Project Gutenberg's Beeton's

This is illustration 239 of the Project Gutenberg's Beeton's Book of Needlework, by Isabella Beeton - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15147. I found this link in Sharon's Blog - http://inaminuteago.com/



Here is my own basket.


This is the first time I have used a metal wire in crochet. I decided not to make the handle, so I can place inside it this cute blue glass urn I bought at an antique shop.
I had gone to attend a friend's wedding in Karaikudi - Tamil Nadu. We were parked in front of this antique shop. I happened to glance inside and this piece called out to me and I simply had to have it.

And the rose is from my balcony garden.

Instructions for Crochet Edging From DMC Crochet 6th Series Mod 19

This is a pattern from the DMC Crochet edgings book. An interesting pattern, that needed a lot of thinking. I liked it mostly because the picture looked like an old fashioned necklace. Figuring out the terms used was a real challenge.

Note the Book DMC Library Crochet work 6th Series is copyright freed.  Here are the instructions as given in the book.

Edging Mod 19:
1st row: 29 chain, *returning skip 6 stitches, 2 double trebles, 1 treble 1 and 1/2 long, 1 treble, 1 half-treble, 1 plain, 1 single, do three times: 13 chain, connect them towards the right with the chain stitch preceding the 1st double treble, skip the 1st chain stitch, 4 single, 5 chain,into the chain stitch following the 4 single do: 2 double trebles, 1 treble 1 and 1/2 long, 1 treble, 1 half-treble, 1 plain and 1 single; 1 chain, 1 double treble into the 2nd chain stitch preceding the four little leaves, 38 chain; repeat from *.

2nd row: 1 plain into the 1st chain stitch,* 5 chain, 1 plain into the 4th chain stitch, 3 chain, 1 plain into the 1st of the 6 chain stitches at the end of the first little leaf, 5 chain, 1 plain into the 6th chain stitch of the first little leaf, 6 chain,1 plain into the 4th single stitch, do twice: 6 chain, 1 plain into the 5th chain stitch of the little leaf, 6 chain and 1 plain into the 4th single stitch; 5 chain, 1 plain into the 5th chain stitch of the last little leaf, 3 chain, 1 plain into the 10th chain stitch below: repeat from *.

3rd row: 1 plain into the first loop of 6 chain stitches, 8 chain, 1 plain into the second loop, 6 chain, 1 plain into the third loop, 10 chain, 1 plain into the fourth loop, 9 chain, 1 plain into the 5th loop, 8 chain, 1 plain into the sixth loop, 2 chain: repeat from*.

Heading of the lace - 
1st row - 1 plain into each chain stitch and 4 plain into the each double treble.
2nd row - 1 treble, 2 chain, skip 2 stitches, 1 treble, 2 chain, skip 2 stitches and so on.

Tatted Titbits

I just put down the book "Detective" by Aruthur Hailey. It truly was unputdownable. So I was back to my original self - my time-tables and schedules for a better organised life be damned. 

Now when I look around me and see that I have just done the barest essentials like cooking, eating, dishwashing, laundry and read the rest of the time,I curse myself. Work in all shapes and forms has piled up.

Knowing that nobody but me can do my work, why oh why can't I organise my time and put everything into a neat slot? Like a Robo? Oh no! I am a creative eccentric not a robo - I like myself the way I am so let me be. 
Hubby says The inner debate will go on maybe forever especially after a stint of blissful reading ignoring all else as unimportant. He believes I was wired that way. 

Here are some tatted titbits. The pattern for pink beaded flowers with leaves, is in Reader's Digest's "Complete Guide To Needlework".



And here is a bunch of tatted flowers I did when I first learnt tatting 13 years ago.

Toda Embroidery

For the past 7 years I've been wondering about this kind of Embroidery. I had only read about it. I searched the net but all I came up with is that Toda Embroidery is a type of embroidery done by the Toda tribe living in the Niligiri Hills OOty.
Then a few days back a student of mine showed me a piece of cloth that looked like the Hebrew Cloth(???) in the movies "The 10 Commandments". Guess what? She told me it was Toda embroidery and a very old piece at that - almost 40 years old. I have often heard the maxim, if you want something badly enough you'll get it - but this is the first time I am experiencing it.
Here is the piece I am so exited about.

Yesterday, she brought me 3 more pieces and here are the pictures.






The work looks a bit crude in the sense that the motifs are not properly aligned.

My next job is to chart these patterns and find out more about the history of this style of embroidery - after I complete charting the Lagartera Embroidery motifs, I am currently working on.