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Thursday, November 17, 2005
Crocheting and Tatting
"Crocheting Tatting". That's the exact quote I used in Public Domain Explorer tonight, even though I can't crochet at all, and I don't have a clue what tatting is.
It just came to me to search for it since someone on a book publishing list mentioned tatting as a micro niche, and I thought, I wonder what the heck tatting is, and whether there are public domain books on the subject.
And then I noticed that one of the most popular Wordpress.com blogs is entitled "What Not To Crochet." And thats what the blog posts are about too, so I thought I'd throw crochet into the mix just for fun, since I was pretty sure the two were somewhat related.
I still don't have an answer to question one, but I found no shortage of books for my search terms in the public domain. There's a huge list even before the 1923-1949 section. Here's everything $25 and under on the list:
I know it's an excruciatingly long list, but since I don't know anything at all about the subject, I'm not up to making a fool of myself by offering commentary on the available titles. After all, you don't want to hear that "Finished Yokes of Beauty" doesn't actually sound appealing. Nor does wearing crocheted lingerie. But what the heck... enjoy!
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Edited on: Friday, December 02, 2005 4:02 AM
Categories: Topic Research
Monday, November 07, 2005
The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker Part 3, Candles
Pickings are slim, it seems, for books about candle making.
The only book I could find that might fit the bill is The Candle Book; How to Make Decorate, Decorate With and Sell Candles by Laklan, Carli
In Google Print, I found An Outline of the Sciences of Heat and Electricity, which looks like it might have some relevant material.
At Project Gutenberg, an interesting series of lectures by Michael Faraday called The Chemical History of a Candle should also provide some good material.
Not too much to go on, so I thought I'd check the Library of Congress to see if there are many books that might eventually come available on candlemaking. And, as it turns out, there are not. It seems that there were very, very few books in English written about the subject prior to 1970.
A more likely place to find information on the subject, then, would be in books about homemaking and home economics from those earlier years.
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