Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2021 från PieceWork

Textiles can carry complicated histories, sometimes marking a birth or death, memories of war or diaspora, moments of pride or honor. They can endure long after their makers, and many of these objects—both humble and exquisite examples—take on new histories as they pass between generations of caretakers. We add our own interpretations and meanings like fingerprints. Cloth can also lose its original meaning or be assigned meaning wholly unrelated to the intentions of the original maker. The pain of poverty might run through every stitch of a quilt created with small scraps of cloth and energy. Several generations later, we might only see diligence, skill, and beauty. These are complicated, very human narratives, and equally complicated are the decisions about safekeeping. Do you use Great-grandmother’s shawl or keep it forever…

Thread Tamer Wrap your floss around French General’s Thread Winders to keep your embroidery project organized in style. The reusable, shapely strand managers are cut from Baltic birch and come in sets of four. frenchgeneral.com Summertime Shawlette Knit an elegant wrap for long summer evenings spent outdoors. Lisa Souza hand-dyes each skein of her 100% bombyx fingering-weight Sylvie Silk. The yarn’s two-ply construction aids in opening up airy lace patterns. Shown in Seaglass. lisaknit.com Repair and Reuse Holes be gone! Visibly repair handknitted socks and more with Katrinkles’ Darning & Mending Loom. The kit includes everything needed except the garment and yarn. The loom helps you stitch a warp and then hold it steady as you needle-weave a patch. katrinkles.com Botanical Hues Upcycle Stitches hand-dyes its sashiko threads in small…

Nearly 20 years ago, I nervously sat down at a yarn shop in the Midwest with my very first knitting student. She started by telling me that she learned to knit in college during the early 1950s with the sole purpose of making a pair of argyle socks for the boy she loved. She kept her college sweetheart but—due to the stress induced by small-needle intarsia as a first knitting project—never picked up knitting needles again. Many decades later, she was back to try once more, and a garter-stitch scarf gave her the soft start she needed. I have heard similar versions of this story over and over as I travel around the United States. While I’m knitting in a coffee shop or teaching a class or demonstrating at a…

Gardens today differ from those of the past. Even for the wealthiest families, gardens were a welcome necessity. Plants supplied basic food and some were harvested for dyeing fabric, while herbs added flavor to cooking and provided medicinal cures. Flowers attracted bees for making honey. Plants also had symbolic importance; they were given as a token of affection or remembrance. A sweet bag could incorporate several messages in the embroidery and by the inclusion of certain flowers and herbs. This elaborately embroidered purse is probably representative of the sweet bags recorded in a number of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century inventories. The bag (29.23.18) is British in origin and dates to the early-seventeenth century. Canvas embroidered with silk and silver thread, 4 × 4 inches (10.2 × 10.2 cm). Courtesy of the…

Dawn Cook Ronningen, Historian, Needleworker, and Needlework Tool Collector How did you become a needleworker? When I was about seven years old, my grandmother gave me a dime-store hoop, embroidery floss, and a stamped dresser scarf to embroider. I remember being just as intrigued with the threads and colors as I was by the stitches she taught me. She also gave me a set of crochet hooks and taught me to crochet. She insisted I learn to read a pattern. Using yarn and following a doily pattern, I created my first crochet piece. I think learning to follow the crochet code in the written instructions also encouraged my love of numbers. In college, I worked part-time at a needlework shop. I became interested in historic embroidery and reproducing the stitches.…

This is the second installment of Jill’s story about her mother’s sewing and needlework collection. To start from the beginning, see “The Anatomy of a Collection: Lessons by Correspondence” in PieceWork Spring 2021. —Editor As I sat in my mother’s sewing room, sorting through her treasured fabrics, jars of buttons, and seemingly endless magazines and booklets, I was not sure where to go with the small stack of paper patterns before me. What I didn’t know in that moment is that my encounter with these aged, dusty, and (what appeared to be) lifeless remnants of tissue paper opened the door to a vast amount of concrete research material. Old paper clothing patterns are not uncommon, and in fact, patterns and pattern-making companies have a rich, well-documented history. Today’s tissue patterns…

• Instead of heavy bobbins or easily tangled yarn butterflies, I found it easier to work the chart using small 5-yard (5-meter) balls of yarn. Secure the tail coming from each ball by pinning it to the ball with a locking stitch marker. • Period instructions generally indicate that the seams typical of an argyle sock should be sewn after the sock is completed. I’ve found that it is much easier and far less tedious to sew the two small seams on each sock foot in this pattern as soon as the chart is completed, before the top and bottom of the foot are joined. • Some mid-century argyle sock patterns indicated that the diagonal lines of contrasting colors should be knitted at the same time as the other intarsia…

Our twenty-first-century existence includes many products designed to disguise the unpleasant body odors that were unavoidable in earlier times. The small drawstring bag (page 54) is identified as being from Italy, dating from around the early-eighteenth century, and it is now part of the Bainbridge Collection at the University of Rhode Island Historic Textile and Costume Collection. I do not know for certain that this bag was originally a sweet bag, but the shape and size suggest that it could have been used to keep sachets of herbs and perfumed items close at hand. It appears that the original bag may have been reworked. The braid trim on the bag covers up parts of the embroidery, which is somewhat different on each side, and few embroidery stitches are used. The…

Bargello Needlepoint: A Pattern Directory for Dramatic Creations Laura Angell and Lynsey Angell Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 2020. Softbound, 160 pages, $22.95. ISBN 9780486842912. Keepers of the Sheep: Knitting in Morocco’s High Atlas and Beyond Irene Waggener Houston, Texas: 106 Meters from the Road, 2020. Softbound, 146 pages, $40. ISBN 9780578758107. Available from 106metersfromtheroad.com. Marking Time: Objects, People, and Their Lives, 1500–1800 Edited by Edward Town and Angela McShane New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2020. Hardbound, 512 pages, $65. ISBN 9780300254105. Textile Travels Anne Kelly London: Batsford, 2020. Hardbound, 128 pages, $22.95. ISBN 9781849945646. Cloth That Changed the World: The Art and Fashion of Indian Chintz Edited by Sarah Fee New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2020. Hardbound, 312 pages, $50. ISBN 9780300246797.…

Whether because of use, pests, or neglect, artworks degrade over time if unprotected. Art conservators are the professionals who prevent and repair damage to the wide-ranging objects in museums and private collections. Textile conservators are the specialists who focus on the particular needs of objects such as tapestries, clothing, banners, archaeological fragments, and more. This work is a dynamic mix of science, ethics, and cultural understanding. I am a recent graduate of the University of Glasgow’s master of philosophy (MPhil) program in textile conservation. At the Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History, students from around the world learn the causes of damage, how to treat it, and how to prevent it from reoccurring. This includes studying the chemistry of fibers and how they are damaged by light, changes…

For adult children whose parents now reside in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities, cleaning out one’s family home becomes a rite of passage. Beginning the process is often the most difficult first step. My mother, Louise, left her home under unfortunate health circumstances in 2017. Her hasty exit, failing health, and the need for skilled care prompted my siblings and me to arrange for proper care immediately. A return to her home was no longer possible, and my sister and I knew it was time to begin the arduous process of cleaning out the family home. Since my mother was of the generation that threw nothing away, this task was not for the faint of heart. The Anatomy of a Collection—a series of three short PieceWork articles—brings to light items…

More than 65 years ago, my grandmother sat in her room at Colby College, a small liberal-arts school tucked into the middle of Maine. Curling her feet beneath a wide skirt, Kathy used the light from a nearby window to wind yarn for a special project, its browns and tans matching the bricks of her dorm. A native of Ohio, Kathy bucked tradition to attend classes halfway across the country, only returning home a few times a year. As she sat missing her family, she opened up a Columbia Minerva Easy to Knit Socks pattern book to a diamond argyle pattern and cast on 68 stitches to make a special pair of socks for her father. Later, in both a new century and a new millennium, I flip through the…

To mark the New Year in 1565, William Huggans, Keeper of the Gardens at Hampton Court, gave “twelve sweete bags of taphata enbrauderid with flowers of Venice golde and silver” to Queen Elizabeth I as part of the festive celebrations. The Queen also received “two swete bags of sylke” from Lady Ratclyf, indicating that such gifts might be received by royalty from those with titles and those without titles alike. Royal records allow us to learn even more about the annual gifts that William Huggans (1524–1588), who was Keeper of the Gardens beginning in 1561, made to Elizabeth I (1533–1603). Huggans is listed as having given “a large sweet bag very fair embroidered with a queen having the sun in her hand, the beams spreading abroad” sometime in the 1580s.…

Embroidery is experiencing a renaissance in our culture. Modern embroidery abounds, gracing commercial textiles such as casual and sophisticated fashion items and household linens. It is also gaining popularity in the handstitching realm, and many tutorials and patterns are easily accessible online. Whether made by machine or by hand, embroidery motifs have had a long tradition in America and were influenced by traditions from around the globe. The seven objects shown here embody part of the story of early American embroidery. There are many more objects and narratives to explore. As early as the 1730s, wallpapers were available to the colonists, but they provided minimal design ideas. Things changed for people who lived in major cities by 1774 with the availability of The Lady’s Magazine, a periodical published in London…

ARIZONA Fiber Creek Suite 123 1046 Willow Creek Rd Prescott, AZ 86301 (928) 717-1774 fibercreekprescott.com CALIFORNIA Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles 2982 Adeline St Berkeley, CA 94703 510-843-7290 lacis.com Babetta's Yarn & Gifts 4400 San Juan Ave #20 Fair Oaks, CA 95628 (916) 965-6043 babettasyarnandgifts.com Dharma Trading Co 1604 4th Street San Rafael, CA 94901 (435) 456-1211 dharmatrading.com Needlecraft Cottage 870 Grand Ave San Diego, CA 92109 (858) 272-8185 needlecraftcottagesd.com Cardigans Yarn and Fiber 3030 State St Santa Barbara, CA 93105 (805) 569-0531 cardigansyarnandfiber.com COLORADO LambShoppe 3512 E 12TH AVE Denver, CO 80206 (303) 322-2223 thelambshoppe.com Lambspun of Colorado 1101 E Lincoln Ave Fort Collins, CO 80524 (800) 558-5262 lambspun.com Shuttles Spindles & Skeins 760 S 43rd St. Boulder, CO 80305 (303) 499 4822 shuttlesspindlesandskeins.com FLORIDA A Good Yarn…

Old needlework patterns—what are they good for? We have YouTube! And books and magazines and pamphlets and online courses! In those old patterns, on the other hand, the instructions are often sketchy; the projects sometimes odd, even inexplicable; the illustrations merely approximate. So what are they good for? For me, they’re like reading historical novels, making up my own plot as I go. Weldon’s Practical Needlework is the best platform for my fantasies because it was published continuously from 1885 to 1915, first as weekly pamphlets, later as hardbound compilations. It spans the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, running right up to the First World War. You can imagine a narrative arc; in mine, my grandmother is the heroine. She was four years old when Weldon’s commenced publication, and she…