40. New Fancy Work

At the conclusion of my last post, way back at the beginning of the year, I teased that the final pattern in the 1884 knitted lace sample book would be "worth the wait." Little did I know just how long that wait would prove to be. As it turned out, life came between me and my knitting and I am just now getting back on track. Thanks to all who have hung in there.

Our grand finale pattern was published in the newspaper under the title "New Fancy Work" and was submitted by M.M. Niles of East Gloucester, Massachusetts. It appears first among the patterns in the sample book, but I have saved it for last because it is in a class by itself. In the accompanying notes the contributor suggests using it to make a tidy (for more on tidies, see 37. Vine Tidy), but my first thought upon seeing the instructions was "counterpane square." Worked from corner to opposite corner, the design features a raised leaf motif against a garter stitch ground in the lower half of the square and rows of eyelets alternating with reverse stockingnet stripes above.

The edges of the lower triangle of each square are rimmed with eyelets to use in sewing four squares together to form a block with the leaves at the center.

And when multiple blocks are sewn together, the full pattern is revealed: the eyelet rows come together as nested diamonds. A minimum of four blocks (16 squares) are needed to properly show off the arrangement. Since January I have managed to knit only a single block, so in the interest of expediting this post, the image below is actually a digitally created collage.

The rate the stitch count increases varies greatly-- the count rapidly rises in the first 15 rows, remains steady as the leaf motif tapers, and then increases again one stitch per row before reaching 38 at the center of the square. By contrast, the upper half of the square narrows one stitch per row throughout. The disparities make for a rather oddly shaped piece, but it is easily blocked into a uniform square. The 74 rows may seem excessive for what amounts to a little swatch, but since many rows are knit with just a handful of stitches, it is not as daunting as that number may suggest.

Only rarely do the sample book newspaper clippings include recommendations for materials, but Ms. Niles has several suggestions for her pattern. First and foremost: "In doing fancy work always use the best materials." She advises using very fine steel double pointed needles, No. 16 in the sizing system of her day, the equivalent of 1.25mm (US 0000) today. For thread she recommends either Morse & Kaley's four-ply No. 10 knitting cotton ("I can recommend this cotton highly. It is manufactured at Milford, N.H.") or Barbaric Drab Linen Thread No. 30. She continues

Sixteen of these pieces, or four squares ... makes a very pretty tidy, when bordered with some pretty edge. Line the tidy with some bright color.

For a coverlet, the fingering weight cotton and 2.25mm needles I used for my sample would be ideal. The individual squares blocked to 3½" along each side.

If used for a project today, some refinement of the pattern may be in order. Although paired decreases are used to taper the leaf, only K2tog is used to shape the upper half of the square where a left-leaning decrease might be preferred along one side. (And while we're at it, I think I would set the decreases in from the edge, slipping the edge stitch, for a smoother selvedge and easier sewing of the blocks together.) The tip of the leaf would also benefit from a change. As written, the leaf narrows by one stitch per side every other row until it is down to three. From there only one stitch is worked off on each of the next two right side rows. The resulting leaf tip lacks definition. The obvious substitution would be a single double decrease.

This pattern is so large it would be unintelligible without a powerful magnifying glass if the chart, verbal instructions, notes and photos were laid out on a single page as I have done in the past. So I have divided it up in two parts. You can download the chart here and everything else here.

Next week: But wait! There's more!

39. Sea Shell Lace

At the end of the last pattern I referred to this next post as "Loose Ends" because I anticipated presenting Sea Shell Lace as an incomplete pattern. I simply could not make heads nor tails of the final row. It begins with 11 stitches and needs to end up with 8 in order to be ready to start again at Row 1, and yet it appeared that far more than 3 stitches were bound off. The sample that had once accompanied the pattern provided no clues-- it was missing and all that was left was the line of glue where it had been attached.

When an internet search failed to turn up a corrected version of the pattern I debated whether to include it at all, but finally decided that someone reading this might recognize the design and share it with us. So I knit the repeat as far as I could, pinned out and photographed the little swatch, and prepared to write my post. In place of a chart I planned to use a scan of the original page of the sample book for illustration, and as I got the book ready to place on the scanner, my eyes fell on the last few words: pick over k6. Oops. I had been knitting from my transcription in which I omitted that all-important "k," making it seem that six stitches were passed over one to cup the fabric in the manner of 13. Shell Pattern. Small mistake, but what a difference. So it was back to knitting to finish the sample, and without further ado I offer for your consideration "Sea Shell Lace."

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

Next time: The Grand Finale (and it will be worth the wait!)

38. Untitled Edging

This is another pattern our Victorian knitter copied down in her sample book without including its name. Two rows of ladder eyelets run along the top. Slightly overlapping raised leaves, worked in stockingnet and offset by a narrow band of reverse stockingnet above and below the motifs, are laid end to end. The contour of the leaves tends to pull the eyelet rows into a soft curve, which can be enhanced or discouraged in the blocking process. Again with this pattern we see the tendency of 19th Century designers to use K2tog on both sides of a tapering motif, where a modern lace knitter would employ balanced decreases. The lower garter stitch portion of the design might make a good Rorschach test-- I see sideways Christmas trees and pawprints...

After a big jump in the first row due to the double yarn overs, the stitch count rises steadily as the leaf widens, from 22 to 33 by row 8. Some of the added stitches are bound off in rows 9 and 11, before more double yarn overs increase the count again. From row 16 on, the tapering of the leaf tip decreases the stitch count evenly, and the last few added stitches are cast off in the final row of the 20-row repeat, creating the smaller notch along the lower edge.

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

Next week: Loose Ends

37. Vine Tidy

"Vine Tidy" is in a class by itself among the patterns of the sample book. Not only is it one of a mere handful of stockingnet designs, but it is the sole example of an all-over lace pattern. Rather than an edging or insertion intended as a component in a larger work, it produces a fabric that can be adapted for a wide variety of knitting projects where lace is desired. The ropy vine motifs alternate with trios of zigzagging lines to form a trellis effect. The pattern has a 12-row repeat and is worked on a multiple of 19 stitches for circular knitting, 19 + 12 for flat fabric.

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

Variations of the pattern can be found in many modern day texts. Knitting Counterpanes: Traditional Coverlet Patterns for Contemporary Knitters by Mary Walker Phillips, for example, includes "Braided Leaf Insert." While designed as a panel, the pattern is essentially the same as Vine Tidy (more about that "tidy" in a moment), the only difference being that the two vines at the center of the insertion, while flanked by trellises on the right and left, are separated from one another by a single eyelet.

(photo ©1989 The Taunton Press)

Note the scalloped cast-on edge. Worked without a border, the Vine Tidy pattern also has this feature.

I have charted the pattern as it would appear in a knitting stitch dictionary, but the instructions in the sample book were written to create a specific household article, the tidy. In some Victorian sources, the tidy is a receptacle of some kind-- a box to set in the bathroom and hold toiletries, a bag to hang from a doorknob and organize mail. Here, however, the tidy is a square or rectangular doily (antimacassar, dresser scarf, placemat, etc.) knit back and forth rather than from the center.

Worked across 89 stitches and featuring three repeats of the vine pattern, the tidy includes a stockingnet border, a curious selection given the tendency for the ends to curl up and the selvedges to curl under, as evidenced in the photo. A border of garter or seed stitch would have been a better choice. My sample was knit in fingering weight cotton on 2.25mm needles. With 16 pattern repeats, the finished piece blocked to 11¼" X 17½".

In the sample book Vine Tidy was hand-written by our anonymous knitter with no attribution, but I couldn't help but notice that it is identical in every respect (same width, same border, same three vines, everything) to a pattern found in my favorite book in my knitted lace library, Fancy Work Recreations: A Complete Guide to Knitting, Crochet, and Home Adornment published in 1884 (there's that date again!) by Buckeye Publishing Co., Minneapolis, and written by Eva Marie Niles, shown below in the frontispiece.

Ms. Niles must have been a lace knitter first and foremost. Although the text covers a wide variety of needlework including crochet, patchwork, embroidery, drawn thread, macramé, darned lace and netting, not to mention crafts such as skeletonizing leaves, splatter pictures, leather work, brass repoussé and others, fully a third of the 433-page work is devoted to knitted designs, mostly lace. An explanatory note at the back of the book cites the Housekeeper, Peterson's Magazine and the New York Tribune as sources for some of the instructions, but adds that "a greater part of the knitting and crochet is original with the author."

In this period the technology of reproducing photographs in books and newspapers was advancing, although online sources disagree on the exact date the first of such illustrations appeared. Photographic images in publications may have made their debut a few years before or shortly after Fancy Work Recreations, but whatever the fact of the matter, the process surely must have remained prohibitively expensive for some years, and drawings and etchings continued to be the most common illustrations in needlework books and magazines. The image accompanying Ms. Niles' "Vine Tidy" pattern shows a detail of the design. The swatch is presented with the cast-on edge at the top, in contrast to current practice where stitch pattern photos reflect the conventions of charting, with row 1 at the bottom.

Although the drawings are usually notable for their accurate rendering of the smallest detail, note the inexplicable eyelet in each leaf lobe-- there is no yarn over in the pattern at that point.

Up next: Untitled Edging

36. Wheat-Ear Lace

"Wheat-Ear Lace" is a relatively narrow garter stitch edging, blocking to 7/8" when knit in fingering weight yarn on 2.25mm needles. It features pairs of eyelets tipped diagonally to create the motif. The lower edge is scalloped and rimmed with eyelets formed by beginning each wrong side row with a yarn over. The stitch count rises from five to eight over the first five rows, and the added stitches are worked off with the diabolical P5tog in the final row of the 8-row repeat.

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

Next time: Vine Tidy

35. Normandy Lace

"Normandy Lace" is from a newspaper clipping accompanied by this note:

Sisters of the Home: Here are directions for knitting Normandy lace. I know you will like it. Be sure to knit it loosely. It comes in points and wheels. The points are solid, but the wheels are open. - Julie Beers.

The garter stitch edging is a "true" knitted lace with every row a pattern row. The stitch count rises steadily in the first half of the pattern, but the added stitches are worked off in a less orderly fashion in the second half of the 12-row repeat.

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

Next time: Wheat-Ear Lace

34. French Lace

"French Lace" is a garter stitch edging featuring a spot design of eyelet clusters formed by short segments of faggoting. A single large eyelet adorns each "sawtooth" of the lower edge. The stitch count jumps by four in the second row and thereafter remains constant until the added stitches are bound off in the last row of the 8-row repeat.

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

Next week: Normandy Lace