National Treasure — Angeline H. Crichlow

This article was originally published in 2004.

Angeline Crichlow was an inspirational tatter. She was also a wonderful tatting designer and author of many tatting books.

Angeline lived in Carmichael, CA and was the fourth generation in a family of tatters. Sadly, she died in 1997.

In her hard cover book, Let's Tat, she tells of watching her mother tat and hearing tales of her great grandmother Margaret Robinson (1827-1890) tatting. Margaret Robinson was an immigrant of Ireland into San Francisco in 1854.

Some of Mrs. Crichlow's books are still available from her daughter Jeani Crichlow-Weick.

Although it is now out of print, Angeline's hardback book, Let's Tat, is a must have. Let's all encourage Jeani to reprint it for the next generation of tatters.

Who would you like to see in this space? E-mail or leave me a comment with your recommendations.

Tatting Tea Tuesday

It’s time for another Tatting Tea Tuesday!

As the mercury edges ever closer to the HOT setting on Silly Hat Central's ther-mom-meter, summer in suburbia remains mostly pleasant and comfortable. Very nice for tea and tatting.

So I settled in with a mug of decaf chocolate chai/chocolate raspberry bliss tea^* and set about tatting a simple split ring edging.

Wanting to use up the last bits of yellow on a shuttle, I tied it together with some cheap crochet cotton in ecru. A trefoil emerged, followed by a split ring.

My test complete, it was time to switch to the Tiny Round Teapot and work the folded split ring. But the edging kept calling me back.

You see my grandmother (the lady who taught me to tat) turns 101 next month. Since I told her about Tatting Tea Tuesday a few days ago, her fingers have been working an imaginary shuttle and thread. She says she's tatting an edging.

Gran never learned how to make a split ring, split chain, SSSR, SCMR or any of the "double core" techniques. She would love them! It is so great to know that she is tatting along with me in support of TTT. I am glad we can share it together.

^* Wouldn't Tatskool's luscious Raspberry & Chocolate Mousse or Lady ShuttleMaker's delicious Raspberry Mousse 20 enhance this edging? Those ladies make it so easy to rationalize a hand-dyed thread purchase! (No, they didn't pay me.)

UPDATE: I just bought 2 hanks of Raspberry & Chocolate Mousse in size 40. My psyche had an obvious medical need for it. Medical crisis averted. Now I have a moral imperative to tat something with this lovely, lovely thread.

Truth be told, what I really wanted was 1 hank of R&CM and 1 of Raspberry Ripple with Real Vanilla, but rumor has it that the last 2 hanks in size 40 were just mailed off to Michigan today.

So if you are reading this in Michigan and would be willing to trade 1 Raspberry and Chocolate Mousse for 1 Raspberry Ripple and Real Vanilla, please contact me.

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful. See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Flat Shuttle Love

Lookie see what I found the other day in my craft closet — a gift from Georgia Seitz! Honestly, I can't believe she sent me this nine years ago. Where does the time go?

I really need to buy one of her fish-shaped shuttles to add to my collection. It would be perfect to use on April 1^st for International Tatting Day. Especially since I pay homage to this special day by melding the French tradition of "April fish" with "April fools" while eating chocolate and tatting. For a more meaningful explanation of my unique tribute, read No Foolin' — International Tatting Day.

Georgia is one of the nicest people you could wish to meet. And her Tatting Talk self improvement guide is a wonderful book. Thank you, Georgia, for the lovely gift!