As of today, there are 10 more days until the official start of summer. The Online Tatting Class is now on recess until fall and I have a few days to loll about before I begin planning for our summer special tatting events. Two or three days until the scholarship fundraiser quilts come back from being bound. I will have more hand sewing to do then. My four classes for the Palmettos Tat Days 2014 are up and registration has begun. I have made my outline for the Interweave Press tatting tutorial video and I am waiting on a few balls of Lizbeth thread to arrive from Handy Hands Tatting. Plus, it is raining. Again. Our pond here on the farm is flooded and the fishing dock I suspect has floated away. It will probably float into the beaver dam so we can retrieve it later. So, I get out my shuttles and start looking for a pattern to try out.
The title on the top of my research list is the "Album for Frivolity Works #16 "
Published ©1861 b SAJOU, Embroidery and Tapestry Patterns Manufacturer, Paris. It has only 26 pages so I casually "page down" through it. I am surprised. The illustrations using hands to demonstrate the double stitch are familiar as are figures #10 - 20, but patterns #21 - 24 are very interesting. So I started to read the directions.
The beginning half stitch taught is called the "knot on the right side" and it is what we call the second half stitch today. The last half stitch is called the "knot on the wrong side" and it is what we call today the first half stitch. The reversal of the half stitches is not uncommon for the time as it matches what was used by Mlle Riego and its effect has been demonstrated more recently by the late Jan Stawasz, a gentleman tatter from Poland. (http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art21772.asp)
Then there was an unusual statement on page 3 of the text:
"Essential observation. The wrong side knot is to be preferred to the right side one, which is never to be exclusively employed.
It is well to alternate with a knot by the wrong side and one by the right side. But observe always to begin with the wrong side one."
Terms also used were "eye" for ring, "purl" for picot and "scallop" for half-closed ring. The wrong side stitch, today's first half stitch, is made by "laying the loop on the left hand" instead of over the right hand. And "knot" for half stitch, but in the patterns, "10 knots" means 10 times alternating wrong side / right sides half stitches. The term "clears" was unclear to me until I found on page 7 of the text this note.
"The clears in the round scallop are made wi [sic] hat festoon stitch when sewing the trimming."
And in the directions for #19, - The purled trefoil collar. (thread #90), "Make 132 trefoils; tie them together by the purl with thread #1000..." Tie??? Tie??? Oh my gosh! They did not yet know how to join? In #23 we begin by making "crossed onglets." From studying the illustration I believe that "onglets" are created by using a tape, narrow ribbon, or rickrack and joining the points together to make first a heading and to make 8 point figures. The only tatting is an "8 point star." This is actually around ring with 8 picots which are sewn with "clears" to attach to the rickrack points.
Although published in France, this is an English language edition. It is available for a free download. The link is posted here. http://www.bellaonline.com/subjects/3137.asp
Here's the latest article from the Tatting site at BellaOnline.com.
Tatting Fantasia 4 by Iris Niebach
Iris Niebach's new "Tatting Fantasia 4" has a cosmopolitan feel. Each of the dozen tatting projects included are named after a different well-known city.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art183420.asp
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Georgia Seitz, Tatting Editor
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