I've wanted to learn how to tat for years. I didn't know anybody who knew how, so I tried to teach myself...several times. I bought beginner tatting books but could never figure it out. But, while I was searching for sites for other areas of this site I came across several tatting sites. And, while in the store getting thread for the cross-stitching project I was working on, I found a book about "needle tatting".
Thinking this must be easier than trying to do shuttle tatting again, I bought the needles and the book I found. Unfortunately the book only taught split rings on the needle, not the basics, so, back to the internet. Using the instructions at StitchGuide and Georgia Seitz comments on needle tatting, I managed to make a ring. But for some reason my chain turned into a ring too. I still don't know what I did wrong, but I decided to press on and make another attempt at shuttle tatting.
I did it! In truth it was probably a combination of all the "how-to" sites I looked at, but I found Jen's Tat-ra Sutra to be the easiest to follow. It took me about a week to get comfortable in the hand movements, and now I'm off and running.