatter, et al.!) |
| Mapp and Lucia; Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic) Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1931 | |
| 1931 | p. ? "Lucia: 'Time to do your tatting.' Georgie: 'Petit pois!' Lucia: 'Petit point!'" |
| Senator Marlowe's Daughter; Keyes, Frances Parkinson J. Messner, New York, 1933 | |
| 1933 | p. 307 "'You could'da knocked me over with a feather,' Mrs. Elliot said to her husband at supper time. 'She war'nt any more embarrassed at being caught looking as if a cyclone had struck her than if she'd been sittin' in the front parlor doin' tattin'!" |
| Gone With The Wind; Mitchell, Margaret Macmillan & Co., London, 1936; octavo | |
| 1936, chap. IX | "It simply wasn't fair. She [Scarlett] had worked twice as hard as any girl in town, getting things ready for the bazaar. She had knitted socks and baby caps and afghans and mufflers and tatted yards of lace and painted china hair receivers and mustache cups..."
"He went off pompously toward a group of chaperones in one corner, and just as the two girls turned to each other to discuss the possibilities of the secret, two old gentlemen bore down on the booth, declaring in loud voices that they wanted ten miles of tatting." |
| ibid., chap. LV | "Melanie sat facing her, in a low chair, her feet firmly planted on an ottoman so high that her knees stuck up like a child's, a posture she would never have assumed had not rage possessed her to the point of forgetting proprieties. She held a line of tatting in her hands and she was driving the shining needle back and forth as furiously as though handling a rapier in a duel."
"But only by the flashing needle and the delicate brows drawn down toward her nose did Melanie indicate that she was inwardly seething." |
| The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad; 1999 50th Anniversary VHS Video rerelease of 1949 animated motion picture cartoon, Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures Tale of Ichabod Crane; Narrated by Bing Crosby, story adapted from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving Click HERE for illustration. | |
| 1949 | Ichabod's 'Social Calendar' for Wednesday, "Women's Tatting and Chatting Club" |
| The Golden Helmet, 1952 Comic book, Donald Duck #408, The Walt Disney Co., July 1952 (reprinted Walt Disney Album Series #13, Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures: The Golden Helmet, Gladstone Publishing, Ltd. Prescott, AZ, 1988.) Click HERE for illustration/quote. | |
| 1952 | Duckburg Assistant Museum Guard Donald Duck directs visitor to the "Lace and Tatting Collection" and later in the story, unaware that tatting, along with crochet and knitting, was one of the pastimes of the saltiest sailors (especially whalers) on long voyages, derides those who "tat their tatting" as "softies". |
| Little Witch, Illustrated by Helen Stone. [A tale for children.]; Bennett, Anna Elizabeth J. B. Lippincott Co, Philadelphia, New York, 1953; octavo | |
| 1953 | p. 113 "She doesn't do anything but play on a musical instrument called a lute, sing like an angel, and tat lace that looks like spun moonbeams." [describing the activity of a beautiful fairy] |
| Life Magazine; Rosenthal, Leo Time & Life Publishing, New York, January 1, 1954 | |
| 1954 | Photograph of Eleanor Roosevelt wearing a blouse with tatted trimming. |
| Stranger in a Strange Land; Heinlein, Robert A. Putnam's & Sons, London, 1961; Avon Books - 7th printing, July 1967 | |
| 1961 | p. 138 Part Two - His Preposterous Heritage "Jubal decided to resign from the Philosophical Society and take up tatting!" |
| Me & Mine, The Life Story of Helen Sekaquaptewa, as told to Louise Udall; Udall, Louise The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona, 1969 | |
| 1969 | p. 138 "I had to earn all of my spending money and my hands were never still, I was always doing embroidery or crochet or tatting, making things to sell." [Hopi Indian writing of her three years in the Phoenix Indian School (1910's), whose purpose was, according to 1888 pronouncements made by Superintendent of Indian Schools John Oberly, "to wean the student from the tribal system and to imbue him with the egotism of American civilization, so that he would say "I" instead of "we," and "this is mine," instead of "this is ours."] |
| Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind; Ripley, Alexandra Warner Books, New York, 1991 | |
| 1991, chap. 13 | p. 139 "Her [Eleanor Butler’s] fingers moved a gleaming ivory shuttle rapidly back and forth, tatting an intricate web of loops."
p. 140 "Mrs. Butler put her tatting down on the table at her side." |
| ibid, chap. 21 | pp. 211-212 "Eleanor Butler dropped her tatting into her lap and laid her hands on it, left atop right. It was a signal that she was taking Scarlett’s account seriously, giving her full concentration." |
| ibid, chap. 22 | p. 225 "She [Scarlett] turned her back on them and sat in a chair close to the settee where Eleanor Butler was doing her tatting. “This piece is almost long enough to trim the neck of your claret gown when it needs freshening,” she said to Scarlett with a smile. “Halfway through the Season it’s always nice to have a change. I’ll be finished with it by then.”
p. 225 "Eleanor dropped her ivory tatting shuttle." |
| The Truelove (15th in the 20-volume Aubrey-Maturin Series (21st volume at chapter 3 on author's death); O'Brian, Patrick W. W. Norton & Company; 1st American Ed hardcover edition (May 1, 1992), Paperback reprint edition (July 1, 1993) | |
| 1992 | p. 82 "He tended therefore to avoid the quarterdeck when she was there, sitting by the taffrail, sometimes tatting in an inexpert fashion but much more talking to the officers who came aft to ask her how she did." p. 86 "...She does not take it ill, however, but sits there tatting away, listening to their stories; and her presence adds to the gaiety of the ship." |
| The Shipping News; Proulx, E. Annie Scribner, New York; M/M Canada, Toronto; M/M International, New York, 1993 | |
| 1993 | "Everything in the house tatted and doilied in the great art of the place, designs of lace waves and floe ice, whelk shells and sea wrack, the curve of lobster feelers, the round knot of cod-eye, the bristled commas of shrimp and fissured sea caves, white snow on black rock, pinwheeled gulls, the slant of silver rain." |
| Wife for a While; Clayton, Donna (pseudonym of Fasano, Donna) Silhouette Books, 1994 | |
| 1994 | Chap. 7, pp. 121-2. "May worked at tatting a delicate lace doily, her nimble fingers maneuvering the small shuttle through the web of cotton thread until the series of knots formed an intricate and beautiful design. So skilled was she at the craft that her hands didn't slow, even though her eyes glazed with her happy reminiscences." |
| Mommy Heiress; Wisdom, Linda Randall Harlequin Books, 1995 | |
| 1995 | Chap. 12, p. 202 "You know, having these prekindergarten classes is great. They're already primed for school and they'll do much better," she chattered. "And did you know Mrs. Timmerman tats? Makes lace, that is. She learned from her mother. She brought in doilies she had made and they were beautiful I told her I once read somewhere tatting was a lost art. She's donating them for the fund-raiser. We had the kids decorate posters today that the high school kids are going to take around to the other towns and put up. They're really cute." |
| The Farseer: Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, Book I); Hobb, Robin Bantam Books - Bantam paperback trade edition, May 1995; U.S. and Canada simultaneously, republished mass market edition, April 1996 | |
| 1995 | p. 103 "A few watchful mothers tapped toes as they tatted at their lacemaking while Jerdon's withered old fingers on the harp strings kept the young voices almost in tune." |
| Fever Season; Hambly, Barbara Bantam Books, New York; 1998 | |
| 1998 | p. ? "She took a deep breath, not meeting his eyes, folding carefully the pleats of her green cotton sleeve where they ran into the wristband. There was a thin line of tatted cotton lace there, pale ecru, the kind schoolgirls produced by the yard while their governesses read to them from edifying books." [Setting is an anachronistic New Orleans, Lousiana, 1833 as there is no evidence of tatting anywhere in the world at this date, much less in the United States] |
| The Weight of Water; Shreve, Anita Back Bay Books, 1998; paperback | |
| 1998 | p. 45 "My dress, I have neglected to say, was my wedding dress and had a lovely collar of tatting that my sister, Karen, had made for me." |
| First Test; Pierce, Tamora Random House Children's Books, May 23, 2000; hardcover, library binding, & hardcover large print editions | |
| 1999 | p. 33 "Salma's mouth twisted wryly. "What do they think their mothers do, when the lords are at war and a raiding party strikes? Stay in their solars and tat lace?"" |
| Expecting at Christmas; Maclay, Charlotte Silhouette Romance, 1999 | |
| 1999 | p. 30 "...Tia Louisa has lived with us for ages. She's my great-aunt twice removed. A wonderful woman who does beautiful tatting.." "Tatting?" he asked, distracted." "It's like lace except stringier. She makes up hope chests full of her tatting for all us girls. For our wedding presents, you know." p. 116 "She ushered him toward two older women sitting in folding lawn chairs where they could keep an eye in the activities. One was busily engaged in something that resembled crocheting -- with kite string. p. 117 "Ignoring the conversation, Tia Louisa kept on tatting. [N.B.: Tia Louisa is deaf. That is why she doesn't participate in the conversation] |
| Border Fire; Scott, Amanda Zebra Books, New York, 2000 | |
| 2000 | p. 33 "'Tis men's business to deal with reivers,' he snapped, ignoring, as was his custom, a point that he did not wish to debate. 'It is your business to tend the kitchen, or your needlework or tatting, or whatever the devil it is that you women find to eat up your time...'" [A gross anachronism in that tatting didn't appear until the early 1800's and the first appearance in print was 1842 - this book is set in 16th century Scotland!] |
| Girl In Hyacinth Blue; Vreeland, Susan Penguin Books, New York, 2000 | |
| 2000 | Morningshine (Chap. 5); p. 135 "After more assurances and some shared admiration for the painting, Saskia sold the woman her grandmother's blue linen table scarf with the fine tatting, and then made her way, with the wrapped painting, through the market square to the butchery stalls." |
| Rogue's Reform; Laurens, Stephanie Harlequin Books, July 1, 2000 - Three complete previously published novels: The Reasons for Marriage ©1994; A Lady of Expectations ©1995; & An Unwilling Conquest ©1996 | |
| 2000 | p. 42 "Seeing her aunt pull her tatting from a bag beside the chair and start to untangle the bobbins, Lenore placed a hand on her arm and slowly stated, 'I'll bring you some tea when the trolley arrives.'" |
| American Outlaws; Fictional account of the adventures of the James (Jesse) and Younger, gangs, motion picture distributed by Warner Bros. Inc. Costume Designer: Luke Reichle Click HERE for illustration of tatted collar and instructions. | |
| 2001 | Kathy Bates in the role of 'Ma' James wearing black dress with Torchon lace trimming and tatted lace collar, Post-bellum period. |
| Lost in Your Arms; Dodd, Christina Avon Books, March 2002 | |
| 2002 | p. 181 "Her things! She hadn't even thought...her clothes, her letters from Lady Halifax, the shawl she'd been painstakingly tatting for over four years...she sobbed harder." |
| Lord Darcy; Garrett, Randall Baen Books, July 2002, Compilation of her stories, from "Too Many Magicians". Originally serialized in the Analog magazine August-November 1966, reissued as a novel by Doubleday, 1967. | |
| 2002 | p. 344 ""And what have you been doing? said Her Grace. "Tatting?"" |
| Isn't It Rich?; Woods, Sherryl Silhouette Books, of Harlequin Books, 2004 | |
| 2004 | chap. 12, p. 195. "Who else?" she snapped. "She picked out china and silver, bought my veil -- it's hand-tatted French lace, by the way -- and started on my trousseau. She would not take no for an answer. She said I have a position to live up to as your fiancee." |
| Mystic Warrior, Book 1 of The Bronze Chronicles; Hickman, Tracy & Laura Aspect/Warner Books, Time Warner Book Group, New York, 2004 | |
| 2004 | chap. 8, Dwynwyn, p. 344. "... Yet I did come here and I did bring my tatting lace. As I sat in the glade near the river, I spied the man from my dreams in the eye of my mind ... His voice called to me from the lace in my hands, as though the lace itself were holding us apart." "Did you understand him, m'lady" Cavan asked, eyes wide. "Did he tell you a new truth?" "No." Dwynwyn looked to the ground. "His words sounded harsh, like rocks tumbling down a hillside. I knew that the voice came from beyond the lace. Somehow my lace was hurting him, though how I could not say. Unbidden, I pulled apart the tatted lace, opening up the pattern in my hands." "Did you relieve his suffering, m'lady?" Dwynwyn smiled slightly. "I am not sure, Cavan, for as I pulled a hole in my lace, he fell from the air." Cavan flashed with surprise. "You plucked this creature from the sky!" "I did not pull him," Dwynwyn repeated. "He suddenly fell." "Through a hole in your tatting lace?" Cavan arched his brows the thought. |
| My Baby, My Bride; Leonard, Tina Harlequin Books, 2006 | |
| 2006 | Chap. 10, pp 146-7. "Their little tatted doilies have gone to their heads," Duke said, "like spidery webs of nonsense." |
| Saying Yes to the Boss; Braun (Fridline), Jackie Harlequin Books, 2006 | |
| 2006 | Chap. 8, pp 131-2. "He was gone by noon, and though she supposed it was foolish, Ree always saw him out, walking with him to the front door and then standing in the big bay window. Her grandmother's hand-tatted lace curtains were gone, leaving nothing to obstruct Ree's view as she watched the Trailblazer idle down the long driveway and pull out onto the main road." |
| A Very Merry Christmas; Short stories by various authors Bah Humbug, Baby, Bruce, Gemma Brava Books, Kensington Publishing, 2006 | |
| 2006 | Chap. 3, p. 138. "There were ginghams, wools and something that looked suspiciously like hand-tatted lace." |
| The Soul Mirror: A Novel of the Collegia; Collegia Magica trilogy #2 Berg, Carol ROC/New American Library/Penguin Group, Inc., NY, 2010 | |
| Jan 2010 | p. 355. "Mailine, a stick figure of a woman, dry as dust, spent her waking hours tatting lace with quick, capable hands." |
| Ran Away; Benjamin January Mysteries, Book 11 Hambly, Barbara Severn House Publishers, Ltd., Sutton, Surrey, UK, 2011 | |
| 2011 | Chap. 11, p. 95. "January saw her eyes flicker again to the black-clothed chaperone, who through the whole of this dialog had merely sat tatting an antimacassar. … Then the whole of her soul seemed to return to her needle, flickering silver in the window’s pale twilight." [Unsure if this is intended to refer to shuttle-made lace as the scene is set in 1827 Paris; shuttle tatting consisted mostly of a row of half-closed rings for a simple edging at this time. Could possibly refer to the attaching of a strip of bobbin lace to the edge of an antimacassar. Both the strip of lace and the process of its attachment as an edging to a fabric item were also called 'tatting' at this time. See Origins of Tatting.] |
| Tell the Girl Howard, Sandra Simon & Schuster, 2014 |
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| 2014 | Chap. 15, p. 195. "I thought of tatting him evening slippers with a design of his entwined initials. I did them in orange, his favourite colour on a black background. It got to be a joke, me tatting away, but finished and with proper leather soles, they looked quite smart." |
