[lace] Tatting in fiction
Oh my, this is a classic: And I will go and see about dinner, Reginald, remarks Mrs. Owenson, settling her cap with a pleased simper at herself in the glass, if you can spare me. Spare you! What the devil good are you to any one I should like to know! sitting there with your eternal knitting Not knitting, Reginald, love, remonstrates Mrs. Owenson, knitting's old-fashioned. Tatting. It's from One Night's Mystery by May Agnes Fleming, a 19c Canadian author. See you, Su Williamsburg, VA - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com
Re: [lace] Lace in Popular Mechanics
Clay, It took a bit of head scratching, but I've got the gist of it. In 1660, with the end of the Protectorate and the Restoration of Charles II, Virginia was once again seen as a source of income for the Crown. As a result, the Governor and General Assembly had to knuckle down and show their loyalty!! Ha! They'd gotten used to being fat and rich and ignored by the Mother Country -- now they were suddenly expected to send the money home again to fatten the newly reinstated Royal coffers. If everybody in Virginia sent big orders for silk and lace and stuff along with the tobacco sent to London to be sold, well, that meant they had way too much left over after Charles took his share so he'd just have to take more!! Raise the taxes!! After all, they were just here in Virginia to work for him -- what did they need with fancy clothes to hoe tobacco?? So the General Assembly was trying to do anything it could to get the people to stop ordering extravagant goods from England until the King stopped paying attention. By the time Williamsburg was the Capitol everybody was back to wearing lace and ordering loads from England of the very latest fashion. Remember, Williamsburg fashion was know for being only a few months behind the very latest in London. If the latest lace and the patterns for the latest lace arrived on the same ship, which do you think would sell first? Su Williamsburg, VA On Jul 17, 2010, at 8:59 PM, Clay Blackwell wrote: I find that 1662 law in Virginia to be quite interesting!! Of particular interest is the fact that the research in Colonial Williamsburg (a heavily endowed organization which recreates the 17th century life in that town... then the Capitol of Virginia) indicates that there has never been any archival indication of the existence of lacemaking in Williamsburg during that time, and therefore there is never any demonstration of the art of lacemaking in the historical village - which has always made me sad. Now I have a clue... there may have been a very good reason (legally, but not rationally!!). I would also like to know if this law was ever repealed. Clay - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
Re: [lace] Securing prickings
On Apr 10, 2010, at 10:02 AM, David C COLLYER wrote: Personally I feel that the pricking would not buckle so much if it was a thin Manilla-type card, but as mine are always paper with Contact, this is often a problem. I feel it has something to do with large areas of point ground, rather than the areas of half or whole stitch, and may well be the angle of the pins in those areas. David Hi David, Oy, I hate lifting prickings -- I've had it happen with thin pricking card, thick pricking card, and Contact!!! Aaargh! Yes, I agree that large areas of point ground are likely to be a problem and watching the angle of the pins VERY carefully generally sorts it for me. On the other hand, you could always leave out the pins altogether in the point ground. Or if that gives you heartburn, try pinning every other diagonal, or only leaving in 3 or 4 rows at the working edge and pulling the rest. Good Luck! Su, in finally back to normal spring weather Williamsburg, VA - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
Re: [lace] Mystery tool
Shirley, Eureka -- googled special scissors and found cigar scissors -- aha, that rings a bell! So I refined the search and found out that some folks apparently pierce their cigar rather than clipping it. Now why in the world was this cigar piercer in a needlework box? Did the needleworker smoke? Or maybe she hid it from her husband in a place he'd never look? Su On Sep 29, 2009, at 3:57 AM, Tregellas Family wrote: Afternoon Everyone, I'm wondering if someone can help me please. I've posted some pics on the Arachne webshots page (thanks Liz L for your help) under my name (Shirley T.) and if you are inclined please would you take a peek. I'm trying to find out what this tool is called/used for. It was found in a lady's needlework box from a deceased estate. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even the staff at 'Collectors' - our Australian antique programme - can't seem to identify it but I know someone out there understands its use. Cheers, Shirley T. - in sunny Adelaide but the ground is still wet from the soaking its had these last few weeks. - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
Re: [lace] Mystery tool
Shirley, Oh look, there's one just like yours on ebay: 350183137862 Su On Sep 29, 2009, at 3:57 AM, Tregellas Family wrote: Afternoon Everyone, I'm wondering if someone can help me please. I've posted some pics on the Arachne webshots page (thanks Liz L for your help) under my name (Shirley T.) and if you are inclined please would you take a peek. I'm trying to find out what this tool is called/used for. It was found in a lady's needlework box from a deceased estate. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even the staff at 'Collectors' - our Australian antique programme - can't seem to identify it but I know someone out there understands its use. Cheers, Shirley T. - in sunny Adelaide but the ground is still wet from the soaking its had these last few weeks. - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
[lace] lace (pins) in fiction
Likely this is already in the collection--the book has been out for a few years--but I've only just gotten around to reading it and now that I've recovered, dried my eyes, and picked myself up off the floor beside the sofa, I just had to share: What's the most expensive pin ever made commercially, Stanley? said Moist quickly. It was like pulling a lever. Stanley's expression went from agonized grief to scholarly cogitation in an instant. Commercially? Leaving aside those special pins made for exhibitions and trade shows, including the Great Pin of 1899, then probably it is the No. 3 Broad-headed 'Chicken' Extra Longs made for the lace-making market by the noted pinner Josiah Doldrum, I would say. They were hand-drawn and had his trademark silver head with a microscopic engraving of a cockerel. It's believed that fewer than a hundred were made before his death, sir. According to Hubert Spider's Pin Catalogue, examples can fetch between fifty and sixty-five dollars, depending on condition. A No. 3 Broad-headed Extra Long would grace any true pinhead's collection. -- Going Postal by Terry Pratchett Su, recovering from her unexpected overdose of endorphins Williamsburg, VA - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
Re: [lace] Pretty object, but what is it?
Clay, Oh my, lovely!! What a wonderful find!! How long are they? Su On Aug 24, 2009, at 2:48 PM, Clay Blackwell wrote: I have just uploaded a couple of picture to my folder on the Arachne2003 webshots. Tiny Url is *http://tinyurl.com/nwetd4*** http://tiny.cc/8CFvC While out running errands this morning, I spotted a pretty, ornate pair of very old scissors. They are marked 800 (coin silver as opposed to sterling), and show what's left of some engraving on the blades. But... once I actually started looking at them, I suspected that they are not scissors at all! The back blade, (referred to that way because when you look at that side, you're looking at the back of the two human figures), is solid across the whole blade portion of the implement. On the *front*, the blade is just half as wide, and neatly fits into a recession of the back blade. If you look at the first picture I've posted, you can see this (barely). Neither of the blades is sharp, and they don't appear to ever have been sharpened. So my question is, what are they? I remember that when I took Honiton, we were encouraged to have a pair of dull scissors to help us with the handling of the threads (to make a swift bundle of the loose ends when starting a piece). Looking at this thing, I'm wondering if it were designed for just such a purpose. Does anyone out there know what I've found?? Clay - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
Re: [lace] Sue Carter?
HI Duchess, and all you other Arachnids out there, too!! I'm here, though I do sort of have a modified identity ;-) Along with my new e-mail, I've a new car, which obviously needed a new license plate!!! So if you're in Virginia and see a silver Honda with PTGRND honk and wave a bobbin!!! Su On Jul 26, 2009, at 11:25 PM, Tamara P Duvall wrote: Hi, and sorry to bother everyone... If Sue Carter (of Williamsburg, VA) is still on Arachne... Would she please get in touch? My e-mails to her get returned with the dreaded unknown user explanation... -- Tamara P Duvallhttp://t-n-lace.net/ Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
Re: [lace] Pop goes the weasel
But Jeri, why would they measure knitting yarn? Measuring yarn on the weasel yields that all important Yards Per Pound (ypp) that weavers need to plan the loom set up - it's the same ypp that informs our lace thread sizes. Su On Aug 18, 2008, at 6:17 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From the primitive nature of this all-wooden equipment, I'd say it measured heavy yarn that would have been used for knitting sweaters, caps, and mittens for men who worked in the woods or at sea, as well as for the families of many children. Nothing fancy. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] What is Fried Mush? [formerly What are grits?]
On Aug 8, 2008, at 1:44 AM, Louise Hume wrote: I prefer corn meal mush. It is prepared by cooking corn meal in boiling water. It can be eaten then as porridge, or poured into a bread pan and after it has cooled, slice and fry. And serve with lots of warm maple syrup!! Oh my, that is a pure comfort food memory. Thank you, Louise, you've made my day! Su Williamsburg, VA To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] RE: A question
Bingo!! Thank you Verla! I'm with you -- it's likely the twist. Ann, you might try a 3-ply thread. Three-plies are supposed to be more neutral. It would be an interesting experiment. Or try a different manufacturer of whatever size thread you normally use. Hmmm, sounds like the next edition of Brenda's twisty snake research. . . ? Su in cloudy but bright Williamsburg, VA On Aug 7, 2008, at 9:58 AM, Verla Davis wrote: Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 09:52:39 +0100 From: ann.humphreys [EMAIL PROTECTED] At 01:52 AM 8/6/2008, you wrote: I don't do much tape lace so it's probably down to my inexperience but can anyone tell me why when I place the pin at the right hand side of the work I get a nicely formed loop but when I work the left hand side the loop is much smaller and not so well formed. I angle my pins and tension the same but there is still a difference between one side and the other. Hope this makes sense. Ann Yorkshire UK Weavers have the same problem with selvages -- one is usually better than the other. Some say it's the right-handed, left-handed thing but most of it is the twist of the yarn. I see the same thing with bobbin lace as well. S and Z twist threads will result in the opposite affect on the lace to my experience. Verla in Prescott, AZ Wishing I was with my mom and buddies at IOLI - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] Exhibition
Oh Jane, thank you – I did a bit of googling and found his portfolio!!! Some good shots of the lace to study more closely once my eyes are fully open ;-) http://www.tricikel.net/ The portfolios ( his and his partner) are at the bottom of the page. AND!!! Did anyone notice the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Crafts Magazine? The cover is a pricking and CRAFTS is spelled out in pins!!! Oh, and there's an article about Urh and his lace making grandmother. I'm going to order the issue, just for the cover, but I'm hoping for images of the lace in progress. Hmmm, maybe I'll order two copies -- so I can frame one . . . No more googling now -- need more coffee and some breakfast while I look at this stuff. Su Williamsburg, VA On Aug 2, 2008, at 9:41 PM, Jane Partridge wrote: On Friday night I had had an invite to go to the private viewing of the Men Only exhibition at The Beetroot Tree (www.thebeetroottree.com) which is a gallery at Draycott, in Derbyshire (not far from Long Eaton, and Junction 25 of the M1, for those in the UK). One of the four artists is Urh Sobocan (there is a saucer-shaped accent over the c), from Slovenia, who designs lace which his grandmother then makes up. The designs in the exhibition are based on his grandfather's WW2 experience, very similar to (but not quite as intricate as) the War Lace design that was featured in the centre of Lace several years ago - and now at long last I can see how that design could be made! The other three artists - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] The strange bobbin
Just to stir the brain cells a bit, let me point out that half (more or less) the population of Virginia did not come equipped with an English, or even a European background -- they were slaves, many of them no more than a generation from their African roots. And then there's the Native American culture to take into account as well -- Montpelier is way out there on the fringes in Madison's time -- so the culture in the slave quarter would have been an African/Native American/European mixture. And as I was writing that I remembered a pair of ivory awls connected by a green cord that Jeanie Asplundh bought because they looked like they might be sewing related. It turned out, after much research, that they were used in lawn bowling, to determine which ball was closest to the ... oh darn, the little target one that I forget the name of. Anyway, these bobbin things would work great for that, with string run through the hole in the tips. Thinking along the same lines, they'd be suitable to mark out seed lines in a veggie garden -- with a wire run through the hole to keep them together between plantings ... in other words, to my mind they're much more likely to be just about anything other than a lace bobbin. Now, what I want to hear is why Montpelier calls them lace bobbins. Is there some bit of Dolly mythology to support it? Or is it Martha envy? (You know, her 'tatting' shuttle!) Or could it be something in the post Madison history of the place? I'm intrigued. Su Williamsburg, VA - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace] Slough of Despond
Here's another interesting quote, but beware: she's very opinionated! Although good Queen Adelaide had a pretty fancy for lace, she wore little of it, and it was left to Queen Victoria to revive the glory of wearing Brussels to any extent; and she, alas! was sufficiently patriotic to encourage home-made products by wearing almost exclusively Honiton, which I personally am not good Englishwoman enough to admire except at its latest stage (just the past few years), when lace-making, as almost every other art work in this country, is emerging from what, from an artistic point of view, has been one long Slough of Despond. Chats on Old Lace and Needlework, by Emily Leigh Lowes, 1908 Su hiding from the heat wave in Williamsburg, VA - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] RE: Fanny Kemble quote
Annette, Your wish is my command :-) It's from: Records of Later Life Henry Holt Co. 1882 pp. 254-255 She was traveling in Europe in 1841 after spending some years in America -- most recently with her husband on his plantation in the South where she experienced slavery ... I think all her books are available on Google Book -- she wrote lots and well, so be careful! Su Williamsburg, VA On May 22, 2008, at 3:49 AM, Annette Meldrum wrote: Dear Sue, I loved the comment - it says so much. Do you remember where it comes from? It would be brilliant to have the full citation. Sorry if I sound too much like the Librarian that I am. Annette in cold Wollongong Australia -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Su Carter Sent: Thursday, 22 May 2008 8:53 AM To: Lace Arachne Subject: Hi all, I chanced upon a lovely comment about lace by Fanny Kemble that I thought you'd enjoy. Frances Ann Kemble, 1841 Su Carter, enjoying a lovely day in Williamsburg, VA, USA - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[no subject]
Hi all, I chanced upon a lovely comment about lace by Fanny Kemble that I thought you'd enjoy. I was much interested by the lace-works at Brussels and Mechlin, and very painfully so. It is beginning to be time, I think, in Christian countries, for manufactures of mere luxury to be done away with, when proficiency in the merest mechanical drudgery involved in them demands a lifetime, and the sight and health of women, who begin this twilight work at five and six years old, are often sacrificed long before their natural term to this costly and unhealthy industry. I hope to see all such manufactures done away with, for they are bad things, and a whole moral and intelligent being, turned into ten fingers' ends for such purposes, is a sad spectacle. I (a lace-worshipper, if ever woman was) say this advisedly; I am sorry there is still Mechlin and Brussels lace made, and glad there is no more India muslin, and rejoice in the disuse of every minute manual labor which tends to make a mere machine of God's likeness. But oh, for all that, how incomparably inferior is the finest, faultless, machine-made lace and muslin to the exquisite irregularity of the human fabric!... Frances Ann Kemble, 1841 Su Carter, enjoying a lovely day in Williamsburg, VA, USA - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] museum exhibit - flour sacks
Nifty! There's an exhibit on-line at his Presidential Library - http://hoover.archives.gov/exhibits/collections/flour%20sacks/ What a treat - there's even a pair of bloomers ;-) Su Alice Howell wrote: I just opened my paper and read about a display of flour sacks stitched for Presiden Hoover by people in Belgium years ago. It's the 50th anniversary of the museum, and they are celebrating with this exhibit. A few quotes and story summary from the full page article: follows. Framed, beautifully embroidered and painted cotton flour sacks are temporarily replacing the usual art on the walls of ... the boyhood home of Herbert Hoover. Several hunderd of the sacks were given to Hoover by Belgians in gratitiude for his work in providing famine relief to their country during World War I. The (relief) commission shipped nearly 700 million pounds of flour to Begium. Over 14 million empty flour sacks were created by the famine relief. (The commission) controlled where they went and what was done with them, for two reasons: Fear that the good flour would be taken out and replaced with inferior flour, and since cotton wadding was used in munitions, they wanted to keep them out of the hand of the enemy. They accountd for every single one of them. The sacks were distributed to professional schools, convents, artists and public sewing workrooms. They were used for clothing and to make a wide variety of items.. Women embroidered, stenciled or painted (several hundred) sacks, sometimes using threads from their own clothing, or sewing in swathes of Belgium lace. One of the sacks on display is embellished with a delicate white lace swatch and white embroidery. - Now...I MUST go see this exhibit, on only for one month, and see just how many have lace on them, what kind, etc etc. Anyone else who is in the Newberg, Oregon area during May might stop by. They're open 1-4 Wed through Sunday. Signs on the highway point to the turn. It's a block off the main highway. It's been several years since I stopped by, so now is the time. Happy lacing, Alice in Oregon -- whose Beds fan is 25 percent done. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace] lace pillow storage
Elaine, I'd be concerned about using plastic of any kind to store pillow or lace - not just the off gassing, but also trapping moisture inside with the possibility of mold, mildew, etc. I've managed to save the carton my pillows came in or stumbled on one that would work, so I can pretty much pack them all away safely - it sure helped when I moved back down here from Massachusetts! On the other hand, I'm painfully aware that the the cartons are not in any way archival and are going through nasty acidic changes so . . . I have a wonderful book given me by a devious friend ;-) Books, Boxes and Portfolios by Franz Zeier - I just checked, it's on Amazon. The friend wants some portfolios, but I immediately noticed his section on boxes - I love boxes. He gives directions for boxes with corners and ROUND ones. It didn't take me long to figure out that a custom built box for each pillow, made of archival board and paper and glue, would be a wonderful thing. And the potential for covering/decorating each differently . . . well, I was right round the bend with plans. Of course, that was 2 years ago and nary a pillow box have I made. But I have made a number of folded boxes from archival paper and covered them with some interesting Japanese papers I had around - a nice safe lovely container for lace threads! All of this is a long winded way of saying - you could make a box (believe me, a sturdy box is an engineering feat and he even has instructions for hinged lids and insert trays!) or you could find a local bookbinder who does work for a museum/library to archival standards and have one/some made to your specifications. Su [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I have been storing pillows in the square plastic bags that sheets sets come in. They have zipper closures However, the textile conservator that spoke at The Lace Museum last spring was not happy about this choice and felt that there would be off gassing from the plastic. Does anyone have a comment on this. I have to admit that I hanen't removed the pillows from these bags yet because I haven't seen anything better. The specialist archival catalogs that we have at the museum do not list anything that is really the right shape. I had never seen the wreath boxes that are being discussed, but I doubt if they are made of archival material either. Elaine Merritt The Lace Museum 552 South Murphy Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94086 - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Re: kerosene lamps
Oh T, you're so right - box irons are wonderful. We have some reproduction ones here at CW and the first time I used one I was hooked. What did you iron on? We used a heavy woolen blanket with a heavy linen sheet on top. That was another lesson for me - I promptly recovered my ironing board with an old blanket and a piece of hempen canvas. Su Tamara P. Duvall wrote: On Nov 25, 2004, at 4:07, Barbara Stokes wrote: if the flat irons weren't cleaned properly when heated on the stove then black marks on the clothes! VBG We did have electricity in Warsaw for all the time I can remember (and my parents told me it was there before I could remember g)... But I spent some 4-5 months out of every 12 in the village (my father's family) until I was 7 (and went to school), and 4-10 weeks for the next 7 yrs. They didn' get electricity till mid 60ties (they got running water in '00; same year they got their 'puter/modem installed g), so it was all kerosene lamps/candles and funny irons, and water drawn by a bucket from a well (I found out - recently - that Polish wells were better designed than Ukrainian ones g)... But the irons weren't heated on the stove, and didn't need much cleaning; they had a soul... :) The iron itself was a metal shell, with a hinged door in its tail, which was kept closed with a little hook/loop contraption. The soul was a solid piece of metal (iron?), about an inch thick and shaped like the bottom of the iron, and it fit inside the shell. The soul was what got popped into (not on) the - coal-powered - stove to heat up, till it was literally red-hot (souls are hardy animals and can withstand abuse g). Each iron had 2 or 3 souls to go with it, so there was no break in the ironing process; as one soul got too cool to iron even the delicates, another one - red-hot - replaced it, and back we went to linens, without missing a step, while the cooled off soul got revived in the heart of the fire... By the time I was 12 (and ironing all of my own stuff and some of the family stuff as well), I *missed* those old-fashioned irons... The electric ones - this was before thermostats - scorched if you daydreamed for a second, and you had to plug/unplug them all the time. With the soul-powered irons, it took a major diaster, and leaving the iron flat *on* the item while you saw to the disaster, before you had a scorch mark. - --- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [lace-chat] Re: soulful irons (was: kerosene lamps)
Tamara P. Duvall wrote: A folded (sometimes twice-folded) woolen blanket, which was used for only that purpose, so it was very slick, with all the fuzz beaten down. Yup, my ironing blanket is an old one I inherited from my great aunt. PS When you use the box irons at Williamsburg, how do you sprinkle the fabrics (linen and cotton) which require steam? My aunt and cousin in the village, and my Mother in Warsaw... All of them could take a small mouthful of water, close their lips tightly, blow... And *mist* a really big area all at once. Me, I never learnt that skill, and had to dip my fingers in the bowl, then shake them over the item. Much less efficient, and much less uniform. Oh ho, that makes me laugh! I'd forgotten all about it. My grandmother did the mouth trick, but only on really fine things like hankies. Otherwise she used the sprinkler bottle and rolled things up for the moisture to even out. At CW we either used fingers or a bundle of fine twigs bound together like a little broom unless we got to the things before they were quite dry - that's best for linen. Su To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[lace] Interesting use for lace
Something finally came along that brought me out of my long lurk-mode. On another list I subscribe to, one on 18c history, they've been discussing toilet paper - as in what was used before the purpose made rolls of today. This morning someone posted a link to an amazing collection of tp trivia, including . . . wait for it . . . French royalty used lace! http://www.toiletpaperworld.com/tpw/encyclopedia/navigation/funfacts.htm (It's a long page so if you're in a hurry to find it best search the page for lace.) Is this an answer to that perennial question -- what to give the person who has everything? Su in delightfully cool Virginia - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
