Seasonal Knitting - Happy Halloween

I like to knit tiny things so this year I made ornaments for a Halloween “tree” which is really a fallen branch from the woods. It stands in my office and the ornaments are made from a variety of published patterns and some of my own invention. All of them are scattered across my Ravelry project page although some of them still need their individual photos. Pumpkin Man has already appeared in this blog, and The Spider is from the classic Charted Knitting Design: A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker. It is knit in the most awful nameless acrylic I have had in my stash forever and that has a nice sheen to it – perfect for the project!

I also put up this little quilt that I made some years ago. It is entirely hand foundation pieced in cotton fabrics and embellished with beads. The quilt measures 9 ¼” wide and 10 ½” tall.

I adore the autumn – all the wonderful greens, reds, burgundies, oranges, golds, yellows, browns, burnt umbers, even pinks, and all here and gone so quickly. I don’t like horror but I do like the history of the celebrations and ceremonies of this time of the year. Of course, witches come to mind, and, although there is no connection with Halloween, I see everything through the eyes of history so the victims of the Salem Witch Trials come to mind. I was fortunate enough to visit the Tercentenary memorial a few years ago in early November.

It was a damp, misty day but some of the gorgeous New England foliage was still on a few trees and the ground, and, movingly, there were single stemmed flowers on a few of the memorial benches.

Growing up in a family that loves history, I have spent my entire life visiting historic sites, houses and memorials. This is one of my favourites. Its simplicity is deceptive, its message supremely powerful.  When I was there it was fairly empty and so quiet in complete contrast to the hysteria and outrage of the subject of commemoration. The heartbreaking collection of carved names, fates and statements were shiny with rain, like tears, and splattered with fallen leaves, as were the rough stone seats – reminders of true horror. Across the edge of the entrance area, carved in rough flagstones, were the defiant pleas of the accused, so the visitor sees them as he or she arrives and, once again, upon leaving.

Knitted Bag from the V&A – Closer to the Original Size

I have reproduced this knitted bag twice. It comes from the Textiles Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Museum Number T.397-1910.) The original bag is knitted in three colours of silk thread, and lined with silk fabric. It measures roughly 5 ¼” wide by x 6” (13.5 cm x 15.5 cm.) It dates from the mid-19^th century and was probably a work bag.

My first bag was the test piece for the pattern (see links below.*) I have never seen the bag in person and only had three photographs for reference. One from the website (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75483/bag-unknown/ ), one from the book Miller’s Collecting Textiles by Patricia Frost, London: Octopus Publishing Group, Ltd., 2000, and the largest image of all from the catalogue of the exhibit of the same name, Knit One, Purl One – Historic and Contemporary Knitting from the V&A’s Collection by Frances Hinchcliffe, Department of Textiles and Dress, London: Precision Press, 1985, which is featured here.

This bag was knit in DMC Perle 12 cotton thread on very, very fine needles which produced much tighter fabric than that of the first bag. I thought of going up a size in needles for the yellow sections to avoid the fabric being pulled inwards and at a slant, as had happened with the larger bag. I did not change the needles, however, and this one was nice and straight until after I finished lining the bag with pale green imitation silk. The slant was back although not as badly as with the larger bag. 

Like the original, the bag is knitted as one flat piece and seamed on one side and across the bottom of the bag. The top is closed with a drawstring. I could not exactly reproduce the fancy beads – mine are simpler with thick tassels, as on the original.

This bag measures roughly 5 ½” (14 cm.) square, slightly off from the original’s measurements. I say “roughly” because I measured it lined and sewn, both of which do not allow the bag to lie completely flat.

*http://historyknits.blogspot.com/2012/02/knitted-bag-from-v.html

**http://historyknits.blogspot.com/2013/08/knitted-striped-bag-from-v-smaller.html

Trafalgar Quilt

 
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Today is the 209th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. The famous signal, sent by Admiral Lord Nelson before the battle, “England expects that every man will do his duty” is portrayed here. The black strips are not flag poles but act to separate the different sections of the codes from one another.

I pieced this quilt in the mid-1990s, and then it was mislaid for almost ten years in my myriad of  knitting, spinning, needlework, and over one hundred other quilts of various sizes and in various stages of production. I found it again, sometime in 2004, and planned to back and quilt it in that year in preparation for the 200^th anniversary party of the Battle of Trafalgar that I was planning for October, 2005. Serious family illness, round the clock nursing, and death intervened, however, in 2005, and the party was cancelled, and the quilt, once again, was consigned to the WIP stack. This year, during a similar family situation, I worked on the quilt but now it is finally finished.

The quilt is made of 100% cotton fabrics, the batting/wadding is Warm & Natural cotton, and it is entirely hand pieced and hand quilted.  Drawing my own patterns, I used the foundation piecing method for some of the trickier signals and double-basted/tacked them to hold them in place.

The pins are part of the basting/tacking stage, to be added, in preparation for the quilting. Needless to say, I had far more thread to rip out at the end than usual.

The signals are not quilted – only the sashing and outer borders. There is no quilting pattern, just a series of lines in an abstract homage to a ship’s rigging.

The quilt measures 62” x 52”, and the signal blocks are 4” x 6”.

*http://www.wikihow.com/Foundation-Piece-a-Quilt-Block

Quilt for September

I have only a few more reproduction quilts to feature on this blog. This one is half reproduction and half not quite a reproduction. The design is intentional. The small squares are reproductions, once again, mostly from tiny samples I collected over time. The borders and backing are wonderful prints that are not reproductions but work well with the various older-style prints and colours. I fell in love with them but had a hard time matching them to modern prints and so decided, instead, to blend multiple eras.

The squares measure 2 ¼” each and the quilt itself is 44” square. It is entirely hand pieced, hand quilted and hand finished. 

The first photograph is a little tilted as I had to take the picture by myself, standing on a bed and wobbling as I did so – not a method I would recommend. 

My historic knitting has been on hold as I spent part of the summer and September making a modern quilt for a young couple as a wedding gift. I hope it will be cherished and, perhaps, handed down and become a piece of the new family’s history.

Very Pretty Turkish Purse

This long purse is now finished. The pattern is from The Lady’s Assistant for Executing Useful and Fancy Designs in Knitting, Netting and Crochet by Mrs. Jane Gaugain, To be had at I.J. Gaugain', Foreign and British Depot of Berlin Patterns and Materials for Ladies' Fancy Works, 1840.

I wrote about this purse a few months ago* but to quote again from the original pattern there should be  “six broad coloured stripes,” in plain knitting and a lace pattern in between each. The pattern suggests crimson as one of “two skeins of coloured silks” and “one of white” of “purse twist, a size finer than common twist.” I did not have silk twist and, since I am trying to use up my stash, I used DMC Coton Perle 8 in my collection’s available colours of bright red, navy and gold .  The needles should be  “two wires of No. 18,” so I used the modern equivalent of 1.25 mm/US 0000.

The purse is knit flat, horizontally, and then sewn close from either end, leaving a gap in the middle for inserting money.

There are no finishing instructions in the original pattern but these purses were often decorated with tasells or beads. They also variously had flat or gathered ends. I did one of each for this purse, adding little tassels. Small rings, which slide up or down, keep the two ends of the purse closed. The rings I have made, covered with more silk/cotton, are too large so I will have to make another pair for this purse.

The purse measures 10 ¼” in length and just over 2” in width.

Quilt for August in September

Life has been taking too many turns in different directions recently so the August quilt post is a tad tardy.  The photos show a toile quilt in progress. The toile print is from one of RJR Fabrics’s early Smithsonian lines - the Rising Sun (1825-1835), I think.

Two panels of about 40” plus wide, respectively, were sewn together. I am not sure just how long the quilt will be but it should be large enough for a double bed. There will be no borders, just the usual knife edges.

The reverse is plain muslin with a double-cross hatching pattern (difficult to photograph.) I penciled the pattern on the muslin, using a stencil, before I tacked/basted the three layers together. The middle layer is a cotton batting/wadding. The panels were sewn by hand and is being hand-quilted and will be hand-finished.

I am ashamed to say that I started this quilt quite a few years ago. I was madly trying out all sorts of patterns, materials, techniques, tools, etc., and many, many quilts were started but not all were finished. This one is extremely heavy so I have put off the quilting until every winter, thinking I could snuggle under it as I worked on it. The double-hatching is also a very time-consuming quilting pattern. Those are all of the excuses. If the coming winter is very cold, I may just get this quilt finished in 2015, along with a few other stragglers.

Very Pretty Pattern for a Fish Serviette

This pattern comes from Exercises in Knitting by Mrs. Cornelia Mee, London: David Bogue, Fleet Street, 1846.

I have not been able to find absolute documentation for a fish serviette but my guess is thatthis may have been placed on the table or a sideboard for serving, over the tablecloth to protect it, and under or next to the serving dish so as to catch any dripping, sauce or fragments of food as it was served or transferred onto the plate for eating.  Might it also have been an elegant cloth, held under the platter by a servant to catch any dripping, as he or she offered it to those sitting at the table – a scene constantly portrayed on Downton Abbey. I must look closer at the serving dishes next time I watch it. Did the stately homes, or even modest ones belonging to the 19^th century rising middle class with their fish forks and knives, have many of these serviettes? They may seem like yet more pieces of excessive and pretentious 19^th century household paraphernalia or just another pattern in a publication but, on the other hand, they would help keep the tablecloth clean throughout the meal and a piece of cooked fish does have a tendency to fall apart. The serviette itself, for all of its delicate stitches is actually rather dense and would be absorbent for those bits or sauce that might fall or to wipe the edges of the serving dish, and then disappear after the fish course of the meal.

The fish serviette was knit on 2.25mm/US 1 with DMC Baroque Crochet Cotton, Size 10

The twelve row pattern should be repeated for a length of  of about “9 or 10 nails” (roughly 22 ½”) but mine is only 13 ¼” long by 10 ¼” wide.

The serviette should be laid lengthways in front of the serving dish or platter.