Grace Callanan.

    Calling All Crochet Hounds!

Grace Sez:

Crochet is one of the arts we need to preserve as part of our American heritage. I would also put embroidery, needlepoint, quilting and knitting in the same category. However, crochet is my passion, so I will usually speak about it.

Before the introduction of machines to do crochet, all our table covers were handmade using crochet and embroidery techniques. When my eyesight was still 20-20, I would use #100 thread to crochet lace on table runners or small towels. There were many different patterns available on the market back then and you could make a variety of designs. One of the most popular in my day was the pineapple pattern. I can remember my house on Albany Street...on every end table, on the chest of drawers in the kids room, on the dinning room table and on the buffet, a piece of my crochet work was proudly placed. We used them regularly and when they were soiled, you simply put them in a pan of warm soapy dishwater and repeatedly, squeezed and dunked them until the soil was removed. The next step was adding the starch. In those days we made our own starch water and then, used straight pins to hold the doillies on a piece of corragated cardboard, covered with waxed paper. If you wanted your doillies to be square or perfectly round, you needed to take extra care when pinning to get the right shape. After they dried, they were just beautiful.

Today, I don't seem to have as many empty table tops as in the old days and the buffet is gone and I no longer have the big dinning room table, but you will find my handiwork on the top of the TV, the round glass plate shelves of my pole lamp, on the seat and backs of my ice-cream table chairs, as a cover for my decorative footstool and in the many afgans and throws around the house.

Let me toot my own horn! Over the winter I finished my third baby blanket for numbers FOUR, FIVE and SIX great-great grandchildren. The twins came in April and a single birth is expected in August. I still need to make some more afgans while I still have my eyesight.

I really enjoy making the multi-colored afgans and I still have a lot of yarn to use before I will be ready to lay down my crochet hook for the final time.

Best regards from Grace's Kitchen Crafts!     


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