| Opus Phrygionium or Phrygium. | Passing or metal thread work. |
| Opus Pulvinarium. | Shrine or cushion work. |
| Opus Plumarium. | Plumage or feather work. |
| Opus Consutum. | Cut work. |
| Opus Araneum or Filatorium. | Net or lace work. |
| Opus Pectineum. | Tapestry or combed work. |
Here are two English lists of stitches; their quaintness must be my excuse for copying them. The first is from Taylor, the water-poet’s “Praise of the Needle” (sixteenth century):—
“Tent work, raised work, laid work, prest work,
Net work, most curious pearl or rare Italian cut work,
Fine fern stitch, finny stitch, new stitch, and chain stitch,
Brave bred stitch, fisher stitch, Irish stitch, and queen’s stitch,
The Spanish stitch, rosemary stitch, and maw stitch,
The smarting whip stitch, back stitch, and the cross stitch.—
All these are good, and these we must allow,
And these are everywhere in practice now.”
The second list is from Rees’ “Cyclopædia” (Stitches), 1819:—
“Spanish stitch,
Tent stitch on the finger,
Tent stitch in the tent or frame,
Irish stitch,
Fore stitch,
Gold stitch,
Twist stitch,
Fern stitch,
Broad stitch,
Rosemary stitch,
Chip stitch,
Raised work,
Geneva work,
Cut work,
Laid work,
Back stitch,
Queen’s stitch,
Satin stitch,
Finny stitch,
Chain stitch,
Fisher’s stitch,
Bow stitch,
Cross stitch,
Needlework purl,
Virgin’s device,
Open cut work,
Stitch work,
Through stitch,
Rock work,
Net work, and
Lent work.
“All which are swete manners of work wroughte by the needle with silke of all natures, purls, wyres, and weft or foreign bread (‘braid’), etc., etc.”
Part 2.
Plain Work and White Work.
We are told that the primal man and woman sewed in Paradise.
To “sew,” in contradistinction to the word to “embroider,” is derived from the Sanskrit su, suchi, and thence imported into Latin, suo.[318] To prove how highly esteemed needlework was among the Romans, I may mention that the equivalent of the phrase “to hit the right nail on the head” was rem acu tangere, “to touch the question with the point of the needle.”