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