Category: vintage reproduction

Huron Wristers and the Colours of Huron

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.

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.

Dress of Many Patterns – lace pattern #1

image of knitted lace sample swatch
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.

Row 1 (RS): *YO, k3, k2tog; rep from * to end

Row 2 (WS): P.

Row 3: *K1, yo, k2, k2tog; rep from * to end.

Row 4: P.

Row 5: *K2, yo, k1, k2tog; rep from * to end.

Row 6: P.

Row 7: *K3, yo, k2tog; rep from * to end.

Row 8: P.

Rep rows 1 to 8.

Huron Wristers – an update

Image of vintage knitted glove from the collection of the Huron County Museum & Historic Gaol. Photo used with permission of the museum.
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.

New wristers pattern underway

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.

Happy Stitching!