The BlythHistory Stitcher is at it again… naturally dyed palette created by FACTS and beautiful wool from Steele Wool Farm, this is definitely a creative fibre collaboration; it’s time for an update on the Huron Wristers.
The Huron Wristers Kits are now in production, with the coloured yarn being weighed and divided.
The worsted weight wool is from Steele Wool Farm, a Blyth-area fibre producer owned by Margaret Steele. Naturally sourced local dyes, provided by FACTS Blyth, were used to create the palette of the ‘Colours of Huron’.
Each kit will have enough wool to knit a pair of medium/large fingerless mitts and will consist of one ball of natural wool (220 yards) and two smaller balls (35 yards each) of naturally dyed wool. The colours will vary per kit as to showcase the wonderful palette that is Huron County.
Featuring a simple cast-off thumb open and 2x ribbed cuffs, these wristers are perfect for keeping your hands warm and your fingers free. Suitable for experienced knitters.
Inspired by a pair vintage knitted gloves in the collection of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol, the mitts feature a recreation of the gloves’ colourwork design. The colourwork motifs are similar to both the Shetland Fair Isle pattern, ‘Little Flowers’ as well as the Estonian pattern, ‘Cat’s Paw’. The original gloves feature a fringed cuff, also hinting at an Estonian inspiration.
These fingerless wool mittens are great for someone needing a bit of warmth and to keep their fingers free for various tasks around the farm, office or studio.
Knitted lace sample swatch, Dress Lace Pattern #1, using Cascade Yarns, Heritage wool and silk blend on size 3mm needles.
I thought it was time to write an update on the Dress of Many Patterns and share my own lace sampler swatch in progress.
The first row of the eight-row repeat staggers the diagonal of eyelets formed; the pattern is worked in multiples of five stitches and an eight-row repeat. The stitch count remains the same – five stitches per repeat – for each repeat of the pattern throughout.
If you’re interesting in trying it yourself, the pattern is below.
Gauge: one 5-st repeat and 8 rows = 3/4 inch wide and 1/2 inch tall.
Dress of Many Patterns – Lace Pattern #1
Using Heritage Silk from Cascade Yarns, CO a multiple of 5 stitches. The swatch in the photograph uses 50 stitches.
Draft pattern for a pattern in development, the Huron Wristers. Images of the original knitted glove in the collection of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol are on the left and right of the wrister image.
I’ve been doing some research on colourwork patterns and knitting histories and traditions as part of the development of a new pattern, the Huron Wristers.
The museum’s gloves are approximately 100 years old, are knit with wool and are large enough to fit a man’s hands.
Close-up of knitted glove from the collection of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol. Photo used here courtesy of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol.
The pattern is somewhat similar to Sanquhar and Fair Isle colourwork traditions.
I went through many a pattern book and magazine, looking for where the pattern may have originated.
I’ve come to think that the knitter (said to have been a man in the museum’s notes), may have incorporated features that he liked into these gloves, perhaps not following one certain pattern but rather combining different elements into one.
I took my questions to the Knitting History Forum group and I got some interesting leads. If you are researching old patterns, I suggest you become a member… it’s free to join and it’s a great way to connect with others interesting in discussing knitting history.
Here’s what I learned:
The gloves feature a knitted fringe on a short ribbed cuff. I asked about this tradition and where it comes from. One of the members informed me that fringing has been used on both Latvian mittens and Estonian gloves, historical and modern versions.
The colourwork is close to Fair Isle, with only two colours being used in each row.
One member, named Sue, I’ll quote in full because she provided such a wealth of information:
“I have knitted a few Sanquhar patterns based on patterns produced by the Scottish Women’s Rural Institute which are assumed to be reasonably faithful to the tradition. These patterns were written in the mid 20th century, although the tradition is older.
My thoughts are that the design here is nearer Shetland ‘little flowers’ (peerie flooers) and not really in the Sanquhar tradition for the following reasons.
There are quite a few designs associated with Sanquhar. Possibly the most well known ones are based on 11 by 11 stitch squares. The squares have strong outlines with alternating patterns within the squares. Your example therefore does not fulfill these criteria in my opinion.
Some Sanquhar gloves also have an interesting finger construction with little triangular gussets in the finger spaces and triangular finger tips. Also, all the Sanquhar I have made have a shaped thumb placed on the palm side rather than on the side of the hand as here.
Finally, the stitch count, wool and colour are not really in the Sanquhar tradition. Gloves tend to be monochromatic. Wool used is finer, stitch count for the cuff around 80 stitches and modern needle size of around 2mm used.
Another group member, Angharad, replied to my question. Her response is below:
“The only pattern I could find similar to that used in these gloves was a 4 stitch x 4 row triangle in a Shetland pattern book … but there’s a limit to what can be knitted on a given number of sts in whatever colours are to hand. That’s how I think these patterns came about rather than from one tradition or another. Fringes are now associated with Latvia but there are 1846 (?) gloves from the north of England with a fringe and also at least two known pairs of liturgical gloves with a fringe.”
Hazel Tindall; ‘Colourful Fair Isle’ image similar to the glove pattern… click here!
Dr. Angharad Thomas, knitting researcher & designer… click here
The Huron Wristers draft pattern
The Huron Wristers draft pattern is now at the test stitching phase. If you’d like to give it a go, I’d welcome the input. Just send me an email to sbolen@stitchrevivalstudio.ca and I’ll send the pattern your way.
I do have plans to do a full reproduction of the knitted gloves for the near future. Please stay tuned for updates on that venture.
Vintage knitted glove from the collection of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol. Photo used with permission of the museum.
I was working at finalizing & editing my pattern for the Huron Wristers, a pair of fingerless gloves. Gotta get it ready for a test stitcher or two. Wool is from Steele Wool Farm . Colourwork is based on a pair of knitted gloves in the collection of Huron County Museum.
Here’s a sneak peek at the new wrister pattern in test stitching stage; the wool is from Steele Wool Farm. The colour-work portion is inspired by the fair isle pattern of vintage knit gloves in the collection of the Huron County Museum.
Once the pattern is finalized, a kit will be available for purchase. Stay tuned as this idea is under development!
So November is here and there’s snow arriving in Huron County. It’s time to return to mitten knitting.
It’s been years since I’ve made mittens; about 20 in fact. But, I’ve been thinking about a history-inspired stranded mitten pattern and I can’t get the colour-work idea out of my mind.
The fair isle portion (see next post) that I plan on doing is a reproduction of the colourwork pattern of a pair of heirloom knitted gloves in the collection of the Huron County Museum and Historic Gaol located in Goderich, Ontario.
Today on the blog it’s all about a dress recreation project: a dress of many patterns.
I’ve spoken about the idea of recreating a vintage, Edwardian-styled dress from the collection of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol. The plan is to recreate the basic pattern of a tea dress using swatches of recreated needlework items. So, it’s a reproduction on two levels: design & construction.
Heirloom 1912 wedding dress and shawl worn by Francis Mason Watson of Blyth in 1912. (Photo used courtesy of the Huron County Museum.)
The dress design will be based on an Edwardian Tea Dress-style wedding dress originally worn by Francis Mason Watson (1890 – 1918) a former resident of Blyth, Ontario. The shawl and dress will be made up of vintage pattern samplers (swatches) based on textile items in the Huron County Museum. Stitchers of all levels and techniques are welcome, beginner to advanced.
The needlework techniques used in the swatches will depend on the skills of the volunteers that take part. If there are tatting experts, for example, tatting reproduction swatches could be worked up and incorporated into the dress.
A visit with 1911 vintage
IA while ago, I enjoyed a visit to the museum and getting a look at the 1911 wedding dress in person. The simply lovely cream-coloured wedding dress dates from 1911. It’s even more beautiful in person – the images give just a hint of its charm. And so you can get a look too, here’s a collection of images of the dress…
The dress’s construction is simple, consisting of basic shapes (rectangles, triangles, and squares) and so would lend itself to a swatch contruction. Portions of the dress have a lovely silky sheen; I can imagine those portions would be lovely knitted or crocheted using a fibre with a sheen to it. Other portions of the dress are matte and would lend themselves to recreation using another fibre, perhaps a fine wool blend.
Let’s stitch some history
Would you be interested in joining in this creative reconstruction project? Needle workers & stitchers of all technique and skill level are welcome to join. The museum has a wealth of vintage textile items (such as knitting, quilting, crochet, embroidery) and you are sure to see a stitched item that would inspire you.
I’ve put together a number of the images of needlework textiles items from their collection. I’ve tried to include examples of crochet, knit, tatting, lace, and embroidery. There are many more textiles in the museum. Have a look at these examples…
Next steps
What do you think? Want to join us and stitch a sampler? The pattern you recreate or create (if you are inspired to make your own version) would then be published as part of a collection, Stitching Our History – a Collection of Needlework Patterns from the Huron County Museum.
Please note all photos are courtesy of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol and are used with permission. Thank you to Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol for their support.
A counterpane pincushion, inspired by an heirloom counterpane baby blanket in the collection of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol located in Goderich, Ontario.
Do you love stitching from old patterns?
I certainly do. I also enjoy trying to recreate a pattern based upon a stitched item.
This pincushion is inspired by a white cotton counterpane baby blanket in the collection of the Huron County Museum and Historic Gaol in Goderich, Ontario.
White cotton counterpanes (or coverlets) were common in the nineteenth century, as was “white knitting,” due to the preference at the time for white bed coverings and because of the ready availability of cotton yarn.
Counterpanes are made up of smaller units (squares or octagons, for example) that are worked separately and then joined together to create an overall design or effect. They were traditionally knitted or crocheted in white or cream-colored cotton yarn. Patterns were numerous and could be quite intricate.
The heirloom original, the inspiration for the pincushion. A portion of the folded counterpane baby blanket can been seen in the photo. (Photo courtesy of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol)
Knitted about 1812, the white cotton counterpane in the museum’s collection is of a simple and lovely design. The blanket was constructed of 3-inch (7.6-cm) square units joined together, forming an overall On Point pattern: the eyelet spaces create the optical illusion of nested diamonds. Each unit is worked from one corner to the opposite corner, with garter stitch in the lower half of the unit, a row of eyelets through the middle, and alternating stockinette-stitch and reverse-stockinette-stitch ribbing above. The garter-stitch rows feature a yarn-over increase at the beginning of each row.
The front of the pincushion features the same overall layout as the museum’s crib blanket. On the reverse of the pincushion, the units are placed so that the yarn-over edges connect to highlight the lovely lace-like effect created when the yarn-overs are joined by a simple whip stitch. The knitted edging is a recreation of the original edging on the crib counterpane.
PINCUSHION INSTRUCTIONS
Pincushion Units
Make 8
CO 2 sts.
Next Row: Yo, k to end—1 st inc’d.
Rep last row 33 more times—36 sts.
P 1 row.
Eyelet Row (RS): K1, [yo, k2tog] 17 times, k1.
P 1 row.
K 1 row.
*Next Row (WS): K1, k2tog, k to end—1 st dec’d.
Next Row (RS): P1, p2tog, p to end—1 st dec’d.
Rep last 2 rows once more—2 sts dec’d.
Next Row (WS): P1, p2tog, p to end—1 st dec’d.
Next Row (RS): K1, k2tog, k to end—1 st dec’d.
Rep last 2 rows once more—2 sts dec’d.
Rep from * 3 more times—4 sts rem.
Next Row (WS): K1, k2tog, k to end—3 sts rem.
Next Row (RS): P1, p2tog, p to end—2 sts rem.
Next Row: K2tog—1 st rem. Fasten off.
EDGING
CO 13 sts
Row 1: K2, [yo, k2tog] 3 times, k1 [yo, k2] 2 times—15 sts.
Row 2: K8, [yo, k2tog] 3 times, k1.
Row 3: K2, [yo, k2tog] 3 times, k7.
Row 4: K8, [yo, k2tog] 3 times, k1.
Row 5: K2, [yo, k2tog] 3 times, k3 [yo, k2] 2 times—17 sts.
Row 6: K10, [yo, k2tog] 3 times, k1.
Row 7: K2, [yo, k2tog] 3 times, k9.
Row 8: BO 4 sts, k6 (including st rem on right needle after BO), [yo, k2tog] 3 times, k1—13 sts rem.
Rep Rows 1–8 until piece measures 25 inches (63.5 cm), ending with Row 8. BO all sts.
FINISHING
Wash all pieces and dry flat to block. For the front of the pin cushion, arrange four units so the ribbing sections align, and sew together using whip stitch. For the back, arrange four units so the yarn-over sides align, and sew together using whip stitch. Weave in ends. Sew front and back pieces together, leaving one side open for stuffing. Fold felted batting in half, fill to desired thickness with fiberfill stuffing, put into pincushion, and sew last side closed. Sew on edging using whip stitch. Sew ends of edging together.
ABBREVIATIONS
BO bind off
CO cast on
DEC decrease
K knit
K2tog knit two stitches together
P purl
P2tog purl two stitches together
RS right side
WS wrong side
YO yarn over
FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
6 inches (15.2 cm) square, excluding edging.
YARN
The sample was stitched with DMC Baroque, 100% cotton thread, bedspread weight, 416 yards (380.4 m)/75 gram (2.6 oz) skein, 3 skeins of White.
NEEDLES
Needles size 0 (2 mm) or size needed to obtain gauge.
GAUGE
36 sts and 72 rows = 4 inches (10.2 cm) in garter st; one unit = 3 inches (7.6 cm) square.
NOTIONS
Tapestry needle
Warm and Natural Felted batting, 6 x 12 inches (15.2 x 30.5 cm)
Warm & Natural Needled Cotton, the Warm Company
Small amount of fiberfill stuffing.
The Blyth History Stitcher is at it again… naturally dyed palette created by FACTS and beautiful wool from Steele Wool Farm, this is definitely a creative fibre collaboration; it’s time for an update on the Huron Wristers.
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