Vintage Book Saturday!

The cafe cardigan is now half assembled. I have one sleeve in and the neckband done. I worked on this while watching the new show, Warehouse 13, which I liked. It is very X-Filesy, but the male lead is a humorous and interesting character.

The spouse had to make a business day trip to the Monterey area again, so I rode along. After dropping him off at the office, I went to Cannery Row to visit the antique mall there. Some of the vendors there do have old knitting and crochet pamphlets available, but the prices are the highest I have ever seen anywhere so I had to pass them up. I did find the book shown below, though, at a surprisingly low price. This book is a real gem, a volume on tatting and netting from 1895.

It is a large book that measures about 8" x 11". It has clear instructions on tatting and on netting, the lost art that my grandmother taught me when I was about 10 (and which I promptly forgot). Tatting can be used to make very pretty laces to trim just about anything.

My grandmother used to use the netting technique to make net shopping bags. I remember it being easy to do, so I will have to use this book to replenish my memory of how to do this old craft. Netting was used for large items like fishnets and bags, but was also done with fine threads to make the base for needlewoven lace. I can't remember what netting tool my grandmother taught me to use, because I certainly did not have the double-eyed needle shown on the page below.

Out in the garden, we are picking so many cucumbers now that I have already made the pickle relish for next year and have given away dozens of them. It looks like we should have green beans in a week or two. It is amazing how much produce you can get out of a small backyard.