Looped Knitting

Looped Knit Stitch


knitted spa cloth

I have seen this stitch used as an accent of a hood.  It looks very furry and cozy next to the face for a cape.  It has also been used inside mittens or slippers for extra warmth.  I used it with cotton to make face clothes. 

As you can see there are no specifics, but then this is the pattern for the stitch only. 

The picture to the right is an exhibit that my friend (http://knitnmore.blogspot.com/) prepared for an exhibit at the Abraham Lincoln Libraty State Historical Library a couple of years ago.  The hood was made using the directions in a Peterson's magazine and uses the looped stsitch to embelish the hood.  The picture also shows a misers purse in the lower left hand corner.

335.--Looped Knitting.

Materials: 4-thread fleecy wool; 2 wooden knitting-needles;

Cast on a sufficient number of stitches, and knit the 1st row plain.

2nd Row--Slip the 1st stitch; insert the needle into the next stitch, and throw the cotton forward as if you were going to knit the stitch; place the mesh behind the needle in the right hand, and turn the wool which is on this needle upwards, bring it back again on the needle so that it is wound once round the mesh, and twice round the needle. Then only the double stitch through the second stitch, knit it, and insert the needle into the next stitch, and repeat what has been explained. Knit the last stitch without a loop.

3rd Row--Before drawing out the mesh, turn the work and knit one [351] plain row. Every double stitch is knitted as one stitch, so as to attain the same number of stitches as in the 1st row.

4th Row--Like the 2nd row. Repeat these rows as often as required.

 

This knitting is chiefly used for borders of mats.

 

Review

Besides reading the antique patterns on line (http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org look under catalogue) and in our Illinois State Historical library I enjoy reading knitting magazines that focus on Heritage or Antique patterns like Piecework and Knitting Traditions.  I have found older magazines that are now archived on the internet; such as Successful Farming that have sections for women's interests like cooking, knitting, crocheting, tatting, sewing, gardening and housework (yuck).

I have a library of books about other Ethnic knitting and have tried to learn when it first was developed.  That is a tall order since most knitting was never saved and patterns not written as they are today.

This summer I was able to travel to the Shetland Islands.  I especially wanted to spent time at the Shetland Museum because I had seen that they had many examples of Shetland 'Fair Isle' sweaters and also Shetland Lace.  I was surprised to see that none of the examples of color stranded knitting were older than the mid 1900's.  There was older knitting on display it was not what we would consider color stranding. 

I have learned the Norwegian style of color stranding and love the designs.  I think that for the period and the area of the midwest that I have more access to appears to be more utilitarian. 

I continue to be fascinated by all types of knitting techniques but will probably keep my blog to the knitting that would have been done in the US prior to 1920, or the date that is generally considered antique as opposed to vintage.

hello again.

 I am getting the hang of the software so please be patient.  I had intended to add the pattern to the half square shawl last week but posted before I was ready.  Here if the pattern from one of the sources.  It is in the Young Ladies Journal, London, 1885, also Jenny June Manual for Young Ladies 1886 and Brown and Durrel and Company Boston, Mass.  It must have been a popular design of the time.  Each publication changed something but was basically the same.  Mostly it was a type of yarn though all are similar.

Berlin wool is a type of embroidery or tapestry wool.  Similar yarns can be found today. i have heard that Appleton's crewel yarn is a good substitute for the older Berlin Wool.   I have seen it on several websites and it can be purchased in large skeins. They would have some loft where the sock yarn I used in my shawl does not. 

Another yarn which has been used as an approximation of the antique or hand spun yarn is made by Brown Sheep.  The pompadour wool is a lace weight yarn.  Even though there is no guage given (not at all uncommon) it did give a finished measurement across the top.  My shawl with Fingering and lace yarns measured 1 3/4 yards using size 5 US needles.  Most of the needle sizes quoted in the antique patterns correspond to English sizes rather than US.

What is also surprising with this pattern is that there is an illustration in all the publications showing how bo drop down on the 9th row and pick up the stitch from the previous row of the larger yarn.  I did not finish my shawl with fringe.  If it were more authentic it would need to have fringe.  My colors are not the bright colors that the ladies of the era would have used.

 

Nos. 39 and 40. Half-Square Shawl

 

Materials Required: 3 oz blue Berlin wool, eight balls Messrs. Faudel, Phillips, & Son’s white pompadour wool, two bone pins No. 9 (Walker’s gauge).

This pretty and effective shawl is easily worked and will be found a most comfortable opera-wrap; it measures 1 ¾ yard across the top from point to point.

Cast on with Berlin wool 300 stitches.  Decrease to shape the shawl by knitting two together at the end of each row; work in plain knitting throughout.

1^st Row: With Berlin wool.

2^nd to 9^th Row: With pompadour wool.

10^th Row: With Berlin wool to form the lozenge-shaped pattern.  When working the first and second stitch pick up and knit the corresponding stitches of the last Berlin row with them, knit eight stitches, then pick up the two next stitches and so on (see design No. 40).

11^th Row: With Berlin wool, knit plain. Repeat from the second row, reversing the pattern formed in the tenth row by picking up the stitches between those picked up in the tenth row.  The two sides are finished by tying in lengths of wool to form tassels.

The straight edge is finished by crochet scallops of pompadour wool.

1^st Row: One double into each of the cast-on stitches.

2^nd Row: One double into a stitch, pass over two doubles, five trebles into the next.  Repeat.

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Connecting our Stitches to the Past

 Many of you learned to knit from your mother or grandmother.  I learned to knit from a neighbor who had only boys and was a fantastic knitter, sewer, baker and my 4-H leader; Doris Carlson.  There is a connection to the past with every knitted stitch. 

Knitting was passed on from generation to generation by knitters.  Knitting guilds trained new members, cap knitting guilds known in England in 1324.  The earliest written pattern was an order in a medical reference book around the 1655 for socks that was one sentence and three pages long.  I am still looking for any early documentation.

However what I have been able to find have been written starting in the 1800s. There were no copyright laws nor did most of the women feel they were doing anything special.  In my research I found the same pattern and illustration in several different publications, Brown Durell and Co. around 1884 and the Young Ladies Journal-London, 1853.  I wouldn't be surprised to find it in others.

 

The pattern is for a Half Square Shawl made with two different yarns and colors.  The pattern was a lozenge stitch.  I made a shawl from these instructions using a sock (fingering) yarn and a lace weight yarn.

 

 

Illustration of the Lozenge Stitch for the Half Square Shawl
Published in Modern Fancy Work by The Housekeeper
Corporation, Minneapolis, Minn in 1900

My Half Square Shawl minus the fringe

Abraham Lincoln's Town

Living in Springfield Illinois has advantages for history buffs. I was never much for history but I have always liked to know the origin of things; words, sayings, and knitting.

Since the Abraham Lincoln Museum and the new illinois State Historical Library opened the opportunities for research into historical patterns became a lot easier. There are numerous Lincoln scholars coming to town to talk about their research and books. I have been able to take advantage and have really become interested in the lives of 19th century women. So researching antique knitting patterns, techniques, and supplies seems a natural extension. Not so much to reproduce exactly as a re-enactors would but to use in a modern adaptation

I have been reading and deciphering antique patterns for several years now. Last year I gave an illustrated talk on Heritage Knitting at our local junior college that was well received. I have a friend with similar interests and together we have talked to several knitting groups and held a retreat .knitnmore.blogspot.com

I will highlight some of our research and knitted items here.

So come back again to see what is happening.