This post has been superseded by an article in the Summer 2020 issue of The Journal of Dress History. That text can be accessed here.
This post has been superseded by an article in the Summer 2020 issue of The Journal of Dress History. That text can be accessed here.
Very interesting! Wouldn’t it be informative to have a list of all the tools the typical needle woman would have in her kit at this time?
Needlework boxes are so-called collectables and there are books describing their typical contents. It shouldn’t be hard to find a copy of Mary Andere’s, Old Needlework Boxes and Tools, from 1972, which is a good place to start. Unfortunately, there is certain to have been a significant difference between such fancy packages and the bunch of tools and notions that practitioners—then as now—managed to gather over the years. This can easily include gear Grandma used for something in vogue in her day, was kept for its sentimental value, and still proves useful for an unforseen task or two. I’m kind of guessing that’s how hooked knitting needles may first have been employed for crochet, with the rest being history that remains to be told.