Lace Hunt Continues

Still looking for lace patterns. So I went looking through my books, and I already have these books on Armenian lace because I went looking a few years back on this subject, too. All mine are on the needle lace version of the lace; I am also looking for the beaded and crochet and tatted versions. I think I have a few more books around here, too, but I think they may still be boxed up. The top two I think are the same book; I can't find the top left one right now. I think they are just different editions and didn't realize that when I bought them. The PieceWork is the July / August 1996 edition. I think there is another PieceWork with this type of lace, or so I have been told. The nice person who said this is checking her books; if so, I may order that one too the more references the better. The middle left book I know I have, but it is one of those I can't find at the moment.

update
The bottom left book is the other PieceWork magazine that has this type of lace in it.

Just so everyone knows, I do know that Turkish lace and Armenian lace are different and not the same. I am intereseted in both of them because they give a similar look and feel, and I am saddened about how hard it is to find this information. Because when I do have this much trouble, it usually means it is a dying art form and makes me want to learn about it all the more and sooner, so if any one can help me I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks Sunshine

Turkish lace hunt HELP PLEASE!!!

Photos on this page are from the Turkey set by ralmonline on flickr so please check out her photos on flickr

I am on a search for Turkish and Armenian Lace books. I am specifically looking for pattern books on Oya, Oyasi and Oyalari lace, sometimes called Bebilla lace in Greece. This can be beaded, crochet, knotted, or tatted patterns; it comes in all those styles, and I do make those types of laces. So if anyone can help me, I would appreciate it. For all I know the page links I have given here may say how to get pattern books but, since I can't read that language, I do not know. Any help would be appreciated.
examples
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here
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here
Story about an artist in Idaho

Z is for....

ZZZZZZ...... I finally caught some Z's the last two days. With school starting, and it being so far away, I spend most of my day driving to and from school or running errands in the other county. I have been getting about 4 to 5 hours of sleep per night. I made that up yesterday, and I will get some more tonight. I also did a little bit of tatting.

This is copy of a piece of tatted lace I saw at an antique store on Friday. I bought the spool of thread (at the same store). I just love the size of that wood spool of thread. Anyone who knows what size a shuttle is knows that that is very big spool of thread for $3.00, and I decided I would tat the pattern I saw instead of buying the lace. For some reason, I kept making mistakes on my rings and chains; I think it is from lack of sleep. Hopefully, the rest will look much neater.

The pattern is as follows:

Rings are : 4ds, picot 4 ds, 4picot ( with 1 ds between each of them), 4 ds, picot, 4 ds. close ring joins on first and last picot
chain: 4 ds, 4 picots (with 1 ds between each of them) 4 ds

I will add this piece to the 25 motif challenge; this will be item 10 for the challenge.

N is for...

antique tatting, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

Number Nine in 25 motif challenge.

This is a photo of one piece of tatting that is in a salesman tatting sampler that hangs in my front room c. 1900.
Look at that price: 55 cents a yard. Wow, wish I could buy it for that price now!

Pattern starting with chain on left:

ch1: ch 4 picot ch 8 picot chain 8 picot ( future join place safety pin here to find this spot easily later), chain four

r1: 9 picot term 1 (join 5th picot to starting point)

**ch2: chain 5ds

r2: 9 picot term 1

chain3: 5ds( future join here*), ch 4, picot (future join), ch 8, picot , ch 8, picot( future join), ch 4

3r: 9 picot term 1, form join on 5th picot to first future join* on chain3** repeat

Please look at photo to see where joins are.

My other items for this challenge are here.

I used antique crochet cotton for this. Now, I wish I had not because it is a little too floppy for my tastes. Maybe I will do #10 with this same pattern but with tatting thread.

#8 of the 25 motif challenge started

This is number #8 in my quest to complete the 25 motif challenge. This pattern came from a circa 1900 salesman tatting sampler that I have hanging in my front room. You can see a corner of it in this post. I will make this as long as the thread will let me; I only have the one ball, so not too long. This is size 80 vintage variegated yellow tatting thread that was given to me as a gift.

The pattern is
R= 4, picot,4, picot, 2, picot,4,picot, 4, close ring make joins on 1st and 4th picot of rings
ch= 5, picot, 5

For those of you who are lace makers, yes, this doily has a coronation cord edging.

I wanted to make 25 edgings, but that may change now to bugs. My daughter, as most of you know, wants a butterfly bedroom. So the idea came to me of the curtain and now a new idea has come for a wall decoration. She is a little girl who likes bugs but doesn't want to kill them, so I am thinking I will tat, crochet, needle lace what ever I can think of to make some lace bugs for her. Then we will put a pin in them and place them in a shadow box just as you would a real dead bug collection. But in this case she gets to name the bugs and nothing dead is on her walls. If any tatters or lacers want to help me and make a bug or two for her room, we would happily put your name below that bug as the creator of it. If not, then it will just be our own bugs.

25 Motif Tatting Callenge and Crochet

My family traveled to Las Vegas this weekend for a Golf Tournament and Baseball Tournament our children were in. Since we traveled by car, I had 6 hours there and 6 more back to tat and or crochet in the car. I chose tatting this trip for the car part. I worked on number 1 and 2 of the 25 motif tatting challenge group that I joined last month.So I only worked a tiny bit on the pink tatted piece, which is number one for me in the challenge. It went from 4 inches to 9 inches; not much improvement there, but since that was one of the last things I did, I'm not concerned about much progress. However, I plan to keep working on that one; I think it will end up being hundreds of yards by the time I finish it. It is size 20/2 thread.The second item for the challenge is done with the size 10 thread that was vintage and damaged. It went from 5 inches to seven yards and used up all the thread; now I have a nice piece of vintage looking lace that already has age marks.The third item was just to use up a scrap of thread I had. It only became 8 inches long, but this can be used in embroidery on crazy quilts. The pattern is simple 3 picot term 4. The pattern came from a scrap that was in a ball of thread I had purchased from a thrift store. It's funny; my scrap is smaller than the one I found, but I like it and consider number three done. It is size 80 thread.The fourth item I worked on for the challenge was also to use up scrap thread. It is size 80 vintage/antique tatting thread, baby blue in color. It worked out to be 2 feet long. This also came from a piece of tatting that was shoved inside that same ball of thread mentioned above from the thrift store. It is a variation on hens and chicks: the hens are *4, picot, 4, picot, 1, picot, 1, picot, 1 picot, 1, picot, 4, picot, 4 close ring, the opposite side is 3 picot term 4 close ring; the chick on the first side is 2 picot term 4 close ring, the opposite side picot is 3 picot term 4 close ring*: continue from * to *. This one is completed, too, with joins on first and last picot of each ring.I also started a fifth item in tatting; this is just a simple single-shuttle ring edging. ring = 4, picot, 4, picot, 1, picot, 1 picot, 4 picot, 4 close ring make joins on 1 and 3rd picots. This is in size 10 crochet thread vintage thread. I'm still working on this one. I have 13 inches completed on this.I also started another tatting project with pearl cotton in turquoise while traveling. This is a typical scroll pattern. (I made a mistake on this; one of the chains only has 1 picot instead of 3-- oops. This is only 4 inches long. Ring : 4, picot, 4, picot, 1, picot, 1, picot, 4, picot, 4, close ring. Chain: is 4, picot, 1, picot, 1,picot, 4. The joins are made on the first and last picot on the rings.
So, a grand total: 3 completed, and still working on number 1, 5 and 6.

While at my sister's I noticed she had a runner our great-great-grandmother, Maria, made. So I asked if I could copy the pattern. I made two little samples of crochet --two so that I can use this pattern at my home. The next-best thing to having the item is being able to say I made it using the same pattern my great-grandmother used. One is the outside edging plus corner, and the other is the inside insertion on the runner. Mine was done in a size 20, the original was done in size 30; I didn't have that thread with me, so I used what I had.

Tatting Thrift

I like thrift shopping and finding things I can use that other people toss. This is one of my favorite places to find supplies to make things.

I found this real bright pink thread on a cone a few weeks ago and thought it would be lovely as rings and chains in tatting. It is a real soft thread, so it has a nice drape to it. It almost looks like a full cone of thread, so this will make hundreds of yards of tatted lace.


That same day I also found this very old antique even size 10 Columbia thread, pale blue in color; yeah, not exactly what label said. I always love it when I find the original papers still in them. This one had the colors of thread and styles of thread that they sold at that time. Sometimes they have coupons in them for free patterns; of course, you can't get those free patterns any more even if you sent in the coupon.

I like to hard laminate these papers so I can stop the deterioration and keep them and use them as book marks in my pattern books. With this one I even laminated the size cards so I would know what it came from.

The thread was still super strong and could stand up to tatting which can be very rough on thread when closing a ring. It does have discoloration which makes the blue travel from faint blue to a medium brown. I sort of liked that on this. I don't want all my threads that way, but every now and again it's OK. Because this does have a use this way, such as on a primitive doll or prim pincushion, it would look lovely as an accent and the technique used, tatting, would work nicely with those things too.

If you are into tatting check out the 25 motif challenge group and check out the tatting group on flickr. I joined the tatting challenge with this post this is number 1 and 2 out of 25 things/motifs I am to make in the next year.

Pattern for above just copying an old piece of lace.
Pattern is chain = 1 picot term four
ring = 3 picot term four with joins on 1 and 3 picot.

tatted edging

This is an edging that I created over eight years ago.

The sample was made 8 years ago when I was learning how to tat, and it has a few mistakes in it. I think it will still give you the idea of what it looks like. My tension is much better now, and the rings would look more uniform now, as well.

Key
= means future join
- means picot
+ means current join
ds = double stitches
j = join
p= picot
capital letter means ring
lower case letter means chain
the number refer to the number of dc stitches.
Here is a sample I just tatted the aqua one.

Modern Pattern Version
A. 4=4=4
a. 6-2-6=4
B. 4+4=4
b. 4
C. 5+5-5=5
D. 5+5-2-2-5=5
E. 5+5-5=5
c. 4
F. 4+4=4
d. 4+6-2-6
repeat to desired length
for easier reading, if you are not used to the method above, use the pattern below

Traditional short hand pattern
*Ring A : 4ds, p, 4 ds, p, 4 ds, close ring
chain a: 6ds, p, 2ds, p, 6 ds, p, 4ds
Ring B: 4 ds, p ( join to last p of last ring), 4ds, p, 4 ds, close ring
chain b: 4ds
Ring C: 5ds, p (join last picot of last ring), 5ds, p, 5ds, p, 5ds, close ring
Ring D: 5 ds, p (join last picot of last ring), 5ds, p, 2ds, p, 2ds, p, 5ds, p, 5ds, close ring
Ring E: 5ds, p (join last picot of last ring), 5ds, p, 5ds, p, 5ds, close ring
chain c: 4ds
Ring F: 4 ds, p ( join to last p of last ring), 4ds, p, 4 ds, close ring
chain d: 4ds, p ( join to last p of last ring), 6ds, p, 2 ds, p, 6ds *
repeat from * to * to desired length

Clover Leaf tatted edging from 1917

In the book, Novelty Tatting and Maltese Crochet, Book No. 6 Price 10 cents published in 1917 by Novelty Art Studios Chicago, Illinois, this edging pattern is known as No. 17.

Key
pi = picot
ds = double stitch
clover = in this case a 3 leaf configuration

Do not detach thread from ball. * Make a clover leaf of 3 rings thus: 7 pi separated by 3ds; close to form ring; 3 ds join to last pi of ring; 3 ds; finish ring as before; close ; make 3rd ring same as preceding ones; join in like manner; turn. With ball thread ch ( 3 ds; 1 pi) 4 times; join to 4th pi of center ring; ( 3ds: 1 pi) 4 times; 3 ds. With ball thread ch 4 ds; repeat from*

I did not edit this pattern for modern terms and style. It appears as it would have been written when first published.