Monday, January 7, 2013

"Now let me say this about that..."

I'm sorry, I've always wanted to use that line, ever since I heard President Nixon say it. Makes me laugh :) Please don't get the idea that I'm upset with my Mom for keeping her secrets, because I'm not. In fact, I was very motivated to learn stuff on my own and I guess she provided me with a good lesson to "go find out" what I wanted to know. I have done exactly that, too. I have learned how to spin yarns and threads, I can crochet, knit, tat, embroider, quilt and sew some quality goods! I have experienced a lifetime as a "seeker", enjoying every moment of discovery and mastery. Mom did teach me how to sew but that may have been in the interest of saving her machine from trial and error learning. Besides, it's kind of hard to hide a sewing machine - ha, ha, ha!
One of the skills I developed was in tatting; working not with a needle, or hook but a shuttle and some very tiny thread! I got "hooked" when I found a little box at a yard sale filled with ity-bity spools of multicoloured threads and a plastic fish-looking thing with thread wrapped around its middle. No internet then, it took a lot of research in the library to find out what it all meant and a tiny "how-to" book I found at Newbury's "5 and dime" store. My Mom said I was crazy, I brought back memories of the old ladies on the New York subways and buses. Actually, I remembered seeing old ladies chatting away, never looking at their work and never missing a stitch! I wanted to be like them. Well, I got the "old" part down, at least.
Tatting shuttles are just neat! They used to come in all kinds of sizes; not to long ago you could find them about 4 inches long and hefty enough to handle some thick yarns. Some have fixed bobbins - a part of the shuttle body - some have removable bobbins, so you can push in refills when you are in need of thread quickly. See the one with the grumpy old lady's portrait? That one has a special place in my heart - no we are not related. That is Lydia Pinkham; on the other side of the shuttle is an advertisement for Lydia E. Pinkham's vegetable compound aka "spring tonic". That was the nastiest stuff you could ever force down a child's throat but, starting at age eleven, my Mom made me take a spoonful every day - "good for what ails ya", the old folks would say. I think you can still get it at the pharmacies, only it's in capsule form (not fair!).

Treasure Box

Many decades ago, my father-in-law's mother, Goldie, and I became fast friends when I rescued her needlework tools and her baby doll from an "unauthorized" yard sale. She couldn't work with the tiny crochet tools anymore and gave me her needlebox and its contents for safe keeping. The box was locked but the wood was not strong enough to hold the clasp and when it popped open I was amazed. Inside were hooks of steel, bone and "Bakers plastic". Knitting needles, crochet hooks and hairpin lace holders among other things. As I began to catalog them, I found crochet hooks from pre-WW2 days, England, Sweden as well as "Boye" hooks that sold from $.10 to a whopping $.45! Some of the hooks are so fine in point that today's sewing thread is almost too big for them to handle.
Goldie past away many years ago but I have kept her needles safe and I have work with many of them to make fine thread crochet pieces. My Mom also had quite a few crochet hooks of her own but she kept them hidden away in boxes and drawers along with the beautiful motifs she started making in the late 1930's. I started bugging her, when I was in the 4th grade, to teach me how to crochet or knit but she said that she didn't know how to do either. Of course, years later, I was to learn that she did know how to knit and crochet - after I had taught myself! She made beautiful sweaters for my children when they were babies. One day, she pulled out of her stash a couple of balls of size 20 crochet thread, yellowed from age, and a beautiful star motif that had been made on a size 12 hook. I have since found many balls of thread and several of the motifs joined. What I can't find is the pattern; a lot of her sewing things date back to the early 1940s, late 1930s, and a couple of items I know she had as early as 1920. The thread, though, is probably from 1938 or 1940.
I think you can see with the single motif that she was quite skilled with a hook. The piece is tight, even, and doesn't buckle. In short, it is beautiful; all my attempts to recreate the motif haven't come close to her work!