Editing Tatting (section)

===Needle tatting===
[[Image:Needle tatting.jpg|thumb|250px|Needle tatting in progress. A completed closed ring of 5ds segments with a picot loop between each is shown.  Another uncompleted loop is still on the needle.]]
[[Image:Tatting Pin - Project Gutenberg eText 15147.jpg|thumbnail|250px|right|Tatting pin]]
Traditional shuttle tatting may be simulated using a tatting needle or doll needle instead of a shuttle. There are two basic techniques for needle tatting.  With the more widely disseminated technique, a double thread passes through the stitches.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}} The result is similar to shuttle tatting but is slightly thicker and looser.{{Citation needed|date=July 2014}} The second technique more closely approximates shuttle tatting because a single thread passes through the stitches.

The earliest evidence for needle tatting dates from April 1917, in an article by M.E. Rozella, published in ''[[Modern Priscilla (magazine)|The Modern Priscilla]].''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Foster|first=Barbara|date=1 May 2014|title=Needle Tatting: An Almost Forgotten Art|journal=PieceWork|pages=15|via=EBSCO Host}}</ref> A tatting needle is a long, blunt needle that does not change thickness at the eye of the needle. The needle used must match the thickness of the thread chosen for the project. Rather than winding the shuttle, the needle is threaded with a length of thread. To work with a second color, a second needle is used. Although needle tatting looks similar to shuttle tatting, it differs in structure and is slightly thicker and looser because both the needle and the thread must pass through the stitches. However, it may be seen that the Victorian tatting pin would function as a tatting needle. As well, [[Florence Hartley]] refers in ''The Ladies' Hand Book of Fancy and Ornamental Work'' (1859) to the use of the tatting needle, so it must have originated prior to the mid-1800s.

In the late 20th century, tatting needles became commercially available in a variety of sizes, from [[yarn weight|fingering yarn]] down to size 80 tatting thread. Few patterns are written specifically for needle tatting; some shuttle tatting patterns may be used without modification.