Flippin' Crazy!

I have admired the beautiful lace motifs of tatting for some time.  Last summer I purchased some tatting needles, but never bothered to do anything with them.  Then this past weekend a lovely friend of mine, Tami, was shuttle tatting while we were in a Google+ Hangout.  I asked tons of questions and wandered several tatting supply websites.  An hour or so later and $29 poorer, a shipment of shuttle tatting supplies was on it's way to my home from Be-stitched.

To my delight, the rather small package arrived yesterday.  I tore it open to find that the rather small package wasn't even half full.  Apparently I won't need an entire craft room for this craft, like I do for my other yarn crafts!  Inside was 3 different shuttles, a picot gauge, and 2 balls of tatting thread (the third ball I ordered is back-ordered).

New toys means off to you-tube we zoom.  I watched several different videos, but never could get a good view of the infamous "flip" that they all referred to as necessary to success.  I was so frustrated because my double stitches looked so nice, but when I tried to cinch up the ring, it wouldn't slide.  I suspected that the aforementioned flip was the problem, but still no idea wth they were talking about.
Wondering if I have finally found the first craft that I cannot begin to comprehend, I went to the craft room in search of the tatting needles from the previous summer. After all, there is more than one way to tat!  One quick video series later and look what I made:

So, now I have proved that I can tat, but niggling in my brain is the fact that I gave up on shuttle tatting.  Back to the videos I go, desperately searching for the elusive "flip".  Kelly Petkun to the rescue.  Her KnitPicks tutorial series had the view that I needed.   I finally see the flip.  I very awkwardly do the flip.  I need a lot more practice before I flip in public.  This is flippin' difficult!

If anyone has tutorial suggestions to help me learn, I hope you will share with me in the comments.   Thank you!