Saturday, April 13, 2013

Treasures in Needlework by Mrs. Warren and Mrs. Pullan


Many of the net patterns included in Treasures in Needlework by Mrs. Warren and Mrs Pullan are accompanied by an illustration.  Several of the patterns, both diamond-mesh and square-mesh, have designs darned into them.  The digitized copy was published in 1855.



  1. Introductory Chapter - page xi
  2. Piece of Netted Lace (with illustration) - page 13
  3. Net for the Hair (with illustration) - page 42
  4. Netted Mitten (with illustration) - page 46
  5. Lady's Netted Cap (illustration on p. 131) - page 132
  6. Netted Tidy - page 176
  7. Instructions in Netting (with illustrations) - page 178
  8. Round Netting (with illustration) - page 178
  9. Square Netting - page 178
  10. Grecian Netting (with illustration) - page 178
  11. Honeycomb Netting (with illustration) - page 179
  12. Herringbone Netting (with illustration) - page 179
  13. Netted purse (with illustration) - page 185
  14. Netted Mat (with illustration) - page 186
  15. Fairy Purse (with illustration) - page 227
  16. Harlequin Hand-screen in Netting (with illustration) - page 229
  17. Gentleman's Long Purse in Netting - page 234
  18. Doyley, in Portuguese Guipure (with illustration) - page 238
  19. Netted Music-Stool Cover (with illustration) - page 258
  20. Netted Shell Edging - page 289
  21. Nepaul Smoking Cap (with illustration) - page 295
  22. Square-Netted Antimacassar (with illustration) - page 300
  23. Round Netted Antimacassar (with illustration) - page 344
  24. Darned Netted Vandyke Edging (with illustration) - page 373
  25. Octagon Antimacassar (with illustration) - page 384
  26. Netted Vandyke Trimming (with illustration) - page 407
  27. Doyley in Portuguese Guipure (with illustration) - page 440
*      *      *     *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *

Back in the early 1980s I was able to obtain photocopies of many of my grandmother's doilies.  My aunt, who still had the doilies, placed the doily on a copier, covered it with something black, and copied it.  That meant I could tell how big it was supposed to be and what size mesh sticks Grandmother had used.  Over the years I have gradually written up the instructions.  Once I got a digital camera I photographed the doilies.

One of the doilies was too large to entirely fit on one copier screen, so my aunt made two photocopies of that doily.  Eventually I combined the two photocopies into one - to remind me what the doily looked like. 





I kept putting off making this doily because I knew it would take many hours to complete.  Then, in January of this year, I had the opportunity to travel for several hours and no other project to work on, so I started Grandmother's Pineapple Doily.  I finished it in March.  It contains 13,240 knots, measures 38" in diameter, and uses 400 yards of size 10 crochet thread.



Looking back, it did not take me nearly as long to make as I had anticipated.  Life is like that sometimes.  We put off doing something, only to find that when we get started, it is quicker and easier than we expected.






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