About Me & My Artistic Expression (or Thread Obsession)

When I was a small girl, every Sunday afternoon my mother took us kids to visit my Grandparents. While my mother and grandmother chatted at the kitchen table over coffee, I wandered through the company rooms of the house admiring all the fancy workings that adorned the furniture. Every table top was covered with at least one fancy working. Towels were trimmed in lace, as was every hand cloth, pillowcase and tablecloth. And every week this fascinating display changed!

In my Grandparents home my Grandmothers "private" area was in the basement right next to the cloths washer and across from a very large stove. While my grandmother sat waiting for the cloths to wash and the oven to bake, she would create her fancy workings. As a little girl I would sit on the floor at my Grandmothers feet and watch her knit or crochet. This is how I learned . . . . by watching. To this day I still knit backwards.

What fascinated me as a child remains a passion of mine today - some 40 years later. I naturally gravitate towards century old patterns and have a fondness for Victorian and Celtic designs. I draw a great deal of my inspiration from nature, which is probably why I'm so hooked on Irish Crochet. I also recently I began creating some of my own designs and will some day put them to patterns. I work with a variety of fibers in creating my work such as cotton, bamboo, wool & linen - and lots of color!

In this blog I'll talk about things like fiber, crochet tips and techniques, and share my knowledge in the crafts history. Resources are immense with the internet, but I'll list my favorites here too.

My greatest passion is crochet, but I do still knit from time to time.

You can browse through an array of my creations at:

Artistic Needlework: www.etsy.com/shop/ArtisticNeedlework

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Artistic-Needlework/101214780007413

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/ArtisticNeedleW/

Posted by Artistic NeedleWork

Reticella Designs in Crochet

I've been doing a lot of Reticella crochet work lately. Its just the way my brain works. I found a great book "D.M.C. Needle-Made Laces" of  plates which I adapting into crochet. This book can be found at:  Antique Pattern Library. The plates are in the back of the book. And ya just might take up NeedleLace too!

So What is Reticella???

Reticella is thought to be an outgrowth of Punto Tagliato cut linen work, or in French, Pointe Coupe. Reticella is one of the oldest forms of Needlelace or needlepoint lace, which is the art of making lace with a needle and thread. Reticella needlelace dates back to 1530. Queen Elizabeth made Reticella needlelace fashionable by wearing elaborate gowns adorned with narrow cutwork edgings in Reticella. The geometric star and snowflake pattern with projecting points and scallops used in Reticella is often referred to as a 'Rosette'.






http://textiledreamer.wordpress.com/2007/06/02/reticella-heart/

Reticella needlelace heart by Textile Dreamer

Below is an example of a Crochet lace Reticella design from the 19th century.
How good are you at deciphering old patterns?  If your up to the challenge, here is a pattern for the above Reticella design.  http://crochethub.com/2009/04/06/crochet-reticella-lace/ 
The Crochet Hub has tons of educational crochet reading too. A very good read.


Here is a needlelace design by Margaret Stephen's of NeedlelaceTalk which could easily be interpreted in crochet.



So How do you Get Started?


In crochet, Reticella designs are done using one continuous thread - there are no breaks. This means, to accomplish the geometric design, the worker must work back and forth, and up and down, and turning when needed to progress the pattern without breaking the thread. Long stitches known as ‘bars’ are used to create connections. Overall, stitches are very small, tight, and the Irish crochet technique is used to create cording where necessary. 

Reticella Needlelace "plates" or pictures, have long been interpreted into crochet and used to create such items as this doily.
The center of this doily (the gold part) is a Reticella design; it starts with a round rosette which is turned into a square with one row of a spider like long stitches. The long stitches, or "fill" is worked in one row using long double triple treble stitches to create the corners of the square.
Further Reading:
Mr. John Hopper has a nice writeup on crochet in lace in his blog, "The Textile Blog".  In this article Mr. Hopper talks a little about crochet influence in lace making. He also suggests several books on needle lace.

The Project Gutenberg has "The Encyclopeadia of Needlework" by Therese Dillmont available for download. The Chapter on Crochet is here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20776/20776-h/chapter_9.html
This is a book every needle worker should have in their library.

I found a couple good boards on Pinterest too:
 https://www.pinterest.com/twizzleknit/reticella/
 https://www.pinterest.com/twizzleknit/punto-antico/

Read and learn more about other laces techniques here: http://www.marlamallett.com/l-other.htm

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