Second lace knitting book I bought, and the one that really opened my eyes to the possibilities. Victorian Lace Today is a glorious book with equal parts historical background, excellent patterns, and gorgeous photographs. The title really spells it out, this book is a history of knitting during Victorian times, and goes into detail what we know about the prominent knitters of the that era and the books they published. The early patterns from these knitters are made modern with the standard symbols and abbreviations but retain the early character.
Jane Sowerby has written this book in an organic way, especially when she’s describing the early books published by Victorian era knitters like Miss Watts and Mrs. Hope (unknown first names) and in later chapters she makes it clear how the later work was built on the principles and influenced by the earlier work.
Coming off Folk Shawls I hadn’t seen lacy shawls in such bright colors before. I grew up around white, beige, ercu etc., doilies that constituted my early education in lace. Jane Sowerby uses color as a way to help make her point that patterns knit and developed in the Victorian era are absolutely still practical, solid, and functional and benefit from the yarn colors available to us now.
The book is almost worth buying strictly for the photographs. Alexis Xenakis has such an eye for composition and layout, and shows off the English manor used for the majority of the photos in a glorious way.
Pick up your own copy at Amazon here…