Summer in the sewing room

A small wall hanging object can exist both as a decoration in sewing theme and a storage solution to keep all the small tools at hand.
The alternative mission of the hat is to serve as a pincushion, while the bag can hold small scissors, safety pins, thread spools etc.




The piece is made of linen and all sewn by hand, the wires at the top and bottom give it a good hold. Seems like the only thing without a clear purpose is the dress.

Old craft book finds online

I discovered recently that the Book Depository offers many digitised old books as free downloads, among those some about arts and crafts. Here is a short overview of my favourite finds.



The Ladies' Work-book
Patterns for knitting, crochet, point-lace, etc.




Point collar in crochet:




Crochet purse with beads:





The Lady’s Album of Fancy Work for 1850,
'consisting of novel, elegant, and useful designs in knitting, netting, crochet, braiding, and embroidery with clear and explicit directions for working the patterns.'

Knitting bags and fingerless gloves were already discovered:





The Art of Modern Lace-Making, 1891
History and techniques for making various types of lace, for example, a darned-net edging with overwrought stitch:





Art in Needlework: A Book About Embroidery, 1900
Many illustrations and embroidery stitch examples.

Darning designed by William Morris:




Embroidered renaissance ornament:





Handbook of Wool Knitting and Crochet, 1918
Knitting and crochet patterns for the entire family.




This pattern for ladies' gloves with fancy backs is certainly worth trying out someday:

Allegretto shawl pattern

This is a knitting pattern for a light and cheerful lace shawl with plenty of air and texture: long zigzag rows blending into a narrow trellis lace edging all around.
It is a relatively quick and easy lace knitting project, since the shawl is worked in one piece without any grafting, picking up stitches or difficult techniques.

The shawl requires one 100 g skein of lace weight yarn - approximately 800 m or 850 yds. Naturally, it can be worked in lighter and heavier yarn weights as well.

The pattern is available on Ravelry and YarnCanada shop.

Some help with lace cast-on and bind-off methods can be found in this post.








The sample shawl is knitted in Madelinetosh Tosh Lace hand-dyed yarn, shade Corsage: