It’s the 1st of April, and we all know what that means. It’s the day that every story you hear has to be taken with a bit of scepticism – you don’t want to be the fool falling for the crazy, almost-believable story on April Fool’s Day!

However, rather than spinning a yarn, or weaving a tall tale , I’ll focus on yarns and weaving of a different kind – today is International Tatting Day, the day we celebrate the age-old art of handcrafting lace-like edges using an intricate series of knots and loops. Tatting is usually done for decoration, for example to create fancy edges for doilies, collars, etc.

There’s a thin line between tatting and crocheting, which also creates patterns with knotted yarn. Both these crafts are used to create patterns that are almost mathematical in their complexity. With apology to tatters everywhere, I believe my illustration above is a piece of crochet work rather than tatting, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to find a nice example of tatting to photograph.
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A range of different knots and loops can be used to create amazingly delicate and intricate patterns that have an almost mathematical complexity about them. In fact, with a little imagination the tatted patterns can almost resemble the beautiful fractal patterns created in mathematical topology.

Those engaged in the art of tatting are called ‘tatters’, and according to a number of sources, tatters celebrate International Tatting Day by “making tatted lace and eating chocolates”.

So, Happy Tatting Day, everyone! I don’t have the skill to join in on the tatting, but where did I leave that slab of chocolate?