{"id":1909,"date":"2019-01-27T11:31:23","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T19:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=1909"},"modified":"2019-01-27T11:31:23","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T19:31:23","slug":"a-legacy-of-crocheted-lace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/?p=1909","title":{"rendered":"A legacy of crocheted lace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

A crochet fragment in my workbox<\/p><\/div>\n

A comment in \u00a0an old letter to my mother catches my eye:<\/p>\n

March 1, 1971<\/span><\/em>
\nI can\u2019t remember anything about that bit of crochet, Mum, but I guess it probably is mine. Now it will sit in my workbox for years!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Do I still have it? I open the Cadbury\u2019s Chocolate box that holds my collection of crochet hooks and sundry balls of crochet thread. On top sits a small piece of lace, obviously the beginnings of an ambitious project. Was it the piece that cluttered Mum\u2019s workbox? Probably.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

My great-grandmother, Sarah Jane Caundle, as I remember her.<\/p><\/div>\n

The art of crochet was honored in my mother\u2019s family, passed on, like all domestic arts, from generation to generation. The most noted expert was my great-grandmother, Sarah Jane Caundle, whom I met a few times when I was a child. She was born in 1864 to Irish immigrants on a New Zealand goldfield. In a reminiscence my mother wrote:<\/p>\n

Outside the back door [of Grandma\u2019s house] in the sun was a stool to sit on.\u00a0 Across the yard in a shed that housed the wash house with its copper and wooden tubs with the toilet next to it.\u00a0 Grandma washed the clothes in the old way with a well-stoked fire under the copper to boil the sheets, etc.\u00a0 The tubs for the rinsing and blueing with a hand-turned wringer between them.\u00a0 While visiting as a small girl I was being taught how to crochet.\u00a0 Trying to make my doll a pink woolen petticoat like the ones Grandma made for us.\u00a0 Something would not go right so I called for assistance.\u00a0 There was Grandma coming across the yard at her usual jog-trot wiping the soapsuds off her arms on her apron (Must always wear an apron) to sort out my muddle.\u00a0 The picture is still so clear in my mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026 As we grew older we were given doilies and crochet-edged linen for our “box.”\u00a0 At each 21st birthday each granddaughter was presented with an afternoon tea cloth with a wide edge of crochet lace.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before she died in 1951, Great-Grandma Caundle had started making doilies for her great-granddaughters. I missed out, but inherited a piece of her work from my mother. Fascinated by Mum\u2019s stories about her grandmother\u2019s life, I put together a poem:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Detail of a crocheted doily by Sarah Jane Caundle.<\/p><\/div>\n

Great-Grandma\u2019s Doily<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early afternoon, when chores were done,
\nGreat-Grandma put her feet up on the kitchen couch
\nand gave herself an hour with crochet hook and thread
\nto figure out the sequence from a photograph\u2014
\nchain and double loop and treble\u2014
\nthe mathematical progression of the rounds
\nrevealing patterns satisfying in their laciness.<\/p>\n

She learned the art at her mother\u2019s knee
\nin the dirt-floored hut at the Puriri claim.
\nHer mother learned it from her Mam
\nback in Ireland before famine memories
\nand rumors of gold in the far-off colonies
\ntook Bernie Donnelly and his new young wife
\nadventuring across the world.<\/p>\n

There was a dame school at the diggings.
\nGreat-Grandma might have gone some days
\nbut not enough for fluency in letters.
\nShe had sisters and brothers to mind,
\nmanuka<\/em>-twig brooms to fashion for the floor,
\nclay to fetch for the hearth\u2019s weekly whitewash of mud.
\nShe entered service as a housemaid at eleven.
\nLater came marriage and children of her own,
\nnine of them, then grandchildren to care for.<\/p>\n

All this time persisting in her art,
\ngifting to daughters and grand-daughters
\nlacy linens for their marriage chests.
\nI have one doily, handed down, an oval of white linen
\nedged with a crocheted frill of tulips in a row,
\neach stitch pulled neat and tight, a testament
\nto discipline and practice, and the will
\nto make time for her art.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A comment in \u00a0an old letter to my mother catches my eye: March 1, 1971 I can\u2019t remember anything about that bit of crochet, Mum, but I guess it probably is mine. Now it will sit in my workbox for years! Do I still have it? I open the Cadbury\u2019s Chocolate box that holds my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,24,100,388],"tags":[517,516],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maureeneppstein.com\/mve_journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}