It's Valentine's Day in 1849

What are you doing? 

You are crocheting, of course! And we have the facts to prove it!

We began PieceWork's electronic pattern book adventure with selections on crochet, knitting, and bead embroidery from our facsimile reproductions of Weldon's Practical Needlework, and we'll continue adding content from Weldon's. For a new eBook published in late 2011, we decided to go even further back in time than Weldon's turn-of-the-twentieth century. Ladies' Needlework: Knitting was the result. I'm delighted to introduce you to the next installment: Ladies' Needlework: Crochet. Both eBooks were compiled from Knitting and Crochet: Tales and Poetry: A Melange of Instruction and Amusement for the Work-Table being The Year's Volume of the "Ladies Needlework Penny Magazine" published in 1849 in England. When we found this book offered for sale by an antiquarian bookseller, we couldn't resist.

Round Doyley

I am truly passionate about history and an avid reader, so it won't be a surprise that I combined both in researching life in London in 1849. I wanted some background on the book's editor and what life was like then. Here's some of what I found:
In 1849, London, the world's largest city with a population of about 2 million, was a teeming mass of humanity. And a study in extremes: from the unfathomably wealthy to those beyond poor, from opulent palaces to living in the open on the streets, from the very well educated to the multitudes who were illiterate. Yet in between the extremes was a rising middle class—people who could read and write, afford to buy magazines and books, travel, and hire household servants. Free public libraries were a thing of the future, but enterprising entrepreneurs set up subscription lending libraries; for a modest yearly sum, a borrower had access to the establishment's offerings.

Valenciennes Cuff

As it turns out, our book's editor was one Mr. George Curling Hope of East Sussex, an area on England's south coast about 50 miles from London. An advertisement for his Hope's Marine Library states: "The Proprietor respectfully solicits the support of the Inhabitants and Visitors of Hastings and St. Leonards, assuring them they shall find him true to his motto—"Never Unprepared"—at least to do his best to furnish whatever they may require."
Among the services Hope's Marine Library offered were: The Reading Room, The Circulating Library, Bookseller and Stationer, and The Berlin Wool Department, which "Is in the shop adjoining the Library, and is conducted by Mrs. Hope and competent assistants. . . . A large, carefully selected, and well kept stock of Wools, Fleecies, Canvass, superior Purse twists, Floss, Crochet, and other silks, Cottons, commenced Needlework, and specimens, and patterns of the newest articles in the business."

Spotted Edge

And the enterprising Mr. and Mrs. Hope also published books and at least one magazine on crochet, canvaswork, embroidery, netting, and knitting from about 1842 until 1867, including the one we used for our newest eBook, which contains the content exactly as it was printed in the original.
Among the 22 patterns included are an amazing "Window Blind Tassel," a variety of very sweet edgings, and doilies (I'm not so sure about "Convolvulus Pattern Open Crochet"—I think you had to be there!!). And there's more—an enigma, a poem, a "household hint," charts for bead crochet, and charades!
Give yourself the best Valentine's Day present ever—order Ladies' Needlework: Crochet; Tales and Poetry: A Melange of Instruction and Amusement eBook, enter our time capsule, and journey back to 1849 England! You'll be creating exactly what they created.
Enjoy,