Valsesian Puncetto

I was recently gifted a flight to Italy and as you can imagine, dropped everything and went. I spent Easter in Rome then travelled to Verona, Florence, Prato, Bologna and on to the Valsesia region in the north eastern part of Piedmont, at the foot of the Italian Alps.

I had never been to this region and knew it only by reputation of the beautiful Puncetto needle lace so I was very excited to be offered the chance to drive up there with a couple of friends. I immediately contacted Paola Scarrone of the Scuola di Puncetto Valsesiano in Varallo to see if I could take advantage of their program "Puncetto whenever you want" which, aside from their other didactic programs, offers you the chance of lessons when you happen to be in the area.

I had recently been in contact with Paola as she and her association were kind enough to provide photography for my latest historical article on Puncetto in the May/June 2015 issue of Piecework magazine. We set up a lesson with Angela Stefanutto who I had previously studied with at Italia Invita in 2011.

We arrived at the historic Albergo Italia in Varallo where the lesson took place and were delighted to find not only Angela but the hotel owner's wife Ornella Marchi was also a lover of Puncetto. In the hotel lobby are some framed pieces as well as wood cut designs which imitate the lace and the dining room curtains all had inserts of Puncetto, each one different from all the others.

Different Puncetto motifs in coloured thread in the lobby of the Albergo Italia.

Wooden post with magnifying glass and Puncetto in the knob at the Albergo Italia.

We spent a delightful couple of hours together and Angela kindly corrected my mistakes and misconceptions and tirelessly showed me examples of all kinds of different situations. I wish I lived closer to her so I could go to her on a regular basis. She is the very best teacher!

Angela also told me that the instructional book that she and her association had written in 2009: A Scuola di Puncetto Valsesiano had finally been reprinted and was now available for purchase (see below). I know that many of my readers had been frustrated with it's lack of availability so you will no doubt be happy to know that you can now find it.

Of the three books that they have written, this is the one you want for getting started.

After coffee, we went along to their shop the Bottega Dell'Artigianato at Corso Umberto, no. 1 in Varallo (a short walk from the hotel) where there are all kinds of local artisan items for sale including Puncetto needle lace pieces.

The shop Bottega Dell'Artigianato in Varallo.

Coloured Puncetto on the apron of a traditional costume in the Bottega Dell'Artigianato.

Puncetto collar and yoke on the blouse of a traditional costume in the Bottega Dell'Artigianato.

I purchased four small pieces of Puncetto lace and the reprint of the manual. It was so difficult to choose, there were so many beautiful things!

Back at our home base in Prato Sesia, our hostess gifted me with an exquisite framed piece of Puncetto which she had hanging in her home.

Wonderful framed Puncetto hanging on the wall in Prato Sesia before it was given to me.

You can purchase A Scuola di Puncetto Valsesiano from Tombolo Disegni.

Thank you to Bianca Rosa for the use of her photo!

Puncetto News and a new book!

Second Volume,  2009

There is some good news for those of you who have been waiting for the reprinting of the second volume on Puncetto needle lace – copies are now available!

This is really the book you need if you want to get started with Puncetto needle lace. It has a how-to section which gradually instructs you on more and more complicated patterns as well as many patterns for complete pieces. The second printing has been held up for quite a long time and I'm glad to see that everything got worked out and that it is once again available.

The first volume is more advanced and provides patterns and instructions for using multiple colours in designs which are used in the local traditional costumes of this region found in the north of Italy near the Liechtenstein border.

First Volume,  2006

And now there is a third volume by the ladies of the Scuola di Puncetto Valsesiano which is very advanced featuring many different designs (I counted 70!). You can see some of the pages here. There are even some instructions on how to make the buttons found on traditional costume blouse cuffs!

Third Volume,  2013

I'm thrilled to see the inclusion of the pattern for the blue gentian flower that was part of the display at the 2011 Italia Invita Forum. There are other flowers and plants as well and rounded edges and motifs like this one from the back cover of the book:

I have been privileged to attend a few workshops with these talented ladies and I dream one day to take a "Puncetto Vacation" which the school offers for a week in August.

Tombolo Disegni tells me that they now have all of these volumes in stock.

Puncetto Needle Lace Tips

I've been practising my Puncetto and it's true what they say, practise makes perfect. Well, not perfect but better! There are many pieces that I have had to abandon because I didn't count correctly, or because my tension is just too wildly different from place to place but slowly, slowly it's starting to look somewhat decent. I still seem to break or split threads quite a bit and am resolved to not force the needle in where it doesn't want to go so that I can avoid this most hardbreaking problem.

I have been diligently using my Puncetto Valsesiano book by Angela Stefanutto, Paola Scarrone and Carla Rossetti which I understand has been updated and is ready for reprinting but has been delayed due to permission difficulties with some of the photos.

I now understand that I should have followed the exercises in this book in the order that they were presented because if I'd done that, I would have understood the technique much better than skipping around and working "in the dark" so to say. If you start out and follow the (seemingly) boring first exercises, you actually understand the formula for making Puncetto work properly.

Some things that I have learned are:

• Twist your thread in the direction you are going for each stitch. This helps tremendously and allows for longer threads lengths for things such as the selvedges where you don't want to have any thread joins. I found that I was spending more time undoing knots than doing stitches until I starting doing this for every stitch.
• No matter how tempted you are to not start a new thread, do it when you need to and plan where to do it. While blocks of solid stitching may seem to be the easiest place to change threads, they are actually the most visible place - you can always see the bulk of the secured ends. I have found that changing threads on the return trip over some empty holes is the least noticible place to do it.

Visible joining of threads.

Less visible joining of threads.

• Make an effort to do very tight stitches in the first couple of rows because inevitably, they end up being the loosest stitches and once you get to the top you'll notice!
• On your return trip over empty holes, look ahead to see what will be stitched in the next row. If you have other filled holes above, then do less return stitches so that you obtain the correct amount of stitches across, I'll show you what I mean:

In this case, I did two instead of three knots to accommodate the filled hole above. Note that this number of stitches applies to small holes and that the number differs for different sized holes.

• For even tension, when completing the stitch pull the thread up and then down in one fluid motion, this moves the knot to the lower part of the stitch and helps make all the stitches the same size and tension.
• If you are finding that you can't seem to ever get your selvedges (top and bottom) to be the same width as the rest of your work, use a needle one size smaller when you are stitching the selvedges and switch to the bigger needle when completing the work between the selvedges. This last tip comes from Stefania of L'angolo di Stefania who patiently let me sit at her house and mangle many attempts at Puncetto.

I find that I easily let my mind wander when doing Puncetto which leads to mistakes, you must stay engaged and be thinking about what you're doing! One day I hope to have a sample which does not have any mistakes or broken threads, for now, this is my goal!

Puncetto Workshop

While in Italy at the Italia Invita Forum in Parma this past month, I took a three-day workshop with the Puncetto needle lace maestra Angela Stefanutto of the Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso di Varallo from the Piedmont region of Italy.

Angela was an incredibly patient teacher and she had her hands full! There were six of us, two ladies from Spain, two Italian ladies, a lady from Israel and myself. One of the Italian ladies was also an English language interpreter for the Israeli lady and Angela was able to speak to the Spanish ladies in their mother tongue. I admired everyone greatly as learning and teaching an embroidery technique is difficult enough but having to switch languages while you're doing it is even more challenging. Angela was never impatient and made sure that we were all able to finish our little square of Puncetto needle lace by the end of the course. We each got a little certificate for having completed the workshop and Angela was surprised by getting her own certificate for having taught us! She was a very sweet lady and I enjoyed her very much.

Here she is in the Puncetto booth at the show:

Angela Stefanutto.

My little square is quite warped but I felt very good leaving the class having learned so much just by watching Angela work her magic hands with the needle and thread.

The Puncetto square is worked first and then inserted into the fabric.

Nothing was a problem, not even when I broke my thread, our maestra had a work-around for every difficulty we encountered. For those that finished early, she showed us a little fancy Puncetto edging:

The Ventaglietto or little fan edging is done by hooking onto the hem of the fabric.

Then she showed us the two books that she co-wrote and all of the beautiful pieces of Puncetto needle lace she had done which were featured in the books. I was delighted to discover that I had both of her books at home!

Book number one is really for advanced levels or for once you have a good understanding of the technique.

Book number two which is really the one you need to get started.

I was excited about getting home to now finally understand the patterns which I had been unsure about when working on my own.

Angela told us that if we were ever in her neighbourhood, she taught Puncetto classes for the Società Operaia di Mutuo Soccorso di Varallo. One day I hope to visit her and do just that!

In the meantime, there is a series of German videos on YouTube which show you some Puncetto basics.