Spring Stitchery?

I made this piece many years ago, as a teenager. It was, unfortunately, damaged in a move - the brown water marks are still visible.

This was a kit, purchased at The Needlewoman in Regent Street, London, one of the most fabulous shops ever and now, sadly, gone. Every trip there always resulted in wool for knitting or stitching kits or supplies for some sort of hand work - there was so much to choose from and plan to buy the next time! Alas, I no longer have the packaging or directions for this kit nor can I remember the name of the piece of art it was based on although there is a nagging sliver of a memory whispering, "Spring" and, though it seems unlikely, Salvador Dali. If anyone can identify the original sketch, please let me know.

This piece was difficult to photograph as it is framed under glass, hence the sideways angle of the photograph.* The design was stamped on linen and stitched in wool. The finished area measures 15 ½” x 19 ½”.

P.S. April 5, 2011: The image is Autumn (1970) by Salvador Dali - at least I had part of it right! His signature appears, in reverse, near the pointed foot of the woman. Many thanks to members of The Gunroom of HMS Surprise for their assistance in identifying the original drawing.

*Click on the image to enlarge

More Muffatees

This is a steampunk version of the 1840’s muffatees or wristlets in a swirling pattern knit in the round on 3.5mm/US 4 size needles in the round on Lang Yarns Lanalux, a metallic brown/rust coloured yarn.

One skein makes the two muffatees with a little bit left over. This pair was not made for me so they are a little big.



The wool pair was knit in Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted in Pomegranate on 3.5mm/4 US needles in the round. They were featured in an earlier post on this blog. The corkscrew pattern is very easy to memorise and can be knit flat, too, with a little bit of working out and care taken with the direction of the spirals. Working out a tension/gauge (none is given, of course, in the original pattern) is essential for a snug fit for different sizes of wrists, and it is not difficult to adjust the stitch count.



In both pairs, I added two rows of garter stitch at the top and bottom to create more elegant and tidy edges.

The pattern is Corkscrew Muffatees from Exercises in Knitting by Mrs. Cornelia Mee (1846.)

Still in a 17th Century Frame of Mind

A Woman Knitting with a Basket of Fruit on a Carpet-Covered Table Beside Her

Caspar Netscher
(Dutch, 1639-1684)
Location/ownership unknown


A stocking in her lap and a gentle warning look on her face. Perhaps she was counting and did not want to be disturbed. One of these days, I will do tallies of knitters in art who look annoyed, slightly put out or are fully concentrating (or appear to be) on their knitting.

If anyone knows of the ownership or location of this painting, please let me know. I like to give full credit and details of any piece of art I post on this blog.

Gunnister Knitting

The Gunnister Man find is a fascinating archaelogical story and a precious gift to knitters. If anyone reading this is not familiar with it, there are numerous links on the internet. Piecework magazine also had an article by Deborah Pulliam, Gunnister Man’s Knitted Possessions in the September/October, 2002 issue.

This Gunnister Purse is knit according to the pattern* by Alison Milton from Midland Spinner’s Ravelry Downloads. The gauge is 10 stiches to the inch on 2.25mm/1US needles, in Morehouse Farm Merino Merino Lace, a single ply which resembles handspun. The tension/gauge of the original purse was 11 ½” stitches and 16 rows to the inch and my purse is 10 ½” stitches and 15 rows to the inch . The colours are Natural White, Natural Brown Heather and Henna, as close as I could find to the original purse’s ones. Knit in the round, I marked off the sections for the “intentional” errors in the ribbed top section, as stated in the pattern.

This finished purse measures 3 ¾” across and 5 ½” tall, just a tad off the measurements of the original purse which is 3 ¼” by 5 ¼”. The bottom edge was knit in a three needle cast/bind off. The cords are not of the same length, are braided/plaited with short tassels and are on a knitted chain of loops which are knitted from the top edge.



The Gunnister stocking is knit from Jacqueline Fee’s pattern, (Piecework, Volume XIX, Number 1, January/February, 2011), accompanying her article on reproducing the stockings in that issue, Re-Creating the Seventeenth Century Gunnister Stockings. I knit this one on 2.75mm needles for a gauge/tension of 7 ½ stitches and 10 rows to the inch, with almost three skeins of Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport in Wood Moss. I love this colour; it is a dusky greenish brown. I followed Ms. Fee’s advice and added four more rows to the leg after completing the clock design but departed from her pattern by knitting an historical square heel and finishing with a drawstring toe instead of a grafted one. I also did all of the decreases in a right slant as I have seen on surviving period stockings. The stocking measures 26” long from the garter stitch welting to the bottom of the heel, 16” wide around at the top and at the calf and about 9 ½” around the ankle. The foot size is a Men’s 10/10 ½ /44.5.



The second stocking is well under way.

*This pattern for the purse also includes a detailed analysis of the purse and helpful comments about its construction updating the official report on the Gunnister find in The Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland of the National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, Scotland, Volume 86 (1951-52)

Spinning Romance?

Man and Woman at a Spinning Wheel
(c.1570)
Pieter Pietersz (Dutch, 1540/41-1603)
Oil on panel, 76 x 53 cm
Object number:SK-A-3962
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Purchased with support from the Stichting Jubileumfonds Rijksmuseum 1958

The air of romance in this painting does not bode well. The young lady does not seem to welcome the advances of the man seated beside her. Does she doubt his sincerity or should she or would she rather be working on her spinning and all that that entails? She looks a tad fed up - does he, in fact, frequently interrupt her work? Whatever the case, I like this painting for the detail of the tools even though we cannot see very much of the wheel.

When I am not knitting....

I am stitching.

Different things, often a reproduction. I am particularly fond of doing Irish/flame stitch items in the 18th century manner. All of the wool yarns used are naturally dyed ones from Kathleen B. Smith/Textile Reproductions (Massachusetts.) Some of the wool is about twenty years old, some was purchased in 2011.

Featured here is a needle book on 25 count linen, measuring 4 1/2" x 2 1/2" (flat.) This was a kit from Textile Reproductions, based on a piece in the collection of Historic Deerfield, Massachusetts, purchased and made many years ago. The interior is lined with a layer of fleece, covered by handwoven felted wool fabric which holds the needles.

The pincushion, also a kit from Textile Reproductions, from a past time, is worked in the elongated diamond or lozenge pattern on 25 count linen, measuring 4" x 4 1/2" , stuffed with fleece, and backed with handwoven silk fabric.



The hoop contains the body of a pinball of my own design on 28 count linen . The stitching is finished and currently measures 3" x 3"; the pinball will be smaller and will be backed with the same green silk used for the pincushion.

The frame holds two projects on 30 count linen. A needle roll of my own design worked in different version of a diamond pattern, measures 3" wide with a projected length of 12". The man's pocketbook on the left is another vintage kit from Textile Reproductions but I am not following the colour guide that came with it. There are evident errors in my stitching. I am also not happy with the background stitching around the initials. I will probably change the placement of the initials and add a date on the next pocketbook I make which will most likely be a smaller woman's one based on several in the collection of Winterthur Museum, Delaware, possibly in the carnation pattern. I am also have a double sectioned man's pocketbook, a woman's pocket, a Bible cover and a handheld firescreen on my to-do list.

I love working on this kind of project. The vivid dyes and their arrangement are such fun to reproduce or design. The research on and documentation of specific objects is is some of the easiest to do as there are so many surviving pieces in this kind of stitchwork from furniture to very small personal items. Best of all, it is another way to work with wool!

A Bag to Hold Wools

This pattern is for a bag to hold wools, most likely for needlework. It is from The New Guide to Knitting and Crochet by Marie Jane Cooper, published by J.S. Cooper, Royal Marine Library, and Parry, Blenkarn & Co., London, 1847.

In keeping with patterns from this era, there is no needle size or gauge/tension. The wool suggested is six skeins of “cruels” (sic.) I chose a fingering weight (KnitPicks’s Palette) which is a tad heavier and 3.25mm/3US needles. Six panels of different colours are need with the “centre double the number of rows” all in “the plain stitch of knitting” (knit every row.) The bag is knitted as a wide piece and then folded over and sewn at one side, with a finished measurement of 8” long and 10 1/2” wide. Two different types of ribbon are needed for the drawstring sleeves and the drawstrings but no lining is recommended.