Monday, May 23, 2011

Tatting references in "The Help"


I just finished reading this excellent book, in fact it is the best book I have read in quite awhile. Anyhow, there are two references to tatted lace in it; It got me so excited I had to share!
Finding "tatting" outside of our internet tatting bubble is always thrilling.
This book will make you laugh, cry, get angry and melt your heart! I highly recommend it.

1 comment:

Kathy Niklewicz said...

There is a website called "Tatting in Print" that lists books where tatting is mentioned, and they encourage people to make additions to the list, so you could definitely add this book! (If you Google "Tatting in Print", you'll see it on the first page of the directory. The URL has "tatman" in it, so he must have had something to do with this cool list.)

I want to add 'Valley of Decision" by Marcia Davenport, which was published here in Pittsburgh in 1942. It's a novel about Pittsburgh's steel industry from the 1870s to WWII, and the early part features an Irish maid who works for one of the steel moguls. (It was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck and Greer Garson.) When I got a copy of the book awhile ago, I was surprised and delighted to see references to tatting, but I'll have to read it again to find them before I could enter it on the list. (Obviously, Ms. Davenport was aware of tatted lace, and I wonder if she herself did any tatting.

Speaking of movies, I always look (in vain) for someone using a tatting shuttle in the old movies on TCM, but haven't seen anyone yet. Embroidery, crocheting and knitting are, of course, very common. I haven't seen bobbin lace done on the screen, either, except in 'Travelogues' about Europe.