"3 Steps to Great Tatted Lace" by Tomoko Morimoto, NHK Jan. 2012. In this full-size book with 28 patterns and 80 pages, Tomoko Morimoto presents the basics of tatting in three sections. The lace pieces are presented in full color in the first 31 pages. The next 17 pages present the basic instructions for tatting while the last section contains the numbered diagrams for tatting the lace pieces.

As with nearly all recent tatting books from Japan, the tatted lace is presented in lavishly photographed displays and would be a great coffee table book for that reason alone. However, the same attention to detail and color is expended on the basic instructions. Here each step is not only in color and in small incremental steps and many notes. The notes are in Japanese, but the illustrations make the point unmistakable.

The numbered diagrams for the patterns are in grey tones to distinguish each row or tatted element. The starting points are clearly marked. On several patterns, the method or path to climb out from the center to the outer rows is marked and the need for the split ring indicated, too.

It was disappointing to see that the basic join being taught was the up join and not the down join. And it was almost shocking to see that ends were tied and glued!!! However, I was pleasantly surprised to see a comparison of the shuttle lock join vs the ball thread or onion ring type join. The photo layout pointed out how the unwanted spot of color created in a shuttle lock join can be eliminated by using the ball thread or onion ring type join. It is a lovely book despite these minor items.

3 Steps to Great Tatted Lace	Sample of patterns
Sample of tutorials	Sample of numbered diagrams