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!