At 07:06 PM 7/16/03 +0100, Jean Nathan wrote: > I suppose if it *was* a tatting > shuttle it wouldn't have the inscription "more thread less knots" it would > be "more thread more knots" :-).
I don't need to look at the picture -- I've seen that inscription on many a Boye tatting shuttle. In the forties, they were quite usable, but the sheet steel isn't folded as carefully nowadays -- causing the Susan Bates shuttle of this style to be called the "Norman Bates" by those who dislike using it. I presume it replaced a shuttle that didn't hold as much thread, so that one couldn't work as long without tying in a new thread, which made an undesirable knot in the work -- the "magic thread" method of joining in a new thread not having yet been invented. But Mom had Boye sheet-metal shuttles older than I was, so I can't testify to what was in use when they were introduced. -- Joy Beeson [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A. where summer has settled in. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED]
