Reticella! Oh my!

I’ve been working lately in reticella, and I thought it’s time I shared it with you all. Reticella was my very first needle lace love. It’s wildly beautiful and intensely slow and methodical. Dating back to the early 16th century in Italy, it’s one of the earliest documented needle lacemaking techniques, and has a thousand sumptuous patterns that we can pore over and replicate.

This is a gridded technique made by taking an existing piece of linen, removing threads individually, and then weaving your own threads into the open spaces in a detailed pattern. It’s probably the slowest and most flow-state-inducing needle lace technique I’ve ever worked in.

On a personal note, it’s been a really useful tool for soothing myself in an overwhelming world lately. The state of flow in the meditative stitching, the feeling of being connected to a long history of stitchers and a…