Question about Doilies - From Guest

[Barbara G.]

Hello,

We have a guest who has contacted the Crochet Talk help desk. Here is her message and question for those of you have worked with doilies which may have an answer for her:

From Patti - Guest Visitor

Maybe you can direct me. My mother recently passed away. While going through her things, I found all sorts of stuff that my grandmother handmade back in the 20's. She was very artistic and did everything from painting, sewing, needlework etc.

Among mother's belongings, I found a doily that my grandmother had started, but never completed. This was just one of her many hundreds, I'm sure. Anyway, my question is about the method used to crochet the doiley. Attached to what had already been crocheted were several (about 30-50) wooden sticks each about 5 or 6" long.

Each stick had yards of crochet yarn or wool (the lightweight type) attached to it and it looked like a huge spider web of strings, but the work these sticks were attached to was magnificent. I have no idea how my grandmother kept track of however she was using these wood tubes to crochet the doiley.

Can you help me or direct me to somebody who can tell me exactly what method this was? I assume it's either no longer used or there is a more updated version. I'd appreciate any information you can help me with. Thank you-Patti

[Carolyn1953]

PATTI, Sounds to me like bobbin lace making and she was using the sticks as bobbins, or maybe they were bobbins. check the Antique Pattern Library to see if they have bobbin lace instructions. You might Yahoo lace bobbins and see what they show. I did and there were lots of pictures, some did look like doilies. I also checked and there is a site bobbinmaker.com that lists several guilds and organizations that have lacemakers. One I would look into is the Embroiderers Guild of America. They may have a local branch. I was a member for a while until I got too busy. They may be able to help. You could also check at your closest college and see if they have a textiles department. If they're anything like Iowa State University, I bet they would be intrigued by your Grandmother's work. These are just few ideas. Can you tell I wanted to be a librarian when I grew up? Good Luck and let me know if I can help further, Carolyn

[Maryjane]

I agree with Carolyn-it sounds like bobbin lace! If I remember correctly, there is a person on this site that does that! Will go through the posts and see if I can find it!