Old Tatting, New Tatting

 

New doily in colors on the right, old doily in white on the left, both tatted by me 40+ years apart. Pattern from a library book. I don't have the book, just the 1970s tatting I did from it. Yes, I am old.

All that I could remember about the book was that it was small, hard cover, the title was "Tatting" and it was already time-worn in the 1970s. So, I did an online search something like "mid 20th century small hardcover tatting book" and found this picture on eBay:

It was described as having been common in libraries, so I thought this could be it and purchased it. I've been waiting for it to come but received a message from the seller with an apology and a refund. The seller didn't actually have the book; it was a "drop ship" arrangement that apparently didn't work out. Oh, well.

Moving on to the mysterious origins of the House of White Birches Tatting Book No. 5 that's sat on my shelf for years. Turns out, it's actually a reprint of Priscilla Tatting Book No. 3 (published 1924) which is available as a free download at The Antique Pattern Library. Scroll to about the middle of the page to find it, look for a greenish cover.

I'm doing the Knot Stitch pattern from that book. I interpreted knot stitch as split chain. It's used only in the round medallion. 

The leaf pattern is now one of my favorites! The original directions indicate that the leaves were to be sewn on separately, but I've decided to join them while tatting. It's resulting in overlapping, closely crowded leaves, but I like it!

Vintage pattern reversing chains

 One of my Etsy customers had a question about a vintage pattern from "Old and New Designs in Tatting" by LaCroix, Sophie T., c.1910. The pattern #1143 is very pretty, easy to tat but a little hard to get started and explain. I gave it a try in my "Pansy" hand dyed thread, and had to think for awhile before I figured out how to do it. The picture in the book has the lace turned the opposite way from how it is seen while tatting it, so that made it seem difficult. Also the written pattern has mistakes. So, here is my version:

 R 4 - 4 - 4 - 4. Reverse work.
Ch 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 4. Reverse work.
     
    *R 4 - 4 - 4 - 4. Turn only the ring over. Bring the ball thread up into position to tat the following chain.
Ch 4 + 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 (joining first picot of chain to middle picot of previous ring). Reverse work.

Continue in the same way from * for length desired. End by tying the end of the last chain to the middle picot of the last ring.

The reason I didn't do a "shoelace trick" at the base of the ring is because the thread positions do not need to be crossed or switched there, only the ball thread needs to be brought up so that the chain can proceed in the reversing direction. That was what seemed right to me, at any rate. The reversing point between the chains does not lie perfectly flat when using ball and 1 shuttle, but is sufficient. It could be made perfectly flat by using 2 shuttles, but a description of the 2 shuttle version will have to wait for another time.

Trip coming up! Sunday, June 21, I'll be leaving on a jet plane to travel to Denver, Colorado. I'll be teaching a class there for a few days. So, Friday, June 19 I will de-activate most of my Etsy shop except for the instant download patterns, since I won't be home to do any shipping. I'll re-activate the rest of my shop by June 26.

Mardi Gras and 1800's Tatting

On Saturday I listed Mardi Gras hand dyed thread in my Etsy shop. 

This morning there were questions about 1800's tatting patterns in my Craftsy class, which required some research on my part.

A wonderfully detailed article about Mid-19th Century Tatting written by Virginia Mescher posted on the website of Georgia Seitz provided me with many of the answers that I was looking for. 
Then, I challenged myself to decipher the Lily of the Valley pattern in The Royal Tatting Book by Riego, written in 1867. I think I've figured it out, as seen in the photo above - though, of course, tatters of that era would have probably used white or ecru colored thread. The longer picots at the top will be joined to a crocheted heading later.  Perhaps another day I'll have time to write the pattern out in modern tatting terms; it's really a pretty design. 

If you like antique tatting patterns, one of many sources is the Antique Pattern Library, run by the non-profit group New Media Arts, Inc.

New earrings, vintage handkerchief

 New tatted earrings to go with a hot pink and deep navy striped shirt that I acquired recently. I choose Lizbeth #620 for the hot pink, and added my own hand dyed "Blackbird" for the dark color. The earring pattern is "Quadrille", for sale in my Etsy shop and also on Craftsy. I modified the pattern just slightly by using 2 colors, adding a few extra seed beads, and substituting a 4mm round crystal pearl for the teardrop.

The vintage handkerchief is something that I recently purchased from another Etsy seller, and I am very happy to have it, since it appears to be a very old piece of tatting. It has the picots sewn together, not joined. According to tatting history, this would place the time it was made before 1851, or possibly later by someone still using the sewn picot method. The reason for guessing it is prior to 1851, is because that's when a book called "Tatting Made Easy" was published, giving directions for joining picots by pulling up a loop of the working thread through the picot and putting the shuttle through, the way we do today. The author of that book was listed only as "a lady".

I haven't been able to find the book in any of the Online Public Domain archives that I've seen so far, but there are many other vintage tatting books available as free downloads. A good article about tatting history by Virginia Mescher is on Georgia Seitz' website.

I admire the skill and patience of tatters of times past, but I'm so very grateful to be living in the 21st century with all the exciting options available to us now.