vol 8

A quick look at some of the forgotten arts in volume 8 of Golden Hands: the complete knitting, dressmaking and needlecraft guide. Macramé and needle-made lace are two occupations that haven't really experienced the recent craft boom. I have very vivid memories of macramé pot holders in my grandmother's house - vivid orange memories in fact. There are in fact some lovely examples of very fine macramé lace from the 15th century, some of which I saw at Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan (as well as lots of other wonderful lace - eccentric museum, eccentric collection, eccentric staff, loved it). Antique macramé lace must be an unusual thing though because I can't find any good references on the internet.

Needle-made lace is still practiced in Australia and around the world. I think that I have previously mentioned that I was a member for a couple of years of the Australian Lace Guild. They seem to be mostly into bobbin lace (or in Sydney at least they are) but there is some needle lace as well which is my preference.

Anyway, trusty Golden Hands being the complete guide that it is has chapters on both crafts.

My progress update - I have a finished object to show but alas, no camera at present. This was my reward project for having completed Tim's dad's socks and the tomten. I have decided that as a complement to general knitting it is necessary to always have a pair of socks on the go. They are very portable and great while travelling so in the past few weeks I have gotten most of the way through the first Gentleman's Fancy sock from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks in a (discontinued) Patonyle variegated blue on my new bamboo dpns. It's going very well.

And as the cold weather is upon us I have also started on some headwear but it's to be a present so I won't elaborate more than to say that it's from Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed in a lovely mossy green (#126 Highland) which was a gift from a lovely friend. I want to include some more in-process photos instead of just out-of-the-blue "look what I made!" This is a scanner photo and doesn't show the colour at all well but just to show what I've achieved since 2:30 this morning. The white scrap is my make-do stitch marker.

I have also had a close look at the instructions for Mavis - "worked in one piece from the neck downwards, the only seaming required is an underarm seam". Can't wait.

I have made some reading progress too - about one hundred pages into The Poisonwood Bible. I'm really enjoying it. I love a book that is responsive to the reader. Just when I was thinking, hmm, enough of this bit, part one ended. Perfectly timed.