Hi Arachnids The discussion about how lace spread is most interesting. In England the handcrafts followed during and immediately after WW2 were knitting and dressmaking, only those that were useful. Also only products that were useful were available, know as utility. I remember my parents getting a table and chairs that were very plain. During the 1950s life was settling down, increasingly there became time for leisure and my mother returned to crochet and embroidery, a way of getting a little beauty into a world that had been strictly utilitarian for so long. During the 1960s there was a flowering of many crafts, possibly a reaction to the deprivations of war.
My introduction to lace was the little Dryad book by Lacemaking, Bucks point ground by Channer pub. 1953 that I purchased in a department store in 1963. I made a pillow, my father bought my first bobbins and pins in the Needlewoman shop in London and made me a pricker, copying the one in the book shaping a dark green plastic bell push and a brass dart. Regrettably it was stolen. Best wishes to all Alex - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
