Home |
What's New |
Learn |
Patterns & Images |
Links & Supplies |
Printed Material |
Stitch Gallery |
About |
Guest |
I grew up in Utah and, in addition to several
communities in Utah, have lived in Truth or Consequences, New
Mexico; St. Anthony, Idaho; and Springfield, Massachusetts.
My husband and I have 7 children whose birth years range from
1972 to 1994 (2 children born in the 70's, 3 born in the 80's,
and 2 born in the 90's).
I have many interests including genealogy, reading, and crafts
such as knitting, crocheting, embroidery, sewing, and, of course,
netting.
I became acquainted with netting
while I was very young. On the dining room table and other
pieces of furniture were net doilies made by my grandmother.
As a teen-ager, I wanted a way to make money. My father suggested
that if I would learn the skill of netting from his mother and
perfect it to the point where I could make doilies, he and my
mother would purchase the doilies from me to use for wedding
presents. I agreed to learn to net.
Grandmother had no written instructions. She had learned to net
from her Swedish mother. She taught me by example and showed me
how to read the patterns and instructions from actual doilies.
Sometimes she would make a doily for me to show me how to do a
new stitch. Occasionally she would give me a doily to duplicate.
Over the course of a couple of years I learned how to net and how
to undo my mistakes. Gradually I developed a method of writing
down instructions so I could duplicate a doily without having it
with me.
To get me started my grandmother gave me three plastic mesh
sticks, a 1/4", a 3/8", and a 5/8", and one metal
one about the size of a #3 knitting needle. When I desired other
larger sizes my father helped me make them out of 1/8" thick
plastic. He had made some for his mother out of plastic.
Although I looked for years for additional instructions for
doilies, the only patterns I could find were in 3 small booklets
published by Vera Nelson. In 1984 a friend showed me some
patterns in a magazine, Anna.
In 1972 and again in 1974 I tried to design my own patterns. The
first 4 doilies I designed on my own were, I felt, not very
attractive. I then began experimenting with the patterns my
grandmother had designed. I added stitches and changed edges,
centers, and stitches, thereby creating a new doily. Gradually I
learned how to create doilies I felt were attractive.
I am still looking for new stitches to add to the ones I have
gleaned over the years.
Non-commercial use only. |