Monday, 1 October 2012

Tassel Vandyked


Another item added to the list of the completed projects – this charming little Tassel Vandyked in Two Colours from Wedon’s Practical Knitter, Number 109, Twenty-Seventh Series, (1895). It is also published in Weldon’s Practical Needlework, Volume 10, Interweave Press, 2004.

The object is two-layered, with the fairly substantial tassel sewn under the outer “cover” knit in “a series of vandykes,” a slanted and openwork stitch. I followed the final instructions of adding a “gold chain of gold thread…at the top to hang it by” (a kntted i-cord) but omitted the addition of “tiny silk pompoms” to the chain since I don’t really like pompoms.
 
The suggested colours are red and white but “any preferred tint” may also be used in an unspecified weight of cotton thread. I choose DMC Mouliné Spécial 25 embroidery floss in 902 (burgundy) and 3820 (gold) on 2.25mm/US 1 double pointed needles.

The needle size is also unspecified beyond “four steel needles” which, in this era, would be fine ones although larger tassels could be knit with coarser (larger), as they used to say, needles for ones for home decoration.  The pattern ends with the comments that this tassel could  “be made up into an excellent penwiper for a bazaar if the cover is made in coloured silks and the strands of coarse black twist.” Since I have made several penwipers in this style, I opted, instead, for a tassel that might be used for a small curtain cord. 

The finished tassel measures 3” long and 2” wide, the cover is 4” long and 1” wide, flat, and the i-cord chain is 3” long around.


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