Team Knitting

December 21, 2013, 3:26 am

This week I went to the usual Thursday knit-and-natter at Spun in the Byram Arcade - this one was special because it was our Christmas do. We all brought in food and drink, it was all delicious, we had a great time and even got some knitting done. And during the party, we gave Lydia and Ash a knitted blanket for their baby, due in January - knitted by all of us in the group. It is a patchwork of 24 squares in two designs - we each knitted three of them. Except Lydia, of course, who didn't know anything about it. It has been a bit tricky keeping it secret at times, because the wool and patterns had to be distributed in the shop, and then we handed back our completed squares in the shop, too, but we managed to pick times when Lydia was busy and didn't notice. Here are my three squares, one with a pear design, for Lydia and Ash's last name, and two with a double heart design. (I tried to take a photo of the complete blanket, but there wasn't a lot of space and the photo has a closeup of someone's foot in the foreground. It looked very nice, believe me. The blanket, not the foot.)

The Byram Arcade was looking festive, with Christmas lights strung along the balconies. The things hanging in the central space are origami birds - a whole flock of them, in different colours and sizes. It looks wonderful.

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A Mug for a Knitter

December 21, 2013, 10:49 am

≫ Next: Season's Greetings

≪ Previous: Team Knitting

Yesterday, we went to Waitrose in Sheffield to get most of our Christmas food shopping, and I saw some coffee mugs with an embossed design to look like Aran knitting. They are really nice, and I bought a couple for myself - how could I resist?

The design of the Waitrose packaging for their own-brand Christmas was also based on knitting. A cable pattern with ribbon threaded through was printed onto the box of Camembert we bought - ready prepared to bake. (Sounds delicious - I hope it is.)

And there was a Fair Isle design with Christmas trees,which appeared on several of the things we bought, and around the store as well. Today being the Winter Solstice, I had a mince pie with my coffee (in my new mug) - it was very nice.

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Season's Greetings

December 24, 2013, 5:26 am

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≪ Previous: A Mug for a Knitter

As it's Christmas Eve, here are two vintage Christmas postcards, featuring people wearing knitting, from the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection.

The first postcard is not dated - although it has an address and message, there is no stamp or postmark - but I guess it's from before 1920. The little boy is very winsome, with his blonde curls peeping out from his hat. But let's focus on the important part - the knitting. Knitting patterns usually show individual items, and so we don't see how they were worn together, as we do here. The boy is wearing a knitted hat, knitted jumper and knitted gaiters. I can't make out what he's wearing between the jumper and the gaiters - possibly shorts. The gaiters are held under the shoes by elastic, probably (there is a pattern for gaiters in Woolcraft). I don't know how they stay up over his knees though - there is no sign of any fastening or elastic. Friction? Willpower?

The second postcard is postmarked 1913, and shows an attractive young woman, again wearing a lot of knitting and some crochet. I think her jacket is knitted, and of course her hat is - a very large and floppy tam with a pompom. Her collar is crocheted, probably Irish crochet, which was very popular at the time. But she's not a grandly elegant Edwardian lady, more the girl-next-door, it seems to me. Very appropriate for sending Christmas greetings.

Happy Christmas.

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Yorkshire Sculpture Park

December 30, 2013, 2:54 pm

≫ Next: The Universal Knitting Book

≪ Previous: Season's Greetings

Yesterday was a lovely winter's day - sunny and bright, though cold. We went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, to see the Angie Lewin exhibition and the amazing Seizure - a London bedsit transformed into a grotto lined with copper sulphate crystals. But mainly we went for a walk in the park. The low, bright sun lit the sculptures beautifully.

Magdalena Abakanowicz : Ten Seated Figures

Peter Liversidge: Everything is Connected

Tom Price: A 3-metre tall man with a phone

Dennis Oppenheim: Tree

Michael Zwingman: Invasion

Antony Gormley

Alec Finlay: The Bee Library (one of 24 nests for solitary bees)

Richard Long: Red Slate Line

Alder cones

The Lower Lake

Sophie Ryder: Sitting

Marialuisa Tadei : Day

Marialuisa Tadei : Night

Marialuisa Tadei : Octopus

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The Universal Knitting Book

December 31, 2013, 12:08 pm

≫ Next: Christmas Postscript

≪ Previous: Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The Universal Knitting Book, 1913

On the last day of 2013, I am writing about a booklet published in 1913. The Universal Knitting Book was published by Paton's of Alloa in Scotland, spinners of knitting yarns. The 1913 booklet is actually the 4th edition; according to the British Library catalogue, the 2nd edition appeared in 1903, and I imagine that the first edition appeared around 1900. It has 76 pages, price 2d, and contains over 100 patterns - mostly knitting patterns, but also some crochet, in spite of the title.

It is printed on very cheap paper, with thin card covers - evidently not designed for durability. Paton's also published a much more substantial Knitting & Crochet Book at the same time, on glossy paper and with a cloth binding, priced at a shilling (12d), so The Universal Knitting Book was aimed at the cheaper end of the market. The cover features a small girl, who looks surprisingly grumpy, sitting on top of a globe (representing the universe, presumably) while knitting. The preface promises a "lavish supply of illustrations". Most are line drawings, and perfectly clear, but a few are taken from photographs (perhaps to be up-to-date) and have not reproduced well on the cheap paper.

The intention in publishing booklets like this was obviously to sell the company's yarn. The first page of The Universal Knitting Book is very persuasive about the advantages of knitting for yourself and your family, and using Paton's yarn:

"Have you ever thought how much more pleasure there is in wearing garments which you have knitted yourself? Not only is there a pleasure in wearing the garments, but they can be so easily made in odd moments which might otherwise be wasted, and if made with Paton's Alloa Knitting Wools, you are assured of splendid wearing qualities and perfect comfort and warmth, without excessive weight....

But the universal reputation which our Wools enjoy has not been secured, nor is it maintained, without great vigilance on our part. Nothing in the way of care or skill, or improved mechanical appliance, has been spared to bring all our qualities to a high state of excellence; and we believe we only express the opinion of the vast majority of those accustomed to handle knitting wools, when we say that, alike in respect of quality, finish, and durability, they are not surpassed by those of any other maker. They give the maximum of satisfaction to the knitter, and of comfort to the wearer."

That is a great slogan for a spinning company: "the maximum of satisfaction to the knitter, and of comfort to the wearer." Exactly what we all want from our yarn. (Plus it has to look good, of course.)

The booklet has patterns for a wide range of garments for men, women and children, beginning with two chapters on socks. The first is a highly technical chapter giving rules and general directions for Stocking Knitting. It discusses the different parts of a stocking and how to adjust the size to fit a specific foot and leg. It seems an oddly advanced beginning for a booklet aimed at all levels of experience. The next chapter has patterns for socks and stockings, with several fancy sock tops for Gentleman's Cycling Stockings.

A thistle pattern for a stocking top

There are lots of patterns for underwear. Chapters 3 and 4 cover vests (including the Lady's Under Bodice shown) and then combinations and drawers.

Lady's Under Bodice

The next chapter has outer garments - coats, jerseys, sweaters and jackets - and begins with instructions for knitting a simple cable, perhaps a novel idea at the time. For the cable needle, "a broken hair-pin answers very well" - evidently broken hair-pins were plentiful in 1913. Some of the cardigans and waistcoats in this chapter look quite modern.

Jersey & Knickers for a boy of 2 to 3 years of age

The book then reverts to underwear. (In fact, even the chapter on coats, etc. includes body bands and knee caps, for some reason.) The next chapters are on boots (for babies) and slippers, and then petticoats. Altogether the range of knitted underwear is amazing - I'd like to know how much of it people wore at the same time. Was an under bodice a substitute for a vest, or did you wear a vest as well?

Baby's Boot

Then there are Hoods, Clouds and Caps, including two patterns for helmets - they are not called Balaclava helmets, but that's what they are. And a chapter on scarves and comforters, including gloves and mittens.

Helmet

There is a whole chapter on shawls, which are mostly lacy Shetland shawls in very fine yarn - appropriately for a Scottish yarn spinner. One of the shawls has a feather-and-fan border, and was issued later as a pattern leaflet, several times - I showed one of the later incarnations of the design here.

Shetland Pattern Shawl

The remaining chapters give a similar range of garments in crochet.

In 1920, Paton's merged with J. & J. Baldwin of Halifax, who were already publishing a similar booklet, Woolcraft. (I'll write about Woolcraft some time.) For a few years, the merged company continued to publish updated editions of both Woolcraft and The Universal Knitting Book. Eventually, only Woolcraft survived, though it incorporated some features of the other booklet. But although it wasn't as long-lived as Woolcraft, this 1913 edition of The Universal Knitting Book gives a fascinating view of what knitters were making, and wearing, on the eve of the Great War.

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Christmas Postscript

January 2, 2014, 4:22 am

≫ Next: Pantomime Knitting

≪ Previous: The Universal Knitting Book

A friend sent me a package with her Christmas card, containing a little notebook, passed on by a friend of hers, for the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection. It is leather-bound, quite battered, about 3.5 by 5.5 inches. It dates from World War 2 - in the first 34 pages, the owner kept a detailed record of what she knitted during the war, for various groups. In the rest of the notebook, she wrote out knitting patterns, and added extra pages (which are in different hand-writings) - it looks as though the owner continued to use it after the war to record patterns that she thought interesting or useful. The war-time section is fascinating. She knitted for a wide range of causes: Deep Sea Fishermen, Prisoners of War, Russians, the Air Force, Evacuees. Towards the end of the war, she knitted "for the people of occupied Europe". She mentions the WVS (Women's Voluntary Service) frequently and I assume that the knitting for many of these causes was co-ordinated by the WVS.

The notebook records the wool and needle sizes used for every piece of knitting, and occasionally notes that she used 'own wool'. She keeps careful note of the weight of wool she used, too, and reckons up the total weight used for each batch of knitting. There were schemes during the war for getting wool off-ration for knitting for the forces and other good causes, though you might still have to pay for it. I assume that she had wool off-ration for most of the knitting listed - she could not have used her own ration coupons for so much wool. So maybe 'own wool' means that she paid for it, and otherwise it was provided by the WVS. I assume too that she was knitting for herself, and her own family, at the same time as for all these good causes - that isn't mentioned in the notebook.

At the end of the war-time section of the notebook, she lists all the "garments knitted for the Forces during 1940 to 1945". I think the list actually includes garments knitted for all the other causes as well, not just the forces, because it includes children's garments.

She knitted 185 garments for the Forces:

6 pairs cuffs
23 scarves
16 cap-scarves
2 sleeveless pullovers
9 polo-neck jerseys
5 V-neck jerseys
39 pairs gloves (with fingers)
5 pairs steering gloves
3 pairs spiral socks
1 pair hospital socks
1 pair gum-boot socks
1 pair sea-boot stockings
45 pairs socks
15 pairs mittens
7 pairs ankle socks
7 balaclava helmets

And 86 children's garments (though these include women's garments too):

21 boy's jerseys and girl's jumpers
1 pullover
8 frocks
4 hats
2 lady's jumpers
9 cardigans (boy's and girl's)
8 pilches
18 vests
3 shawls
5 pairs gloves
1 pair overalls
6 pairs socks (boy's)

A huge achievement for one person. The rest of the notebook will repay careful reading, I'm sure, but just this first part alone is absolutely fascinating.

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Pantomime Knitting

January 6, 2014, 8:41 am

≫ Next: A Sweater for Beatrix

≪ Previous: Christmas Postscript

George Graves as Widow Twankey

It's the pantomime season (Oh yes, it is!) and so here is a postcard showing a pantomime character, knitting. It was post-marked 1905, and shows George Graves, an English comic actor who often did music hall and pantomime (says Wikipedia).

I assume that he is dressed as Widow Twankey in the pantomime of Aladdin. Again according to Wikipedia, Widow Twankey is Aladdin's mother and runs a Chinese laundry, in China - in spite of Aladdin being based on a tale in the Arabian Nights. It makes no sense, of course. And it's one of the comic pantomime roles that is always played by a man in drag. George Graves appears to be wearing a very splendid Chinese costume, with an embroidered panel down the front of the skirt, and a patchwork silk coat over it. And he is portrayed knitting - a simple piece of garter stitch, but it looks he might actually be working on it. Though having said that, there is no sign of a ball of wool, and there appears to be a big gap between the stitches on the two needles. So maybe it is all for show. You can't expect realism in pantomime.

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A Sweater for Beatrix

January 11, 2014, 5:05 am

≫ Next: Third Anniversary

≪ Previous: Pantomime Knitting

Beatrix was born in November and I knitted a sweater for her that was handed over at Christmas, via her grandparents. I have not yet seen her in it, but I have seen a photo - it looks a little big for her just now, but will fit her better before the end of the winter. It's knitted in Wendy Merino DK, so I intended it for wear this winter, to keep her cosy. She wears it with the cuffs turned back, as they are shown on the cover of the pattern leaflet below - the sleeves fit her better that way.

(It's actually a lovely greeny-blue colour - it's hard to get a photo that shows the colour at all accurately, which I have found before with green/blue shades.)

Patons 7957

The pattern is from a Patons leaflet that I have had for years - the leaflet has the date 1985 printed in it, so I assume I bought it then and perhaps I intended to knit it for my daughter. But I never did. The neckline is intriguing - the front and back finish in two long triangular pieces at each side, which overlap. There are no shoulder seams or any kind of fastening at the shoulders, so there is plenty of room for it to go over the baby's head, but it should then fit snugly around the neck. And there are straight seams to join the sleeves to the body.

In fact, I didn't assemble it exactly according to the instructions - there was meant to be much more overlap of the back and front, but then the neck opening entirely disappeared, so I had to adjust it. It's a nice pattern, though - I like the texture of the stitch pattern, made of little triangles in stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch. And I like the way that the diagonal edges of the triangular overlapping pieces parallel the triangles of the stitch pattern - that is very neat. I hope Beatrix gets plenty of wear out of it for a few weeks, before she grows out of it.

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Third Anniversary

January 13, 2014, 3:37 am

≫ Next: Irish Crochet

≪ Previous: A Sweater for Beatrix

I started writing this blog 3 years ago today. I feel a bit amazed at that - that it's been so long, that I've kept it going, that I still have an endless supply of things to write about.

John in Fair Isle pullover

The photo is from my very first post. It shows John posing (with an invisible head and non-existent pipe) in a Fair Isle pullover I knitted for him in the early 1980s. The pattern is from Fair Isle Knitting, by Sarah Don, more or less. I used the colours she suggested, and the first three bands are as in the pattern, but then I followed the charts elsewhere in the book to make every band different.

Pullover from Sarah Don's Fair Isle Knitting

I'm going to resurrect the pullover this week - the Huddersfield branch of the Knitting & Crochet Guild is meeting on Thursday, and the topic is Fair Isle. The pullover is more than 30 years old, so I suppose it counts as vintage knitwear by now. (Though it's all wrong that something I knitted counts as vintage. People will be saying I'm old next. Oh sorry, forgot - I am old.)

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Irish Crochet

January 13, 2014, 11:17 am

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≪ Previous: Third Anniversary

Postcard of girl in Irish crochet

The new Rowan magazine (number 55, Spring/Summer 2014) has an article on the Knitting & Crochet Guild, and another on Irish Crochet by Katy Bevan, illustrated with wonderful photographs of some of the best pieces of Irish crochet from the KCG collection. (Katy wrote about the photo-shoot on her blog, here.)

I don't crochet much myself, and Irish crochet is so fine and intricate that I am sure it is way beyond my skills. But I do admire the things in the collection - they are just beautiful. So since the Rowan magazine article was proposed, I have been keeping a look-out for Irish crochet illustrations in the Guild collection.

Although much Irish crochet was made commercially, there were also many Irish crochet patterns published in needlework magazines in the early part of the 20th century. But the illustrations with the patterns are usually just the piece of crochet - they are rarely shown being worn. So it's difficult to get a sense of how Irish crochet was worn at the time. (I don't think the Rowan model looks very much like an Edwardian lady - it's not a modern look.)

I have recently been looking at the postcards and photographs in the Guild collection - they have all been acquired because they show knitting or crochet, and there are several from around World War I that show Irish crochet. Here is a selection. The postcard of a girl wearing an Irish crochet top (cape? jacket?) is postmarked March 1912. (Postcards of pretty girls were popular at the time.)

Miss Julia Neilson at Home
Postcard published by Beagles Postcards,
from a photograph by Ellis & Walery

There are also two postcards of celebrities wearing Irish crochet. Miss Julia Neilson, depicted at home next to the piano, was an actress. She is wearing an Irish crochet blouse, and one of those nasty furs made from a dead fox. Miss Marie Studholme, an actress and singer, is wearing an Irish crochet collar to her jacket/bodice, and possibly an Irish crochet blouse underneath (hard to tell - it's out of focus). The card is postmarked 1906.

Miss Marie Studholme
Postcard published by Rotary Photo Co.,
from a photograph by Foulsham & Banfield

The three postcards show women wearing smart clothes, and probably the Irish crochet was bought - they did not make it themselves. Ordinary women would not be able to afford to buy whole garments in Irish crochet, nor have the time to make them. But we have several photographs of women wearing little crocheted collars or jabots. I suspect that many such collars were made at home, but they might have been cheap enough to buy.

The young woman wearing the large crochet jabot and stand-up collar (and huge hat) is evidently wearing her best clothes for the photograph.

Little lacy collars to wear with a plain dress were also popular - not all are in Irish crochet, though I think that the one above is.

I also found an ad for Manlove's crochet cotton, in Fancy Needlework Illustrated from 1914. The "peasant girl" in the ad is making a set of motifs for a collar. (When Irish crochet was made commercially, the more experienced and skilled workers made the motifs, which were passed to less experienced crocheters to join together.) So if you were making your own Irish crochet collar, you could aspire to the standards of the professionals by buying the thread that they used.

"Irish Peasant Girl making Irish crochet Lace"
Fancy Needlework Illustrated, June 1914.

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A Feast of Fair Isle

January 19, 2014, 3:56 am

≫ Next: Copley's Cobweb

≪ Previous: Irish Crochet

Last Thursday, we had the monthly meeting of the Huddersfield branch of the Knitting & Crochet Guild. Topic: Fair Isle. We brought in some of the Fair Isle knitting from the Guild's collection, which looked wonderfully opulent laid out on the table.

The three children's items (two pullovers with collars and a cardigan) are, I think, the nicest examples of Fair Isle in the collection. Perhaps the oldest piece is a short sleeved sweater that looks as though it dates from the late 1940s. The slightly puffed sleeves are very characteristic of the 1940s, and Fair Isle knitting was very popular at the end of the war and for the next few years. (If anyone recognises the pattern, please let me know.)

Several people brought along their own Fair Isle knitting - I took John's pullover, as I said I was planning to. Ann Kingstone, author of Stranded Knits, brought a couple of knits from the book, including Hedgerow, one of my favourites. She also had a really nice knitted and felted bag - she says that she made it four or five years ago, but it still looks pristine. (That's Hedgerow, peeking out of the top.)

Elizabeth Smith makes cushion covers from stranded and felted knitting - she brought in two lovely Christmas pieces. The designs are based on typical Colne Valley scenes - cottages with weavers' windows on the sides of the valley, mills in the valley bottom, sheep and cows in the fields. (The angels and sleigh in the sky aren't so typical.)

I did a short slide-show of Fair Isle patterns, from the 1920s on, starting from the Fair Isle sweater that the Prince of Wales wore for golf in 1922. Most were fairly traditional Fair Isle designs, but in the late 1940s and early 1950s, more pictorial designs were also popular. One of my favourites, because it is so quirky, is Copley's "Fish and Coral" jumper.

Copley's 1681

It would be quite tricky to knit, because there are often three colours in a row- the small geometric pattern is in green, blue and "Sunglo", while the Fish and Coral bands are in Sunglo for the coral and white for the fish on a background of blue. The pattern suggests that a small ball of white yarn could be used for each of the fish to avoid long strands across the back, but I think that would also be difficult. And there is no chart - the pattern is all written out stitch by stitch, over 8 pages. I don't know why - other spinners were giving charts for Fair Isle patterns in the 1920s, so it must have been a deliberate decision not to use them. But apart from the practical difficulties, I think it looks fun.

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Copley's Cobweb

January 23, 2014, 7:40 am

≫ Next: Wensley Dale Knitters

≪ Previous: A Feast of Fair Isle

A couple of weeks ago, one of the other volunteers working on the Knitting & Crochet Guild's collection was sorting through a box of balls of vintage yarn - from the 1950s and earlier. Some of it was really delectable, including these four balls of Copley's Cobweb yarn. Cobweb was a fine lace-weight yarn, sold in half-ounce balls. (Half an ounce is about 14 grams.) From the range of designs on the ball-bands, it seems to have been in production for a long time - the green ball on the left might be pre-war, while the yellow ball on the right is labelled "A Donbros product" - Donbros took over Copley's maybe around 1960. The four balls here are such a nice combination of colours too.

Since it was such a long-running yarn, I thought that there must have been an equally long-running series of pattern leaflets for it. But so far I have only found leaflets from the early 1950s. Some of them are lacy scarves, which could easily be current patterns, or lacy evening stoles which look more typical of the 1950s.

Copley's 1919

I especially like the evening stole from Copley's leaflet 1954. The leaflet had four scarf/stole patterns in it, but the lace pattern on this one is particularly dramatic. (The photo seems rather carelessly staged. though - the model seems to be sitting in a classroom.)

From Copley's leaflet 1954

There are also several pattern leaflets for women's jumpers - often in more or less plain stocking stitch. The jumper in leaflet 1862 is knitted mainly on size 11 needles, with a tension of 38 stitches and 46 rows to 4 inches/10 cm., over stocking stitch. That's a lot of knitting.

Copley's 1862

The jumper in leaflet 1922 is also very glamorous, again combining stocking stitch with areas of lace.

Copley's 1922

And others are lacy all over - very pretty, though it makes a more or less transparent jumper. They didn't seem to bother about that in the 1950s, though.

Copley's 1910

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Wensley Dale Knitters

January 28, 2014, 8:59 am

≫ Next: Here's One I Made Earlier

≪ Previous: Copley's Cobweb

Wensley Dale Knitters

John gave me a belated Christmas present which he bought at the Antiquarian Book Fair in York earlier this month. It is a print from Walker's Costume of Yorkshire, a book of coloured prints, with some text accompanying each, that was published in 1814. The plates in the book show ordinary working people, in various parts of Yorkshire, going about their daily lives. Images of that kind are unusual for the days before photography (and extremely useful to museum curators in Yorkshire).

My print shows a village scene in Wensleydale, with everyone busy knitting. I suppose it should be possible to identify the village from the church and the profile of the hill across the valley, and possibly the exact spot, assuming that Walker was accurate in drawing the scenery.

The accompanying text describes how the working people of Wensleydale knitted whenever they had their hands free, whatever other occupations they had:

"Simplicity and industry characterize the manners and occupations of the various humble inhabitants of Wensley Dale. Their wants, it is true, are few; but to supply these, almost constant labour is required. In any business where the assistance of the hands is not necessary, they universally resort to knitting. Young and old, male and female, are all adepts in this art. Shepherds attending their flocks, men driving cattle, women going to market, are all thus industriously and doubly employed. A woman of the name of Slinger, who lived in Cotterdale, was accustomed regularly to walk to the market at Hawes, a distance of three miles, with the weekly knitting of herself and family packed in a bag upon her head, knitting all the way. She continued her knitting while she staid at Hawes, purchasing the little necessaries for her family, with the addition of worsted for the work of the ensuing week; all of which she placed upon her head, returning occupied with her needles as before. She was so expeditious and expert, that the produce of the day's labour was generally a complete pair of men's stockings."

I love it - it's a great gift for a knitter interested in history.

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Here's One I Made Earlier

January 31, 2014, 12:43 pm

≫ Next: Tell Them Of Us

≪ Previous: Wensley Dale Knitters

My Wetwang sweater

I finished knitting a sweater before Christmas, I've worn it several times, and I haven't yet written about it - I think I should do that before January is over, so that means now.

It's Ann Kingstone's Wetwang sweater from her Born & Bred book. I started it last April, and wrote about it here. But then I put it away for the summer, until it got cold enough again to want to knit a woolly jumper - by that time, I just had the sleeves to finish. I'm really happy with the result. It fits very well - because it's knitted top-down in one piece, you can try it on as you go. I made it quite close fitting - you can see from the photo that there is quite a lot of shaping at the waist. I also made it long enough - I often find that I make sweaters too short, but again if you can try them on as you go, it's easy to get the length right.

The construction is really clever, I think. You can see from the photo that the front of the neck is much lower than the back. That is all done by short row shaping after the yoke is finished. And at the same time, you are doing the shaping for the top of the sleeves. It's easy to knit - you just follow the instructions - but I wouldn't know how to design something like that.

For anyone else knitting it, I found that the yoke doesn't sit right until you have finished the sleeves. So although you can try it on as you go, you don't actually see how the neckline is going to look until you have nearly finished. But if you just have faith in the pattern, it all comes right in the end.

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Tell Them Of Us

February 5, 2014, 3:45 pm

≫ Next: Modern Technology

≪ Previous: Here's One I Made Earlier

Paton's Helps to Knitters IX

I have been busy for a couple of days, scanning knitting patterns from the First World War, or just before. They will be passed to a large team of around 250 volunteers who are creating knitwear for the cast of a film to commemorate the War. The film, "Tell Them Of Us", is based on the war memorial in Thimbleby, a village in Lincolnshire, and one man named on it in particular, Robert Crowder. I found out about the knitting project only recently, via the costumier, Pauline Loven. They have been having some difficulty finding enough British patterns of the right date, and there are quite a lot in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection, so we can help.

It is a fascinating project - I'm so much looking forward to seeing some of the patterns in the Guild collection knitted up for the film.

Although all the knitters are volunteers, and various spinners have donated yarn, there are still costs associated with the knitting project, for postage and so on. There is a web site where you can pledge donations and also find out a bit about the film - it seems to me a very worthwhile project to support.

I have sent Pauline some of my favourite patterns - Paton's patterns from 1912. I especially like the leaflet for women's coats and caps - the young woman on the front looks so cheerful and energetic in her coat. (I wear the things I have knitted for myself for years, so I am sure anyone who knitted this outfit for herself in 1912 would have worn it during the war as well.)

The pattern writer in this case had some very modern ideas about what's required in a pattern - she says what size it fits (instead of saying something like "to fit an average figure" which you see sometimes in old patterns); she tells you how long the coat will be; she specifies the tension to aim for; and she even directs you to knit a tension swatch. And she gives directions for a larger and a smaller size - admittedly, for the smaller size you just use finer needles, but the directions for the larger size give different numbers of stitches and rows at various stages. Patterns in a range of sizes are very unusual until much later - really, after World War 2, so this is a long way ahead of its time.

Paton's Helps to Knitters X

The next leaflet that Paton's issued has a similar range of patterns for girls. I like the illustration on the front, of the little girl trying to look very formal and well-behaved in her smart outfit. This leaflet was written by a different designer, and the instructions are much sketchier. Sometimes she gives a tension, sometimes she doesn't. She doesn't give any indication of measurements, just a target age, as in "Knitted coat for a girl 5 or 6 years of age". And some of the instructions seem very opaque, though I hope that they make more sense when you're knitting. I would say that it's the usual standard for patterns of that era, except that some designers (like the designer of the previous leaflet) evidently felt that knitters needed and deserved much clearer directions to work from. I hope one of the volunteer knitters can follow the pattern - I would really like to see a 21st century girl dressed like that.

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Modern Technology

February 9, 2014, 9:01 am

≫ Next: Cherry Brandy Sweater Found

≪ Previous: Tell Them Of Us

I have been sorting out magazines this week - I keep thinking that the magazines in the Guild collection are pretty much sorted, and then I find they aren't. On Friday, I discovered that there were two separate boxes of Knitter's magazine, covering the same range of dates. In sorting them out, I spotted a special issue on Aran knits, from 1989 - next month, I am doing another re-run of my talk on Arans, so I brought it home to read.

Aran Vest by Meg Swansen

One of the Arans in particular caught my eye - a vest designed by Meg Swansen, with panels of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Sheepfold pattern and its mirror image either side of the central cables. It's still a very wearable knit, I think. But it was the photo that really grabbed my attention - and that phone!

I suppose that it is intended to give the impression that the woman is in a high-powered job, using cutting-edge technology to keep in touch with her colleagues wherever she is - even in the street! (Wow!) But now, you think: "Why is that woman holding a brick to her ear?"

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Cherry Brandy Sweater Found

February 12, 2014, 4:19 am

≫ Next: Two-Colour Moss Stitch

≪ Previous: Modern Technology

More than a year ago, I found a knitting pattern for a sweater designed to look like a bottle of De Kuyper Cherry Brandy and wrote about it here. I knew that there should be an actual sweater knitted to that pattern in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection, because I had seen a photo of it taken several years ago, but it hadn't been seen recently and we didn't know which box it was in. Then yesterday the cataloguers got to box 39, and found it.

I think it's wonderfully quirky, in a 1980s kind of way, and it's very satisfying to have both the pattern and the sweater (and to know where they both are). The knitter has adapted the neckline from the original - it should have a stand-up collar with "Extra Fine" in red and gold around it, but this one is a more practical crew-neck instead.

The pattern for the Cherry Brandy Sweater

If you go back to my original post, you can see the TV ad which featured the model on the pattern. Be warned - you might find yourself singing the song in your head for the rest of the day. I am, right now - but I've had "My name is Morgan but it ain't J.P." playing for several days, so I don't mind.

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Two-Colour Moss Stitch

February 17, 2014, 10:20 am

≫ Next: Giant Wool

≪ Previous: Cherry Brandy Sweater Found

I was in John Lewis Sheffield a couple of weeks ago, looking for a new pair of jeans, when I noticed a jumper with what looked like an interesting stitch pattern. I examined it closely. It was hard to tell how it was done, because it was a very fine machine knit, but I thought that it was possibly a version of moss stitch (aka seed stitch), knitted in two colours. I've since knitted a swatch to try out a couple of ways of knitting stripes in moss stitch.

I tried stripes of two rows in each of two colours first. It gives a nice tweedy effect.

The other version I tried has one row of each colour (and I think that was the stitch pattern I was trying to match). To alternate the colour after each row, you need to use a circular needle. One colour is always at the wrong end of the row when you want to use it, but with a circular needle, you can just slide the knitting along the needle and knit two consecutive rows in the same direction.

Moss stitch has the advantage of being exactly the same on both sides, and also lies flat, unlike stocking stitch, so it's useful for scarves and the like. Both of these striped moss stitch patterns would be nice in a scarf - the one row stripe has the advantage that both edges are similar, whereas in the two-row stripe, one edge has loops at one edge where the colour not in use is carried over two rows of the other colour.

A stitch I have previously considered for multi-coloured scarves is linen stitch. It lies flat, both sides are attractive (though not identical), and it looks good in narrow stripes. But I have only tried swatches of linen stitch, because it is very slow to knit. Moss stitch grows much faster, though slower than stocking stitch. Worth trying.

And back in John Lewis, I did find a nice pair of jeans - reduced, too.

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Giant Wool

February 22, 2014, 10:32 am

≫ Next: Mary Maxim

≪ Previous: Two-Colour Moss Stitch

We often think that very thick knitting wool did not exist until recently, but I showed 1930s knitting patterns for chunky yarn here, and I've now found much older patterns for very thick wool. They come from Weldon's Practical Needlework no. 338, which was published early in 1914. Practical Needlework was a series of magazines, published monthly but kept in print for a long time. Each one was on a particular needlecraft - number 338 is in the Practical Knitter series.

Weldon's Practical Needlework no. 338, 1914

There are two patterns that use "Peacock" Giant Wool and "bone needles No. 3". If this is the same as a standard British size 3, it would be 6.5mm., but as the standard knitting needle sizes are based on wire thicknesses, I'm not sure whether they would apply to bone needles. The patterns don't give a tension, so that's not helpful, but it is clear from the patterns and the illustrations that Giant Wool was very thick (as you would expect from the name).

Lady's Waistcoat in Giant Wool

The first pattern is for a lady's waistcoat - a very practical garment "to wear under a big coat for motoring, driving, etc." I think that in 1914 driving was intending to mean riding in a carriage, so that motoring and driving were different activities - but both potentially involving exposure to bad weather. The back has only 34 stitches, increasing to 40 at the underarms, so even allowing for women being smaller in 1914, it is clear that it must be knitted in very thick yarn on very big needles.

Lady's Hood in Giant Wool

The waistcoat is not intended to be on view - just as well, because the increases up the front are not very tidy. The other pattern is much more decorative, although also functional. The instructions say that it can be "either an evening hood or a motor hood. For the former it can be left just as it is knitted, fairly loose around the top of the head, and it will not crush the hair." (Women's hair-styles were big in 1914, so hats had to be roomy.) "For a motor hood it will be necessary to line it with leather - just ordinary wash leather - to make it wind-proof."

Motoring evidently required a whole new wardrobe to protect both drivers and passengers from the elements. The illustration shows the hood made to fasten closely round the neck for motoring - the instructions says that for an evening hood, it could be made to fasten differently, so that one end of the neck piece trails like a scarf (which probably makes more sense if you actually knit it).

The company that made Giant Wool, Faudel's, has long since disappeared, and I don't think that other spinners made such thick yarn until the 1930s. Perhaps it did not catch on.

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Mary Maxim

February 26, 2014, 7:53 am

≫ Next: "Tell Them Of Us" Update

≪ Previous: Giant Wool

My sister has given me a cutting from the Daily Telegraph of 12th February about twin brothers Mike and Patrick Davies who are still wearing the cardigans that their mother knitted for them in 1959 when they were 15 - you can see the story here from the Daily Mail's online site.

The cardigans are in thick wool with pictorial designs on them; one has a design of yachts and the other has buffalo. The article says that the wool was Canadian, though bought in Neath in South Wales. I am sure that they are Mary Maxim designs - Mary Maxim was (and is) a Canadian yarn company that started in the 1950s. The company specialised then in hand-knit designs for thick jackets with zip fronts and designs based on Canadian wildlife, sports and similar outdoors-y themes. They exported the wool and patterns to the U.K. in the late 1950s, and we have around 60 Mary Maxim patterns in the Knitting & Crochet Guild collection. We don't have either of the patterns for the Davies's cardigans, but we do have an actual cardigan in the "Yachts" design.

Mary Maxim "Yachts" cardigan

Our example is knitted in black, red and cream rather than cream/fawn mix, dark brown and tan like Patrick Davies'. Another difference is that our cardigan has set-in sleeves and his has raglan sleeves - Mary Maxim patterns came with instructions for both.

Yachts cardigan - back detail

Mary Maxim patterns of that era are very distinctive - they were all printed on matte card, in a tall narrow format and in a uniform colour scheme. Two more are shown below, with designs of reindeer and wild duck. They are quite attractive if you like pictorial knitwear, and they are clearly very hard-wearing, as the Davies brothers' cardigans show. I do have some hand-knits that I am still wearing after 40 years or so - I can't match their (nearly) 55 years yet, though.

Mary Maxim no. 400 Reindeer

Mary Maxim no. 401 Wild Duck

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