Fibre archeology : Dresser runner …

These were discoveries at separate church sale 'digs' several years ago and only recently were taken out of winter storage for spring wearing: the warm season is a bit tardy this year.

The top one was likely made to be sewn around the neckline of a dress or jacket

The other is a dresser runner;  they are both handmade (exquisitely so!) and I would date them late Forties or early Fifties.

I bought them for their beauty and had not intended  using them for their original purpose.

 One day, for some reason, when browsing through my collection of such artefacts, I put the dresser runner around my neck.  It immediately found a new purpose!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

It drapes around the neck perfectly, is light and cosy,  can be a cowl or a scarf, and conveys  the indescribable feeling of an object that is the sum of its parts: thread and a hook and skill and competence and lineage and satisfaction and love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wear it a lot at this time of year.

It invites comment and initiates conversations. A woman in the library said she wished she had known of this before she got rid of a number of pieces her grandmother had made.  Another lady at a church sale identified the pattern as Irish and told me her mother, from Northern Ireland, continues to crochet like this. This kind of communication adds to the enhancement and my enjoyment of the wearing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At times I find myself repeating  "Somebody's hands  made each and every stitch….."