Drop by and see what I'm working on at the moment!
Fair Isles - they’re all the rage! Following my last post, I’m harbouring fair isle desires … seems that if you’re sporting a natty little fair isle tank top around town you can put a big tick in the vintage fashion box. Okay, time to confess, my fair isle technique is not the best in the world (resembles a plate of spaghetti on the reverse side and the pattern starts to look more Picasso cubist than Renoir, sigh) so I do have to work on it, but I’ve got the incentive now, I’m hooked. With that in mind I’ve gathered my favourite fair isle patterns into their own collection. Go on, have a peek for some inspiration, you know you want to. Meanwhile, here’s a short history lesson kids …
Duke of Windsor (and friend)
Fair Isle is the most remote inhabited island in the UK, lying halfway between Shetland and the Orkney Islands. The knitting style gained a considerable popularity when the impeccably-dressed Duke of Windsor (later to become Edward VIII) wore Fair Isle tank tops in public in 1921.
Strictly speaking, traditional Fair Isle patterns have a limited palette of five or so colours, use only two colours per row, are worked in the round, and limit the length of a run of any particular colour (you can find more about the Fair Isle history on the Scottish Textiles Heritage site). Nowadays we tend to refer to “Fair Isle” as any colourwork knitting where stitches are knit alternately in various colors, with the unused colours stranded across the back of the work. So I’m using a bit of free licence and applying the more liberal sense of the term (although there are some traditional patterns in my collection too).
Elsa Schiaparelli's Bowknot Sweater
Ever since I saw a sketch of Elsa Schiaparelli’s beautiful trompe l’oeil bowknot sweater in a 1930s Stitchcraft, I’ve been trying to work out how to recreate it for myself but couldn’t get my head around the unusual looking texture … should’ve known the pattern was already out there. Not only that, you can download it for free from Schoolhouse Press. It was adapted by Lisa Stockebrand from the Philadelphia Museum of Art (prior to an exhibition in 2003) to accommodate a more modern fit, and suggests you use Jamieson & Smith 2-ply.
I like a challenge which is lucky as it doesn’t look easy - La Schiap used a special double layered stitch created by Armenian refugees whereby you hold the main color in your right hand and knit with it as in “American” style knitting, then carry the contrasting color in left hand as in “Continental” style knitting (and that’s only part of it). Inevitably and thankfully there’s a specific Ravelry ‘Schiaparelli Bowknot Group’ to help you through the tough spots.
Italian Schiaparelli was heavily influenced by the surrealist and Dadaist art, counting Cocteau, Dali and Giacometti amongst her collaborators. This sweater, along with her shoe hat, is one of her most influential pieces.
As ever, I want to get started on it immediately. There’s just the small matter of two other jumpers I’ve been extremely close to finishing for a while now, another one I’ve just started and a nasty case of knitter’s elbow to overcome dammit. Still, I’ve waited this long, what’s another couple of weeks/months/years?
Yarn Forward Vintage Knitting article
There’s a nice short article in this month’s Yarn Forward magazine about Vintage Knitting by Susan Crawford (popular this month). She highlights the joy and pain of knitting from vintage patterns, but makes a great point which isn’t always obvious … not only are we drawn to the fantastic, flattering designs and images, but also to “the women who knitted from them, who despite everything created beautiful clothes for themselves and their families using very limited resources and even less cash.” Well said.
I think some of us tend to have a secret heroine (or two) in our heads against whom we constantly compare ourselves - sometimes we live up to the fantasy, sometimes we fall short. Despite our best attempts we’re human and just can’t emulate them in every single way … but if you’ve got a plucky, elegant 1940s heroine perched on a pedestal in your psyche, knitting brings you that bit closer to her. She embodies the ’stiff upper lip’ bravery which we associate with that era and yet still manages to look great during the most difficult of times. Knitters of the 1940s, we salute you!
it holds wool too!
A frantic late-night, last-minute bidding frenzy saw the the latest addition to my ‘wish-it-was-the-40s’ vintage knitting fest arriving on my doormat yesterday. It’s pink, it’s bakelite, it goes rather nicely with my vintage Lee Target Campanula wool.
I love it in a way that’s bordering on pointlessness (apart from the fact that it has a purpose and is actually extremely practical). The bottom screws off to put the wool in, and there’s a handy needle gauge incorporated. I’m thinking of petitioning Patons to re-make them in a range of colours, but then plastic just wouldn’t cut it in the way that bakelite does. Feels so solid and smooth and satisfying.
They were manufactured between 1930-1960, although I’m not geek enough to know if there are any ways of checking the dates through any design quirks (anyone out there got any more details?). They come in green, red, orange, cream and blue too … I feel a senseless collection coming on.
Watch out for that right hook
I know it’s a bit old hat to laugh patronisingly at kitsch and quirky images from yesteryear … but check out this kitsch and quirky vintage knitting pattern I just came across (laughs patronisingly).
Looks like a lot of thought went into setting up this mis en scene, so I’m trying to get imagine the storyboard meeting: man comes home from work, he’s been slogging at a dull 9-5 he hates. The boss hates him, the feeling’s mutual, he feels impotent and frustrated … but he’s got dreams, he’ll fight his way out of this somehow. He opens the door and finds a bunch of women in his living room - they are (from l to r) his sister-in-law, his sister and his wife. This irritates him even more - he’s out earning a dollar while they sit at home chatting and knitting. But wait, what’s this? Darn them all, they’re wearing HIS SWEATERS!
He threatens them with a right hook - they laugh coquettishly, they’ve seen it all before, he’ll never carry out his threat. But maybe he will this time, maybe this is just enough to push him over the edge …
Well, whatever the outcome, I figure the formidable lady on the far left would give as good as she gets so he’d better watch out.
How to Make Common Things
Loving the latest addition to my vintage craft library … How To Make Common Things (for Boys). Written by J.A.Bower and published in 1902 by the Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge, this was obviously an attempt to keep the male youth of the day on the straight and narrow (idle hands and all that). There’s also a note that it was ‘Published under the direction of the General Literature Committee’ - how very Orwellian. I’d love to know what kind of age-group it was aimed at - I imagine early teens, as some of the projects are quite involved: ‘How to Make Simple Apparatus for Chemical Experiments’, ‘To Make a Galvonometer’ and, fascinatingly, ‘How to Make A Telephone’. Mind you they weren’t so hot on health and safety then, so maybe there were some scarred-for-life 7 year olds out there (all in the name of religion of course).
The inscription at the front of the book reads that it was presented to (appropriately) Fred Lord ‘for learning and repeating psalms’, although the odds were stacked in his favour with a name like that. The pencilled name on the opposite page is ‘Alan Lord’ so maybe he passed it onto his son. I’d like to try out some of the experiments in the book with my own son, and just hope I haven’t lost him to computer gamedom and cynicism by the time he’s old enough to ‘Make a Needle Telegraph’
Vintage craft books
I’m adding to my vintage craft book collection and it’s such a joy to go through the pages I thought I’d share some of them here.
I feel such a geek listing them … erm, some justification was meant to finish this sentence but I can’t find one, I am a geek.
They exude an enthusiasm which I feel around again at the moment in the craft revival and I think they’re apt for right now. Many of them are from the war or just post-war period so they were a necessity - how to use your scraps, how to make do and mend, and the Government issued leaflets along similar lines. Just think, not only was craft seen as a great and useful hobby, it was of national importance!
They include:
- ‘Pins & Needles: Treasure of Family Needlework’ (2nd ed 1953)
- ‘Modern Knitting Illustrated’ (1st ed, approx 1945)
- ‘Wooden Toymaking Step by Step’ (2nd ed, 1963)
- ‘Practical Knitting Illustrated’ (1st ed, approx 1940)
- ‘Encyclopedia of Needlework’ by Therese de Dillmont (1st ed, 1897)
- ‘Gifts You Can Make Yourself’ (1st ed, c.1940s)
I think we’re at a time when recycling and cutting back are high on our agenda at the moment so I can only think the craft renaissance will continue. Materials can be so expensive now - if you look at the knitting books on the shop shelves you’d be forgiven for thinking that there are only about 3 wool manufacturers worth buying wool from, and that a size 12 jumper will cost a minimum of £45 to knit up. It’s about time we saw some cheaper alternatives coming to the fore, but I think that will only happen when knitters develop the confidence to experiment a bit more, to read their wool bands, do their tension squares and think ‘hmm, this will knit up the same as that Rowan wool for half the price’. I’ve been a sucker for that myself in the past but no more, I’m going to do some more research and find out some good quality alternatives.
It’s time there was a bit of a backlash against the expensive brands - in these times of fiscal need, craft should be a more satisfying and fulfilling way of saving a bit of wedge here and there.
