Indice dei contenuti per Fall 2021 in PieceWork

During times of intense cultural upheaval—be it war, pandemic, or modernization—needlework has often acted as an agent for change, stood as a record of events, and provided very personal statements of lived experience. One of the things I find most interesting about these periods of tumult is that it can encourage makers in very different ways. Some may look to the past for inspiration and comfort, others to a future filled with new materials and ideas—or both! With explosive scientific advances and dramatic population shifts, the changes felt during the Victorian era are seen in textiles from around the world. The cheerful ticking-work embroidery on the cover of this issue, stitched by Colleen Formby and based on an 1863 pattern, was designed to be simple, colorful, and quick. But the…

How did you become a knitter? As a little girl of three or four years old, I saw my mother knitting all kinds of underwear, sweaters, and cardigans for me and my little brother. The fact that from two needles and some woolen thread a whole garment could be produced was so intriguing that I wanted to be able to do that, too—at least for my doll. So my mother taught me how to knit on two steel needles with some cotton thread—the most awful combination you can imagine. But after a lot of angry crying and fallen stitches, I managed to produce a little, straight piece of knitting that I could wrap around my doll. After high school, I received a textile arts degree, and I taught textile arts…

On a recent trip to north Norway, I was shown a crazy quilt that had traveled far from the hands of its maker. It was made in the early 1900s, a gift sent to Norway by a woman who had immigrated to the United States over 25 years earlier. The seamstress, Petrine1 Almli, embroidered her name into the quilt, along with the names of family members on both sides of the Atlantic, a testimony in stitches to the ties that bind a family together. But time and distance eventually dimmed those memories, and while the quilt was carefully preserved through the years (and finally found its way into a museum collection), family members in Norway no longer remembered its story. Where did the quilt come from? Certainly, it originated somewhere…

As May explains in the dedicative note of her 1893 volume, “I have tried to show that executive skill and the desire of and feeling for beauty, realized in a work of definite utility, are the vital and essential elements of [embroidery] as of all other branches of art, and that no one of these elements can the embroideress neglect or overlook if her work is to have life and meaning. If she pursues her craft with due care, and one might even say with enthusiasm, however, she will not only taste that keen pleasure which everyone feels in creative work, however unpretending, but the product will be such as others will be careful to preserve: this in itself being an incentive to good work.” This beginner’s guide to needlework…

This is the third installment of Jill’s story about her mother’s sewing and needlework collection. To start from the beginning, see “The Anatomy of a Collection: Lessons by Correspondence” in PieceWork, Spring 2021. —Editor As an astute collector of all things “sewing,” my mom developed a keen eye for unique items. In a menagerie of miscellany, old stuff attracted her like yarn to a crochet hook. She also delighted in adding to my collection whenever she could. As a student of the fashion industry for over 30 years and a teacher of History of Fashion for 20, I have a deep, heart-driven fondness for such objects. After my mom’s passing, I’m learning more about some of these objects, including a rather large, attractively bound volume she bequeathed to me several…

2009 I am riding in a car with my colleagues; we’re snaking our way across the Cuchumatanes, the highest nonvolcanic mountain range in Central America. We’re in the department of Quiché in northern Guatemala, heading toward the three towns that define the points of the Ixil triangle: Nebaj, Chajul, and San Juan Cotzal. We’re exploring the region’s textiles. It’s only midafternoon when suddenly a ghostly cloud curtain drops, and visibility is reduced. Rolling down my window, cool and moist air streams into the van on a pine-scented current as I peer into the dense woods. I am looking for signs of life: a person, a horse, or even a dog. We’d spent last night at the home of Ramelle Gonzales in Antigua, Guatemala’s former colonial capital. Ramelle, an American who…

ARIZONA Fiber Creek Suite 123 1046 Willow Creek Rd Prescott, AZ 86301 (928) 717-1774 fibercreekprescott.com CALIFORNIA Lacis Museum of Lace & Textiles 2982 Adeline St Berkeley, CA 94703 510-843-7290 lacis.com Babetta's Yarn & Gifts 4400 San Juan Ave #20 Fair Oaks, CA 95628 (916) 965-6043 babettasyarnandgifts.com Dharma Trading Co 1604 4th Street San Rafael, CA 94901 (435) 456-1211 dharmatrading.com Needlecraft Cottage 870 Grand Ave San Diego, CA 92109 (858) 272-8185 needlecraftcottagesd.com Cardigans Yarn and Fiber 3030 State St Santa Barbara, CA 93105 (805) 569-0531 cardigansyarnandfiber.com COLORADO  Lambspun of Colorado 1101 E Lincoln Ave Fort Collins, CO 80524 (800) 558-5262 lambspun.com Shuttles Spindles & Skeins 760 S 43rd St. Boulder, CO 80305 (303) 499 4822 shuttlesspindlesandskeins.com FLORIDA A Good Yarn 7222 S Tamiami Trail #108 Sarasota, FL 34231 www.agoodyarnsarasota.com IOWA Blue…

Treasured Vest I just finished the article in the Summer 2021 issue about argyle socks that the author’s grandmother had knitted [“Mid-Century Argyles: Connections to the Past” by Erika Zambello]. Here’s a picture of the argyle vest my mother, Peg, made for my father, Joe, in the summer of 1949 right after they became engaged. She was a grade school teacher in Massachusetts during the school year. She and several friends would rent a cottage and work at a restaurant in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, for the summer. My father and his buddies would often visit on the weekends. My father remembers seeing her knitting on the beach with all the bobbins hanging from her work—a labor of love! I believe that the yarn is sportweight and 100% wool. The…

When I balked at traveling into Egypt’s western desert during the COVID-19 pandemic, my husband reminded me that the Bedouins had largely escaped waves of bubonic plague by disappearing into the dunes. Okay, then yalla (let’s go). That’s how we ended up on a desolate road to Siwa Oasis, an ancient settlement near the Libyan border. A mostly Muslim city with a unique blend of Bedouin and Berber culture, Siwa is nestled in part of the Sahara known as the Great Sand Sea. Getting to this oasis settlement many miles west of Cairo has always been difficult, and its isolation has led to the development of distinctive textile traditions with ancient roots. Before visiting, I’d studied photos of complicated embroidered wedding dresses and shawls in museum collections and hoped to…

Beginning in 1760, the spinning mills and weaving factories of the Industrial Revolution created cheap cloth at the expense of their workers, quickly leaving behind the previous system of the cottage industry. The social reformer Robert Owen described textile mills as “receptacles, in too many instances, for living human skeletons.”1 Mill employees would work 12-hour or longer shifts for low wages that were barely enough to sustain their families. Small children often worked to supplement their parents’ incomes, making it difficult for them to receive an education. There were no safety codes or regulations, so workers were often exposed to dangerous conditions and machinery. Accidents were common and could lead to grievous injury or death. Workers’ compensation or health insurance was nonexistent, so workers could often not afford medical treatment…

Embroiderers’ Guild Transfers Collection: 90 Rediscovered Treasures to Transfer & Stitch Annette Collinge Tunbridge Wells, England: Search Press, 2021. Hardbound, 128 pages, $35. ISBN 9781782217206. Knit (Spin) Sweden! A Different Kind of Travel Book Sara J. Wolf and Josefin Waltin Cleveland, Ohio: Cooperative Press, 2020. Softbound, 164 pages, $29.95. ISBN 9781937513948. Nature’s Colorways: Conjuring the Chemistry and Culture of Natural Dyes Linda Ligon and Anne L. Merrow, Editors Fort Collins, Colorado: Long Thread Media, 2021. Softbound, 112 pages, $24.99. ISBN 9781735008820. Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes Claire Wilcox London: Bloomsbury, 2021. Hardbound, 288 pages, $26. ISBN 9781526614391. The Perfect Gentleman: The Pursuit of Timeless Elegance and Style in London James Sherwood New York: Thames & Hudson, 2021. Hardbound, 224 pages, $39.95. ISBN 9780500023723. The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry:…

Stitcher’s Guide Stash a Cross Stitch Key from It’s Sew Emma in your bag. It conveniently helps cross-stitchers count threads, on 10- to 32-count cloth, and take quick measurements with its corner guide. Plus, you can use this tool to reference the recommended needle size and floss strands for common counts of fabric. itssewemma.com Timeless Winder The Highlander Nøstepinne in persimmon wood from The Dancing Goats features the fern-shaped patterns commonly known as Lichtenberg figures, making it truly one of a kind. Use this traditional Scandinavian tool for winding center-pull balls of yarn in the old way. thedancinggoats.etsy.com Tying Trims Try your hand at making knotted embellishments for clothing, just as they did in the eighteenth century. Use Burnley & Trowbridge’s genuine bone shuttle for crafting decorative knots or fashioning…

In September 1918, subscribers were receiving the new issue of Needlecraft magazine, and the end of World War I was just six weeks away. But in the magazine, the war’s impact was evident in a full-page ad for nurses and in the “devastated France” letters and quilts. On the magazine’s cover was a dainty garment any woman could create “at very slight expense.” All she had to do was buy the cap and gown patterns, but the tatting instructions were provided. In 1918, tatting knowledge and skills were assumed. The pattern called for size 50 crochet thread, which is no longer commonly available at craft stores or online. Likewise, tatting knowledge is required to translate the one-hundred-year-old instructions into modern terms, resolve ambiguities, and figure out misprints, such as the…

The Industrial Revolution led to a revival of traditional arts and crafts in Great Britain. The sprawling factories and increasing rural poverty spurred May Morris’s father, William Morris (1834–1896), and others to believe that medieval Britain offered a better model. Morris and his friends dreamed of a return to a time when independent craft workers designed the things they made by hand and families had homes with space to grow food. Morris and his friends—a mix of painters, artisans, thinkers, and writers—declared “holy warfare against this age.”1 They posited that a society that failed to recognize a need for craftsmen offered no dignity in labor. Together, these friends began what gradually grew into the Arts and Crafts movement, valuing simple forms, truthful materials, structure, and function—all shaped with traditional skills.…

Corra Linn is the tallest waterfall on the Clyde River, which has powered the New Lanark mills in Scotland since 1785. One of the most famous owners of the mills, Robert Owen, used the small village of New Lanark to experiment with his ideas to improve the conditions of working people. The shawl’s construction was designed to honor the women who worked at New Lanark. This warm, quick knit wraps around the front and ties in the back. The style allowed working women of the nineteenth century freedom of movement to complete their tasks. The shawl is knitted flat in garter stitch with a lace wave motif on the edges to represent the Clyde River, which runs alongside New Lanark. The size of the shawl can be altered by symmetrically…

Bengaline A lustrous, durable, warp-faced fabric with heavy cords or ribs running in the direction of the filling [weft] in plain weave. Made of manufactured fiber, silk, worsted, cotton, or combinations of these fibers. Used in dresses, coats, suits, millinery, and ribbons.3 London Shrunk/Shrinking A shrinking process used on wool fabrics that originated in England. The fabric is immersed in hot water and then immediately immersed in cold water, allowed to dry without any tension, and then pressed. The operation removes any residual shrinkage remaining in the goods so that there will be no further shrinkage after cutting and sewing or in service. The process does not prevent felting shrinkage.3 Revers The part of a garment that turns back or folds over, especially the fold of the front of a…

The industrial revolution that produced such a wide variety and quantity of textiles and trims also effected an embroidery revolution within the home. Fashion magazines published a considerable variety of projects for women’s “work,” a broad term that encompassed all types of needlework both practical and ornamental. Increasingly, the language describing these suggested creations relied on descriptions such as “quick” and “easy,” while still touting their beauty, usefulness, and eminent suitability in the genteel lady’s home. The pace of industrial machinery influenced the expected speed of women’s production, as Godey’s Lady’s Book wrote in October 1858: “Small things as well as large are catching the infection of railroad speed. Our embroidery now exhibits the same spirit of rapid execution in many of its terms, such as railroad stitch, broderie à…