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Year: 2014

Lace Knitting. Still…

If you’re a regular visitor you might remember that two weeks ago I said I had almost finished knitting all the usable patterns from “The Ladies’ Guide to Elegant Lace Knitting Etc” from 1884.

Well, I’m still knitting.

My current pile of completed samples looks like this:

A lot of 19th century knitting
A lot of 19th century knitting

No, I wasn’t slacking, I have a very good reason for not being finished yet! I re-read the book. Specifically a section of the book that I thought didn’t have much of use to today’s knitters. It turns out that I had missed some really great stuff so I knit that too. Specifically, all of the blue things. And a beige thing. They’re worth the wait, honest.

I’m currently on the very last 22 repeats of a very skinny edging and then it’s just a matter of a little sewing, a lot of blocking, some photography, a little website coding and then I’m done. I swear! I most definitely will not be knitting samples of the stockings that say cast on 196 stitches with yarn so thin you can’t find it any more on size ridiculous needles. Or the mittens that have you cast on 96 stitches for an infant (OK, I may be making that up but it is a ridiculously large number of stitches for a mitten that’s just going to get chewed and slobbered on).

To be totally truthful, I was tempted to knit the entire beige thing with the original size silk thread on size insanity needles because it’s very pretty but I thought a dk weight sample was more realistic since that (or thicker) will be what most modern knitters will use to make it anyway.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have 22 repeats of a 9 stitch wide edging to go. I’d better get to it before you all start thinking I’ve just been swiping these images off Google Images or something…

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A Matter of Scale

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I’m so close to finishing knitting the samples for the Ladies’ Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns Etc that victory is in sight at last! I just have one tidy (table runner thingy), one afghan (I’ll just be knitting a sample), and the fringe on another tidy to go.

At the moment I’m knitting the very last edging, which is actually the first edging from the book and one of the largest.

Here it is next to one of the smallest for scale.

Lace from "The Ladies' Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns, Etc" 1884
One of the largest edgings from The Ladies’ Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns Etc, next to one of the smallest.

Whilst it has you cast on 50 stitches and work 32 rows per repeat, it’s actually quite easy to knit because it has a lovely rhythm to it. This is a good thing because I still have another two repeats to go 😛

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing with all of my samples after I’ve finished blocking and photographing them for the website. I had planned to frame them but there are just too many. Perhaps some kind of archival book?

Any ideas?

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Still Knitting Lace!

I just realised it’s been ten days since I posted about updating the lace patterns from The Ladies’ Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns Etc. 

I’m still knitting! In fact, I’ve been knitting lace in every spare moment, and sometimes all day (I’m looking at you, pointy forty-plus stitch lace on the top right)!

Lace from "The Ladies' Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns, Etc" 1884
Some unblocked lace edging samples from The Ladies’ Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns Etc, 1884

I have eight and a half samples to go, then I’ll be uploading all the patterns with corrections, updated language and stitch maps, wherever possible. Wish me luck, one of them starts off with fifty stitches!

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A Sneak Peek at Some Upcoming Patterns

I’m making great headway into knitting the patterns from Lace from “The Ladies’ Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns, Etc”, published in 1884. In fact, my sample box is now full so I had better get blocking before I knit any more to make room!

Lace from "The Ladies' Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns, Etc" 1884
Some of the afghan stripes, tidies, insertions and edgings from “The Ladies’ Guide to Elegant Lace Patterns, Etc” 1884

For anyone that doesn’t already know, I decided to knit and modernise all of the lace patterns from the book (which is available in it’s original form for free download), as it didn’t have any pictures and the language used in Victorian patterns can look very confusing if you’re not used to it. Also, the scan of the book is very faded and difficult to read.

I’ve knit 16 of the patterns so far, with 30 more to go so I expect to take a week or two to finish. I started with the largest patterns though, so I’m more than halfway there with the actual knitting!

There are variations on a few old favourites, such as the green leaf tidy you can see a tiny bit of at the bottom, and some patterns that I’ve never seen before (which is saying something since my edgings and insertion patterns collection numbers well over 300)!

Now please excuse me as I have some blocking to do, and a lot more knitting!

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Have You Ever Wondered Why Doilies are Called Doilies?

Bluebell cloth from the Book of Good Needlework Number Four
Bluebell cloth from the Book of Good Needlework Number Four

From Dorcas Magazine, New York, February 1885

The word doily, now a familiar one with fashionable ladies, had, by the way, a curious origin. It is derived from the name of Robert D’Oyley, one of the followers of William the Norman. He received a grant of valuable lands on the condition of the yearly tender of a tablecloth of three shillings’ value at the feast of St. Micheal. Agreeable to the fashion of the time, the ladies of the D’Oyley family were accustomed to embroider and ornament the quit-rent table-cloths; hence these cloths becoming curiosities, and, accumulating in the course of years, were at length brought into use at the royal table and called doilies.
L.B.S.

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