Last Friday I went to a coffee morning along the road. The friend (and I do count her as a friend although I don't know her very well) who hosts these regular events is a Macmillan nurse. Now so far in my life I haven't needed to contact anybody within this charity but I've always thought that the work they do and the caring way in which they do it is amazing.
So, there I was drinking my coffee, eating cake (well, you simply HAVE to as they're all homemade and delicious) and talking to other neighbours and friends when suddenly I spotted these two small doilies.
They are netted. Now I've got netted doilies hanging in my side windows instead of net curtains. I made them and mounted them in brass lampshade rings a few years ago. I self taught myself how to do netting some thirty or more years ago and really love this craft. Somewhere I've got some small earrings made using this technique.
Anyway, what caught my attention was the fact that these two sweet things were so small. The top one measures only 5 1/4" across and the bottom one is 5 1/2". Can you imagine the size of the meshes (and, therefore, the needles) needed?
8 comments:
I've never tried netting. I guess I'll have to read up on it now to have a full appreciation for the technique. Despite my lack of knowledge, I do understand that these are works of art!
Those are really pretty! At first glance I thought they were crocheted. After enlarging the pictures I could certainly see the difference.
That is one thing I have not done, or even knew about !!! They are beautiful.
Hi, Jane, the doilies are Mediterranean needle lace (sometimes called Armenian needle lace, Greek, etc.) It's frequently mistaken for netting because the structure is so similar but the little sideways loops on the outside rounds, for example, are a giveaway, as are the long loops with knots tied in the top. That kind of construction is unknown in netting with shuttles and gauges.
I do both types of lace. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any on-line photos of my netted doilies but I do have a couple of the needle lace ones:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spindexr/2802532256/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spindexr/2792057422
More appropriately termed Armenian Knotting. These are similar to ones in Emily Dickson's book on Armenian Knotting, which is how I learned this wonderful art. So closely related to tatting knots :) I think every tatter should try it out!! I used to have the instructions on my old site before it went off the air. You can see the words but not the images and I don't have a copy(BOOHOO):
http://web.archive.org/web/20041226205151/www.tat-man.net/knottinginstruct.html
Here you can see one image I did. The big one doesn't show. :(
For what it's worth, I think you should try it!
SOJ
Thanks, apinnick and tatman. It looks SO like netting to me!!! Are the knots the same because that was what I was going by even under a magnifying glass. Mind, I guess my eyes ain't what they used to be!!!!
When I saw those I thought, they look just like the book I currently have from the library, which I swear is the one I brought back from Australia and donated to this library (but claims it is donated by someone else in the front!) Anyway, as both tatman and apinnick said, it's Armenian or Mediterranean knotting. Nice find!
Do you know Rita who has the Knots Indeed blog? She is a very talented netter and was trying to duplicate some knotted lace doilies. I kept telling her that they were knotted lace but I don't think she believed me. Netting does look a lot like knotted lace if you haven't actually made both forms yourself. As for examining the knots, that would be tough because the knot are pulled very tight in both techniques. The Armenian needle lace/knotted lace technique has the needle pass through a figure-8 arrangement of the thread. Netting uses a sheet-bend knot. They're difficult to distinguish without unpicking them.
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