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After all, mentioning frilly lace and delicate doilies may cause grunts of alarm from unshaven men chewing venison jerky, gulping cowboy coffee and squinting at the sunrise over the ends of fishing rods. "No, we don't talk about tatting," Ricketts said with a chuckle as his flying fingers deftly worked a shuttle and thread to expand a piece of lace. "I'm 6' 2" and weight 250," he added. "I do get some strange comments sometimes." For more than three decades, Ricketts, 74, of Medford, a retired government contract manager from what is now the Boeing Co., has been happily making lacework. Known as tatting, the ancient craft involves using a series of decorative loops — picots — and half-hitch knots with cotton thread wound around a small shuttle to create lace. Ricketts won a blue ribbon for his art at the 2006 Jackson County Fair, where he was giving demonstrations Tuesday. He has also won top ribbons at the Oregon State Fair where he will this year again enter his art and give demonstrations. He has won more than a half-dozen first place awards at the state fair for his tatting talent. "It's the only lace they can't make by machine," he explained. "It's all made by half hitches. You get your shape by how you space the loops and knots." He made his first lacework after his late wife, Areta, bought him a how-to-book on tatting, a shuttle and thread. He taught himself to use the shuttle which comes with what amounts to a tiny crochet hook. "You just make a half hitch and keep going," he said. One doily looks like a large snowflake more than two feet in diameter. It took him some 350 hours, he estimated. "I let it develop as I go," he said as he continued tatting. "I don't use patterns. I start in the middle, graduate out and put in what fits as I go. There are a lot of calculations. "It's a challenge," he added. "You really don't know what it's going to look like until you are done. When it looks right, I quit." Ricketts teaches tatting out of his home now, mostly to retired folks who have time on their hands. "I have some arthritis but it doesn't seem to bother me with tatting," he said. "I think it helps your head, too. You want to make sure everything comes out all right. "You count all the time to keep track of the number of stitches, the number of knots," he added. "While I'm talking to you, I know there has to be seven of these little picots with three knots between each one." After his first wife died, he remarried. His second wife, Kathy, took a third premium ribbon for her crochet piece at the fair. "He threatened to teach me tatting but it hasn't worked yet," she said. However, Rickets has taught his son, a 260-pound former police sergeant in Bakersfield, Calif., to wield a mean tat shuttle. His son has won first place for tatting at the California State Fair. As Ricketts tats, fairgoers stop to watch him work. "My grandmother used to tat many years ago," said Helen Hulse, 83, of Medford, a longtime knitter. "But she never did it as well as he does. He is really very good." Half hitches and picots multiply as Ricketts continues his demonstration. "It looks like I'm passing the shuttle through the thread but I'm not," he said. "Here, let me show you." He reduces his speed to slow motion. "As you can see, the threat is going between my finger and the shuttle, then back between the shuttle and my thumb," he said. "You relax that, then pull the thread down. Then you do that in reverse to get the second half of the half hitch. "And that's all there is to it," he said to his baffled onlooker. "Well, maybe there is a little more to it than that." No matter where he goes, Ricketts often finds himself with a lap full of lace and a fast-moving shuttle. "You do it 15 minutes here, an hour there," he said. "You can take it with you just about anywhere." Except when you're fishing with your buddies. THE FAIR AT A GLANCE: When: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. today through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Where: Jackson County Fairgrounds and Exposition Park, Central Point. Admission: $8 for adults, $5 for youth ages 7 to 12 and seniors 62 and older, free for children 6 and under. Parking: $4. Shuttle rides: Every 15 to 30 minutes starting at 10:30 a.m. at Rogue Valley Mall and Crater High School. Cost is $1 (50 cents for seniors and youth). Return trip is free. Last bus leaves at midnight. Kids and Seniors Day: today. Admission is free for kids age 12 and younger and seniors 62 and older. Chocolate cake contest: Bring a homemade chocolate cake today to enter in a contest and admission is free. Cakes must be brought to the Padgham Pavilion by 7:30 p.m.; judging starts at 8 p.m. Carnival rides: Each ride requires between three and five coupons. Cost is $1 each, $20 for 24 coupons, $50 for 80 coupons, or $25 for an unlimited ride bracelet. Carnival opens at noon each day. Concerts: 8 p.m. each day. Reserved tickets cost $20 and lawn seating free with admission. Concert schedule: Blake Shelton and Gary Allan, tonight; Aly & AJ, Thursday; Smash Mouth, Friday; Neal McCoy, Saturday. For more information: www.lithiaamp.org , 774-8270, or www.jcfairgrounds.com Advertisement s Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems California Casinos Men's Clothing Southern Oregon Loans --> GMAT Prep Fundraisers Send Flowers Entertainment Guide --> Casinos Canada Trunks, Footlocker Online Casino Reviews