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The Work of Human Hands
The women of my mother's family continue to amaze me, even though so many of them are long gone. Searching through some yarn today, I came across a small stash of my mother's things in a pink plastic bag. Upon opening it, I found yards and yards of "insertion" lace, all stitched together by hand. I found an organdy collar for a woman's dress, trimmed with delicate featherstitching. And I found the tiny, exquisite baby cap shown in the photograph above. All of these things were the work of my grandmother's sister, Mary Thomas Bird, who was the family's lacemaker. The type of lace used in the cap is called tatting, and it was accomplished with a thin thread, a shuttle, and the hands. Mary Tom mastered this art, and she must have spent many hours making exquisite laces that trimmed baby garments, collars and cuffs, and sometimes undergarments. I've seen her work all of my life. The baby cap consists of dozens of narrow bands of lace in at least two patterns, painstakingly stitched together and formed into the proper shape, with the piece at the back being a round piece.... »
