365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Tricks Of The Trade
Day 97: My grandmother was an expert needlewoman and taught me almost everything I know, "almost" being a qualifier. Gma did not tat, nor did anyone else in my immediate family, so when I took a job as an art-needlework consultant at the ripe old age of 18, I was determined to remedy this lack of knowledge. One of my co-workers was a practitioner of the art and agreed to teach me to tat with a shuttle, and for years, that was how I did my tatting. Now I needle-tat, a quicker process by far, but that's not the subject of this discussion.
My husband's maternal grandmother, like many of the women of her generation, was also skilled in a number of needleart techniques. She and I hit it off from Day One because of our common interests. She taught me a valuable and simple way to keep my picots even (picots..."pee-koes"...are the little loops made by a single thread along the edges of a ring or chain). Today, you can buy "picot gauges" in a variety of types, but Grandma Agnes' method costs nothing (or next to nothing). Simply make a mark on your finger with indelible ink showing the length of thread (use a ruler) to be left between double stitches where a picot occurs. It will wash off or wear off in time, so make a note of the measurement so you can reapply it at need.
Labels:
bookmark,
Grandma Agnes,
ink on finger,
needle tatting,
tatting
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