The Lady's Manual of Fancy-work: A Complete Instructor in Every Variety of Ornamental Needle-work by Mrs. Matilda Marian Pullan

Mrs. Matilda Marian Pullan  was busy promoting needlework in the mid to late 1850s.  This week I'm listing the netting information found in her book, The Lady's Manual of Fancy-work: A Complete Instructor in Every Variety of Ornamental Needle-work.  This book was published in 1858.

1. Plain Stitch - with illustration (page 84)
2. Square Netting (page 85)
3. Oblong Netting (page 85)
4. Honeycomb Netting - with illustration (page 85)
5. Round Netting - with illustration (page 86)
6. Grecian Netting - with illustration (page 86)
7. Long Twisted Stitch (page 86)
8. French-Ground Netting - with illustration (page 87)
9. Spotted Netting - with illustration (page 87)
10. Diamond Netting - with illustration (page 88)
11. Large Diamond Netting - with illustration (page 88)
12. Spotted Diamond Netting - with illustration (page 89)
13. Leaf Netting - with illustration (page 89)
14. Double-stitch (page 90)
15. Long-stitch (page 90)
16. Netting With Beads (page 90)
17. Darned Netting (page 90)
18. Flanders Lace - with illustration (page 90)
19. Embroidery on Netting (page 91)
20. Vandyke Square Netting (page 91)
21. Another Pointed Edge (page 92)
22. Shell Edge (page 92)
23. Another Shell - with illustration (page 92)
24. Another Lace (page 93)
25. Another Edging (page 93)
26. Netting Needles (page 182)

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I'm nearly done making and photographing all the doilies I have photocopies of that my grandmother designed.  This is the next to the last one.  I would have finished the last one, but I ran out of thread and had to order more so it would match. Fortunately it was a "no dye lot" type of crochet thread.  It arrived today, so maybe by next week I can have the last one completed.

I named this doily Gyre.  The heart stitches in the middle made me think of circular motion, and that is what gyre means.  The Block Edge was a favorite of Grandmother's.

I spent most of today at the Connecticut Sheep, Wool, and Fiber Festival held in Vernon, Connecticut.  A good friend, who belongs to the Society of Creative Anachronisms (SCA), invited me to join with her group as they demonstrated some of the fiber arts that were done during the Middle Ages.  She offered me a ride and furnished some garb (so I would not look out of place with the rest of the group).   How could I refuse to demonstrate netting?

I met many wonderful people who had no idea what I was doing when they first saw me.  There was also a handful of people who recognized what I was doing.  It was a great experience.  I'll have to do it again.

The Lady's Dictionary of Needlework by Matilda Marian Pullan

As I looked at Matilda Marian Pullan's book, The Lady's Dictionary of Needlework , published in 1856, I noticed that the patterns are for stitches and not for objects.  She describes how to get ready to net and how to tie the netting knot.  She has an illustration at the beginning of many of the stitches. 

1. Preparation for Netting (page 18)
2. Plain Netting - with illustration (page 18)
3. Square Netting - with illustration (page 19)
4. Oblong - with illustration Netting (page 19)
5. To Make a Piece of Netting of Six, Eight, or Ten Sides, Working from the Centre (page 20)
6. Round Netting - with illustration(page 20)
7. Honeycomb - with illustration Netting (page 20)
8. Long Twisted Stitch - with illustration (page 21)
9. Grecian Netting - with illustration (page 21)
10. Ground Net - with illustration (page 21)
11. Spotted Netting - with illustration (page 22)
12. Diamond Netting - with illustration (page 22)
13. Large Diamond Netting - with illustration (page 22)
14. Spotted Diamond Netting - with illustration (page 23)
15. Leaf Netting - with illustration (page 23)
16. Double Stitch (page 23)
17. Long Stitch (page 23)
18. To Work with Beads (page 24)
19. mesh - definition (page 24)
20. Embroidering on Netting (page 24)
21. Implements For Netting (page 57)
22. Printer's Marks (page 63)
23. Contractions in Netting (page 63)

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I want to have a photograph showing the entire doily for each doily I have a photocopy of.  This doily, Star In The Center, is one of the last of those that my grandmother designed that did not have a digital photograph.  Here is the photocopy.

 Here is a photograph of the full doily I just finished.

It's hard to see the individual stitches on the photograph.  I think both the photocopy and the photograph have a use.

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

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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.

The Ladies’ Complete Guide to Crochet, Fancy Knitting and Needlework by Ann Sophia Stephens

Although she lists several uses for the "delightful art of netting" in her introduction to The Ladies’ Complete Guide to Crochet, Fancy Knitting and Needlework, published in 1854, Ann Sophia Stephens leaves the instructions and patterns for "sleeves, cuffs, rigolettes, and over-shoes" to others.  Besides the introduction, which briefly discusses the uses of netting, the book contains only two patterns for netting.  Both of those patterns involve square-mesh netting.  She does note on page 94, "All the designs given for D'oyleys and AntiMacassars in square crochet may be equally well worked in square netting, the pattern being darned in afterwards."

1. Introduction (page 12)
2. Square Netting (page 94)
3. Netted Scarf (page 114)

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One of the net bag patterns I had sitting on my computer was for a single-handle, spiral, top-down gift bag.   I decided to make it not once, but twice, since I needed two gift bags for a baby shower for twins.  I decided to make the blue one with a moebius handle.  The pink one has a regular handle.

The pattern claimed to have a hexagon base.  It's true that when I started decreasing for the base there were six decreases that occurred in several rows, but I'm not sure I could truly call it a hexagon base.  

This is because, when making it, once I reached the point where I had only six loops left in the round, instead of netting them all together with one knot, like I did for the pentagon bags, I decreased the loops down to three and then joined them with one knot.

If you look closely at the base, you can see where the six decreases are.

The base does not look like a triangle because the bag was made using spiral rather than circular netting.



What would you suggest I call the base of this bag?