Ginny Weathers tatted alone for years. Without any friends or family who shared her love of the lace-knotting craft, Weathers spent hours a day creating doilies and coasters since 1972.

Then she scoured the Web. Once Weathers was online, she could search for sites dedicated to the fabric art. It wasn't until 2000 that Weathers met her first fellow tatters at a group meeting in Hector.

“They were amazed I knew the basics, and that after so many years I wasn't more advanced,” Weathers said. “But I do all right.”

Weathers recently donated three white tatted doilies to the Finger Lakes Center for Living, where she works. Each is the product of more than a year of precise handiwork and measures more than a foot in diameter. One spans 26 inches.

“These ladies (at the center) encourage me,” Weathers said. “So the doilies belong here.”

The three works were discovered in boxes by Weathers during a move. With no use of her own for them, she felt they would be most appropriate at the center. Karen Jeffreys, vice president of long-term care, arranged to frame the tatted pieces before they were placed on the center's walls.

“Once she brought them in, I felt like they deserved a really nice frame,” she said. “We're thrilled to have them and to be able to showcase them.”

Weathers feels the works will be seen by an audience of men and women who can appreciate the tatting craft.

“It's their era of handiwork, they learned things like tatting in school,” Weathers said. “It was part of becoming a housewife.”

Weathers started tatting after her sister unsuccessfully tried to teach her to crochet. Weathers' mother then gave Ginny a tatting book and a shuttle, the tool a tatter uses to tie the thread. Weathers took a year to learn the craft and continued spending significant time practicing it over the years.

“It was hard finding patterns before I got online,” she said.

Weathers took a break from tatting during her 12 years of service in the Army, which took her to Texas, Germany and other bases. It wasn't until she became a mother that she returned to it.

“My kids kept me going, I tatted every year for Christmas presents,” Weathers said. “My son calls it 'twiddling.'”

With internet access, Weathers' devotion to tatting increased significantly. She discovered Web sites full of new patterns she could create, but she didn't always follow that advice directly.

“I like to play with the ideas and not follow directions,” she said. “I go with what I feel looks right.”

Weathers' online exploration of the tatting trade has opened her horizons to several new ways to enjoy it. She has created hankies, animal figures, Christmas ornaments and coasters, among other objects. She can also add edges or designs to different fabrics.

“You can do almost anything with it,” Weathers said. “It's always the same kinds of knots, it's just the size of the threads and the durability that varies.”

Through the internet, Weathers also found a tatting group that meets monthly in Hector. The hour distance from her Montezuma home did not deter her from meeting fellow tatters for the first time. But her nerves almost did.

“I was really scared because I didn't know if I did it right,” Weathers said. “I had no idea.”

Weathers learned that she held and manipulated her shuttle differently from the other tatters, and that she takes longer to complete the same project as them.

With access to the local tatting community, Weathers has also started submitting work to the tatting showcases at the New York State Fair in Geddes every year. She typically starts a project for one fair the July prior and spends the following year completing it.

“Sometimes a couple hours a day, sometimes 10 to 15 minutes,” she said. “But just about every single day.”