Reprinted from 1988 original by Pea Soup Publishing, 2003.
For a number of reasons, this book – lushly illustrated with both photographs and diagrams – could hold your attention. Visitors to Vinalhaven, which provided many of the examples in the book, will appreciate another tangible reminder that the fishing industry uses many different creative skills. Those familiar with the island community will enjoy recognizing names and faces from over the years. Readers interested in coastal Maine will find the history of fishing that uses nets – lobstering, eel trapping, smelt dipping, scallop dragging, purse seining, and gill netting. Seeing what netting can create could be an inspiration to put the directions and patterns to good use. Projects for the home include a hammock, placemats, and laundry or grocery bag. A fish sculpture out of netting suggests artistic possibilities. One photograph is especially instructive about the non-fishing uses netting has had: a horse wears protective netting across its body, festively decorated with tassels, and a bonnet that covers the ears, also tassel-adorned. The meat of the book, however, is explaining the many uses netting has for Maine fishermen, specifically on Vinalhaven. Today, bait bags are usually concocted from commercially-made synthetic netting. But nets require repair, so the skill is still practiced on the waterfront. With clear diagrams and directions to follow, this book is perfect for beginners, but includes more advanced possibilities as well.
Stephanie Crossman, a contemporary netter on Vinalhaven who shows her work at craft shows, praises the book for documenting the patterns and uses. She laments the substitution of plastic needles for wooden ones, but knows that as long as people need netting needles, something is right in the world.
The reprinting of this book is a tribute to its now- deceased author, Barbara Morton. Married to a Vinalhaven lobsterman, John, in the 1950s, she took up netting as a family tradition, her in-laws having facilitated it as a cottage industry during the war years. She wrote and illustrated the book to preserve what she feared would become a lost art. She was a nurse as well, parented a large family, and was a painter. A new cover is the only change from the original to this reprinted edition. Copies are available for sale on Vinalhaven; for those from away, purchases can be made at www.peasouppublishing.com.