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Explor Expl oree Everyd Eve ryday ay Textiles from fro m the the Past Past Learn to Make a
Weav We avee-It It
Afgh Af ghan an
Knitting for Survival
Vintage
Monograms to Crochet Embroider Hand Towels
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Knit ting for Surviv Survival: al: Anna Samens and Her Knitting M achin achinee b y E i l e e n W h e e l e r As the Samens family prepared to flee the Soviet troops approaching their doorstep in Latvia in 1944, Anna declared, “The knitting machine mac hine is my life; I will not take a step without it.”
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In Appreci ation of Pot Holder s
by Susan Strawn
Susan Strawn offers examples from her collection of about 500 pot holders along with their history and her thoughts on why so many have been saved.
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Pot Holders to Knit
by Susan Strawn
Step-by-step instructions for knitting two versions versions,, each an adaptation of patterns from the 1890s.
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The Very Be st Afghans in the the World
by Robin Hansen
The author fondly recalls the afghans made by her great-grandmother on a Weave-It handheld loom.
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A Weave-It Pillow or Chair Pad to Make
by Robin Hansen
A small pillow or a chair pad is a good way to try out the techniques of making and assembling Weave-It squares.
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We Like Washday ashday,, Don ’t We? e?:: Mor Moree Th Than an Just a Slogan by Marlene Blessing
Inez Amy Hovland Loop, the author’s mother, was a prolific needleworker; her embroidered apron with a canvas inner pouch for clothespins is one example. ON THE COVER “THE V ERY ERY BEST AFGHANS IN THE WORLD,” PAGE 23
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Letter from the editor 5 By Post
Letters to the editor
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8 Book Book Marks
Books of interest 9 Necessities
Products of interest
Grandma Twombly’ wombly’ss Back-of-th e-Neck Scarf to Knit by Virginia McGlynn
The designer has three back-of-the-nec k scarves that her grandmother made; she shares the pattern for this cozy accessory. accessory.
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Hand Towels to Embroider
by Jean Scorgie
These graceful linen hand towels feature seventeenth-century motifs and stitc hes hes..
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Ladies’ Useful Stockings to Knit
by Nancy Bush
Nancy Bush’s stockings, perfect for wear in reenactments, are worked with a Dutch Heel and a Flat Toe.
6 Calendar
Upcoming events
Monograms to Crochet Nancy Nehring adapted instructions from “Crocheted Markings for Towels and Blankets Blankets,,” which appeared in a 1935 issue of Home Arts—Needlecraft.
Columns/Departments
2 Notions
by Linda Ligon
Explore the textiles textil es that Victorian and Edwardian women with the leisure to make things by hand thought necessary in their daily lives.
Photograph by Joe Coca A Weave-It Afghan, page 26 Knitting for Survival, page 14 14 Vintage Monograms, page 36 Embroider Hand Tow Towels, els, page 42 Knit an Ear-of-Corn Pot Holder, page 22
Eve ryda ryday y Cloth
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The “Pin” Is Might ier than than the Sword: Politics and and Nee dlework Magazines Magazines in the Earl Early y Twenti eth C entury by Mary Dickinson Bird
Political messages were woven into the text of the needle-arts magazines mag azines in an American woman’s woman’s workbasket in the early twentieth century. century.
10 Tapestry
The new and noteworthy 12 Trimmings
A sampling of old patterns: An edging to tat and motifs to cross-stitch 55 Abbreviations
Definitions
ONLINE EXTRAS Visit pieceworkmagazine.com for free projects and articles article s, the PieceWork PieceWork index, index, back issues, and much more.
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O YOU HAVE everyday textile treasures? I do. Tey’re among my most prized possessions. One is a luncheon cloth (part o me longs to return to the days when I might have had occasion to use a luncheon cloth) embroidered and appliquéd with bright red poppies and trailing vines. Another is a delicately embroidered white-on-white linen bread cloth. A third, a plain white doily surrounded by embroidered pansies, is marred by a giant rust spot that I haven’t been able to remove, but I have a large dark blue glass vase that covers up the stain. I use my treasures ofen. Tey make me smile, and t hey elicit ond memories o those who made them: my mom, my maternal grandmother, and a close amily riend who considered my brother and me her grandchildren. Tis issue is our salute to everyday textiles, ones that may evoke ond memories or many o you: Weave-It aghans, embroidered hand towels, pot holders, an embroidered laundry apron, crocheted monograms or marking towels, “useul stockings,” and a back-o-the neck scar. I’d love to hear about your own everyday textile treasures (contact inormation is in the masthead at right). In “Knitting or Survival: Anna Samens and Her Knitting Machine,” Eileen Wheeler traces the lie o an extraordinary woman. Beginning in 1909, when Anna was seventeen and working in her ather’s knitting actory in Riga, Latvia, and continuing on to Russia, back to Latvia, then to Germany, and �nally to Canada, Anna had to rely on her knitting machine or her own and her amily’s survival. Tanks to generous readers, PieceWork has a small collection o needlework magazines that were published in the United States in the early decades o the twentieth century. We peruse them requently looking or inspiration or or actual projects. In “he ‘Pin’ Is Mightier than the Sword: Politics and Needlework Magazines in the Early wentieth Century,” Mary Dickinson Bird notes that some o these magazines also contained political messages and encouraged their readers to use their needlework to earn their own money. She presents examples rom Needlecraft , which dates rom 1909, and The Modern Priscilla, which was established in 1887. I am delighted to announce two new oerings rom PieceWork. Knitting Traditions is a 148-page special issue containing orty-three projects selected rom previous issues o PieceWork magazine, most o which are no longer available. You’ll �nd loads o really wonderul socks, shawls and scarves, baby bonnets and booties, sweaters, caps, and a ew surprises. Check your local yarn shop or bookstore or visit www.interweavestore.com/Needlework.html. Te other new offering is a series o downloadable electronic pattern books. Four eBooks containing the �rst our series o Weldon’s Practical Knitter rom Volume 1 o Weldon’s Practical Needlework now are available or downloading. Opening a window on turn-o-the-twentieth-century London, they contain instructions and illustrations or a total o 147 “Useul Articles or Ladies, Gentlemen and Children,” including insertions and edgings, shawls, slippers, beaded cuffs, socks, baby bonnets and booties, quilt squares, mitts, hats, pincushions, sweaters, gloves, and scarves. Te First Series also includes general inormation and de�nitions o knitting terms as they were in Victorian England, a valuable reerence or the projects in this and subsequent series. Visit www.interweave store.com/Needlework.html and click on eBooks or complete details.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Jeane ASSISTANT EDITOR:
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1067-2249) is published bimonthly by Interweave LLC, 201 E. Fourth St., Loveland, CO 80537. (970) 669-7672. Periodicals postage paid at Loveland, CO 80538 and additional mailing offices. All contents of this issue of PieceWork © Interweave Press LLC, 2010. Reproduction in whole or in par t is prohibitied, except by permission of the publisher. Subscription rate is $29.95/year in the U.S., $34.95/ year U.S. funds in Canad a, and $ 39.95 /year U.S. funds in foreign countries (surface delivery). Printed in the U.S.A. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to PieceWork PO Box 469107, Escondido, CA 920469107. SUBSCRIBERS: Please allow six weeks for processing address changes. Your customer number on the address label is your key to the best service possible. Please include it with all correspondence to avoid delays or errors. ,
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Seeking Information
Pat Cookson’s Head Cove ring
I am the president of the New South Wales Branch of the atters Guild of Australia. One of our me mbers was given this very interesting little tool (shown below) because the donor knew that she is a tatter and thought that it was a tatting shuttle. I showed it to about twenty-�ve of our members and to the curator of textiles at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, and now we are not sure if it is for tatting; perhaps it �ts into a machine. It appears to be made of either chromed steel or polished stainless steel. Embossed on the top and bottom on the outside are the number 14 and the words “Made in England.” Your help in identifying the tool will be much appreciated. Jenny Chioatto Sydney, Australia
Tanks to all listed below who wrote to us regarding Pat Cookson’s request for more information on a head covering (“By Post,” November/December 2009); many included images and illustrations (one is shown below). Te head covering appears to be part of a multipart headdress from Volendam in the Netherlands. Te lace cap is starched to help hold its shape.
Readers, if you have information on the tool, please let us know. Mystery tool belonging to a member of the New South Wales Branch of the Tatters Guild of Australia. Mystery tool opened. Photographs courtesy of Jenny Chioatto.
Jan Benders, Morgantown, West Virginia Jo Ann Eurell, Fort Collins, Colorado Karin P. Gottier, olland, Connecticut Linda Gross, Montclair, New Jersey Ron Huss via e-mail Joanne Muir via e-mail Ann Oldenburg, Leidschendam, the Netherlands Nancy Patterson, Wichita, Kansas Karen Sullivan via e-mail Nancy Patterson dressed in a Dutch costume including the traditional head covering. Nancy and her f amily visited Holland in 1956 or 1957; the photograph was taken in a shop that had costumes for people to use. Photograph courtesy of Nancy Patterson.
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at the RiverBank Lodge. HeritageKnittingRetreat@yahoo .com. Rosemont, Illinois. April 16– 18. International Quilt Festival, at the Donald E. Stephens Center. (713) 781-6864; www .quilts.com.
Jubilee quilt to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee made by Mrs. Mills. This heavily embroidered quilt with an unusual use of the log cabin technique was made in 1887 as a payment, in lieu of rent. Silk and velvet. The Quilt Museum and Gallery, York, England.
Brasstown, North Carolina.
Photograph courtesy of The Quilters’ Guild and David & Charles.
Call for Entries. Sydney Design
Apron. Maker unknown. Handsewn. Cotton. Probably United States.1950s. Gift of Joyce Cheney. American Textile History Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts. Photograph courtesy of the American Textile History Museum.
2011. International Lace Award and Exhibition, at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia. For information, contact the museum prior to March 29, 2010.
[email protected]; www .powerhousemuseum.com/ lace. Berkeley, California. April 3–July 31. Night and Day—The World of the Twenties, at the Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles. (510) 843-7290; www.lacismuseum.org. Oakland, California. April 10–11. East Bay Heritage Quilters’ Voices in Cloth 2010: An Extraordinary Quilt Show, at the Oakland Convention Center. (510) 233-6771; www.ebhq.org. Trumbull, Connecticut. March 27–28. Spring Shower of Quilts XIII, at the Trumbull Marriott Merritt Parkway. (203) 9250492;
[email protected].
Lowell, Massachusetts. Through April 18. Aprons: Fifties FUNctional Fashion, at the American Textile History Museum. (978) 441-0400; www.athm.org.
Lowell, Massachusetts.
Amish crib quilt. Maker unknown. Collection of Gerald Roy. New England Quilt Museum, Lowell, Massachusetts. Photograph courtesy of Gerald Roy. 6
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Through May 9. Kinder Komforts: Amish Crib Quilts, at the New England Quilt Museum. (978) 452-4207; www.nequilt museum.org.
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Through May 23. Material World: Textiles and Dress from the Collection, at the Museum
PIECEWORKMAGAZINE.COM
of International Folk A rt. (505) 476-1200; www.international folkart.org.
March and April. John C. Campbell Folk School classes. (800) 365-5724; www.folk school.org. Portland, Oregon. July 25–31. Cascades of Lace: 57th Annual International Old Lacers Convention. (503) 538-8407; www.portlandlacesociety.net.
Welsh strippy quilt. Maker unknown. Handquilted. Wool and cotton. Early twentieth century. The Quilt Museum and Gallery,York, England. Photograph courtesy of the Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles.
Roslyn Harbor, New York. May 22–23. The 8th Annual Spring Crafts and Fine Art Fair, at the Nassau County Museum of Art. (973) 746-0091; www .craftsatlincoln.org. Kenosha, Wisconsin. Through March 21. Fiberistic Journeys: A Collection of Original Quilts, at the Anderson Art Center. (262) 653-0481; www.ander sonartscenter.com. York, England. Through March 20 and March 27–July 3. The Celtic Fringe: Wholecloths of Wales and Scotland and Inspired by the Past: Traditional Practice and Contemporary Conversations, at the Quilt Museum and Gallery. 011 44 01904 613 242; www.quilt museum.org.uk. SYM POS IU MS, WORK SH OP S, CONS UMER SHOWS, TRAVEL
Estes Park, Colorado. May 13– 16. Colorado Rocky Mountain High Knitted Lace Retreat with Galina Khmeleva. (970) 2245117; www.skaska.com. Petersburg, Illinois. June 18– 20. Heritage Knitting Retreat,
Bermuda. June 20–27. Kids Cast Off for Handwork on the High Seas: a family vacation cruise introducing children to a variety of n eedle arts. (610) 642-7427; www.craftc ruises .com; www.thehandwork studio.com. France. July 2–10 and October 2–9. Reinventing French Textiles with Ros Badger, at the Chateau Dumas. enquiries@ chateaudumas.net; www .chateaudumas.net;
Whangarei, New Zealand. April 8–11. Creative Fibre Festival. 011 64 9 435 2608;
[email protected]; www .creativefibre.org.nz. Cusco, Peru. October 12–15. El Encuentro d e Tejedores de las Americas (The Gathering of Weavers of the Americas), at the Center for the Traditional Textiles of Cusco. www.textiles cusco.org.
CALENDAR ONLINE
This issue’s listing o f events is also available on our website. Visit pieceworkmagazine.com; click on Inside This Issue.
Beaded and r ibbon-embroidered flower. Maker unknown. Probably Paris. 1920s. Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles, Berkeley, California. Photograph courtesy of the Lacis Museum of Lace and Textiles.
Halili petondu (woman’s tunic). Embroidered, appliquéd. Cotton, paper, mica. Sulawesi, Indonesia, To Kaili group. Twentieth century. Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photograph courtesy of the Museum of International Folk Art. Photograph by Blair Clark.
Please send your event information at least four months before the month of publication. Listings are made as space is available; we cannot guarantee that your listing will appear.
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The Sunbonnet: An American Icon in Texas Rebecca Jumper Matheson Lubbock, Texas: Texas Tech University Press, 2009. Softbound, 240 pages, $29.95. ISBN 978-0-89672-665-9.
Inexpensive, durable, and quick to make, su nbonnets protected American women at work and at play, especially in the South, rom heat, cold, wind, and sun. Tey were worn at least as long ago as the eighteenth century and persisted well into the twentieth century as a utilitarian head covering, long afer they had allen out o ashion. Tis �rst book-length study o the sunbonnet analyzes the design, construction, and use o slat and poke-style sunbonnets in exas. Tirty color photographs depict museum examples while twenty-our black-and-white photographs primarily show sunbonnets being worn. Four recent oral histories, three generic patterns, and tips on the care o sunbonnets round out this appreciation o an underrated piece o Americana. —Michelle Mach
Chinese Dress: From the Qing Dynasty to the Present Valery Garrett North Clarendon, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2007. Hardbound, 240 pages, $65. ISBN 978-0-8048-3663-0.
Toroughly researched and beautiully presented, Chinese Dress details Chinese clothing and accessories rom 1644 to the present day. More than 500 museum images and archival photographs show the range o dress among Chinese rulers, consorts, mandarins, merchants, members o the lower class, children, and women. Te author provides historical and cultural context or the examples o everyday and ceremonial pieces such as work clothes, uniorms, court robes, baby carriers, cheongsams, Mao suits, and wedding and uneral attire. Tis is an essential reerence or historians and designers. —Michelle Mach
American Quilts in the Modern Age 1870–1940: The International Quilt Study Center Collections Marin F. Hanson and Patricia Cox Crews Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2009. Hardbound, 482 pages, $90. ISBN 978-0-8032-2054-6.
Te �rst volume in a planned series, American Quilts presents nearly 600 quilts in the center’s collection, including pieced (block and allover), Log Cabin, Crazy, colonial revival, unique or niche quilts such as Hawaiian appliqué, and quilts created rom kits and patterns. (Amish, Mennonite, and Arican-American quilts will appear in a uture volume.) Each chapter includes an overview o the time and technique, detailed stylistic and technical analyses o seven to seventeen exemplary quilts and quilters, and a gallery. With more than 800 photographs, this book combines the best o both worlds—a side-by-side comparison o multiple quilts on the same theme and a thoughtul look at the dedication and skill required to create a single quilt. A must-have or quilt researchers and historians.
—Michelle Mach
BOOKS ONLINE
More books of interest are on our website. Visit pieceworkmagazine.com; click on Resources on the left side, then Recommended Books.
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Needles for Classic Japanese Stitching Sashiko Needle Sampler, 10 English needles in four sizes. Colonial Needle Co., 74 Westmoreland Ave., White Plains, NY 10606; (914) 946-7474; www.colonialneedle.com.
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Fun Jewelry for Scissors Magnetic Scissor Sitter. Puffin & Co., PO Box 248, Liberty, UT 84310; (801) 643-8653; www.puffinco.com.
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Whimsical Journal
Bright and Sunny Fabrics
A Sublime Stitching journal by Jenny Hart. Chronicle Books, 680 Second St., San Francisco, CA 94107; www .chroniclebooks.com.
Sip of Summer fabric collection for quilting. Connecting Threads, 13118 N.E. 4th St., Vancouver, WA 98684; (360) 260-8900; www .connectingthreads.com.
Look for these products at needlework, yarn, and craft stores, in mail-order catalogs or online, or contact the supplier for the name of a retailer near you.
Royal School of Needlework in the USA Day Classes for beginners & experienced embroiderers 28 April to 06 May 2010 San Francisco - Hyatt Regency Hotel SF Airport Join our talented team of RSN tutors for one and two day classes in a variety of techniques Introduction to Embroidery for beginners Goldwork with Elizabeth Elvin Expressive Stitching with James Hunting Box-making with Lucy Barter Stumpwork with Rachel Doyle And courses in Whitework, Silk Shading & Canvaswork Contact: Jessica Aldred T: + 44 (0)20 3166 6938 E:
[email protected] www.royal-needlework.org.uk
RCN 312774
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Margaret Young Stansbery’s Broderie Perse Quilt
Quilt attributed to Margaret Young Stansbery. Handpieced and appliquéd; handquilted. Cotton and cotton chintz front. Cotton back. Cotton fill. Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Circa 1825. 104 x 104 inches (264.2 x 264.2 cm). Collection of the New England Quilt Museum; gift of Jeanne M. Hinrichs. Photograph courtesy of the New England Quilt Museum. 10
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Tis quilt, one of the �nest in its collection, was donated to the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts, by Jeanne M. Hinrichs in 2001. Its center medallion, 37 inches (94.0 cm) square, comprises a pieced Lone Star or Star of Bethlehem surrounded by four square and four triangular blocks of chintz �oral appliqué framed by a �oral chintz border. A white �eld with floral chintz appliqué, 14 inches (35.6 cm) wide, frames the medallion while an 11½-inch (29.2-cm) border of the same �oral chintz used on the medallion border frames the entire quilt. A card that has accompanied the quilt since before its purchase in the 1970s, states: “Hand Made Quilt by Margaret Young Stansbery, Carlyle, Pennsylvania, 1770–1780. Mrs. Stansbery was daughter of 1st Lt. Joseph Young of Revolutionary Army of USA.” Te 1860 U.S. Census lists among the free inhabitants of Franklin ownship, Brown County, Ohio, a Margaret Stansbery, born in Pennsylvania, aged sixtyfour, and married to Tomas Stansbery, also aged sixty-four. In the 1800 U.S. Census, Joseph Young was listed as the head of a household in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in which there were two females under the age of ten, one of whom could have been the Margaret listed in the 1860 U.S. Census in Ohio. A researcher at the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle has proposed that Margaret Stansbery (also spelled Stansbury or Standsburry) was one of the slaves in James Young’s household and that she was bequeathed to his son, Joseph, in 1795. No birth or death records could be found for her, but there is a marriage record in the First Presbyterian Church (Carlisle, Pennsylvania) register for 1785–1812 stating “1806 – Dec. 2, Stansbury, Peggy and Francis Lewis” with the notation “Black Persons.” No count of slaves was included in the 1800 census. By 1800, Peggy could have been a free person as a result of gradual emancipation enacted by Pennsylvania in 1780. Some of the fabrics in the quilt have been found to date from the 1820s, disproving the date given on the card and lessening the likelihood that Peggy, who would have been Peggy Lewis, or at lea st no longer Peggy Stansbury, made it. Te parents of the Margaret Stansbery living in Brown County, Ohio, in 1860 are unknown. Te surnames Stansbery (and its variations) and Young are quite common, as is the given name Margaret and all its variations. As in much of the history of quilting, more research is needed to verify the origin of the quilt. Regardless of its history, the quilt stands as an
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excellent example o a technique popular in the �rst hal o the nineteenth century. Te quilt will be on display rom July 15 through October 17 as part o the museum’s exhibition Contemporary Broderie Perse: An Elegant Revival. For more inormation, contact the museum at (978) 4524207 or visit www.nequiltmuseum.org. — Anita Loscalzo Details of quilt attributed to Margaret Young Stansbery, showing the portions of the Star of Bethlehem motif (near right) and the minute, meticulous stitching (far right). Handpieced and appliquéd; handquilted. Cotton and cotton chintz front. Cotton back. Co tton fill. Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Circa 1825. 104 x 104 inches (264.2 x 264.2 cm). Collection of the New England Quilt Museum; gift of Jeanne M. Hinrichs. Photographs courtesy of the New England Quilt Museum.
A Digital Partnership Te Museum o Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA) at Old Salem Museums and Gardens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, recently announced a multiyear partnership with the University o North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Digital Libraries and Archives (CDLA) to make MESDA’s research archives available via the Internet ree o charge. Te �rst step, already under way, involves scanning about 200,000 index cards documenting nearly 80,000 artists and artisans who worked in the early South as well as digitizing the past thirty�ve years o the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts and creating a model or publishing new issues exclusively on the Internet. Te next step will be to digitize the nearly 20,000 �les with photographs that have recorded the objects made in the South. MESDA, ounded in 1965, has a collection o ur niture, architecture, ceramics, metalwork, needlework, paintings, and other decorative arts rom Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Ge orgia, ennessee, and Kentucky. Te CDLA was established in 2007. For more inormation, visit mesda .org and http://cdla.unc.edu.
National Quilt Contest Supports ALS Association Kathy Tompson, owner o Quilters Dream Batting, recently launched the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge or ALS to increase awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ofen reerred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease), raise unds or the ALS Association’s global research program through the sale o some o the quilts, and “warm the hearts and laps o ALS patients.” Tompson’s son, Josh, was diagnosed in 2007 with ALS. Individuals as well as groups o quilters are invited to donate quilts. Some o quilts will be sold in raffl es or auctions. Most will be distr ibuted to ALS patients and their ami lies. Others will be eatured in a traveling exhibition. All participants are eligible to win prizes o cash and materials (batting, abrics, patterns, quilting DVDs, gif certi�cates, magazine subscriptions, sewing machines) in several donor and theme categories. Te deadline or entries is July 30. For more inormation, visit www.quiltersdreambatting.com/HD/ALS.htm. M ARCH/A PRIL
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Tis column offers a collection of patterns, charts, and instructions that have been gleaned from old magazines and books that are no longer generally available. Te patterns and instructions for these small needlework articles are worded exactly as they appeared in the original publication. Use them as they are or adapt them to other techniques—but do have fun with them!
An Edging to Tat
Carllie B. Fox’s tatted edging.
Figure 35. Edging. In two colors. With white, r (6 ds, p) 3 times, 6 ds close; with color, ch 7 ds, p, 4 ds, join to �rst p of r, 6 ds, p, 5 ds, join 2d p of r, 5 ds, p, 6 ds, join 3d p of r, 4 ds, p, 7 ds, join at beginning of ch, turn; ch 4 ds, 4 p separated by 3 ds, 3 ds; with white make small r 4 ds, join to p of petal chain, 2 ds, p, 2 ds, p, 4 ds, close; with color ch (3 ds, p) 4 times, 4 ds. Repeat from beginning, joining 1st p of 1st petal ch to side p of small r. Make desired length. Insertion. Make another strip of edging, joining chain petals as illustrated.
Photograph by Jason Reid.
—Submitted by Carllie B. Fox from Priscilla Tatting Book, Number 3, published by Needlecraft Publishing Company, Augusta, Maine, 1924.
Motifs to Cross-Stitch —From Star Needlework Journal, Volume 6, Number 3, published by The American Thread Company, 1921.
You are invited to contribute a vintage pattern (1930s or earlier) for a small article or edging that you’ve found and made. Please e-mail a clear image of the article or edging, a scan of the original instructions, and the source to
[email protected] (please put Trimmings in the subject line) or mail a photograph of the piece, a photocopy of the original instructions, and the source to Trimmings, PieceWork , 201 E. Fourth St., Loveland, CO 80537-5655; please include a daytime telephone number . 12
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interweavestore.com M ARCH/ A P R I L
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K N I T T I N G F O R S U RV I VA L
Anna Samens and
Her Knitting Machine EILEEN WHEELER
Anna Samens (left), her sister Olga Lapsins August Samens, and factory workers. Photographer unknown. Riga, Latvia. Collection of the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada. (PI-1973.7). ,
Photograph © Glenbow Archives.
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A
NNA VIPULIS SAMENS (1892–1979) had operated the family knitting factory in Riga, Latvia, through World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the German occupation. Now, in October 1944, as the family prepared to �ee the Soviet troops approaching their doorstep, Anna declared, “Te knitting machine is my life; I will not take a step without it.” Te family buried their valuables, sold a racehorse to secure an open truck, and hurriedly packed a few possessions. Tey packed a knitting machine in a coffi nlike box along with some extra parts. Even though the machine was a lighter commercial model, it took four of the �ve family members to carry the box. Anticipating a temporary displacement, Anna also packed the key to her factory, some business papers, a small sewing machine, patterns, and yarns. Anna had been born into the trade. Her father had both a grocery store and a knitting factory where Anna, as the child with a keen business aptitude, trained at age seventeen. Te fashionable dress that Anna wears in her con�rmation photograph (shown at right) from this period indicates that her professional training was not the
result o economic necessity. Anna managed the actory rom 1910 to1915, when she married August Samens (1887–1975); she received three knitting machines o her own as a wedding present. It was a momentous year or the newlyweds, who �ed the German occupation o Riga to St. Petersburg, Russia. heir daughter Ilga explains, “hey thought they were leaving Riga or a ew hours and were gone �ve years.” Te displaced couple supported the Russian monarchy in these days beore its overthrow. When Anna saw the movie Dr. Zhivago in Zhivago in her seventies, she remarked to Ilga, “Why didn’t they show me? I was putting sandbags by the Czar’s palace!” While August served in the Czar’s army, Anna machine-knitted garments and exchanged them on the black market or ood and other necessities until it was possible or her to return to Latvia. August survived the annihilation o much o the army and walked back to Latvia, arriving gaunt and bearded. By 1921, the Samens knitting business was again operational in Riga with Anna overseeing the production o gloves, socks, caps, scarves, and sweaters. A photograph (shown at lef) showing a proud Anna with her staff and a prized knitting machine was taken in the late 1920s when Anna was a mother in her early thirties. t hirties. She had a master knitter’s certi�cate rom an artisans’ guild that quali�ed her to train skilled knitters. Te business expanded over twenty years to include Anna’s brother and sister and �fy other longtime employees. Another photograph (shown on page 16), taken in 1932, an interwar period o some security and leisure in Latvia or the Samens amily beore the havoc occasioned by World War II, shows members o the extended amily skiing together; all sport ski sweaters and �ne-gauge knitwear manuactured in the amily business. Anna also custom-knitted sweaters o her own design; these were selling or $50 each in 1939, a time when the top wage or a select ew knitters was $5 a day. Te business was located in a city block ringed by shops that included the amily’s beautiully appointed knitwear outlet where gregarious August presided over retail sales while Anna managed a growing design and wholesale operation. As the orties dawned, Anna, August, and their three teenagers enjoyed a comortable lie. When German orces occupied the country and ordered the Samens amily to divert two-thirds o t heir actory’s output to supply the German army, they were able to comply, but this action would put them at odds with the Soviet orces when they
ABOVE: Anna
Vipulis (right), with her godmother, is presented on her confirmation. Photographer Photo grapher unknown. Riga, Latvia. Circa 1908–1910. LEFT: August and Anna Samens after their return from Russia. Photographer unknown. Riga, Latvi Latvia. a. 192 1920. 0. Photographs courtesy of Ilga Samens.
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Samens family on a ski outing near Riga, wearing knitwear of Anna’s design. From left: August, a cousin, Anna, daughter Skaidrite, two cousins; seated, son Vilnis. Photographer unknown. February 1932. Photograph courtesy of Ilga Samens.
Anna Samens. Photograph by Janis Klavins. Klavins. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Cana da. 197 979. 9. Photograph courtesy of Ilga Samens.
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took over the country in 1944. Te amily escaped certain reprisals rom the advancing Russians by �eeing or t heir lives. Tey caught the last German G erman boat leaving Riga and bartered or rail travel that deposited them, weeks later, in the German countryside. In a Bavarian village, they ound shelter in the homes o two armers. Te knitting machine came out o the box, and Anna Samens set it up in a partitioned room o one o the armhouses. While August and children joined the abundant ranks o unskilled labor, Anna began turning out made-to-order knitted garments. Te amily’s generous hosts supported Anna’s expanding underground business. hese were desperate times: eighteenyear-old Vilnis, always rail, died o a heart attack during Allied bombing, and photographs photograp hs taken at the time show the remaining our amily members looking undernourished, but over time, Anna was able to register her business and converted any pro�ts into ood. In 1948, the Samens amily entered Canada as displaced persons (DPs), settling irst in Drumheller, Alberta, 68 miles (109.4 km) northeast o Calgary. “We didn’t speak a word o English,” Ilga recalls. “Te �rst years in Canada were terrible; there was no welare in those days . . . [but] we never quit.” During these lean times, Anna washed dishes in the Crystal Caé and knitted goods or armers and coal miners, resisting the eelings o helplessness that assailed many other DPs. Later, Anna ound employment or some years with the
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White Ram Knitting Company in Calgary. Although the owner was highly impressed with her talents, Anna was limited by her poor English, the grueling two-hour commute by streetcar, and her age. When orced to retire rom a cleaning job at a sanitarium at sixty-�ve with no pension until age seventy, Anna turned to the knitting machine that had traveled with her rom Latvia. “She was a ast knitter,” Ilga recalls, “always trying different patterns; she used a hook like crochet [to create patterning in machine knitting].” Anna began turning “odds and ends o 3- and 4-ply yarn” that she obtained inexpensively rom the White Ram mill into warm, “very colourul,” Norwegian-style knee socks “that appealed to the Indians” o the nearby Morley Indian Reserve. Anna managed a pro�t on the socks but reused to take more than $2 per pair or them. Although she tried to teach Ilga to knit, Ilga hersel admits, “When it came to knitting, she was it!” In spite o hardships that contrasted with her comortable lie in prewar Europe, Anna thought Canada “a wonderul land,” and the surviving amily gradually built new lives there. oward the end o her lie, when she expressed a desire to visit Latvia, Ilga, who had become an X-ray technician, told her mother, “Tere is nothing lef in Latvia. You can go and cry or we can go to Hawaii.” Anna went to Hawaii with a close riend and Ilga, taking spending money saved rom her knitting. While they prepared or a special New Year’s
feast in Hawaii, Anna slipped out and paid for the dinner head, then crossing the ends “farmer style” in the front with her “sock money,” announcing later, “You see, I, and tying them under the arms in back. Remembering its too, can do something!” In fact, Anna, aided by her knit- importance to her mother, Ilga concedes that the shawl’s shawl’s ting machine, had demonstrated over and over that she value now lies in the memory that Anna attached to it. could “do something” to ease her family’s life, whether August Samens, Anna’s beloved husband of nearin Latvia, St. Petersburg, Bavaria, or their most recent ly sixty-�ve years, once paid tribute to the skilled knithome, Canada. ter and keen businesswoman: “He once remarked that Following Anna’s death in 1979, Ilga and her sister, if making a living had been up to him, they would have Skaidrite Krause, recognizing the machine’s pivotal role all starved.” ❖ in the family’s survival and their mother’s ABOU HE A UHOR. Eileen Wheeler is a textile passionate attachment to it, donated it to enthusiast with a keen interest in women’s textile narrathe Glenbow Museum in Calgary. Tere it tives and how they can enhance women’s history. She teaches Textile Design in the Bachelor of Design in Fashmemorializes, and makes visible to others, ion & Technology program at Kwantlen Polytechnic Unitheir mother’s story. versity in Richmond, Ric hmond, British Columbia, Canada, and is Among the few other possessions that the author of Engaging Engaging Women’s History through Textiles: Enhancing Curricula with Narratives of Ilga, then fourteen, managed to salvage in Historical Memory (V (Vancouver: ancouver: University of British October 1944 as the family were hurriedly Columbia, 2005), on which this article is based. packing the truck were a photograph album and a shawl hanging by the back door— F U R H E R R E A D I N G Anna asked her to bring it fearing that “it Eksteins, Modris. Walking Since Daybreak: A Story might be cold on the coast.” Te shawl is of Eastern Easte rn Europe, World War II, and the Heart of Our Century. Toronto: Key Porter, 2002. the only sur viving textile of Anna’s European designs. Kwint, Marius, Mari us, Christoph er B reward, and Jeremy Aynsley, Aynsley, eds. In June 2005, over tea and Latvian buns, Ilga presents Material Memories: Design and Evocation. Oxford, Evocation. Oxford, England: the photographs and unfolds the teal-colored yard-andBerg, 1999. a-half-square (1.4-m-square) shawl with its subtle pat- Schoeser, Mary. World Textil Textil es: A Conci se Histor y. New York York : Thames and Hudson, 2003. tern that a few moths have visited. She laments, “No one Spongberg, Mary. Writing Women’s History since the Renaissance . Renaissance . will care about this. . . . [I]t doesn’t look like anything,” New York: Palgrave Palgr ave Macmillan, Macm illan, 2002. but demonstrates how it would have been worn, folding Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories it diagonally to make a triangular scarf that covers the in the Creation of an American Myth. New Myth. New York: Knopf, 2002.
Ilga Samens, holding the shawl made by Anna that she rescued as the Samens family were fleeing Latvia in 1944. 1944. Calgary, Alberta. 2005. Photograph by the author.
The prosperous Samens family before their situation deteriorated. Ilga, at left, is about two years old. Photographer unknown. Riga, Latvia. Circaa 193 Circ 932. 2. Photograph courtesy of Ilga Samens.
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In Appreciation of Pot Holders SUSAN SRAWN Knitted and crocheted pot holders in a variety of shapes and sizes, including a sugar bowl and creamer (above left) and an ear of corn (above right). Photographs by Joe Coca. All pot holders and illustrations from the collection of the author.
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S
OME YEARS AGO, I wrote about the set of brightly colored crocheted pot holders that I discovered in a hope chest among the otherwise exquisite needlework made by my genteel Danish grandmother (“Playful, Practical Pot Holders,” PieceWork, March/April 1997). Te story drew a surprising number and variety of responses. Some readers dismissed the pot holders as “schlock,” that is, of low value, while others began an appreciative search for pot holders among the handwork of mothers, grandmothers, or favorite aunties. Curious that pot holders could spur such debate, I began to study and collect them. I now have about 500 examples. I also accumulated needlework magazines, pattern books, and related bits of information about pot holders as I explored their history.
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Pot holders in museum collections date back no further than 250 years. ongs, towels, rags, or apron corners have served to protect hands from hot dishes and cooking utensils. Te occasional early “holders” in museum collections usually are not padded and probably were intended to cover teapot handles. Among the oldest is a crewelwork holder at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware. Embroidered in shades of blue green, yellow, and brown on a diaper ground, it dates to between 1750 and 1800. A mid-nineteenth-century holder in the Chicago Historical Society collection has the crossstitched slogan “Any holder but a Slave Holder.” Purchased at the Great Northwest Sanitary Fair in 1865, the holder is typical of the political souvenirs sold at antislavery fairs of the period.
My vintage needlework magazines, along with the abric and yarn used in the pot holders themselves, help me estimate the age o my examples. Instructions or making pot holders begin showing up in magazines and pattern books near the end o the nineteenth century, a time when cheaper printing, better mail service, and advertising income bolstered sales. Weldon’s Practical Needlework (Vol. 3, n.d.), Te Art o Knitting (1892), and Fancy and Practical Knitting (1897) include directions or knitting holders using two alternating strands o wool yarn pulled tightly across the back o the work. Tis stitch creates a well-insulated abric, especially when it is olded to �t the handle o a kettle, teapot, or pressing iron. One perceptive designer, noticing that the garter-stitch ridges in these early patterns resemble rows o kernels on an ear o corn, added a green “silk” tassel and top ornament to create the ear-o-corn holder pattern in Te Art o Knitting (the pattern accompanies this story). Recommended color combinations or the knitted holders include lavender and white, red and awn, yellow and red, and, or the ear-o-corn holder, yellow and white. Few pattern books o this period contain instructions or crocheting holders; an exception is the “eapot Holder” in Columbia Book o Yarns (1901). he irst two decades o the twentieth century saw needleworkers embroidering simple mottos or designs on muslin or linen holders and crocheting delicate lace to �t over cloth padding. Te December 1917 issue o Woman’s Home Companion suggests that a pair o handsewn “hot-dish holders” would be appropriate wartime Christmas gifs, urther asserting “elaborate trimming would be out o place.” Te wartime holders were square envelopes o unbleached muslin, embroidered in simple rows
o bright red and blue chain stitch and buttoned in the back or easy removal o the pads or laundering. During the 1920s, needleworkers could mail-order kits containing stamped cloth to embroider as holders along with coordinated pocket hangers in which to store them. Oven mitts embroidered to read, “Hot Pot I eel you not,” or, “For hot pots and pans, Slip me on and spare your hands,” also were available. A rare �nd was an un�nished pot-holder kit, the LEFT: Advertisepattern printed and stenciled onto linen rom the J.B.K. ment in the February 1938 issue Co., copyright 1929. Tere was also a market or �nished of Home Arts— pot holders that resembled hand-embroidered ones, such Needlecraft for as those a Chicago wholesaler advertised in 1928: embroi- “Unique Sugar’n dered and bound, many with pock- Creamer Pot Holders” kit. Inet hangers, or $1.25 a dozen. cluded were the Te whimsical and colorul pot materials and the holders o Depression-era America instructions for crocheting the were more playul than practical. A pot holders. 1932 issue o Needlecraf touted pat- BELOW LEFT TO terns or a jolly quartet o embroi- RIGHT: Crocheted dered tomato, squash, onion, and pot holders, including the evercarrot “Hot-Handle Holders” or popular ear of “oast akers” as ideal or airs and corn, from Aunt church bazaars despite their lack o Ellen’s Complete padding. Many o my earlier Depression-era pot holders Art Needlework Catalog, circa would have been within the budget o all but the poorest 1940. Advertisehousewie, being embroidered in simple running stitch ment in the Nousing black cotton thread over appliquéd or pieced cotton vember 1935 issue of Needle- �our-sack abric. Quilt patterns such as Dresden Plate and craft for a kit for Sunbonnet Sue ound their way onto pot holders o the an embroidered thirties. Flowers and aces, ofen human or animal aces pocket and two within �owers, are recurrent themes in my collection, as pot holders, each in the shape of a are puppies, kittens, birds, bonnets, butter�ies, pigs, and butterfly. even elephants, �shes, and owls. RIGHT: “Mr. and Although pot holders would still be knitted, pieced, Mrs. Pan Holder,” or embroidered on cloth, versatile and easy crochet crocheted pot holders from the dominated pot-holder design rom the 1940s on. he June 1947 issue of WorkBasket , a mail-order needlework magazine, and The WorkBasket.
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LEFT TO RIGHT: The
cover of a 1943 Coats and Clark’s booklet, Pot Holders. World War II patriotic pot holders from The WorkBasket, Volume 7. Advertisement in the November 1924 issue of Needle- craft for a variety of kitchen accessories, including a pot holder embroidered with the words “Hot Pott I feel you not.””
t rea company thread co pattern books oered a jersey loopers were particular avorites with children. My range o patterns, nearly always promoting collection includes many awkwardly woven looper examcrocheted pot holders or gifs and bazaars. ples, pot holders embellished with rick-rack (ofen metalcrochete Patterns or a sugar bowl and creamer, cot- lic), countless variations o the crocheted-dress pot holder, tages, unny u aces, and designs rom na- and dozens o crocheted his-and-hers underpants. Some ture—leaves, ure—le ruit, �owers, �sh, birds, and sets o cloth holders in the shape o underpants have sugother aanimals—vied with geometrics in gestive bits hidden beneath �aps and aprons (the box or popularity. Cross-stitched or crocheted one such set reads, “Me arzan, You Jane”). popula ruits, leaves, l and �owers—the Irish croTe WorkBasket magazine continued to print instrucchet lower l medallion was a perennial tions or crocheted pot holders well into the 1980s, substiavorite—embellish many crochet pot tuting coarse acrylic and Aunt Lydia’s rug yarns or the �ne avorit holders hol er in my collection. Even the ear crochet thread o previous decades. Watermelons, salt and o corn cor was reinterpreted in crochet. pepper shakers, stars, and granny squares rom this period Patterns knew seasons and holidays: show up in resale shops, as do acrylic knitted pot holders Patte a circ circle o bunnies or Easter, green- with cables slanted to depict owls. Jersey-loop pot holdand-white an shamrock and Irish hat or ers remained popular: In 1992, when Interweave’s oundSt. Patrick’s P Day, Uncle Sam’s hat er, Linda Ligon, initiated Te Great Jersey Loop Caper, and shield in patriotic colors or the more than 1,200 children sent woven looper pot holders Fourth o July, a black cat and grin- to PieceWork’ s sister magazine Handwoven. Fou ning pumpkin or Halloween, and nin Pot holders can trace the lives o needleworkers over Christmas ornaments in red, white, time. Te advent and evolution o pot holders as handChr and green. an made textiles suggests that beore World War I, many During the 1950s, pot holders well-to-do women had servants to cook the amily’s brought color-coordinated hand- meals; ancywork, rather than kitchen needlework occubr work into modernized kitchens. pied their hands. During the 1920s, when many amilies w Pot-holder patterns included styl- moved into smaller bungalows and could no longer afford P ized human �gures, hats with wide to hire servants, the woman o the house was more likeiz brims and �owers, spiral designs, ly to do her own cooking and perhaps took more interest pop-up lanterns, cowboy regalia, in needlework to brighten her kitchen. A decade later, the p sserapes, exotic aces, ruit (espe- publication by thread companies o pattern books with cially watermelon and grapes), instructions or making quirky, inexpensive pot holders household gadgets, and the ubiq- would have appealed to Depression-era women with limuitous ear o corn. Pot holders made o woven ited budgets. Making pot holders could be not only their
The March 1937 issue of Dry Goods Merchants Trade Journal offered retailers “The Hit Crochet Package of 1937” —sugar bowl and creamer pot holders. 20
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creative outlet and an inexpensive way o providing gifs but also a source o income or individuals and charities during hard times. But why were so many pot holders saved, most unused, even those made with jersey loopers? o be sure, those that were gifs may have held memories o a special person or occasion, memories that the recipient wanted to preserve by not using the pot holders. Many never were intended or use, being too thin or protection, too pretty to risk burning—what i the donor noticed that you had ruined it? And a goodly number hold the memory o a child’s �rst needlework experiences. My collection includes a
Pot Holders to Knit SUSAN SRAWN
pot holder in lumpy garter stitch and another, in single crochet, with an inexplicable color palette. A third has kittens embroidered at random with tentative but promising stitches. But the one that touches me most is a square o dark brown bark cloth with an agonizing �rst attempt at blanket-stitched edging. What parent or teacher could part with such an early effort? Or with all those jersey-looper pot holders? ❖ F U R H E R R E A D I N G
Maines, Rachel “Evolution of the Potholder: From Technology to Popular Art.” Journal of Popular Culture , July 1985. Swan, Susan Burrows. Plain and Fancy: American Women and Their Needlework, 1700–1850 . New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977.
Pot holder with the embroidered words “Hot Pot I feel you not.” An advertisement in the November 1924 issue of Needlecraft
magazine showed this holder.
Susan Strawn’s “Kettle Holder,” which she adapted from Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 3, published in England in the late nineteenth century. Photograph by Joe Coca.
W Weldon’s, n.d.) includes a pattern or a “Kettleeldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 3 (London:
Holder” that was intended or grasping hot handles. Te garter stitch used in the project creates a woolly layer o insulation that is ideal or a pot holder. A pattern or an ear-o-corn holder (“Knitted Holder”) appears in Te Art of Knitting (Butterick, 1892). A similar holder in Fancy and Practical Knitting (Butterick, 1897) has rib-knit ends with garter-stitch kernels in alternating rows o white and yellow. Knitted and crocheted variations on these whimsical patterns persisted into the 1950s. Te instructions or the ear-o-corn holder and the materials list or both projects are on page 22. K�����-H�����
A V INAGE PAERN FROM W E L D O N ’ S P R A C I C A L N E E D L E W O R K INSRUCIONS
CO 61 sts with Gold and k 1 row. Row 1: (RS) Sl 1, k7 with Gold, *k5 with White, k5 with Gold; rep rom * 3 more times, k5 with White, k8 with Gold. Row 2: Same as Row 1, except be sure to keep yarn to WS M A R C H /A P R I L
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MAERIALS
Cascade Yarns Cascade 220 and Cascade Yarns 220 Quatro, 100% wool yarn, worsted weight, 220 yards (201 m)/100 g skein, 1 skein each of 220 #8010 White and #9463B Gold for Kettle-Holder and 1 skein of 220 Quatro #5010 Butterscotch for Ear of Corn; visit http://cascadeyarns.findlocation.com/ for a list of retailers Crochet hook, size H/8 (5 mm) for Ear of Corn DMC Pearl Cotton, 100% cotton thread, size 5, 27.3 yards (25 m)/skein, 1 skein of #367 Dark Pistachio for Ear of Corn Needles, size 8 (5 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge for both Tapestry needle for both
o work when not in use (bring yarn 1 to ront o work, move yarn 2 to back o work, and pull yarns snugly across back). Rep Rows 1 and 2 or 56 rows (28 kernels). BO with Gold. Finishing Fold in hal lengthwise. Using the tapestry needle, pull yarn through sts to gather and close puffy sections at each end. Sew �at sections tog on each end. Te lengthwise edge is lef open to grasp t he kettle handle. Weave in loose ends. E�� �� C���
A VINAGE PAERN FROM
Finished sizes: Kettle-Holder, about 6 inches (15 cm) long and 6½ inches (17 cm) in circumference; Ear of Corn, about 6 inches (15 cm) long and 4 inches (10 cm) in circumference Gauge: 22 sts and 37 rows = 4 inches (10.2 cm) in garter st for both See page 55 for Abbreviations
Susan Strawn’s “Ear of Corn” pot holder, which she adapted from The Art of Knit- ting, published in 1892. Photograph by Joe Coca.
T H E A R T O F K N I T T I N G
INSRUCIONS Note:
Piece is knitted using 2 balls wound rom the same skein (yarn 1 and yarn 2). CO 45 sts. Row 1: (RS) K5 with yarn 1, *k5 with yarn 2, k5 with yarn 1; rep rom * to end, pulling yarns snugly across back o work. Row 2: K5 with yarn 2, *k5 with yarn 1, k5 with yarn 2; rep rom * to end, making sure to keep yarn to WS o work when not in use as oll: bring yarn 2 to RS o work, move yarn 1 to WS o work. Cont to pull yarns snugly across back o work. Rep Rows 1 and 2 or 50 rows (25 kernels), then work Row 1 once more. With WS acing, BO with yarn 2. Finishing Using the tapestry needle, on each end, pull yarn through every 5th bound-off st. Draw through twice and secure tightly to close ends. Cornsilk: Make a tassel that is ⅓ the length o the ear o corn, using 40 or more strands o pearl cotton. Sew to one end o ear. Crochet a decorative end piece as oll: Using 2 strands o pearl cotton, pick up a lp through a kernel at opposite end o ear rom tassel. Ch 3, dc in each o next 8 ridges (rows o corn); join with sl st to top o beg ch-3—9 dc. Ch 3, 1 dc in sp beore next dc, *sk 1 dc, 2 dc in sp beore next dc; rep rom * around, join with sl st to top o beg ch-3— 18 dc. Fasten off. Weave in loose ends. A B O U H E A U H O R A N D D E S I G N E R . Susan Strawn, an
associate professor at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, teaches classes about textiles, including the history of dress, cultural perspectives of dress, and surface design of fabric. She is the author of Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Voyageur Press, 2007) and a member of PieceWork’s editorial advisory panel. She was formerly an illustrator and photostylist for Interweave.
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The Very
Best Afghans in the World R O B I N H A N S E N
T
HE NICE HING about Grandmother’s afghans,” my mother once said, “is that they’re not too heavy. hey’re not too stretchy; they’re not too warm; they’re not too big or too small. Tey’re just right for a nap anytime.” hat was a lot more than one nice thing, but she left out two others: Tey are prettier than most afghans without being overstated, and they fold square and flat, unlike most knitted and crocheted afghans. he afghans in our house were made of little woven squares in rich Victorian colors, pale pastels, or black and crayon-colored wool yarns. Because they were woven, they didn’t stretch much and were just right for a bed-top nap or a cuddle on the sofa when you were sick. Tey were probably as therapeutic as applesauce or chicken soup. When I was a child, all our afghans were made by my greatgrandmother Eldredge, who died a year after I was born. I have no memory of her, but my mother, my three aunts, and my older cousins had stories to tell. Born in 1855, in Cape May, New Jersey, Mary Carll Foster was the daughter of the keeper of Cape May Lighthouse. At nineteen, she married her high school sweetheart, James Ware Eldredge, a member of the Life Saving Service (later the U.S. Coast Guard). hey lived in Cape May their whole lives; James was later captain of the Cape May Life Saving Station at Cape May Point.
The author’s Weave-It afghan made by her Aunt Kit (Kathrine Eldredge Rosenfelder). Photograph by Joe Coca.
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Weave-It afghan owned by Pam Broderick (below basket); squares for a re-creation by the author of a Weave-It afghan made by the author’s greatgrandmother, Mary Foster Eldredge, in the 1930s and the author’s Weavette loom from Buxton Brook Designs (in basket). Photograph by Joe Coca.
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Mary Carll and James made most o their clothing and nearly everything else in t heir house. In long hours between emergencies at the Lie Saving Station, James made sturdy split-ash baskets, knitted socks and mittens, and built urniture. My mother remembered quilting bees at their house: When Mary Carll �nished piecing a quilt top, she invited her women riends in to help her �nish it. Afer James died in 1936, Mary Carll lost interest in lie. She was ill or a year or so beore her own death in 1941, nursed by her granddaughter, my Aunt Bert. It probably was then that she made her amily-renowned aghans, one or each o six grandchildren. Grandmother’s aghans were varied but always colorul—diagonal stripes o color rom edge to edge; checkerboards, with one dominant color and bright scraps o yarn, small groups o eight squares around a single un varying color, and a large version o the patchwork L og Cabin design. All were sewn together and �nished with a crocheted border. Mary Carll wove the squares on a Weave-It, a handheld loom similar to a child’s pot-holder loom but smaller,
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made o wood, with oddly grouped steel pins instead o pegs. I must have asked about the loom when I was quite little because when I was �ve, someone gave me one o my own. I remember being told how wonderul the Weave-It was, how easy to warp, how easy to weave. Someone warped it or me. I wove a square, using the long needle that came with it, and realized, even at �ve, that i a square took me three days to weave, an aghan would take orever. Aunt Bert suggested that I make a baby hat, but I wanted an aghan, so I tucked the loom away and orgot it. It went missing in one o our many amily moves. Te Weave-It was a product o the inventive 1930s. It uses a patented system o grouped pegs and a warping/weaving technique similar to that used in caning chairs. Worked with a continuous strand, the loom is warped in three layers: �rst lengthwise (ollowing numbers and arrows on its rame), then crosswise, then again lengthwise, laying the yarn in spaces between those used in the �rst layer. Te end o the yarn is then wrapped our-and-a-hal times around the outside o the pegs to provide a weaver and broken off. In effect, the weaving is now hal done. Te loose end is threaded onto a long needle and woven crosswise between the strands o the second layer. It’s hard to explain in words but easy to see in a diagram (see the illustrations shown on page 29). Te odd spacing o the pins, the clever warping system, and the numbers and arrows on the loom do make using a Weave-It easier than needle-weaving back and orth. Te result is a square with loops on all our sides. Invented by Donald Simonds in the early 1930s, Weave-It and its descendants took off with a bang and were a craze or over a decade. Aghans were made rom Maine to Caliornia, and books appeared with directions or making hostess gowns, chair pads, and children’s caps
and jackets by crocheting or sewing together the little woven squares. I have never seen any o these garments, but I keep running into aghans. A survey o my cousins produced a baby aghan o acrylic yarn in a textured pattern—deinitely not one o Grandmother’s because acrylic yarn didn’t exist in her lietime and because she relied exclusively on color or her patterns. Another aghan showed up on a soa in Woolwich, Maine, when I was interviewing its owner about her artwork. Her mother had chosen colors quite different rom Grandmother’s—random bright oranges, reds, browns, and dark greens—a true autumn aghan. A third, patchy and made o irregular weights o yarn, turned up at Works o Hand in Winter Harbor, Maine. When I got excited about that one, owner Pam Broderick brought out one in greens, which was
none in Maine, where I live, but my luck changed when I stepped into Licia Conorti’s Buxton Brook store on a visit to Williamstown, Massachusetts. Licia became enchanted with Weave-Its as a child ater she ound one in the attic and learned rom her ather how to use it. In 1998, she purchased the right to manuacture Weavettes (the name had been changed). She began selling by mail order and also recon�gured the directions and wrote two little books o patterns. I had a hard time controlling mysel, but remembering in time that I wanted to copy Grandmother’s aghans, I bought only Buxton Brook’s kit o one 4-inch (10-cm) and one 2-inch (5-cm) loom, two long needles, and basic directions. I also bought a copy o Licia’s book o textured patterns but have yet to work one with a textured pattern because Grandmother Eldredge worked only in colors.
When she had enough squares to make an afghan, she put them together higgledy-piggledy into what my mother lovingly likened to a patchwork quilt. not or sale. She graciously consented to have it photographed or PieceWork (see page 26). Every now and then, I’ll come across a Weave-It aghan olded neatly on the back o a chair or the arm o a soa at a summer cottage, usually unremarkable to its owner. Afer Grandmother Eldredge died, two o my aunts took over making Weave-It aghans: Aunt Bert, a knitter by passion, alternated black and bright colors in a checkerboard aghan. Aunt Kit, or whom handwork was an arthritis therapy, knitted thirty-two sweaters a year or us all and made aghans with the scraps, weaving them on a little update o the Weave-It with a rigid-heddle system. When she had enough squares to make an aghan, she put them together higgledy-piggledy into what my mother lovingly likened to a patchwork quilt. My ather called it pug-ugly. All o Grandmother Eldredge’s aghans are gone now, and only two o Aunt Kit’s survive. Both are shown here. Gentle washing has sofened their colors and texture. One o Aunt Kit’s hung on the end o my parents’ soa or thirty years, making naps more comortable or both Mother and Dad. When it was keeping him warm, Dad orgot that he thought it ugly. One day, my old aghan gave way and died. I wanted to make a new one but didn’t have a Weave-It. I ound
Weave-It afghan made by the author’s Aunt Kit (Kathrine Eldredge Rosenfelder) for the author’s mother. Photograph by Joe Coca.
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I’m working on my second aghan. Te �rst went to a grandchild, ourteen by ourteen squares in white, navy, and medium blue arranged diagonally. Te new one will replace Aunt Kit’s relic, the victim o a laundry accident. She had mixed acrylic and wool yarns in the same aghan; the wool shrank, the acrylic didn’t, and the maroon squares bled into the others. I you have a Weave-It (or a Weavette) but have lost the directions, you can ollow the illustrations shown on page 29 or setting up and weaving a plain square or you can send a sel-addressed stamped business-size envelope to Licia Conorti and request her updated version o the
A Weave-It Pillow
directions ree o charge. You may also purchase Licia’s books rom her, Textured Patterns for the Weavette Loom and Modular Textures, and the 6-inch (15-cm) needles; Buxton Brook no longer manuacturers Weavette looms. Write to Licia Conorti, Buxton Brook Looms, 1382 W. Main St., Williamstown, MA 01267. Tere are also many online sources o weaving directions and videos, comments, and secondhand Weave-Its and Weavettes or sale. Jana rent has a more thorough history o handheld looms and many un ideas on her website www.eloomination.com. Have un! ❖
or Chair
Pad
to Make
R O B I N H A N S E N
A
small pillow or a chair pad is a good way to try out the techniques o making and assembling Weave-It
squares. Te Weave-It aghans I own vary in size rom 108, 195, or 255 squares, respectively. Tat is a lot o squares to weave, easy or not. Our project, w hich measures 12 by 16 inches (30.5 by 40.6 cm), requires only twenty-our squares. I you are happy with this, consider that the twenty-our squares are nearly a quarter o the smallest lap robe or about one-tenth o the largest. Te idea o a chair pad was suggested in Licia Conorti’s Textured Patterns for the Weavette Loom, where she described her ather’s �rst childhood Weave-It project. Te historical material on Weave-It/Weavette looms comes rom her convenient and inormative little books (or more inormation, see above). Te technical instructions and illustrations are adapted rom Directions for Using the Weave-It , sold with the Weave-It loom by Hero Manuacturing Company, Middleboro, Massachusetts, probably in the mid-1950s. INSRUCIONS
The project pillow/chair pad comprised of twenty-four Weavette squares shown with Weave-It afghan owned by Pam Broderick. Photograph by Joe Coca.
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Notes: Weavette looms are no longer manuactured. Weave-It and Weavette looms appear in antique shops, on eBay, and ofen in people’s attics or work boxes. I you are ortunate enough to have a Weavette loom and lack either the basic instruction booklet or the 6-inch (15.2cm) tapestry needle (essential!), contact Licia Conorti at Buxton Brook Designs (see above or details).
All in-process photographs courtesy of the designer.
MATERIALS
Halcyon Yarn Botanica, 100% wool yarn, worsted weight, 160 yards (146.3 m)/4 ounce (113.4 g) skein; the sample shown here has 6 squares each of 4 colors, 45 yards (41.1 m) of each color of yarn is required to make the project, the sample is shown in dark green, medium blue, navy blue, and dark red; small amounts of matching yarns will be needed for sewing and the optional crocheted edge (a complete crocheted edge is de rigueur on afghans but not on the pillow) Weave-It or Weavette 4-inch (10.2-cm) handheld loom and accompanying 6-inch (15.2-cm) tapestry needle and directions Short tapestry needle for piecing squares together Crochet hook, size G, for finishing edges Pillow, soft, cloth-covered, 12 x 16 inches (30.5 x 40.6 cm) Snap Tape, 8 inches (20.3 cm), or 3–4 Velcro dots or snaps Sewing thread and handsewing needle
Warping the loom—Step 1a.
Warping the loom—Step 1b.
Warping the loom—Step 2.
Warping the loom—Step 3a.
Warping the loom—Step 3b.
Warping the loom—Step 4.
Finished size: 12 x 16 inches (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
To Make a Square Warping 1. Hold the loom with the corner marked “1” toward you, the arrow pointing away from you. With the yarn end toward you at the arrow, lay the yarn across the loom, wrap it to the right around the �rst 2 pins and return to the side nearest you, laying the yarn between the 2nd and 3rd pins to the right of the arrow. Tie securely in a square knot close to the pins—not stretched tight but with no slack. Leave a tail on the short end of about 5 inches (13 cm) if you plan to use the tail to sew squares together later. Pass the yarn around the next 2 pins and draw to the far side, laying the yarn between the 1st and 2nd pins of the group of 3 pins directly across. Pass the yarn to the right around the 2nd and 3rd pins and return it to the side nearest you. Keep an even, slight tension on the warps by holding a �nger against the pins and yarn of each previous turn as you work. Continue back and forth, wrapping behind the 2nd and 3rd pins of each group until you reach curved arrow marked “2” (see Figure 1). 2. Turn the loom so that the curved arrow marked “2” points away from you. Pass the yarn around the 1st 2 pins, cross to the far side, bringing the yarn out between the 1st and 2nd pins, right around the 2nd and 3rd pins of the group. Continue back and forth, wrapping around the 2nd and 3rd pins of each group until you reach arrow marked “3” (see Figure 2). 3. Turn the loom again so the arrow marked “3” points toward you. Pass the yarn through the 1st and 2nd pins and return it to the near side, coming out between the 1st
and 2nd pin. Pass yarn to the right around 2 pins, cross to the far side, coming out in the open space just opposite; go around the 1st 2 pins of the group of 3, and return to the near side in the open space. Continue back and forth, looping around the 1st and 2nd pins of each group until the loom is �lled (see Figure 3). 4. Using the same continuous yarn, measure the correct amount of yarn needed for weaving: wrap the yarn loosely 4½ times around the loom outside the pins (5 times if you plan to sew squares together using the tail end). Break yarn. Weaving 1. Pressing a thumbnail to the corner marked “3” (see Figure 3) to maintain warp tension, unwind the yarn outside the pins, and thread the long needle. Starti ng at “W” (see Figure 3) between the 1st and 2nd pins, go over the outside loop, then weave under and over until you reach the far side, emerging in an open space. Draw the yarn completely through, �rmly but not tightly. Go around 2 pins, and weave back over the outside loop, then under and over all the way across (see Figures 4 and 5). Note: Because you weave continually between the strands of the 2nd layer of warping, every row you weave is the same. As you weave, use the needle to beat back previously woven yarn, keeping the tension even and the yarns straight. 2. Weave back and forth until you end with the last row of weaving close to the pins (see Figure 6). Before you can
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Weaving—Step 1a.
All in-process photographs courtesy of the designer.
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Weaving—Step 1b.
Weaving—Step 2.
weave the last row, you may need to be at down the weaving rows by stroking the abric with the needle tip and working it with your thumb and index nails until all rows are airly straight. urn the last corner and tie the working yarn into the 1st loop around the pins. Work the abric a little to bring the outside strand on each side out close to the pins. Remove the square rom the loom by pushing up on it rom beneath. 3. You can use up scraps or var y the color by combining colors within 1 square: wind on 1 color and weave with another, wind on and weave with 2 strands o a lightweight yarn, or wind on the 1st 2 layers with 1 yarn and �nish and then weave with another to make stripes. o Make the Pillow Weave 6 squares each in the 4 colors. Lay the squares out on a table, ollowing the chart. Piece the squares together in strips, ollowing the chart: 1. Collect each o the 4 columns o 6 squares in order, label each column (1, 2, 3, 4) and put an elastic band around each. Each square has bumps and spaces along each side and 2 tails—the starting tail, which seems to emerge in the middle o one bump, and the �nishing tail, which seems to come out o the corner o the square (see photograph o individual square on page 29). 2. Determine top and bottom, right and wrong sides: Lay 1 square with the inishing tail at upper right, the starting tail on the side edge at lower lef. Te right side now aces you and the ceiling. 3. Place the next square o the strip on it, in the same position. Flip it toward you, so that the wrong side is up (the starting tail o the top square is across rom the �nishing tail edge o the �rst square; i.e., right sides acing). Look at the ar edge o the 2 squares. Te bumps o 1 edge should be approximately between the edge bumps o the other. Each bump consists o 2 loops. You will stitch into both loops o each bump, but you will offset the stitches. 4. Tread the �nishing tail o the 1st square onto the short tapestry needle and use a whip (overhand) stitch, catching the very 1st loop o the ront square. Pull the yarn through and over, then push the needle through
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Weaving—Step 3.
Weaving—Step 4.
the 1st loop o the 1st bump on the rear square and the 2nd loop o the 1st bump o the ront square at the same time. Te next stitch will be through the 2nd loop o the 1st bump on the rear square and the 1st loop on the 2nd bump o the ront square, and so orth. Keep a good tension on your sewing yarn, and the 2 squares will merge nicely into one surace. Te last bump on the ront square has 3 loops, so that you will end with the last loop on each square with the same stitch. ake a stitch through your last stitch to secure the end (see photograph o three squares on page 29). 5. Everything should match gloriously. I there is a jog between squares along both edges, you’ve missed a loop somewhere, probably at the beginning, and should take the seam out and redo it. Picking out and resewing i s not difficult, and it’s easier (and looks better) than trying to adjust by doubling up stitches somewhere later. Tis is not a orgiving medium, but being almost perect is pretty easy once you get the hang o it. Notes: Beore ending a sewing yarn, darn the tail rom sewing into the matching abric on the wrong side. Old directions suggest splitting plies beore doing this, but there is no sign that anyone in our amily has ever done so. Clip the �nal end rom darning close to the abric. I the working tail end is not long enough to sew the whole edge o a square, darn its end into the wrong side and start a new strand o matching yarn by darning it into the weave on the wrong side (not in the same path used to �nish the 1st end), emerging where your 1st stitch will be. 6. Continue matching tops to bottoms and sew to make 4 strips. 7. Place strips 1 and 2, top to top, right sides acing, and sew them together square by square, using the starting tails, or matching yarn, and the same oset stitching pattern as on the horizontal seams. Use your creative thinking at the beginning o a square rather than t he end i the edges don’t seem to match perectly. Steam the 4-×6-inch (10.2-×-15.2-cm) square piece lightly with a cool iron and a damp cloth. 9. Fold the cover in hal with wrong sides acing, with 12 squares on each side and the opening at the bottom.
3
3
1
W
W
2
2
1
3
1
W
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
3
3
3
2 Figure 4
W
W
W 1
2
1
Figure 5
1
2
2
Figure 6
Fold here
Individual square, showing starting and finishing tails of yarn.
Three squares pieced together.
Chart may be photocopied for personal use.
Using the tails rom starting or �nishing, sew up the sides and 1 square on each side o the bottom, leaving an opening 2 squares wide. On 1 side seam, you can use tails. On the 2nd side, there will be no tails lef, and you will have to use short lengths o a matching yarn, working the ends rom sewing into the wrong side o the abric. 10. Finishing: Using the crochet hook, slip-stitch crochet around the opening on the bottom edge. With the
handsewing needle and matching thread, sew 8 inches (20.3 cm) o Snap Tape, 3 or 4 Velcro dots, or snaps just inside the edge. Steam lightly with a cool iron and a damp cloth. Stuff with the covered pillow and close snaps. A B O U T T H E A U T H O R A N D D E S I G N E R . Robin Hansen of West
Bath, Maine, is the author of se veral books on traditional knitting, including Favorite Mittens (Camden, Maine: Down East, 2005) and Knit Mittens (North Adams, Massachusetts: Storey, 2002).
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We Like Washday, Don’t We? More Than Just a Slogan MARLENE BLESSING
T
HE SPOED, WORN APRON with a canvas inner pouch to stash clothespins—simple slotted wooden pegs—had been hiding for years i n a box of old linens in my basement. I’d forgotten its cheerleading message, embroidered in simple chain and running stitches in faded red cotton thread on the undyed natural muslin: “We Like Washday, Don’t We?” Below it, a smiling woman in a long skirt hangs laundry on lines stretched between trees just as generations of women used to do before automatic dryers and before Martha Stewart embraced and glori�ed the homely arts. As a small girl, I didn’t know those legions of ladies, only my mother, Inez Amy Hovland Loop (1916–2002), who must have embroidered the apron as a farmgirl growing up in Minnesota. Laundry was one of Mother’s passions. She hand-laundered anything and everything she thought might suffer from the not-so-gentle agitator in our washing machine. Like the woman on the apron, Mother hung her laundry
outside, weather permitting. She also had a special sprinkling-ironing routine that ensured everything looked crisp and new and that our clothes seemed to last forever. But if laundry was a passion, embroidery was Mother’s art. She adorned her blue linen guest towels with delicate �owers, decorated the edges of her pillowcases with a �ne combination of embroidery and tatting. ablecloths and napkins bore sweet scrolls of vines and leaves. But her humorous side showed through in some pieces, such as the dish towel showing a sexy kitty in high heels wearing a polka-dot two-piece bathing suit. Mother embroidered every collar, tucked and pleated bodice, and dirndl in my wardrobe and replicated my out�ts in miniature for my Mary Hartline doll complete with minuscule pearl buttons, ribbons, and �owers with French-knot centers. For our ballet recital, Mother made a Swan Lake costume for me and an identical one, from silky bodice to sequined netted skirt, for my best friend, Pam. Sometimes her needlework feats bordered on the heroic. When I joined Bluebirds in the �rst grade and the uniform’s regulation baseball-style cap turned out to be too small for me, Mother simply created a facsimile cap— bill, embroidered bluebird emblem, and all—that perfectly matched the other girls’ caps. Yes, Mother liked washday, but it was the countless handmade articles of clothing that Mother made of cloth and embellished with thread that truly expressed both her spirit and her sense of beauty. ❖ A BOU H E A UHOR. Marlene Blessing is the editorial director of Interweave’s Beadwork and Stringing magazines and coauthor of the Create Jewelry series of books (Loveland, Colorado: Interweave).
Embroider a Washday Apron More and more people are �nding the bene�ts of and
Pattern may be photocopied for personal use. Electronic pattern by Marc Owens. 30
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delights in hanging the washing outside—it’s better for the environment than using an electric or ga s dryer, and everything “hung out to dry” smells wonderful. Use our pattern to embroider your own laundry apron. Inez Amy Hovland Loop used chain and running stitches on the original; a multitude of other stitches will work as well. Te original apron is 16 × 14 inches (40.6 × 35.6 cm). Enlarge pattern to your preference.
Inez Amy Hovland Loop’s laundry apron. Muslin, cotton thread. Embroidered. Minnesota. Twentieth century. Collection of the author. Photograph by Joe Coca.
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Everyday Cloth LINDA LIGON PINCUSHIONS EVERYWHERE
You would have had a handmade pincushion in every room in the house (because you never knew when you might need a pin). Not just the boring tomato-shaped ones with a strawberry �lled with emery on top either. Your pincushions might take the form of a rooster, a fan, a bow, a doll, a cream jug, a leaf, a witch’s hat, a hassock, an egg, a spoon, a beechnut, an acorn, a folly! (And what’s a folly? A pincushion that is “merely fantastic in shape.”) You might knit, crochet, sew, or embroider your pincushions, and they would require some investment of time. What would you be thinking? A WALL POCKE? WHY NO!
“The ‘Coque’ Pincushion and Penwiper,” Volume 10. All of the illustrations shown here are from various volumes of Interweave’s facsimile editions of Weldon’s Practical Needlework.
The volume number is listed in the caption.
W
hat’s your everyday cloth? Te rag you wipe your kitchen counters with? Te laces for tying your running shoes, the towel for drying
Pincushions were by no means the only household necessities of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. You would have needed wall pockets, too. And these wall pockets—macraméd, crocheted, knitted, stitched—would have been expressions of your creativity as well as your diligent housekeeping. You would have had them in your parlor, in your bedroom—where else would you hide the little bits that accumulate around the house? Te scraps, dust bunnies, string balls, spare keys, grocery lists, and whatnot? (A question to ask yourself:
your coffee cup, the napkin by your plate at dinner? Te pillowcase you lay your head on at night? Tese are purely functional. Tey are most usually store-bought, though you may have made or embellished them at one time or another, or you could if you wanted to. Victorian and Edwardian women, those with the leisure to make things by hand, had a different view of what textiles were necessary in their daily lives or what was worth their creative effort. Of course they had the homely textiles described above (though the napkins might have had elaborate drawnwork and the pillowcases dainty tatted edgings). But they had more. So much more. Look through old copies of Weldon’s Practical Needlework (for more on this series of books, see the sidebar on page 33), and your jaw will drop.
“Wall Pocket,” Volume 2. 32
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W A S I M O D E S Y O R W A S I B O R E D O M ?
“Lead Cushion, or Door Stop,” Volume 11.
Victorian ladies were highly concerned with covering things. Not just their bricks, but their toasters, teapots, chair arms, piano lids, lower vases, cologne bottles, matchboxes—almost anything that would hold still. Tey might even have crocheted a covering or their ball o crochet cotton. Tey created little shades or their candles so that the naked wicks would not be exposed when they were not burning. Tey crafed multitiered rills or their
What do you do with these oddments today? Put them in the trash or tuck them behind a couch cushion? Would you consider spending several hours crafing a special pocket or them, and then hanging it in plain sight on your wall?) COVERED BRICKS
Most homes, then or now, need a doorstop or two. Tose plastic wedges work just �ne, and are pretty unobtrusive. But your great-grandmother would have had something else in mind, such as a brick covered in knitting. She might have knitted it in “very bright colors, to contrast sharply with those o the carpet.” Well, i you went to the bother o knitting a brick, you certainly would want people to notice!
“Witch’s Hat Pincushion,” Volume 10.
About Weldon’s
In an effort to bring needlework to an emerging middle class in Victorian England, several companieses in the late 1800s in London began publishing patterns and instructions. Unlike other magazines availlable at the time, which ran one or two needlework projects in an issue �lled with other editorial, thesee new publications were devoted solely to needlework. Many o the companies involved were thread companies, and their purpose, o course, was to selll more thread by making patterns and instructions more readily available. One company, however, Weldon’s, began as a paper pattern company and became one o the most recognized needlework publishers in England. About 1885, Weldon’s began publishing monthly newsletters, available by subscription, with patterns and instructions. Each ourteen-page newsletter was devoted to one technique— Weldon’s Practical Knitter , Weldon’s Practical Patchwork, Weldon’s Practical Bazaar Articles , Weldon’s Practical Crochet , Weldon’s Practical Cross-Stitch , and so on. Around 1888, the company began to publish a series o books titled Weldon’s Practical Needlework : each volume consisting o twelve o the various ourteenpage newsletters. Volume 10, or example, includes appliqué embroidery, crochet, knitting, le ather work, pincushions, point lace, and ribbon plaiting. Weldon’s stopped publishing sometime in the 1920s; the reason is unknown. Interweave published acsimile editions o the �rst twelve volumes o Weldon’s Practical Needlework. Volumes 2 and 5 through 12 are available at www.interweavestore.com, click on Needlework in the category list on the lef.
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baked hams (to avoid public exposure o a pig’s ankle). Tis is a running theme throughout their craf publications. So many detailed project instructions or coverings, so much care and detail involved in their executi on. hey knitted coverings or their boots. hat is, coverings or when they were wearing their boots down the street, so their boots would not get dirty or so they would not slip on ice. O course, they also knitted coverings or their boots to wear when saely stored in the closet. Tey knitted �ne cotton covers with straps (optional) to cover wounded �ngers (called a “�nger stall”). “Coal Scuttle Pincushion,” Volume 2.
“hese can be quickly made,” their Needlework assured its readers.
Weldon’s Practic al
HE WHY OF I
“The Folly Pincushion,” Volume 10.
Is this beginning to sound trivial or perhaps even a little neurotic? It shouldn’t. Women above the working class had time. Tey had hand skills. Tey did not have computers or televisions or even radios to occupy their attention. Tey did not have jobs outside the home. What would you do in that situation? Small handwork projects or the home can provide so much satisaction even i they are dispensable. Ladies o those earlier eras also made items that would seem perectly unctional today: shopping bags, nets or protecting their ruit trees, e ven netted billiard
Bag for a Bathing Dress he knitted bag with crocheted border, shown below, described in Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 11, was simple to make, practical, and “it need not be unornamental in appearance.” It was thoughtully designed to let water drip through and was worked in �ne macramé twine in pink and brown. Te simple openwork pattern that comprises the body o the bag could have many handy applications. Cast on a multiple o 3 stitches. 1st row – Plain. 2nd row – Knit 2, *make 1, knit 3, draw the �rst o these three knitted stitches over the other two, thus decreasing one; repeat rom * and knit the last stitch o the row plain. 3rd row – Purl. Repeat rows 2 and 3 [ad in�nitum]. Tese row-by-row instructions are verbatim rom the original. o ampliy: “make 1” means pick up the strand between stitches and place it on your lef needle. It becomes the �rst stitch o “knit 3.” Tis made stitch is the one you draw over the other two. You are not really decreasing one because you made one. Te total number o stitches on the needle remains constant. “Bag for Bathing Dress, &c.,” Volume 11.
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table pockets. But these were not plain vanilla items! Te billiard pockets would have had fancy tassels. Te shopping bag made of plain string would be “beauti�ed with a piece of 1½ inch wide old gold colored fancy-edged ribbon.” Tey represented a level of attention consistent with the aesthetic of the times. A CONINUING RADIION
Fast-forward thirty or forty years. Check the whimsical apron-shaped clothespin bag on page 31 and the pot
“Egg and Spoon Pincushion,” Volume 10.
holders on pages 18–22. Depending on your age, these are items your mother or grandmother might have made (to go with her apron with the clever little pockets and trim). Maybe the desire to imbue the simplest everyday textiles with personality and meaning skips generations, but it does not die. And today? Who has not seen a pattern for a knitted or crocheted or embroidered cell phone cover, iPod cover, laptop cover, or even television remote control cozy? Why, I ask you? ❖ A BOU H E A UHOR. Linda Ligon is founder and creative director of Interweave. She once made a felt cover for her hi-fi turntable, embellished with elaborate cutwork designs .
“American Over-Shoe as Worn,” Volume 5.
New from PieceWork Downloadable Electronic Pattern Books
Weldon’s Practical Knitter
Four eBooks containing the �rst four series of Weldon’s Practical Knitter from Volume 1 of Weldon’s Practical Needlework now are available for download! Each opens a window on another time and another place—the turn of the twentieth century in London. Te four series have instructions and illustrations for a total of 147 “Useful Articles for Ladies, Gentlemen and Children,” including insertions and edgings, shawls, slippers, beaded cuffs, socks, baby bonnets and booties, quilt squares, mitts, hats, pincushions sweaters, gloves, and scarves. Te First Series includes general information and de�nitions of knitting terms as they were in Victorian England (a valuable reference for the projects in this and subsequent series). Visit www.interweavestore.com/Needlework.html and click on eBooks for complete details.
“Cover for Cologne Bottle,” Volume 11. “Knitted Finger Stall,” Volume 11.
M A R C H /A P R I L
2010
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Monograms to Crochet O
ne of the features in the September 1935 issue of Home Arts—Needlecrat was
“Crocheted Markings for owels and Blankets.” Here’s an excerpt: Te monogramming of thick textiles, such as bed blankets and terry or urkish towels, has always be en somewhat of a problem. It can, of course, be done by the commercial machine process, but such letters are necessarily more or less stereotyped. Crocheted letters, on the other hand, permit of being styled to suit the patterning of the towel border, as well as its color. Tey are sewed in place and because of the thickness of the foundation fabric the stitches do not show t hrough on the back, which is another advantage. And best of all, perhaps, from the standpoint of one who must count pennies, the materials cost only a tri�e and the letters are so quickly made that even the marking of an entire set of trousseau bath-towels is no effort at all. Te opening page of the article is shown opposite. Nancy Nehring, author, designer, and frequent PieceWork contributor, crocheted the entire alphabet of one of the styles and sewed the letters onto a piece of terry cloth. Her letterby-letter instructions, along with several quotes she selected from the original article follow. While we may dispute Home Arts—Needlecraf ’s claim about an entire set of bath towels “being no effort at all,” we do think embellishing bath or kitchen towels with crocheted monograms is another household textile tradition worth keeping.
Bath towel marked with the letters A and B crocheted by Nancy Nehring. A copy of the September 1935 issue of Home Arts—Needlecraft from which our letters were adapted accompanies the towel. Home Arts—Needlecraft
courtesy of Mary Bird.
Photograph by Joe Coca.
MAERIALS
Presencia Finca Perle Cotton, 100% mercerized Egyptian cotton thread, size 8, available in 10- and 50-g (77- and 385 yd)/balls; quantity dependent on numbers of letters to be worked; we used #3405 Royal Blue, #1906 Cranberry, and #3000 Ecru Crochet hook, steel, size 10
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Stitch holder, small John James Needle, crewel or embroidery (sharp point), size 20 Toweling of choice Finished size of each letter: About 2 inches (5 cm) wide and 3 inches (8 cm) high Gauge: About 10 sc or dc = 1 inch (2.5 cm)
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ABBREVIAIONS
ch—chain dc—double crochet dc2tog—double crochet 2 together dc3tog—double crochet 3 together sc—single crochet sk—skip sl st—slip stitch st(s)—stitch(es)
INSRUCIONS
Notes: Begin with a oundation chain in Royal Blue.
Secure the last loop o the oundation chain with a stitch holder; do not cut thread, it will be picked up and used later. When working into chain stitches work in bottom loop. Leave 12-inch (30.5-cm) tails at both the beginning and end o the Royal Blue. It will be used to stitch the letter into place. Make the Cranberry and Ecru tails short and work over them when possible. Be careul not to twist slender lines when attaching bars. For lef-handed crocheters, or most letters, the wide bar in Cranberry and Ecru is 20 stitches. Count up the oundation chain 20 stitches and work back toward the beginning o the oundation chain. For the letters S and Y, count up the oundation chain 10 stitches and work back. Each letter is shaped when sewn onto the abric. Pin the letter into place on the abric. Tread t he tail onto the needle and use the tail to stitch the letter into place. On pile abrics such as terry cloth, you may invisibly sew the letters into place by just catching the base abric but not the pile loops on the back. Use the second tail as needed to complete sewing. With Royal Blue, ch 70, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 46 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 25, sk last ch, 24 sc in ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 96, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 92 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 21, sk last ch, 20 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 8 times, place tip o lower bar o B behind last 2 Ecru dc, (sc through Ecru and tip o bar) 2 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 50, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 26 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 27, sk last ch, sc in
oundation ch 26 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 96, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 72 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 18 times, place tip o lower bar o D (or O) behind last 2 Ecru dc, (sc through Ecru and tip o bar) 2 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. Note: When stitching onto abric orm right side o D with a 45-degree angle at top and bottom; orm O as square as practical. With Royal Blue, ch 50, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 26 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 21, sk
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The opening page of the article “Crocheted Markings for Towels and Blankets” from the September 1935 issue of Home Arts— Needlecraft.
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last ch, 20 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 27, sk last ch, 26 sc in oundation ch, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 50, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 26 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 21, sk last ch, 20 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 50, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 26 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 47, sk last ch, 46 sc in oundation ch, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end.
“Only rudimentary crochet stitches are employed — the chain, single and double with which every crocheter is familiar. The foundation of every letter is a straight chain. Into this is worked a row of singles for the slender lines and successive rows of doubles . . . for the wide or shaded portion.” With Royal Blue, ch 24, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 37, sk last ch, 10 sc in oundation ch, ch 11, sk last ch, 36 sc in oundation ch working up leg and across middle bar, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 24, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 24, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc,
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“These letters are oblong in shape and finish about two inches in height by three inches in width.” in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 37, sk last ch, 32 sc in oundation ch, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 24, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru: pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 9 times, ch 27, sk last ch, 26 sc in oundation ch, sc, in Ecru dc, ch 27, sk last ch, 26 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 24, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 27, sk last ch, 26 sc in oundation ch, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 80, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to irst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 40 sc in oundation ch, ch 21, sk last ch, 36 sc in oundation ch working up leg and across lef hal o top bar, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 70, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 46 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. See D.
With Royal Blue, ch 76, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue,
ch 1, sk ch just made, 62 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 8 times, place tip o middle bar o P behind next 2 Ecru dc, (sc through Ecru and tip o bar) 2 times, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 76, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 6 sc in oundation ch, ch 27, sk last ch, 72 sc in oundation ch skipping little tail, (sc, in Ecru dc) 18 times, place tip o lower bar o Q behind last 2 Ecru dc, (sc through Ecru and tip o bar) 2 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 112, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 108 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 8 times, place 26th and 27th sts rom tip behind next 2 Ecru dc, (sc through Ecru and Royal Blue st) 2 times, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 40, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 9 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 9 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 26 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 67, sk last ch, 66 sc in oundation ch, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 33, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, sk ch just made, 13 sc in oundation ch, ch 18, sk last ch, 13 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 24, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 47, sk last ch, 46 sc in oundation ch, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 24, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 2 dc in next st, 15 dc,
dc2tog, dc in last dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 2 dc in next st, 15 dc, dc2tog, dc in last dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 27, sk last ch, 26 sc in oundation ch, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 24, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to irst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 20 times, ch 37, sk last ch, 20 sc in oundation ch, ch 41, sk last ch, 56 sc in oundation ch skipping center bar, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 31, sk last ch, 15 sc in oundation, ch 19, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 19 dc skipping lower lef leg o X , end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 19 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 15 times, ch 16, sk last ch, 15 sc in oundation ch, (sc, in Ecru dc) 15 times, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 14, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to irst ch made, ch 3, 9 dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 9 dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, (sc, in Ecru dc) 10 times, ch 37, sk last ch, 25 sc in oundation ch, ch 11, sk last ch, 21 sc in oundation ch working up tail and across middle bar, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. With Royal Blue, ch 56, place stitch holder; with Cranberry, attach thread to �rst ch made, ch 3, 3 dc in next st, 24 dc, dc3tog, dc, end Cranberry; with Ecru, attach thread to third ch o Cranberry, ch 3, 3 dc in next st, 24 dc, dc3tog, dc, end Ecru; pick up Royal Blue, ch 1, 26 sc in oundation, ch 4, (sc, in Ecru dc) 30 times, ch 27, sk last ch, 26 ch in oundation ch, ch 4, sl st in �rst ch o oundation, end. ❖
“The single row of single crochets into the foundation chain, although made in a straight line, adjusts itself very readily to any form desired — angles or curves — it just naturally falls into place.” M A R C H /A P R I L
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GRANDMA T WOMBLY’S
Back-of -the-Neck
Scarf to Knit V I R G I N I A
M C G L Y N N
Virginia McGlynn’s back-of-the-neck scarf based on ones her grandmother made. Photograph by Joe Coca.
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M
y Grandmother Twombly was born in 1863 and lived until
1953. I enjoyed her company. She had full-time help at home, and so she had plenty of time to do handwork, especially knitting. She would sit at a front window
MATERIALS
Classic Elite Yarns Alpaca Sox Kettle Dyes, 60% alpaca/20% merino wool/20% nylon yarn, fingering weight, 450 yards (411 m)/100 g ball, 1 ball of #1870 Watercress; visit www.classiceliteyarns.com/ where_to_buy.php for a list of retailers Needles, size 7 (4.5 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge Tapestry needle Finished size: 12¾ inches (32.4 cm) wide and 28½ inches (72.4 cm) long, after blocking Gauge: 23 sts and 30 rows = 4 inches (10.2 cm) in garter st See page 55 for Abbreviations
and knit, stopping only when someone walked by, and she would take the time
Photograph of Grandmother Twombly, the designer’s grandmother. Photographer unknown. Circa 1920.
to look up that person’s age in the “book
Photograph courtesy of the designer.
of lies”! INSTRUCTIONS Notes: You can vary the length of the scarf. I have three
of my Grandmother’s scarves; all three measure differently—all three are the same pattern. Before beginning, wind off about 75 yards (69 m) of yarn to �nish. Sl �rst st kwise for entire scarf. CO 73 sts. K 10 rows. Row 1: (RS) Sl 1 kwise, k3, *k2tog, k4, yo, k1, yo, k4, ssk; rep from * to last 4 sts, k4. Row 2: Sl 1 kwise, k3, p to last 4 sts, k4. Rep last 2 rows 13 more times—14 eyelets in each column. K every row until piece measures 23 inches (58.4 cm) from CO, ending with a WS row. Attach reserved yarn. Work Rows 1 and 2 fourteen times. K 10 rows. BO all sts. Weave in loose ends. Block to �nished measurements. A BOUT THE D ESIGNER. Virginia McGlynn grew up in Reading, Massachusetts, and now lives in Beverly, where she has owned and operated the Abbott Street Yarn Shoppe for thirty-seven years. She raised eight children and self-published three knitting books illustrated by her late husband. Virginia retired from Beverly’s city council five years ago. Now eighty-five, she’s an avid sports fan who loves to take the train into Boston a couple of times a year to see the Celtics play.
One of three scarves knitted by the designer’s grandmother. Photograph by Jason Reid.
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Hand Towels J E A N
to Embroider
S C O R G I E
These graceful linen hand towels feature seventeenth-century motifs and stitches. Photograph by Joe Coca.
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T
hese graceul linen hand towels are
Two-Sided Italian Stitch
embroidered on evenweave linen abric
with a delicate band o motis selected rom a seventeenth-century English band sampler now
1
4 2
in the collection o Marsha Parker, owner o Te
3
Scarlet Letter in Sullivan, Wisconsin, much as they would have been selected rom such a sam-
5
6
pler over three centuries ago. Use them in your own home or give them as a special gif. MAERIALS
The Scarlet Letter evenweave linen fabric, 35-count, ½ yard (0.46 m) Presencia Finca Mouline Embroidery F loss, 100% Egyptian Cotton thread, 8¾ yards (8 m)/skein, 1 skein each of #5156 Pine and #7392 Medium Hazelnut Brown John James Needle, tapestry, size 26 Sewing thread, matching for hemming and contrasting for marking placement of embroidery Magnifier lamp, optional Embroidery hoop on a stand, optional
Work from left to right over Finished 2 threads in each direction. stitch Each stitch is made in 4 steps Front Back and uses the corners of a square. To start, bring the needle out at the lower left corner. The 1st step is a stitch from right to left in the lower corners. The 2nd step is a stitch diagonally from upper right to lower left. The 3rd step is a stitch diagonally from upper left to lower right. At this point, you can either take the 4th step to finish or repeat the 3 steps for subsequent stitches and leave the 4th step for the return trip. The 4th step is a stitch from upper left to lower left in each two-sided stitch in turn. Double Running Stitch First pass
INSRUCIONS
For each towel, cut a rectangle o linen, 13½ inches (34.3 cm) wide by 22½ inches (57.2 cm) long. Along each side, handstitch a narrow hem. At each end, turn under ¼ inch (6.4 mm) and crease the abric, then turn under 1 inch (2.5 cm) and crease the abric. With the hem olded in place, pull 1 crosswise thread out o the body o the towel just above the �rst old. H emstitch each end using the pin stitch to accentuate the holes. Mark the placement o the embroidery with the contrasting thread, basting a short vertical line mid-towel or the center and a horizontal line about 6 rows up rom the pin stitch or the base line. Count rom the center toward the lef to �nd the starting point or the embroidery. Work rom let to right, burying the ends beneath the stitches as you work. Note that each stitch is worked in 2 steps. Work the �rst step o several stitches to an endpoint and return to the starting point with the second step. Te reverse side o the embroidery should look the same as the ace. A B O U H E D E S I G N E R . Jean Scorgie is the former editor of PieceWork’s
sister magazine Handwoven.
This project originally appeared in the September/October 1993 issue of PieceWork.
Second pass
Finished stitch Front
Back
Work a line of running stitches over 2 threads or diagonally over the square formed by 2 threads in each direction. At the end, work back to the beginning, filling in the spaces.
Motif embroidered in Medium Hazelnut Brown and Pine.
Algerian Eyelet Stitch
From a center point, take stitches over 2 threads in each direction, making an eight-stitch star.
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Ladies
Useful
Stockings to Knit N A N C Y
B U S H
Nancy Bush adapted the pattern for these “Ladies Useful Stockings” from Weldon’s Practical Needlework,
Volume 28 (London: Weldon’s, 1913). She added the instructions for the traditional garters needed to hold up the stockings. Photograph by Joe Coca.
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Iand shaped—suits those who do reenactments or beeel that this stocking—or that is truly what it is, long
long to the Society or Creative Anachronism, i no one else. I adapted the pattern rom Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 28 (London: Weldon’s, 1913); these books
were produced by a proli�c London publisher and were a staple or Victorian needleworkers. I’ve kept to the pattern or the most part, working a Dutch Heel and Flat oe, but I’ve adjusted the order in which the stitches are decreased or the gussets, so that the round begins at the back o the heel (see the “ echniques” sidebar on page 46). In the past, knitted garters would have held up this type o stocking. Tese garters were narrow strips o knitting, about 30 inches (76 cm) long and 2¼ inches (6 cm) wide. According to Te Workwoman’s Guide (originally published in 1838 ), garters were typically made o “worsted, cotton, or sof wool’’ worked on 12 to 30 stitches, depending on the thickness o the yarn. Tey were most commonly worked in garter stitch (knit every row), but ribbing, stockinette stitch, or “a succession o squares o different patterns’’ were also used. INSRUCIONS
Note: I you lengthen the leg or oot, you will need 5
skeins o yarn. Leg With yarn or stocking doubled, CO 90 sts onto 1 needle. Divide sts evenly onto 3 needles (30 sts each needle). Join or working in the rnd, being careul not to twist sts, and pm afer �rst st to denote beg o rnd. Cut off second strand o yarn; work to end with single strand. K 1 rnd. Cuff: *K4, p1; rep rom * to end o rnd. Rep this rnd 20 more times—21 rib rnds total; piece me asures about 2 inches (5 cm) rom beg. Leg: Work patt as oll, Rnd 1: K. Rnds 2–4: P. Rnd 5: K. Rnds 6–9: *K4, p1; rep rom *. Rnds 10–27: Rep Rnds 1–9 two more times. Rnds 28–33: Rep Rnd 6 six times. On the next rnd, k to last st, end p1 (“seam’’ st). Rep the last rnd until piece measures 6 inches (15.2 cm) rom CO. Inc rnd: K1, M1, k to last 2 sts, M1, k1, p1—2 sts inc’d. Work 4 rnds even (k to last st, end p1). Rep the last 5 rnds once, then work inc rnd once more—96 sts. Work 7 rnds even—piece should measure about 7¾ inches (20 cm) rom CO.
MAERIALS
Louet Gems Pearl, 100% merino wool yarn, fingering weight, 185 yards (169.2 m)/50 g skein, 4 skeins of #57 French Blue, for stockings; visit www.louet.com/dealer/find_retailer.shtml for a list of retailers Wool yar n, fingerin g weight, about 1 ounce (28 g) of Nat ural, for garters Needles, set of 4 double pointed, size 1 (2.5 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge Stitch marker Tapestry needle Finished size: Stockings, 7 inches (17.8 cm) foot circumference, 22 inches (55.9 cm) long from cast-on edge to top of heel flap, 9½ inches (24.1 cm) long from back of heel to tip of toe, to fit women’s U.S. shoe sizes 8 to 9; garters, 28 inches (71.1 cm) long, 1¼ inches (3.2 cm) wide Gauge: 16 sts and 20 rnds = 2 inches (5.1 cm) in St st, using stocking yarn and worked in the rnd before blocking See page 55 for Abbreviations
Dec rnd: K1, sl 1, k1, psso, k to last 4 sts, k2tog, k1, p1—2
sts dec’d. Work 7 rnds even. R ep the last 8 rnd s 18 more times—58 sts; piece should measure about 22 inches (56 cm) rom beg. Next rnd: K to last 16 sts o the rnd. Heel Heel �ap: Place the next 31 sts (unworked 16 sts rom end o prev rnd and �rst 15 sts o next rnd) onto 1 needle to work or heel; the purled seam st rom the back o the leg should be in the center o the heel needle. Hold rem 27 sts on 2 needles to be worked later or instep. Work 31 heel sts back and orth in rows as oll, Row 1: (RS) Sl 1, k30. Row 2: (WS) Sl 1, p30. The “Ladies Useful Stockings” illustration from Weldon’s Practical Needlework,
Volume 28 (London: Weldon’s, 1913).
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Rep Rows 1 and 2 until a total o 30 rows have been worked, ending with a WS row—15 ch sts (slipped sel vedge sts) along each edge o heel �ap. Turn heel: Work short-rows as oll, Row 1: (RS) Sl 1, k16, k2tog, turn. Row 2: (WS) Sl 1, p3, p2tog, turn. Row 3: Sl 1, k3, k2tog, turn. Row 4: Sl 1, p3, p2tog, turn. Rep Rows 3 and 4 until all heel sts have been worked—5 heel sts rem. Gussets: Rejoin or working in the rnd as oll, Rnd 1: With needle 1, k5 heel sts, then pick up and k 15 sts along right side o heel �ap; with needle 2, k27 instep sts; with needle 3, pick up and k 15 sts along lef side o heel �ap, then k the �rst 3 sts rom needle 1 again—62
sts total; 17 heel sts on needle 1, 27 instep sts on needle 2, 18 heel sts on needle 3. Rnd beg at back o heel. Rnd 2: K. Rnd 3: On needle 1, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1; on needle 2, k27 instep sts; on needle 3, k1, sl 1, k1, psso, k to end—2 sts dec’d. Rep Rnds 2 and 3 three more times—54 sts rem; 13 sts on needle 1, 27 instep sts on needle 2, 14 sts on needle 3. Foot Work even in St st until oot measures 7 inches (17.8 cm) rom back o heel, or 2½ inches (6.4 cm) less than desired total length. Toe Rnd 1: On needle 1, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1; on needle 2, k1, sl 1, k1, psso, k to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1; on needle 3, k1, sl 1, k1, psso, k to end—4 sts dec’d. Rnd 2: K. Rep Rnds 1 and 2 ten more times—10 sts rem. Cut yarn, leaving a 12-inch (30.5-cm) tail. Thread tail on the tapestry needle, draw through rem sts, and pull up snugly to close end o toe. Garters (make 2) With yarn or garters, CO 10 sts. Work garter st (k every row) until piece measures 28 inches (71.1 cm) rom beg. BO all sts. Finishing Weave in loose ends. Block stockings on sock blockers or under a damp towel. A B O U T T HE D E S I G N E R . Nancy Bush, a member of PieceWork’s
editorial advisory panel, teaches knitting workshops nationwide and owns the Wooly West, a mail-order source for knitters. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is the author of numerous books. Adapted from Knitting Vintage Socks: New Twists on Classic Patterns by Nancy Bush (Loveland, Colorado: Interweave, 2005).
TECHNIQUES
Dutch Heel
Flat Toe
The Dutch heel, also called Horseshoe heel, is worked
lat toe can be worked on any number o stitches divisible by our, which is the number o stitches that is eliminated every decrease round. Begin by arranging the stitches so that hal o the stitches are on the instep needle (needle 2) and the other hal o the stitches are evenly divided between two sole needles (needles 1 and 3). The round begins at the bottom o the oot.
on hal the total number o ankle stitches, plus one seam stitch. For example, i there are 64 stitches at the ankle, work the heel on 33 stitches. Work the heel lap back and orth in rows in stockinette stitch, slipping (purlwise) the irst stitch o every row to produce chain edge stitches along each selvedge or as many rows as there are heel stitches.
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“Pin” Is Mightier than the Sword
The
Politics and Needlework Magazines in the Early Twentieth Century M ARY D ICKINSON B IRD
A
knitting magazine adad vising readers to get out and vote, a plea lea
for world peace in the pagess of a quilting magazine, a review of of child welfare amid embroidery ry patterns. Incongruous as these se scenarios may appear today, y, an American woman living aa century ago would not havee been surprised to find suchh political messages woven intoo the text of the current issuee of the needle-arts magazine in her workbasket. Con�ned to the home by both cultural expectations and necessity, most American women of the early twentieth century were excluded from politics. But even before the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted them the right to vote in August 1920, some nevertheless managed to monitor world affairs, voice their opinions, and exhort fellow housewives to social and political action—through the pages of such seemingly innocuous but widely read magazines as Cover of the March 1935 issue of
Needlecraft—The Home Arts Magazine .
All magazines from the collection of the author. M A R C H /A P R I L
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Needlecraf and Te Modern Priscilla. (Te general interest magazines o the period also explored social and political aspects o American lie. Sarah Abigail Leavitt, in her book From Catharine Beecher to Martha Stewart: A Cultural History o Domestic Advice [Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University o North Carolina Press, 2002], suggests that according to the “Big Six” magazines o that pe-
or selling to the outside world. When war broke out in Europe in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the United States’ neutrality, but American women’s magazines nevertheless encouraged relie efforts or European soldiers:. “Everybody is knitting[,] . . . and the helmets and socks and mufflers are all going as ast as steam can carry them to the battle�elds
Before television, before the Internet, before the widespread use of radio, when even telephone service was often unavailable or unpredictable, these needlework publications at their peaks reached a total of more than one million subscribers.
Auto Knitter Hosiery Company advertisement in the February 1924 issue of Needlecraft Magazine.
riod—Te Delineator , Good Housekeeping , Ladies’ Home Journal , McCall’s, Pictorial Review, and Women’s Home Companion—reorm in the home could lead to reorm in society.) Beore television, beore the Internet, beore the widespread use o radio, when even telephone service was ofen unavailable or u npredictable,, these needlework publications at their peaks reached a total o more than one million subscribers. he earliest issues o Needlecraf, ounded in 1909, ocused on amily comort and household necessity, but in the January 1913 issue, the topic o “pin money” became a topic o continued attention. Te editorial page began to offer advice on earning opportunities or women, with occasional comments on their right to independent means: []he wie, mother, or sister,, who cares or home and children, doing her duty aithully, is entitled to a portion, and a generous one, o the amily income, but the act remains that she does not always or, I may say, ofen, receive it. . . . []he average woman goes without the dime rather than ask or it. Te editorials on this theme encouraged women to de velop their needlework skills or the production o income, suggesting ways to �nd or create sel-employment or themselves or to cultivate community collaboratives
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o the old world. . . .” declared Margaret Barton Manning, the editor o Needlecraf , in January 1915. She reminded readers that civilians abroad also needed help as indeed did amilies here at home: []he question orces itsel upon the thoughtul t mind: why should all the t relie go abroad? . . . It is true that Europe is suffering betru cause o the dreadul and uncau necessary con�ict that has been ne orced or upon the people there; our hearts ache or them, more ou than all or the helpless, inth nocent n children upon whose young lives the blight o war y has allen, and or the mothers h who must see these little ones w ccold and hungry and homeless, l and are powerless. . . . Tere are children in our big cities, doubtless in country towns as well, to whom the holidays holi ays will bring b no brightness unless our relie-works think to divide up a little. Te European war has entailed much suffering on our own country. Tere are athers out o work, mothers hollowed-eyed, and anxious, children poorly clothed and ed. . . . Tere is plenty o opportunity or reliework right at home. Let your plans include America as well as Europe. Te war o competition—o striving, one man or woman against another, or the chance to labor, is scarcely less cruel than that other war which we so deplore. And both are needless. In
both, too, the children are chief sufferers. . . . Let us lend a hand in aid of suffering humanity abroad—but let us not forget the claims of our brothers and sisters at home.
best interests of “the family, the community, the nation.” In a passionate, front-page appeal entitled “Liquor,” the editor urged readers to apply the marvelous power they now possessed:
Following the armistice, as the world was beginning to recuperate from war’s destruction and American soldiers were returning home from the battle�elds of Europe, Needlecraf again challenged readers to help (February 1919):
If liquor is not a good thing for your family, it’s not a good thing for any family. If it does not bene�t your community, it will not bene�t any community. If it does not serve the best interests of the family or the community, it cannot possibly serve the best interests of the nation. . . . Te women of this country can wield a tremendous in�uence at the polls if they will, and the liquor question still offers an opportunity for them to show the world that their in�uence is for progress and righteousness. As a voter, do not fail to do your part.
Among the war-stricken people of those devastated lands over which the tides of battle erstwhile ebbed and �owed the need was never more great than now. Clothing of every sort is wanted—sorely wanted. Go to the Red Cross chapter nearest you and ask what you can do. . . . And while we are doing our bit and our best for the little ones, the needy ones in other lands—let us not forget rget those of our own. Tere are opportunitiess to “lend a hand” all along life’s way.
Cover of the September 1935 issue of Home Arts Needlecraf t
magazine.
Tis same issue published a lengthy inventory ory of ways in which readers might supplement gov vernment assistance to returning veterans by offfering cheerful support in their own homes andd communities. A subsequent issue described thee efficacy of knitting and needlework training forr disabled veterans unable to return to their forrmer professions. Te Eighteenth Amendment, prohibitingg the manufacture and sale of alcoholic bev-erages, had been enacted in January 1920,, seven months before women achieved the right to vote. But although they had no legal rights regarding their persons, their children, their property, or their �nances, women had fought hard for prohibition as a way to protect themselves and their children from their husbands’ alcohol-induced physical and �nancial abuse and neglect. Once women had achieved the right to vote, however, Needlecrat and he Modern Priscilla exhorted them to use it. When the subject of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment and ending prohibition arose, Te Modern Priscilla (January 1924) reminded its readers of their responsibility to work for the
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accom accomplished by bullying, no matter in how much state we dress it up. . . . We shall be challenged. We shall be challenged by the short sighted, by the ignorant, by the greedy and the th stupid. We shall be challenged by smart men who k know what they are afer and have been accustomed to getting what they want. And we must antome swer eevery challenge. . . .
Cover of the August 1936 issue of Home Arts Needlecraf t
magazine.
Just over a decade later, Hitler’s ’ Germany was beginning to militarize, and diplomats were struggling to avoid another con�ict in Europe. In its May 1936 editorial, the recently renamed Home Arts—Needlecraf , again spoke up: We do not want to send our boys to oreign wars and it has been satisactorily demonstrated to us that proits are only temporary. In t he long run they are just non-existent. Tere are no dividends on war. Tere is only pay, pay, pay. . . . We know that peace can only ollow world understanding and good will. Good will just does not come rom a robbed victim or a plundered nation. Good will can and will come when the common people o all nations have the opportunity to work in gainul occupation and pursue peaceul, abundant lives at home. Beore such a millennium can come, the natural resources o the world must be available on air terms to all nations. . . . War will not accomplish this. Nor will it ever be
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In the t May 1931 Needlecraf, the president o the Maternity Center Association asked: “Will you help make ternity this his Mother’s Day mark the beginning o an attempt to obt obtain adequate maternity care or every mother in the United U States? Perhaps not all realize that, as a nation, we have the highest maternal death rate o any civil civilized country. . . . Let this Mother’s Day . . . mean a better e chance or mothers everywhere.” Child health and welare, child labor, and educ ucation also were addressed. Te June 1932 issue eatured the efforts in agricultural education and e community service o the recently ormed 4-H co program and its contribution to development o leadership skills in young people. Following the eelection o Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidenccy in1932, Needlecraf commented enthusiasticcally on new White House programs to lif the country out o its Depression. he October 1933 issue spoke o First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s support o the government’s program to hire unemployed artists and crafsmen to produce textiles, metalware, urniture, and other �ne products or sale and characterized President Franklin Roosevelt as “an honest, able man, devoted to the welare o his country.” It continued, “[I] we will but do our part, each and every one o us, hoping or the best, believing in the best, standing back o our President in thought and word and deed, and lending a hand to help another, i need be, there is no manner o doubt as to results.” In February 1935, the magazine urged every mother to cultivate compassion and tolerance in her children, and to discourage discrimination: We must all live in the world at our door, and it may prove a mighty lonely place i we shut off rom ourselves by oolish distinctions those who might become our best riends. Children o every race and creed must mingle here in America, and no ill will should be engendered among them. . . . ell the little son or daughter that once upon a time every one in
America came rom one o the old countries across the sea. . . . With each came hopes, aspirations, the longing or a better lie in the new land; but also came the long line o tradition and culture, a gif rom that older country he was leaving behind. I each little American, as he grows, makes the most o [his] heritage, and appreciates the �ne points o his neighbor, there will be much to learn and enjoy. Te March issue highlighted the problem o child labor and explored the pros and cons o a proposed amendment to the Constitution: “You and I will probably be called upon later to vote to either ratiy or deeat this resolution; so it is not too soon to be thinking the matter over, that we may make up our minds on which side o the controversy we wish to be ound. In any event we can all undoubtedly agree that every child has an inalienable right to leisure, wholesome recreation, opportunity or education, and reedom rom adult cares while he is growing, and beore he has reached his maturity. It is not only or his welare but or the uture welare o the nation in which he lives, that this should be possible. Tat is a consideration we should not overlook. Educational equality was the editorial theme in the September 1936 issue o Home Arts—Needlecraf . While editors acknowledged the rise in school attendance, they pointed out that cuts in appropriations were limiting access to school transportation and that many amilies couldn’t even aord shoes so that their children could walk to school. Readers were encouraged to contribute to remedies or these inequities and even nudged to demonstrate the “courage and the vision to enter public affairs,” perhaps alluding to the accomplishments o both Eleanor Roosevelt and America’s �rst emale cabinet member, Secretary o Labor Frances Perkins. In August 1936, a key debate centered around the ownsend Plan, an “old age” pension supported by a national sales tax that would provide elderly individuals with $200 per month—no small sum by depression standards. Home Arts—Needlecraf readers were encouraged to take the plan to heart: We have or once grasped the import o the direct and immediate personal application o this particular plan rather than considered it remote and in-
de�nite, which one is apt to do with most public questions. . . . Quite aside rom the money aspect this may well have been a good thing. Certainly i it has in any way helped us all to see that public affairs and national problems do have a personal bearing on each and every one o us, it may well be worth the cost. . . . Although the ownsend Plan did not succeed in its original ormulation, it ultimately led to the development o Franklin Roosevelt’s Social Security program. Ater women had earned the right to vote, their broadening impact on national affairs was undeniable. Needlecraf and Te Modern Priscilla acknowledged these changes. And, although ostensibly devoted to domestic arts, they took every opportunity to urge their readers to look beyond the home and remind them that, in act, “the pin is mightier than the sword.” ❖ A B O U H E A UHOR. Mary Dickinson Bird is a knitter, spinner, weaver, and teacher whose scholarly research focuses on the professional and domesti c lives of women in the first half of the twentieth century. She is Program Committee Chair for the Page Farm and Home Museum at the University of Maine and ser ves as a fiber arts volunteer for the Maine Forest and Logging Museum at Leonard’s Mills, in Bradley, Maine. Her longstanding interest in textile traditions and and history took a new turn when her doctoral octoral dissertation research on entomologist, educator, and early environmentalist Edith Marion Patch (1876–1954) revealed that the scientist’s sole domestic skill was needlework.
Editorial in the January 1924 issue of The Modern Priscilla
magazine.
Needlecraft and The Modern Priscilla N eedlecrat (known rom 1935 as Home Arts—Needlecraf ) was published rom 1909 to 1941 in Augusta, Maine, and New York by Vickery and Hill and later by Needlecraf Publishing. Priscilla Publishing Company o Boston, Massachusetts, published Te Modern Priscilla rom 1887 to 1930. Copies o both magazines are requently offered or sale on the Internet. —M. D. B.
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From the past& around the world
KNITTING TRADITIONS travels
around the globe and through time – to Scotland, Sweden, Iceland, the Arctic Circle, Estonia, Russia, Peru, and beyond, seeking out the best designs, the most interesting techniques, and the most curious stories of our foremothers’ creative spirit. This special collection of 43 projects that knitters will love includes: sweater knitting, and more. inside the other!
148 beautifully photographed and project-packed pages! $14.99 Available Now!
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A D V E R T I S E R’ S I N D E X
Andrea Wong Knits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Arnhild’s Knitting Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Bag Lady Press/Presencia . . . . . . . . . . . . .bc Bag Smith, The. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Brown Sheep Company. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ibc Cascade Yarns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Colonial Needle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Creative Yarns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Downtown Knit Collective . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Howes Needlework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 International Quilt Show . . . . . . . . . . . . .ifc Interweave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4, 7, 13, 52, 53 Krafti-Kit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Lacemaker, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 4 Lacis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Oomingmak, Musk Ox Producers . . . . . .55 Royal School of Needlework . . . . . . . . . . 9 Royalwood Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 4 Rug Hooking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 5 Scarlet Letter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 Skacel Collection Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
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Resource Guide
Selbuvotter Biography of a Knitting Tradition
BY TERRI SHEA DISCOVER THE RICH HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF NORWAY, S ICONIC BLACK -AND -WHITE MITTENS
{
Ask at your local yarn store or visit www.selbuvotter.com
Specializing in small and Fine natural fiber
elegant projects: socks,
yarns and accessories for handknitters
mittens, and knitted lace.
Visit our Website: www.woolywest.com Email us at
[email protected] to join our electronic mailing list P.O. Box 58306 • Salt Lake City, Utah 84158 • (801) 581-9812
THE NEEDLEWORK CONNECTION Website Listings ~ Your Guide to Shopping on the Web
EVENTS
Bobbin Lace Tatting Lucette Kumihimo Knitting Nålbinding Viking Wire Weaving
Needle Lace Braiding Inkle Weaving Needlework
The Lacemaker 134 N High St Cortland, OH 44410 phone: 330-637-0057 www.lacemakerusa.com
N E E D LE W O RK S U P P LI E S
International Quilt Festival
BagLady Press
www.quilts.com (713) 781-6864
www.baglady.com (888) 222-4523
INSTRU CTION
Colonial Needle
Royal School of Needlework
www.colonialneedle.com (800) 9-NEEDLE
www.royal-needlework.org.uk
[email protected] KITS
Krafti-Kit www.krafti-kit.com
[email protected] N E E D LE W O RK A C C E S SO R I E S
Lacis www.lacis.com (510) 843-7178
The BagSmith www.bagsmith.com (888) 879-7224 SAMPLERS
Scarlet Letter www.scarlet-letter.com (262) 593-8470 Y A R N S
Cascade Yarns www.cascadeyarns.com
To advertise here call Stephanie Griess at (877) 613-4630 or e-mail
[email protected]
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P I E C E W O R K M A G A Z I N E. C O M
{
P I E C E W O R K MARKETPLACE ABBREVIATIONS beg—begin(s); beginning BO—bind off CC—contrasting color ch—chain cir—circular cn—cable needle CO—cast on cont—continue(s); continuing dec(s) (’d)—decrease(s); decreased; decreasing dc—double crochet dpn—double-pointed needle(s) foll—follow(s); following hdc—half-double crochet inc(s) (’d)—increase(s); increased; increasing k—knit k1f&b—knit into the front and back of the same stitch—1 stitch increased k2tog—knit 2 stitches together k3tog—knit 3 stitches together k5tog—knit 5 stitches together kwise—knitwise; as if to knit lp(s)—loop(s) m(s)—marker(s) MC—main color M1—make one (increase) p—purl p1f&b—purl into the front & back of the same stitch p2tog—purl 2 stitches together p3tog—purl 3 stitches together p7tog—purl 7 stitches together patt—pattern(s) pm—place marker prev—previous psso—pass slipped stitch over pwise—purlwise; as if to purl rem—remain(s); remaining rep(s)—repeat(s); repeating rnd(s)—round(s) RS—right side sc—single crochet sc2tog—insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, pull loop through stitch (2 loops on hook); insert hook in next stitch, yarn over, pull loop through stitch (3 loops on hook); yarn over and draw yarn through all 3 loops on hook; completed sc2tog—1 stitch decreased sk—skip sl—slip sl st—slip(ped) stitch sp(s)—space(s) ssk—slip 1 knitwise, slip 1 knitwise, knit 2 slipped stitches together through back loops (decrease) ssp— slip 1 knitwise, slip 1 knitwise, purl 2 slipped stitches together through back loops (decrease) st(s)—stitch(es) St st—stockinette stitch tbl—through back loop tog—together tr—treble crochet WS—wrong side wyb—with yarn in back wyf—with yarn in f ront yo—yarn over *—repeat starting point ( )—alternate measurements and/or instructions [ ]—work bracketed instructions a specified number of times
Premier Classifieds
HOWES NEEDLEWORK For the Finest in
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Catalog Available • Wholesale Welcome www.howesneedlework.com
800-309-5348 1474 N. Point Village Ctr. Reston, VA 20194
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PIECEWORK MARKETPLACE Classifieds BEADS
inventory. Located in Southeastern United States. E-mail
[email protected] for more details.
Small, personalized groups. Craft World Tours, 6776PW Warboys, Byron, NY 14422. (585) 5482667; www.craftworldtours.com.
SILK AND SILK RIBBONS
CRAFT CRUISES. Knitting, crocheting and nee-
HEIRLOOM GLASS BEADS, innovative and
unique supplies. Color matching, bead sample cards, wholesale—low minimums, retail—no minimums. 60-page catalog $4. Beadcats, PO Box 2840, Wilsonville, OR 97070-2840. (503) 6252323;
[email protected]; www.beadcats.com. B OOKS AND V I D E O
HUGE SELECTION. New and out-of-print
needlework books. Information for free catalogs and newsletter. Ruth Kern Books, PO Box 35366, Phoenix, AZ 85069. (800) 429-5075; rkern3@ mindspring.com; fax (602) 944-1753; www.ruth kernbooks.com. Free book searches. FABRICS
UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL FABRICS from
around the world—silk, velvet, fine cotton, and wool. Fabulous shawls and buttons. Silk crazyquilt packet $25, including postage. A vintageinspired shop. Delectable Mountain Cloth, 125 Main St., Brattleboro, VT. (802) 257-4456; www .delectablemountain.com. STITCHING SERVICES
GHOSTSTITCHERS PROFESSIONAL STITCHING SERVICE for your knitting, crochet, cross-
stitch, crewel, hardanger, pulled threads, embroidery, and needlepoint projects. www.ghoststitch ers.com.
NATURALLY DYED SILKS, wild silks, Ahim-
sa TM Peace silks, fine cottons. Artisan hand dyed by Master Natural Dyer Cheryl Kolander, true natural dyes 100% and formulated for fastness. www.aurorasilk.com, (503) 286-4149, Portland, Oregon. OPPORTUNITIES
TRAVEL
BEHIND THE SCENES ADVENTURES. Textile
Tours: Travel with the Experts! Laos, Thailand & Cambodia in July; Mexico with Chloe Sayer; India in September. See website: www.btsadventures .com. E-mail Cynthia LeCount Samake at lacyn
[email protected]; (707) 939-8874.
PROFITABLE YARN STORE FOR SALE: due to
CRAFT and FOLK ART TOURS. Ecuador, Bhutan,
owners relocation, April/May 2010. Stable, upscale customer base, great location, good current
Morocco, Christmas in the Carpathians, Myanmar (Burma), Southern India, Chiapa s (Mexico).
dlework cruises. Take an enriching cruise with the most sought-after instructors while exploring the world. Visit www.craftcruises.com or call (877) 97-CRAFT. HUNGARY: TEXTILE ARTS AND BEADS, Aug/
Sept 2010: “Hands-on” workshops with village masters. Collect museum quality pieces, enjoy home visits and foods. Craft and Folk Art Trip of Hungary (textiles and beads): Sept 2010. Eniko Farkas, 156 Crescent Place, Ithaca NY 14850. (607) 273-2179;
[email protected]; www.folk scene.hu. WEBSITES TO VISIT
WWW.LACEMAKING.COM provides all you
need to make lace—European bobbins, Battenberg, and Princess tapes. Antique and wearable lace. Home of the Lacemaking Circle discount club (Free!). W O O L F E LT
SOFT 100 % WOOL FELT in many weights and
sizes. Beautiful Holland felt in 61 colors, premium all wool, bamboo, plant-dyed, or 3mm thick. Use code PWFELT for $5 off. www.achildsdream.com. (800) 359-2906.
Stop to Shop NEEDLEWORK SHOP DIRECTORY CALIFORNIA
CONNECTICUT
TEXAS
The Yarn Boutique—Lafayette
Mystic River Yarns LLC—Mystic
Rose Path Weaving—Lindale
www.yarnboutique.us Beautiful yarns; friendly, personal service; sensible prices. Located in La Fiesta Square near FedEx/Kinko’s. 963-C Moraga Rd. (925) 283-7377
www.mysticriveryarns.com Basic to exotic yarns in a pleasant ambiance. Classes, workshops, and personal service by expert knitters. 14 Holmes St. (860) 536-4305
www.rosepathweaving.net In east Texas, just off I-20 on Hwy. 69N. High-quality yarn in natural fibers. Skacel and Brittany knitting needles and beads. 2808 S. Main St., #E (903) 882-3234
Sit ’N Stitch—Toluca Lake www.sitnstitch.com Your one-stop shop for knitt ing, crochet, needlepoint, and cross-stitch. Handpainted needlepoint and cross-stitch with a variety of threads. We have about 60 different suppliers of yarns. Gift certificates available. E-mail info@sitnstitch .com. 10154 Riverside Dr. (818) 760-9330
MARYLAND SHOP ON THE WEB
Millicent’s Yarns & More–Cumberland www.millicentsyarns.com Called one of the top 10 yarn shops on the East Coast. Two hours from Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and D.C. Easy on/off I-68 in western Maryland. 27 N. Centre St. (301) 722-8100
COLORADO NEBRASKA
Table Rock Llamas Fiber Arts Studio Inc. —Colorado Springs www.tablerockllamas.com Knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, felting, synthetic dyes and DyeWorks natural dye extracts, also “twig & berry”. 6520 Shoup Rd. (866) 495-7747
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The Plum Nelly—Hastings www.theplumnelly.com “Plum Nelly” means just about everything. In this case everything a fiber artist needs—looms, spinning wheels, fleece, yarn, shuttles, books, magazines, classes. E-mail info@the plumnelly.com. 731 W. 2nd St. (402) 462-2490
PIECEWORKMAGAZINE.COM
Babe’s Fiber Garden LLC www.babesfibergarden.com Spinning wheels, electric spinners, and accessories and function before form that are affordable. (877) 628-3208
. . . . . . . . . . To be listed in PieceWork’ s “Needlework Shop Directory,” please contact Stephanie Griess at (877) 613-4630 or
[email protected].
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