There are many different ways to make tatted joins to picots but for now we'll concentrate on the simplest which if you make bobbin lace is made in exactly the same way as you make a sewing.

To make a join you will need a fine hook, some people find that the kind of tatting shuttle which comes with a small tip works well but I find that you need either a shuttle with a hook on the end, or a separate crochet hook. Picots to which you will be joining rings or chains are known as joining picots. Nowadays joining picots may or may not show so study your pattern to check how long you should make them.

Hold the tatting so that the picot to which you are joining is just behind the thread round your hand.

Put the hook down through the picot, and pull the thread which is round your hand (in some books this is known as the passive thread) back up through the picot. Do NOT twist the loop which forms - just deposit it on the middle finger of the hand holding the tatting. Now put the shuttle down through the loop. Carefully draw up the loop until it sits on the working shuttle thread, next to your other stitches.

Now you have a decision to make. Some people, me included, count the join as part of a double stitch. I make the second half of the double stitch immediately following the join and count it as part of the next group of stitches (unlike the picot which is not counted at all). So when the element in the pattern is completed, you will have the joins incorporated into the stitch count and not as extra elements. Others do not include the join in the basic stitch count at all and work it as a separate stitch (in other words 4 double stitches, joining stitch, 4 double stitches or whatever, etc.).

This is almost never stated in patterns and my reasoning for including it in the stitch count as part of a double stitch is that the thread loop for the join takes up as much space on the core thread as the first half of the double stitch does. If you do not count the join as part of a stitch and there are many joins into one ring or chain you may find that this unbalances your stitch count and the work may not fit properly.

My other reason for working it as part of the double stitch is that in the J&P Coats Book 330 from the 1940s or 50s (it has no date on it) states very clearly that you should work the second half of the double stitch following the join.

It is ultimately your decision in this case what you want to do, but all of my own patterns work the join counted as the first half of the double stitch unless specifically stated otherwise.

For this lesson, practise making a ring only edging as follows:-

1. Wind your shuttle, you do not need it to be attached to the ball thread for this pattern as it is rings only.
2. Make a ring of 4 double stitches, picot, 2 double stitches, picot, 2 double stitches, picot, 2 double stitches, picot, 2 double stitches, picot, 4 double stitches, close the ring.
3. Leave a small space of approximately 1/2 inch of thread (if you are still using the No. 10 crochet cotton - a finer thread will need less space which you will learn to judge with experience but you can if you like use one of the picot gauges which I hope you have made to measure this space accurately).
4. Make a ring of 4 double stitches, make a join to the last picot of the previous ring exactly as described above, 2 double stitches, picot, 2 double stitches, picot, 2 double stitches, picot, 2 double stitches, picot, 4 double stitches, close the ring.
5. Repeat the previous ring for the length desired.
6. If you find that when you draw up your rings you have long spaces between them instead of the half inch or less, you are probably not flipping your stitches over correctly. Refer to How to make the first half of the double stitch to check you are following the instructions for this correctly.

This is a very old traditional pattern which I do not claim as mine, it appears in the very earliest tatting books way back in the 19th Century. I have written it out in full longhand because we have not yet covered how to read tatting patterns which will be in the next lesson.

You might like to buy a handkerchief, some fine cotton sewing thread and a packet of needles, sharps size 8 or smaller. Make the lace edging pattern above long enough to sew to the hanky as an edging. Work a few inches at a time and catch the loops of thread in firmly against the hanky. When you get to the corner, work two rings one immediately after the other - there is no need for a length of thread between them. Join the last picot of the last ring to the first picot of the first ring and sew the ends in by catching them in with the sewing thread you are using for sewing the lace to the hanky.