Threads that bind us

Yesterday Mr Kitsch and I celebrated our 21st anniversary. Amongst other presents, he gave me this wonderful old book. I can't tell you how much I love it.  This 'Encyclopedia of Needlework' is a small, chunky book, with over 800 pages packed with dense type, beautiful engraved illustrations and colour plates. There's no date on it, but I would guess it was published in the early 1900s, perhaps.

It covers sewing, mending, embroidery, applique, knitting, crochet, tatting, macrame, netting, tapestry, lace-making and trimmings.

As I started to leaf through it, I got more and more excited by the sheer number of different techniques. Italian embroidery, Moroccan embroidery, Persian, Serbian, Hungarian and Maltese embroidery.

I know of Tunisian crochet, but Bosnian crochet and hairpin crochet? I always thought tapestry was a bit dull - cross stitch and petit point, and maybe a few more, but this book has 40 different tapestry stitches.

And then there's the language -
"The mending of wearing apparel and house and under-linen, though often a wearisome task, is yet a necessity to which every feminine hand ought to be carefully trained."
"Tattted trimmings worked in coarse materials may be classed rather among gimps and galoons than among laces."

and the rather scary advice -
"To preserve needles from rust, put a little asbestos powder in the packets. People with damp hands which make needles sticky in usage, will do well to keep a small box of the powder by them, and dip their fingers occasionally in it."

The list of thread colours at the back of the book is poetry. Just look at those shades of grey -

I want to try out so many of the patterns and techniques, but I don't suppose I can produce anything as exquisite as these illustrations.

I think Mr Kitsch was rather taken aback at just how excited and delighted I was by this little book. I got him books about space, so I think he was very pleased too (he seems so in his blog). They may not seem like the most romantic presents, but I think it's loving and thoughtful to understand each other's interests and obsessions. And so we're both very happy.