Polar Bear Revisited

Some folks have reported having trouble understanding the directions for my crocheted polar bear from 2008. I've gone back to the original post and added some text and pictures for working the legs. Hope this helps!

Mystery Solved--Magic Lost?

Remember how excited I was to discover that I owned a tatted handkerchief that was identical to one in Mary Konior's collection? I made some fanciful assumptions in my belief that this tatting method predated published patterns.

Well, duh, the pattern was sitting on my bookshelf all along. Here it is on page 51 of "Tatting and Netting" by Butterick 1896, New York.



Was Mary Konior wrong in dating her piece as early 19th century? Maybe not. This book contains patterns that look like they were copied from previous works, and patterns that seem based on counting the stitches in old (to them) pieces of lace. So I still can't be sure when the design first came about, but I have to admit to the possibility that my handkerchief from Ohio could have been worked from the Butterick book. Sigh. It's still very precious to me.

By the way, this book, "Tatting and Netting" has some fascinating designs in it.

You can download it for free from Georgia here (scroll down about halfway)

or from the Antique Pattern Library here (toward the bottom of the page)


or you can purchase a soft cover bound book from most tatting dealers under the title "Old Fashioned Tatting Patterns Book 1"

Sharing

I want to share with you my secret... my secret for finding books. How often have you looked in vain for an old book; how often have you bought one only to find it cheaper at another dealer? Yeah, me too. That's why I am grateful for Bookfinder.com. It searches all the book dealers and gives you the location with price and postage for all the copies it finds. I've used it for both new and used books. I've gotten Beeton's Book of Needlework for a dollar plus postage, and a Jasper Fforde novel available in the UK but not the US. If you keep your eyes open, you might be the first to see and grab a bargain like a Mary Konior for 10 pounds.

A few disclaimers: Bookfinder does not always calculate postage accurately (depends on how the seller's site is set up), so be careful at checkout. Copies in other countries may be listed, but there is no guarantee that they will ship to your country. Bookfinder searches book dealers, but not other shops, so you may find books (especially recently out of print or privately published) in tatting supply sites that Bookfinder doesn't see.

My most recent acquisition was this little gem from Germany:


Published in 1920, it is public domain, so I arranged through Georgia to share it through the "Archive of Tatting Books in Public Domain"

Here it is in two parts:


http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/eleonoreendrucks-leichtensternschiffchenspitzenbook1920.pdf


http://www.georgiaseitz.com/public/endrucksinsertsdiagrams.pdf

Still Catching Up

Well, here I am, weeks later, and still not getting caught up. Sigh.



Since last time I found Sandra's Heart' Afire Cross that I made. I badly misjudged one of my mock picots, so the awkward looking bit is my fault, not the pattern.

I made another one of Sherron's Snow Angel. I really love this pattern with its unusual shape. I think my beads are a bit too big this time, so there's a good excuse to make it again.

These patterns and more are available for sale on the Palmetto Pattern CD. Click here for details.

I had hardly gotten back from Palmetto when we took another trip. This is the view from our room in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We stayed at a lodge a few miles out of town on top of a mountain. It was great up there, once we made it up the narrow, windy, steep road up there.

Passing through Knoxville, we stopped for lunch with Erin. Yay, but too short, since we both had to get somewhere that afternoon.

We ate at the King Tut restaurant, where the owner, Mo, treated us like Egyptian royalty.

Then on to Chattanooga. We loved the Riverwalk.

And we took another train ride, an autumn leaf excursion leaving from nearby Etowah.

Lots of beautiful scenery.

A conductor who looked like he had just stepped out of a story book.

And of course, we did the usual tourist-ey things like Ruby Falls.

And Rock City. I remember the "See Rock City" barns from my childhood, so how could I not go?

And wait, there's more. On the way back, we stopped at Fort Loudon, a really well done re-creation of a French-Indian War era fort.

So, I'm only about a month behind now.

An Amazing Discovery

Lots of amazing things always happen at Palmetto Tat Days, but here is something special to me. Late one night, I wandered to the back of the gathering room where various items were on display, including Pam F's notebook about Mary Konior. It included photographs of Mary's work and her collection of antique tatting -- the pieces that Sue Hanson showed one year before returning them to the family. Here is a photograph of one of the photographs:


It stopped me cold, because here is a photograph of the handkerchief I bought on ebay a few months ago, which had come from an estate sale in Ohio.

Here they are together.

Here is Mary's own note describing the handkerchief as early 19th century.

It was late, and there were very few people left in the room, but I made each and every one of them come look. The pattern of the handkerchiefs is exactly the same, down to the way the fabric is slightly curved at the corners, though I know of no published patterns this old. A few people whispered, could it be the same one? But no, the photograph shows a rip in the lace where mine is whole. I have read that there was cottage industry in England and Ireland making tatting in the 1800's. I believe the two pieces were made by the same hand, or by the hands of two women in the same village way back then, and one of the pieces found its way to America. Amazing.

Getting Back to Tatting

Well, folks, it's time to get this blog back to regular tatting. I came back from Palmetto all fired up to get some tatting done from the conference CD. So I made a pair of Nina's Winter Solstice earrings. If you're intimidated by her wonderful jewelry sets, try making just the earrings; they're easier than you might think. I put the first earring somewhere for safe keeping until I could get the second one done. I'm sure it's very safe there, where ever it is...

I also made Sharren's wonderful Snow Angel and I just love that pattern. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture before I gave it away. And I made Sandra's Heart's Afire Cross, which is a really clever pattern since it actually has 2 ways of putting a dimpled heart ring above another. I'm sure it's around here somewhere. Honestly, I think I really do need a keeper sometimes.

So here are some photos to look at instead.

Silly hats at the Palmetto banquet!

Georgia at the auction!

Class time!

And on the way to Palmetto we took a few days for a vacation along the way. In Asheville, we saw Biltmore House. Also in Asheville, I went to the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center. No tatting, but lots of other stunning crafts. And a yarn shop, Friends and Fiberworks that had heart-stopping-ly beautiful yarn. (Do you know how loooong you were in that shop? said DH.) And lots of little antique stores. I love Asheville.
So after that, over to Bryson City for the Great Smokey Mountain Railway. It was a fun ride with great scenery. Most of the trip was along the river, and we crossed over Fontana Lake too.




On the trip back, the conductor said the open air car was almost empty so we moved out there since our car was getting stuffy. The benches weren't as comfy as our regular seats, but the view was great.

Son Stephen likes trains.

Improved Errata Sheet link

Good news!

Gina told me how to keep it simple. The new and improved link to the errata sheet is here. Click just once for a printable pdf version of the correction sheet.

Thanks, Gina!