Today, a brief needlelace tutorial!  This is a simple edging stitch, meaning you can use it to decorate your hems and other edges, even if you're not hard-core into lace-making! 

The stitch is called "shell stitch" in the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Needlework, as well as in other sources.  However, several Victorian resources I've found online name it the "point de Venise", and Thérèse de Dillmont simply numbers her stitches (which is not memorable at all)!  As you may recall from my post about French Needlelaces, the nomenclature for lace is not consistent.  So "point de Venise" could mean Venetian needlelace in general as well as being a name for this particular stitch.  I'll stick with "shell stitch" for this tutorial, since the finished nubs look like wee shells. 

A friend asked me to compile some information for her friend, who wants to learn to tat.  I thought: why not put my answer here, so it may benefit others, as well?  I should note that I'm not an expert tatter, but a beginner.  I am writing this to give a fellow beginner the vocab and links she needs to get started, and to point to the real experts!

After a gap of nearly two years, I am feeling inspired to work on needlelace again!  And yet, I haven't posted anything about my past needlelace projects... let me remedy that, to give some context for what I'm doing. 

This'll be a long post, which should please any reader who is anything like me!