Here are two wooden combs, their handmade components lashed together and decorated with handspun thread. The dark comb, adorned with macaw feathers, came from the Shipibo, a people indigenous to the Ucayali river valley of eastern Peru.
This edging, taken from one of the swatches Evdokia created for the Chinese textile company, is worked in lacet crochet, a technique popular in the 1920s and 1930s that is closely related to filet crochet.
The word “couvrette” is not commonly used in today’s crafting communities, but Victorian needleworkers were familiar with the term.
One company, Weldon’s, began as a paper pattern company and became one of the most recognized needlework publishers in Victorian England.
In an era when newspapers are more often read through a Facebook feed on tablets and smartphones, it is hard to imagine a need for a bent-iron-work newspaper rack constructed from gridiron.
This riddle is included in Ladies’ Needlework; Crochet Tales and Poetry: A Melange of Instructions and Amusements, originally published in 1849.
