7. Seed Point

"Seed Point" is the widest edging we have seen so far with a stitch count ranging from 16 to 22. Worked in garter stitch, it features three rows of spaced eyelets parallel to the upper edge and three rows of close eyelets mirroring the contour of the lower scalloped edge. There are many variations of this classic design.

You can download the full-size chart, verbal instructions and notes here.

Nineteenth Century knitting terminology can be puzzling to the modern knitter. The most common terms that differ from current usage are narrow and seam. Narrow is equivalent to K2tog and is abbreviated as n. Seam refers to purling, and may have taken its name from the practice of purling a stitch down the back of a sock leg to imitate a seam line. S is the common abbreviation and n-s (narrow by seaming) is P2tog. S was also used, as today, for slip, which could lead to some confusion-- in at least one instance in the book, it is clear from our anonymous knitter's notes that she mistook the seam s in a newspaper clipping for a slip s and was confounded by the error. Purl is also used, but seam is encountered more frequently in the sample book. Knit plain is so common that the shortened plain often substitutes for knit, so p1, k1 becomes seam 1, 1 plain. Yarn overs usually appear as over or o, but a few patterns use other terms such as t over 1 (thread over once) and make 1. I have previously mentioned that left-leaning decreases are rare in these patterns. The few times they appear the process is always spelled out without shorthand notation: slip & bind or slip 1, 1 plain, pull slipped stitch over, for example. A couple patterns employ the familiar phrase pass slipped stitch over, but psso doesn't seem to be in use in this era. Likewise, double and other multiple decreases are always described explicitly.

Next time: Wristlets