I am totally a bibliophile and have to convince myself to not get a book sometimes, because it’s something I know I’ll never read. The older the book, the harder it is to resist. Published before the 1940s, and you have piqued my interest. Add an old cloth hard, or even leather bound book about something in which I’m interested, and I’ll snatch it up. Knowing this, you won’t be surprised that two of my favorite times of the year are the Keene Public Library book sales in fall and spring. Guess where I went today?

I resisted the Saturday sale of a paper grocery bag of books for 5$. Corey and me have done that several times before, and boy can you get a lot of books in one of those bags. However, we have way too many books as it is, and the next time we move we’re gonna have to purge some of them. I decided to go before Saturday for this book sale, and see what I could find for knitting and craft books.

The book I’m most excited about is the The Complete Encyclopedia of Needlework by “Th. de Dillmont” . It is a paperback book printed in the early 70s with almost 800 pages of stuff, claiming to have “Nearly every conceivable practice with a needle” in the foreward. Just looking at the table of contents I’d have a hard time disbelieving it. Sewing/embroidery, machine embroidering, mending (including woven fabrics!), embroidery on white, on linen, on silk and velvet, with gold, appliqué work, tapestry, knitting (of course!), crochet, tatting, macramé (forget the 70s style macramé you’re used to, think Victorian), filet lace, openwork, embroidered lace, sewn lace, pillow lace, deep breath, and needlework trimmings! Some of this stuff I didn’t even know existed! Have you ever even heard of pillow lace? Even the “Miscellaneous” section at the end has tons of information about caring for and prep work for needlework.

As I’m flipping through and reading passages from this book I feel this incredible connection to history. So many different needle crafts that have nearly been forgotten since the popularization of machine made textiles. Lace is much faster and easier when you can do it by machine, yet somehow I feel a twinge of sadness for what we may lose if these crafts are not kept alive. A piece of our history for one! Hand crafted textiles have been a part of all of our ancesters lives; it’s connected to all of us, crafty or not. People invented ways to take spun thread and make cloth, and have been putting their creativity into decorating it ever since!

I look at all the needlecrafts that I’m unfamiliar with, and think to myself, “Ohh I’d love to try that, and that, and ohhh that…and that…” I spent a lot of time embroidering before I learned to knit, and I’m thinking I’ll pick the needle back up. I have a few unfinished projects, and plenty of inspiration for others…

Ahh but I won’t neglect the knitting, that’s a promise! I think knitting is my true craft, and don’t forsee that ever changing. I’ve got some ideas from looking at this book, and I’m sure will have many more once I’ve read the Knitting section. For one, there are several sock heels I’ve never seen before and would like to try (ever heard of a “stepped heel”?). There are also some very interesting lace pieces, and a few cast-ons I’d like to try. So much to read about and so little time!

Edit As it turns out (thanks Betsie!) this book is from an originally PD version. You can check it out in all its awesome-stitcheryness at Gutenberg. The new 1970s version I have is written in different words to say exactly the same thing as the original. They paraphrased it! Why else would they do that but so they could copyright it!

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