2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:

@Cherryfudge - Good luck with the repair.  Do you tat?  I learned as a teenager.  Somewhere in this house is a partially finished tatted lace collar that I haven't worked on for 30-odd years.  

I don't: I can't remember if I've told the story before but I once bought a sewing basket at a local auction, complete with all its former owner's treasures. The tatting hooks were among these and I inherited another from my Mum or Grandma: I don't remember Mum ever doing tatting but possibly her mother did and Mum inherited the hook. I took them (gadgetry not ancestors) to a group of friends of whom I was the youngest but they didn't know either, though one of them turned out to have been a spinner (yarn not bikes) which was really interesting. Sadly she's no longer with us and I only found out I had tatting hooks (is that what they're called?) when I found a tatting pattern.

I am fascinated by how tiny they are!

So far I haven't returned to the jumper. I found some sewing that needed to be done and it's quite relaxing but slow work.

ETA: a bit more googling and I'm not sure what I have are for tatting after all - they might be incredibly fine crochet hooks?

PollyWollyDoodle

You do get very fine metal hooks, I have a couple that were my grandmother’s and they were used for crocheting cotton lace for edgings and collars. I bet Laura has some!  I have made some of this, but I don’t think my eyesight is up to it now (*note for anyone under 40 reading this - do fine embroidery and delicate work now, because you’ll reach a stage where it’s more trouble than it’s worth! 😂)

Tatting is more often done with a shuttle, although I think you can do it with a needle as well. I think I did it once, there was a bit of a resurgence of it in the 1980s, but I’ve never tried it since.

PipneyJane

Tatting hooks are a “thing”.  While the main tatting action is to weave your shuttle to form a knot on the holding thread, you need a tiny hook to join circles of knots together to create a fabric. You pull the thread through a loop with your hook and work your knot through the loop that you’ve pulled through.   I used to use a the head of a pin but I think I have one of my mum’s shuttles that has a hook at one end.

This image may help, if you have no idea what tatted lace looks like.


- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

@PollyWollyDoodle is right, I have tiny crochet hooks down to 0.6mm!

I haunt eBay for the old steel short hooks which I find easier by far to use than the wretched modern ones, and yes I've tried all the handle-padding dodges and the fact those exist tells you something about the ergonomic mal-design of modern hooks... 

Here are most of mine - a few being with the project they're engaged in. A couple of antique bone hooks, one double-ended, and then lots of varied short hooks. The internet has lots of conversion charts, none of which take into account to two old British systems of hook-labelling: wool-hooks were larger and rounder-tipped, going down from *3* which was about 7mm down to *21* which was about 1mm, and also cotton which went from *000* which was about 3.00 mm down to 7 1/2 which was about 0.50 mm. Wool sizes 10-21 overlapped with cotton sizes 000 - 5 and some hooks had both numbers - my smallest is a *6 1/2* cotton hook, and a 21 wool. I have some which are labelled with both - and a couple usefully labelled with metric as well as one or other, which takes some guesswork out! 
1.75mm = 2
1mm = 4
0.75mm = 5 = 22
0.6mm = 6

I haven't systematically gone through all my hooks to check but I think the cotton hooks often have a pointed tip for shoving it into the thread-lace stitch more precisely. 

Cherryfudge

That's a wonderful collection, @Laura_Elsewhere! Mine are similar, though fewer. I have one with a guard on, as one of yours has.The biggest of these tiny ones is around 2mm (size 2), and the smallest is 1mm (size 5).

Cherryfudge

Here we go: I’m fairly sure now that these are for crochet, though probably a suitable size for joining tatting.

Laura_Elsewhere

@Cherryfudge, yes, you're right - those are all definitely crochet hooks. Of course, they could and probably were used for other things - I use mine for quite a few non-crochet things! - but those are crochet-hooks by design. Lovely little things! I have found that even two hooks of the same size will be a bit different, and one is better for this thing and the other is better for that thing. So when I make anything I always make a note of which specific hook was used, not just the size. It's nice using hooks that so many people must have used, and I do wish I had some inherited ones but I don't think any of my family did fine crochet work. Dad told me they had a couple of Gran's crochet hooks, and I got all excited until he proudly produced two buttonhooks - not the same thing, really, although I can see how he thought they were! 

I have almost finished the Christmas things - just three more cards to find, write and ice-skates to crochet, and then get them posted even though they'll be late. It means I can finally focus on my favourite bit about midwinter, which is that I stop being in the middle of making things for other people or things with a deadline and I get a month or so to focus on making things for me.... this year, it's a mid-grey fine-wool skirt for everyday, a new slipover (sleeveless pullover) in chestnut cashmere with gold lurex thread in it, with subtle stripes made by adding a cobweb-weight wool in one of four colours. I wondered about knitting it plain, and about knitting it with another cobweb yarn held in, and knitted a test piece and loved it so much I decided to keep those half-inch stripes, with the chestnut-alone in between! The bottom one is a navy mohair, the most-obvious is a merino crimson, above that a rust mohair, and topmost a dull-scarlet silk-merino, all interspersed by the chestnut-gold on its own. 

Cherryfudge

Another lovely colour combination, @Laura_Elsewhere! And yes, I would rather inherit and use something that's been part of life in another era... there's a great feeling of continuity working with tools (or projects) from craftspeople of the past, on many levels. Being part of a chain of skills, imagining the joy or sense of satisfaction as those people completed their projects, repairing something they made or making something that will become a loved item for the future...

PipneyJane

Beautifully put, @Cherryfudge.

@Laura_Elsewhere, I love the colour combinations.   You have a great eye for colour.

My one regret was not claiming my mother's knitting needle box after her death.  There were rubber needles in there that had belonged to her mother, as well as her collection of crochet hooks, etc.  My older sister subsequently "lost" it in house moves.

- Pip

TwibbleDee

Worst way I've abused a crochet hook:  Cleaning hair out of the shower drain.