Tool (for needlework) (Tatting shuttle)

Description

This metal tatting shuttle was made in the mid-20th century. Tatting is a type of craft done by making a series of small knots using a shuttle such as this one. The shuttle holds thread wound around a bobbin in its center, and the tatter holds a large loop of the thread in one hand and moves the shuttle back and forth through the loop with their other hand, making and tightening knots as they go. This “Detach-A-Spool" shuttle was designed to open so that the spool inside could be removed and replaced when it ran out of thread instead of the tatter having to wind new thread around the bobbin by hand. This object is one of a large group transferred to Winterthur from the American Textile History Museum when it closed in 2017.