Saturday, September 28, 2013

Netmaking by P. W. Blandford


In 1941 the first edition of Percy W. Blandford's book, Netmaking, was published.  It includes netting instructions for heavier cord.  There are many illustrations throughout the book.  According to the preface to the fourth edition, "the first edition of this book was written during uncomfortable evenings in an air-raid shelter in 1940."

The digitized version is located at http://pachamamatrust.org/.  Once you arrive at the website, click on the portion of the side menu labeled CORE and a new side menu will appear.  Click on Net & Rope (which is under Craft & Trade, which is under Employment).  The text and photos will appear on the right of the screen.

A special thanks to Anthony Emery for the link to this book.


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The Eastern States Exposition (Big E) is held in September in West Springfield, Massachusetts.  This year I decided to go demonstrate netting.  During the 17 days it is open, I have been there netting for 7 days (about 4 hours each day).  It has been fun and exciting to introduce netting to those who stopped by while I was there.  Today was my last day, so I decided to take some photos of the lace demonstration area.





This case contains all the lace entries for this year, with the exception of the Best in Division.  There are examples of tatting, netting, and various types of bobbin lace.


















The picket fence was decorated with net sun catchers I made during the last two weeks.  Some of them were made at the Big E while I was demonstrating, and others were made elsewhere.  I will try to post them on my website with the other sun catchers as soon as possible.

On the table are net bags, net scarves, a net shawl, and stitch samples, as well as two small pieces of tatting.   I included the tatting because people tend to ask me if I am tatting, and I wanted to show them the difference between the two.













This is also the first year I have submitted something to the Big E.  I submitted two doilies, Pineapple and Crystalline, and Lantern, a small net covered ornament ball.  The large white doily on the left of the lace case is one of the two doilies.  The red ornament ball is in the lower right corner.

With all the beautiful lace displayed in the lace case, I was surprised to learn that Crystalline had been selected as Best in Division for Lace.  It was displayed with the other Best in Division Winners.











I'm already wondering what I will enter next year.
















1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Percy, for those who never met him, was one of the last of the old school of fieldcraft specialists, likely inspired by Baden-Powell's concept of scouting as a pre-military activity: his scouts of the Boer War were reconnaissance specialists in their early teens. To succeed at that, they had to be self-sufficient, in a way our youngsters rarely are: the skills learned were never forgotten.