I’ve been goofing around doing something called KNOTTING. It’s so very basic, not like the most intricate craft one can do, and in fact, I may never get past just making the knots, but thought it would be fun to try it. What it is, is a heavy thread that kinda uses a shuttle - like the very old pics you might have seen with victorian woman and huge shuttles that were open at both ends - they are actually knotting shuttles. They would make knot after knot and it would make a result that was kind of like the fore runner of chenille. 

After making yards and yards of it, then they could make a shape with it. The same way you might find a shape in a child’s coloring book, and the black line is drawing the shape - that line would be like the knotted cord, drawing the shape and couching between each knot to keep it in place. 
Then they could either embroider inside it, or fill it with more cording, or leave it empty. I have no idea which was the most popular back then, there is limited info on it. There a 4 knots to learn. I have 2 links to pages, one has an explanation and things to see, but the other actually has videos. Then I’ll show a pic of my first attempt at knotting. It’s not much to look at, but actually very soothing, as it takes no brain power at all, so good if you just need to relax and not think to hard! I’m actually using a large clover shuttle and #3 cotton thread. My knots still need to be closer together, but are a lot closer than in the beginning. The last ones I made are nice and close.

It takes practice to get theIt's  
There are 2 fabulous links below my pic that shows the difference between what knotting is and what tatting is, and how to do it, and what you can make with it (embroidery type projects).   Although not like tatting originally, it is thought that the use of the shuttle is the beginning of the development of tatting, itself.   

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of the quaintrellelife page, so you don't miss the wonderful examples of it as a finished project.

LINKS UPDATES OCT 19, 2023
Quaintrelle Life (archive.org)  scroll all the way down to the bottom!

(411) KNOTTING SHUTTLES - YouTube

(old links I'm keeping incase I find them archived)
http://www.cfgriffith.com/image-gallery/knotting-shuttle-videos/

This is another link that gives some history of knotting and tatting:
(dead link) https://tatting.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/madtatternewsletter.pdf?fref=gc

new link:  https://www.sidneyherald.com/the-origins-and-history-of-knotting-tatting/article_cfe4e812-4d44-5c5e-bab1-ada38b77402c.html