Needles & Nilbogs

I’ve been reading a lot about antique/vintage crochet lately, so I’m going to review one of the books I’ve been using as reference. The book is Civil War Ladies: Fashions and Needle-Arts of the Early 1860’s , and it’s a collection of articles from Peterson’s Magazine, coming mostly from 1861 and 1864. I got it from a friend of my grandfather’s, who was also very fond of older patterns and craft history.  Overall, my general impression is definitely good; it’s very clear that the patterns are not reproductions, they’re original. This does mean the patterns are hard to understand sometimes, and they occasionally look odd to my modern eyes, but I can follow most of them.  The subject matter is mixed. Peterson’s published patterns for all sorts of fancy work, alongside poetry, songs, and fiction (mostly cut out from this book). There’s embroidery, patterns for sewing, knitting, crochet, netting, the occasional tatting project, and some that are unclear or useable for multiple craf...

 I know it’s late, but bear with me. I’ve had a bad day today and couldn’t really write much. I’ve been tatting more lately, and I thought I’d share a thing I tried for my attempts! I’m actually not using a traditional shuttle. They click too much and make it hard for me to work silently like I prefer. Instead, I’m using the plastic clips that hold bread bags from my local grocery store closed. They hold a decent amount of thread, and they’re really surprisingly easy to use.  That’s all. I had a migraine and that’s everything you’re getting. Sorry.