The Knitter's Casket: a new series of receipts in Knitting and Netting

Today I looked down my list of digital books that contained netting patterns and picked one at random.  I chose The Knitter's Casket: a new series of receipts in Knitting and Netting by Mrs Hope.  It was published around 1848.

She included the following netting patterns.

1. Dice-pattern Purse (page 70)
2. Dice-pattern Purse with beads (page 72)
3. Mat (page 73)
4. Purses with Beads No. 1, Pine and Star (page 75)
5. Purses with Beads No. 2, Pointed Pattern (page 78)
6. Purses with Beads No. 3, Simple Bar Pattern (page 79)

I noticed online that she has another book, The Book of the Baby's Wardrobe in Knitting and Netting.  Unfortunately this book does not appear to be available in digital format yet.   

One of these days I'm going to try some of these patterns.

But instead of doing that this week, I have been making a net bag for another baby shower.

This bag is the medium size of the circular bags included in my circular netting class.

I have also been working on the transcripts of the circular netting videos.  I think I am done with everything except one video and its transcript.  But to make that video, I'll have to do some more netting, after I finish the doily I'm making for a nephew and his new wife.

The Accompaniment To Second Volume of Mrs Gaugain's Work on Knitting, Netting, and Crochet

This week we will look at another of Mrs Gaugain's books in our listing of  public domain books containing netting patterns.   The Accompaniment To Second Volume of Mrs Gaugain's Work on Knitting, Netting, and Crochet was published in 1845.  It has several knitting and crochet patterns but only two netting patterns.

1. Pretty Netted Flower Mat (page 15)
2. Netted Mat for a Hyacinth Glass, or Round D'Oyley (page 17)

Since I had no idea what a Hyacinth Glass was, I decided to see what information I could find.  I located a link or two explaining what it is. These sites make using a Hyacinth Glass to grow Hyacinths indoors sound so easy.  I wonder if my "black thumb" could get some of these to grow.  If I try it, I will have to make the Netted Mat for a Hyacinth Glass to go under it.



Between now and the end of November there are three women I know who are expecting.   Over the past few years I have made three tea-towel baby bibs with ribbing around the neck edge and placed them in a small net gift bag to give to each mother-to-be.  The bag can be re-used later to hold whatever the mother wants.








Yesterday I attended a potluck dinner for one of the women.  Since her baby is supposed to be a boy, I made the bag and one of the bibs blue.












Making this bag did not hinder my progress on the Circular Netting class.  I video taped myself starting the bag and making the handles.  The videos will become part of three different videos for the class.  If you look at the syllabus this week, you will notice that there are only three videos left to create.

I wish I could say that next week I will finish making the videos for the class, but one of my sons is getting married on Saturday, and I have a few other things I need to get finished for that.

I'm still learning about netting from my grandmother

My grandmother, the one who taught me to net, died over 30 years ago.  However, she is still teaching me new ideas in netting.

Several years after her death, I asked one of my aunts, who still had many of her doilies, if she would be willing to take the doilies and photocopy them on a black background.  She did.  I filed those photocopies, since I did not have the time then to read all the patterns off the photocopies, write them down, and make them.  Over the years I have pulled them out and created the doilies when I've needed to make a doily for one of my many nieces and nephews as they got married.

A couple of weeks ago I realized that I did not have any doilies already made that used one of my grandmother's patterns and that there was a nephew getting married shortly.  So I pulled out the rough draft approximation of the instructions of one of Grandmother's doilies.  The photo included with the instructions looked like this.

I started making the doily, correcting the instructions as I went.  It was not until I reached the end of the split stitches that I realized they were supposed to be centered under the break between the increase stitches, not under the increase stitches, where I had placed them.

If it had been one of my patterns, I would have just continued and given the new pattern a different name.  However, since this present to my nephew and his wife was to be a copy of one of my grandmother's doilies, I could not do that.

I had two choices.  I could begin again and do it correctly, or I could cut off all the split stitches I had done and start again two rows after the increase stitch.




I cut off the mistake.


Now I need to decide what to do with 2 yards of cast-off netting; throw it away or attach it to something.







It took me an extra day to finish the doily, but it followed her pattern.

And what did she teach me?  Well, the stitch between the center and the split stitch is either a new stitch that I have to name,

or a combination of a decrease stitch and an increase stitch that I had never seen her put together before.

I also had to figure out a way to end the split stitches so that the proper stitch would be skipped in the next round.


I'm not sure how Grandmother did it, but I figured out one way to do it.

Net Bags - Prizes for the Winner

Earlier this year I held a contest and announced the winner.  Then life got busy and I had plenty of things to put on this blog so I never showed what Lucy selected.

large square-mesh net bag

large diamond-mesh net bag

large, top-down circular net bag

As she explained on her blog:

          The blue one on the bottom is mine, the two on the chair belong to each of my girls. 

          They made my errands this past week much easier, as they fit a LOT and then when empty will fit into my pocket or other bag.

Some of you may think that she won the contest because she is my daughter.  She won for two reasons.

1. She was the only one who submitted names for the handles.
2. I liked the names she suggested.

Moral of the story:  If you want to win a contest, you have to enter it.




P.S. I'm about half done designing the patterns for the circular netting class.

Puffy Knit Slippers

In March I went to visit my oldest son and his family.  While there I saw a pair of knit slippers.  I just had to ask for the instructions; it was that kind of slipper!   All garter stitch and two colors, it felt soft and padded to the foot.

 It was made in a rectangular shape.  One end was sewed together to form the heel.

One end sewed together to form the heel.

It was finished by gathering the stitches at the toe,

Stitches gathered together at the toe.

  and  then sewing down toward the heel leaving just room enough for the foot to enter

size 11

size 9

I promised two grandsons that I would make a pair for each of them.  It took a few weeks after I arrived home, but they got finished.

One More Square-mesh Net Bag

I thought I was all done with square-mesh netting for a while.  Then I got an invitation to another baby shower. I remembered that I had a blue rectangle of netting left over from preparations for the square-mesh netting class.  So I thought I would use that.

As I looked at the rectangle I realized why it was still a rectangle and not a bag.  It had a different number of squares in the width than any of my other square-mesh net bags.

That meant that none of the handles I had designed would work for this bag.

No problem.  I took some features I liked from a couple of the square-mesh bag handles and placed the overhand knot in a different location.

There it was.  A new handle.

And a new gift bag.  The tea-towel bibs fit in just fine.

Circular Net Bag

Last week I started netting a new pink bag to hold my favorite baby bibs (tea towel bibs) for my new granddaughter.  This week I finished it.

Unlike many I have made since the fall, this one is not made using square-mesh netting.  It is made with circular netting - from the bottom up.  I also adapted and combined some of my new square-mesh bag handles to work with this bag.

The bibs fit in nicely whether the bag is tied as a gift or a bag.

I've almost finished the last video for the square-mesh netting class.  I really want to have it done by the end of this month.  Then I've promised my youngest daughter I would get started on the circular netting class.

Pink Bibs and Net Bag

I realized this morning that I needed to make the bibs I planned to take with me when I visited my newest granddaughter in a few days.  So I did some multi-tasking and finished the bibs early this afternoon.

I thought I had a lovely pink bag already to hold the bibs. When I held the bag up to the bibs, I knew that they would not fit.

 So I decided to start a new one. This bag starts at the bottom with a tiny grommet and then increases each row.  I just need to finish the body of the bag and the handles.  I hope to finish it early this coming week.

 

But for now, I need to get back to the square mesh netting class videos. When I finish the one I'm processing there will be only one left. Surely, I should be able to get it done next week.

Net Gifts: Beautiful, Practical, and Unique

Knowing how to net has given me the ability to create unique gifts for people in my life.  This week has been no exception.

A young woman I have known since she was born was married in April in beautiful New Zealand.  On Friday her parents held an open house for her and her new husband.  I figured that weight would be at a premium as they returned to New Zealand, so I made the young couple a net doily. 

Double Star is about 14" in diameter.   

I still needed to make three more gifts this week.  So I decided to make some 3" doilies.  Yes, I can count.  I made 4 doilies.  I wanted to give those three people the opportunity to choose.  Besides, I may keep one for myself.

Flower

Tier

Web

Well

 

 Somehow a 3" doily did not seem like enough, so I decided to place each doily in a coaster.

I really like the way they turned out.

Beautiful, practical, and definitely unique.

For the first time in a long time, I found myself netting with thread instead of yarn.  It felt different, but I enjoyed working with size 20 crochet thread and size 70 tatting thread.